Steplab

We know that pupil learning is the main goal for us as teachers. In this section, we start to
explore what we mean by learning, how learning occurs and the implications this has on our
teaching practice.

In conference 1 you will learn more in-depth about the science of learning and how it can
be applied to classroom practice and your own practice as a learner on this programme. If
you are reviewing this material after conference 1, this section can be used to reflect and
re-visit your learning on this topic.

How do we learn?
It is important to realise that firstly, we cannot ‘see’ learning happening. We may ‘see’ busy
classrooms, younger pupils using their knowledge of the world whilst playing or older
pupils explaining, writing and answering questions correctly, but what we are seeing here is
performance, not learning. Learning goes on inside our heads and therefore we can only
make inferences about what has been learnt through our performance.

A simple model of memory

Let’s begin with a simple model of memory (Willingham, 2009), as described in the video
above.
There are four main principles of this model:

> Environment The first thing to understand about the learning process is that we
only learn what we attend to. There are lots of cues in our environment that
compete for our attention, therefore attention must be present before we take
process new learning. Once we attend to what we need to learn, it enters our
memory. Memory is divided into two parts: working memory and long-term
memory
> Working Memory Working memory is the conscious state of where we do our
thinking, it’s where the thinking process begins. Research tells us that we can
hold about 3-4 new chunks of learning in our working memory at any one time
before it is processed to long-term memory or forgotten.
> Long term Memory When we successfully process new information this
knowledge is stored in our long-term memory. Here, our new knowledge groups
with previous things that we have learned that are closely related to it. We often
refer to this as drawing on or recalling prior or previous knowledge.
> Forgotten We can also forget information that has entered our long-term and
working memory such as items on a shopping list or lyrics to a song. Forgetting is
not a negative thing as it is an important part of learning.

It is important to consider the implications that memory has on learning in the classroom.
We must consider things such as our classroom environment, the prior knowledge in
pupils' long term memory and ensuring that we revisit key concepts over time to ensure
learning does not become forgotten, but that it ‘sticks’ as long-lasting learning.