
A great deal is written about research in education and the problems it faces. I rather think that we are passing something of a threshold at the moment in terms of the contribution that research makes to our understanding of teaching. The development of the Education Endowment Foundation is a good thing, and, particularly because of the hard work of blogging teachers and the subsequent conferences that emerge from this, I am optimistic that evidence will come to better inform our teaching practices in the future.
The research that is getting an airing online is typically taken from cognitive psychology. Terms such as ‘cognitive load’ and ‘working memory’ are increasingly part of our professional vocabulary regarding teaching methods, and this has to be a good thing. As a non-psychologist (which no doubt shines through in this post – apologies for the errors and distortions) I find the comparison with computer…