Category Archives: learning

Are you an imposter? – Imposter Syndrome

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Imposter Syndrome is said to be more prevalent in families that value success above all else

Have you ever looked around the room, maybe in the exam and everyone is writing or typing incredibly fast, answering every question perfectly, and it looks so easy. For you however, its hard work, you’re not sure if your answers are correct, in fact they are probably wrong. True you did score really well on your last test, and were one of the top three students, but you know for a fact that was more luck than ability.

Imposter syndrome
If when you are reading this, it sounds familiar then it’s possible you have something called Imposter Syndrome. But dont worry you’re not alone, a YouGov survey in 2022 found that around half of Britons identify with at least two out of five impostor syndrome characteristics. These include, thinking your peers are more intelligent, finding it difficult accepting compliments and praise and having high expectations of yourself. Now on their own some of these would be considered qualities, and are in fact desirable, but when combined with the others, it tells a slightly different story.

“You think, ‘Why would anyone want to see me again in a movie? And I don’t know how to act anyway, so why am I doing this? ” Meryl Streep. Often described as the best actress of her generation. She has 3 Academy Awards and 21 nominations, as well as 8 Golden Globe awards and 32 nominations.

The term Imposter Syndrome (Impostor Phenomenon) first appeared in a 1978 research paper by psychologists Pauline Rose Clance and Suzanne Imes. Their work looked at high achieving women who despite outstanding academic and professional accomplishments still had self-doubts in terms of their ability.
Although some believe that gender is not an issue, there is evidence showing that women tend to suffer from Imposter Syndrome more than men, but fear not it’s not a big difference and there is something arguably far worse – the Dunning Krugar effect. The opposite of Imposter Syndrome. Dunning Krugar is a cognitive bias where individuals with low ability in a particular domain tend to overestimate their ability, and men seem to have the advantage with this one.

Clance and Imes identified three critical attributes:

  • Thinking that people have an exaggerated view of your abilities
  • The fear of being exposed as a fraud
  • The continuous tendency to downplay your achievements

But what causes it? – Firstly, it’s important to say that although it’s referred to as a syndrome, there is no official diagnosis listed in the physiologist Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Clance and Imes simply stated that it was merely a common set of feelings experienced by high achieving women. In addition, it’s not binary, think of it more as on a scale, rather than having it or not. It can also be more prevalent in certain domains than others, for example you may be different at work than at home. As to its cause, its most likely the result of multiple factors, including personality traits (see below) and family background, for example some believe it to be more prevalent in families that value achievement above all else, have you seen Succession?

The Five Types of Impostor Syndrome
In the years that followed several other research papers were produced, which inspired a book written in 2011, by Dr. Valerie Young “The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women”. In the book she identified five types of imposter. These could easily be the profiles of students; can you spot yourself?

  • The Perfectionist – sets unrealistically high standards for themselves, maybe passing your exams faster than anyone else, they also believe that anything less than perfection is failure. Perfectionists often focus on minor mistakes and feel like frauds when they don’t meet their own high expectations. Over prepare and afraid to fail.
  • The Expert – believes they must know everything before considering themselves competent. They constantly seek more knowledge and fear being exposed for not knowing something. Never satisfied they know enough.
  • The Natural Genius – tend to measure their worth by how easily and quickly they grasp new concepts or skills. They become discouraged when faced with challenges that require effort, as they fear it’s a sign of inadequacy and lack of intelligence. Ashamed of struggling.
  • The Soloist – believe they must accomplish tasks on their own without seeking help, and they view asking as a sign of weakness. They feel they should learn everything independently, leading to isolation and reluctance to collaborate. Rejects help, works alone.
  • The Superwoman/Superman – feel they need to excel in all areas of life, in the classroom, at work, home, and personal relationships. They juggle multiple roles but often feel overwhelmed by the pressure to meet all these expectations, leading to self-doubt. Workaholic can burn out.

These types are not rigid categories, and it’s possible to exhibit a mix of different ones. One important step towards addressing imposter syndrome is firstly to acknowledge that you might have some of these.

“I still have a little impostor syndrome… It doesn’t go away, that feeling that you shouldn’t take me that seriously. What do I know? I share that with you because we all have doubts in our abilities, about our power and what that power is.” Michelle Obama, graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School. Former first lady of the USA, 2009 to 2017.

How to overcome imposter syndrome?
Imposter syndrome is experienced by many people and in different ways, for some it’s a minor concern, for others however in can be a significant challenge. For example, in terms of learning it can take the fun out of studying and its hardly motivational, thinking that it’s just a matter of time before you fail something and are found out. These feelings of self-doubt can also stir up a lot of fear, anxiety and stress which in turn can lead to ineffective study, poor performance and a feeling that you should just give up. The good news is it can be managed and the feelings changed. Below are some ways to do this.

  • Self-Awareness – The first step is to recognise and acknowledge your imposter feelings. Appreciating that they are relatively common and not necessarily reflective of your competence.
  • Positive self-talk – Listen to what you’re saying to yourself and if its negative, replace it with more realistic and positive statements about your abilities and accomplishments.
  • Celebrate achievements – Think back to a time when you achieved something, acknowledge your successes and give yourself credit for your accomplishments. It might be worth actually writing them down and putting them on your wall.
  • Talk about it – Often, sharing your feelings with others can help, its partly about externalising how you feel but you might find they have similar concerns, reducing the feeling of isolation.
  • Set realistic goals – Break down your goals into smaller, achievable steps. This can help you build confidence as you make progress.
  • Embrace learning – Learning is a continuous process in gaining new skills and knowledge, it will not result in perfection, just progress.
  • Visualise Success – Imagine yourself succeeding in challenging situations, coming out of the exam room and feeling confident or getting your exam results, and it’s a pass.

Remember that overcoming imposter syndrome is a gradual process and might involve trying various strategies to find what works best for you. With determination, self-reflection, and support, you can effectively manage and diminish the impact Imposter Syndrome can have.

We will leave the last word to this guy……

“I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.” Neil Armstrong the first man on the moon!

Chatting with a Chat Bot – Prompting

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In December last year I wrote about what was then a relatively new technology, Generative AI (GAI). Seven months later it has become one of the most exciting and scary developments we have seen in recent years, it has the potential to create transformative change that will affect our very way of life, how we work and the area I am most interested in, how we learn. Initially it was all about a particular type of GAI called ChatGPT 3.5, a large language model funded by Microsoft. But the market reacted quickly and there are now many more models, including Bard from Google, Llama 2 from Meta and a pay for version of ChatGPT imaginatively entitled ChatGPT 4. And just to make this a little more complicated, in early February, Microsoft unveiled a new version of Bing (Microsoft’s search engine that competes with Google) that includes an AI chatbot powered by the same technology as ChatGPT.

One of the reasons for its rapid adoption is it’s so easy to use, you can literally chat with it as you might a human. However as with people, to have a meaningful conversation you need to plan what you want to say, be clear in how you say it whilst providing sufficient context to avoid misunderstanding.

“A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human.” The Turing Test – Alan Turing

Prompting – rubbish in rubbish out

Prompting is how we talk with these GAI models. The quality and specificity of the prompt can significantly influence the response you get. A well-crafted prompt can lead to a coherent and relevant answer, whilst a poorly formulated one offers up ambiguity and irrelevant information. If only people thought as deeply about how they communicate with each other, we might avoid a lot of problems!

How to prompt
• Be clear, use specific and unambiguous language.
• Provide context as to why you are asking the question or who are, and write in complete sentences. For example, “would William Shakespeare be considered a great writer if he were to be published today?”
• Ask open ended questions, you will get more detailed and creative responses.
• Set rules such as the tone required or length of an answer, limiting it to so many words, sentence or paragraphs. For example, “in a sentence could you provide a motivational response as to why learning is important?”
• Ask a follow up question if you don’t get the answer you want. GAI is conversational and will remember what you asked last. For example, if you don’t think the answer goes into sufficient detail, say “could you provide more detail as to why this particular event was considered so important?”.
• Provide examples of what you want will result in far more accurate answers. For example, why not copy in the report you wrote last time and ask GAI to update it with new information but keeping the same style and within 10% of the word count.

……And although there is no need to be polite, I have to admit to saying please and thank you.

Types of questions

ChatGPT is very flexible when it comes to answering question, the secret is in getting the prompt right. Here are just a few examples with responses from ChatGPT.

• General knowledge, Q When was Winston Churchill born? A Winston Churchill was born on November 30, 1874.
• Explainer questions, Q Can you explain in 5 words why Churchill was considered a great prime minister? A Inspiring leadership during wartime victory.
• Comparison questions, Q In a sentence can you compare Winston Churchill with Boris Johnson? A. Winston Churchill was a historical wartime leader known for his inspirational leadership during World War II, while Boris Johnson is a contemporary British politician who served as Prime Minister from 2019 to 2022.
• Others, ask…. How to do something e.g. bake a lemon drizzle cake, Can you define apprentice, Tell me a joke, Write me a poem in Japanese. You are limited only by your imagination.

Using it to learn

There are many ways in which this new technology can help with learning but it comes with a couple of health warnings, firstly – GenAI can be a great teacher but it cannot learn for you. It is an excellent resource, able to provide answers 24/7, clarify, summarise etc but ultimately you are the one that has to do the learning. Secondly – All GenAI bots suffer from something called hallucination, they make stuff up. The problem with this is as a learner you might not be able to tell because the answer will sound so authentic. In terms of how common this is, ChatGPT estimates around 20% of answers given might have something wrong with them, but they are working on reducing this to less than 10%.

Here are a few ways you can use GAI
• Summarise large amounts of text – copy a whole section of text into the model and ask it to summarise the most important points. Remember the more detail you give, the more relevant the response, e.g. Produce me a timeline of key events or identify the theories used in the answer.
• Question practice and marking – copy a question in and ask for the answer in 100 words. Paste your answer in and ask it to give you some feedback against the answer it has just produced. This can be further refined if you put in the examiners answer and if you have it, the marking guide.
• Ask for improvement – put into the model your answer with the examiners answer and ask how you might improve the writing style, making it more concise or highlighting the most important points.
• Produce flip cards – ask the model to write you 5 questions with answers in the style of a flip card.
• Produce an answer for a specific qualification – ask if it could produce an answer that is possible to complete in one hour, that would pass the AQA, GCSE exam in biology.
• Explain something – ask can you explain, for example Photosynthesis in simple terms or as an analogy or metaphor.
• Coach me – Ask it to review your answer against the examiners answer but rather than correct it ask it to coach you through the process so that you develop a better understanding.

There is little doubt as to the potential of GenAI in learning, its biggest impact may be in developing countries where there is limited access to teachers and few resources. Although most would agree that an educated world is a better one, there will need to be some safeguards. It cant be left to the open market, education is simply too important.

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”
Nelson Mandela

And If you want to see some of these tools in action as well as hear Sal Khan talk about Khanmigo, his version of a teacher chatbot, see below.
• Sal Khan talks about Khanmigo
• ChatGPT in action for studying and exams
• Revise SMARTER, not harder: How to use ChatGPT to ace your exams

Reading underwater – Context dependant memory

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This month…..perhaps something you could practice on holiday when your in the pool – Context dependant memory.

Context-dependent memory refers to the phenomenon where the retrieval of information is influenced by the context or environment in which it was encoded or learned. In other words, people tend to recall information more effectively when they are in the same or similar context as the one in which the information was initially learned.

Let me give you an example, have you ever lost your keys and no matter how hard you try to remember where you put them, you can’t. Then someone says the magic words, “when did you last remember seeing them?”. This forces you to revisit the context, effectively the circumstances, background information or setting in which you last saw your keys. You may even find it helpful to physically go to the last location when you saw them, from which you are able to recreate the chain of events that followed sufficiently well that your keys will simply appear. This proves we are storing information often unconsciously as to what is around us when a particular memory is created. It’s a very similar process used in the Roman Room (Loci method) memory technique that involves associating information with specific locations or rooms within a familiar building, such as a house. The idea is to mentally visualise the information you want to remember being stored in each room, making it easier to recall later.

There are three primary processes involved in memory, encoding, storage, and retrieval. The context or environment provides powerful cues that help encode the information, making it far easier to store and ultimately retrieve at a later date. The secret for a better memory is to improve the process of encoding and to use techniques that are effective in terms of retrieval. Retrieval failure on the other hand occurs when the memory is available to us, but the necessary cues to access and recall are not.

The underwater memory

One of the most famous studies that identified the power of context dependent memory was conducted by Godden and Baddeley in 1975. In their research, they explored how the external context in which information is learned affects the ability to recall that information accurately. The study involved divers who were taught lists of words either on land or underwater. The participants were then asked to recall the words in either the same or a different environment from where they learned them. The four conditions tested were land-land, land-water, water-land, and water-water. The results of the study showed that participants had better recall when the environment of recall matched the environment of learning. In other words, those who learned the words underwater had better memory recall when they were tested underwater, while those who learned on land had better memory recall when they were tested on land.

The experiment proved that the context in which information is initially encoded becomes an important cue for memory retrieval.

Studying and testing in the same environment

Perhaps a more relevant example was conducted by Grant et al in 1998 which showed that there was a significant improvement in learners performance when the studying and testing environments were consistent or the same. It highlighted the importance of considering the environmental context when learning, for example most exams are taken in silence, sat at a desk using a computer. The rationale behind context dependent memory would suggest that the best way to study would be similar. The silence acting as an auditory cue to focus and concentrate and the sound of the keyboard helping the brain recreate thoughts and ideas in a similar way as to when they were first created.

Mood and emotions are also context

But context-dependent memory is not limited to environmental cues but can also extend to other contextual factors, such as emotional state or mood. Mood-dependent memory proposes that memory retrieval is generally more effective when the emotional state experienced during encoding aligns with the emotional state present during retrieval. This is one reason why sitting a mock exam is so effective, not only does it help prepare you mentally in terms of coping with uncertainty, but anything learned where anxiety and concentration levels are high, as is the case for a mock exam will be retained, only to be rediscovered when you enter that same state in the real exam. You may have already experienced this when taking an exam and a similar question is asked, the result, you are able to recall the answer with great clarity.

Criticism

As with most theories there are of course critics, some suggesting that the controlled laboratory experiments may not adequately replicate the complex and dynamic contexts people encounter in the real world. In addition memory effects may vary depending on individual differences, such as cognitive processes and personality traits.

However…….There is little doubt that the way information is encoded is a significant factor in determining how well you are able to remember something later. So why not give it a go when your next underwater.

Listen to DR Robert Byork discuss this in more detail, well worth 8.5 minutes of your time.

I Do, We Do, You Do – The importance of Scaffolding

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It’s not a bad analogy to think of learning as if you were building a house.

Although you’re going to need help, when the house is finished it will all be yours. Firstly, it’s important that the foundations are strong, if not what follows may be unstable and at worst collapse. Then slowly but surely, you place one brick on top of another. The whole process requires planning, time, motivation and a significant amount of effort. But when the roof is finally on and you move in, you should feel rightly proud of what you have achieved and hopefully believe it’s all been worth it.

Although the house now looks strong and well-built, a short while ago it was covered in scaffolding, which was essential if the house was ever to be finished.

And that’s a nice introduction (hopefully) to this months’ blog, something that helps make learning possible but at the end can no longer be seen – Its name scaffolding!

Scaffolding (background – bear with me)
The term scaffolding first appeared in the work of Jerome Bruner in the 1960s and more formally when he published his ideas in the early 70’s. According to Bruner when a learner first encounters a new concept, they need help from an expert or teacher but as the learner becomes more independent in their thinking and acquires new skills and knowledge, the support can be gradually removed. The implication is that the learner will be able to achieve far more with scaffolding than would have been possible on their own.

Bruner’s ideas were not his alone and were an extension of some of the work of Lev Vygotsky and his thoughts around the zone of proximal development (ZPD). The diagram shows what a learner can achieve on their own compared to what is possible with guidance.

Direct instruction – I do- we do – you do
Its very easy to be underwhelmed by both Bruner and Vygostky, in simple terms all they are saying is that, people can learn more if they are supported and helped by an expert, Wow! But their work underpinned a popular and very practical technique, a form of Direct Instruction, called, I Do – We Do – You Do.

As you might know from previous blogs, I am a big fan of Direct Instruction, largely because there is evidence that proves it works. But sometimes it’s hard to convince others as to its merits because the term “instruction” sounds like you are telling the learner what to do, which some believe in particular Constructivists that this is not the best way to teach. Yet few would argue with this model, partly because it seems sensible, is practical and effective.

In addition, it’s one of the most popular techniques used in Professional Education, this is because of the very tight time constraints, levels of technical detail that have to be learned and the high stakes nature of the exam.

Here’s how it works.

  • I Do – In this phase the teacher should model the new learning having broken the content into small chunks, using worked examples and step by step instruction. The learners should have their pens down (Tablets, PCs closed) so they can focus on what the teacher is doing. Pace is important, the modelling should not be rushed, questions can be taken at the end.
  • We Do – This is when the scaffolding starts to take effect. In this phase the learners have a go on their own or at least attempt part of the task before stopping to check if they are on the right track, maybe confirming their understanding. The teacher needs to remain alert and might have to step in to clarify an area that seems to be holding everyone back. It may prove necessary to stay at this stage for some time, there is little point moving on until everyone is happy to do so.
  • You Do – Finally, once the learners are confident with the steps required, they are ready to have a go completely on their own. The whole process is effectively a gradual release of responsibility, giving the learner more and more control over their own learning until they become independent. There could also be a need for some levels of personalisation because some learners will take longer than others to master the new content.

This is not the only way you can use scaffolding, there are many other techniques but I hope that you can see its one of the most effective.

Video – don’t be put off by the simple nature of this video, it explains it very well.

Podcasting for Learning “Podagogy”

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(Not written by ChatGPT) 

There are over 4 million Podcasts registered worldwide. South Korea boasts the biggest podcast listenership, with the UK sitting just outside the top 10. Over 19.1 million Britons listen to podcasts and 40% of them are aged between 26 and 35.

The most popular podcast in the world is the Joe Rogan Experience, with 11 million listeners and although this show is 2 hours long the average length is between 20 and 40 minutes.

Whatever way you slice or dice the data, podcasting has become hugely popular, but does it have a role to play in helping us learn?

What is a podcast?
Simply put, a podcast is a digital audio file that can be downloaded via the Internet to a computer or mobile device for listening. It’s similar to radio in that it has an auditory modality but that’s where the similarity ends, podcasts are on demand, pre-recorded, broken down into episodes and the subject matter is targeted at niche audiences rather than mass appeal.

The growth in podcasts suggests they must be offering something their audience wants, maybe it’s just the convenience, easily listened to on a mobile device and short enough to be consumed whilst walking the dog or working out at the gym. This is certainly a factor but there is more to it than that.

Impact on Learning
When asked, people provide a whole host of reasons why they listen to podcast, for example, entertainment, to keep up to date, to relax, and for inspiration. But one of the biggest areas often quoted, is to learn something new. But the question is, how good are podcasts in helping people do this?

Let’s look at some research – In 2007 Kurtz, Fenwick, and Ellsworth produced a paper called,” Using podcasts and tablet PCs in Computer Science”, there conclusion, although podcast learners didn’t perform any better in the exam their project grades were substantially higher. But these were video podcasts, effectively recorded lectures with slides which is not really what we are talking about here. A far more relevant and conclusive result came from Abt and Barry (2007), “The Quantitative Effect of Students Using Podcasts”. One group of learners listened to six podcasts over six weeks, while the other group were provided with an exact transcript of the podcasts in printed form to ensure both groups had the same content. After six weeks, the groups were re-examined both taking the same test. The results were the same, the podcast group were no better, leading to the conclusion that podcasts provide little quantitative benefit over and above written text.

However, learners like them and when asked often say, they make content easier to understand and are very engaging. But it’s hard to conclude anything from the empirical evidence other than podcasts have a positive effect on learner satisfaction but little or no impact on performance. Even where some benefits have been shown they are more likely the result of encouraging better study habits than providing something valuable in terms of learning.

Visual and auditory memory
The above is not entirely surprising especially when you consider how memory works. Researchers at the University of Iowa found that when it comes to memory, we don’t remember things we hear nearly as well as what we see or touch.

“As it turns out, there is merit to the Chinese proverb ‘I hear, and I forget; I see, and I remember,” James Bigelow, lead author of the study at UI

The researchers found that although learners memory declined across all modalities when time delays grew longer, the decline was much greater for sounds, and began as early as four to eight seconds after being exposed to them.

Podcast are good for learning!
However this doesn’t mean podcasts have no role to play in learning, they do, but they need to be used alongside evidence-based techniques such as spaced and retrieval practice, interleaving etc as well as good teaching practices, for example using projects and group work. Imagine a 15m podcast in the form of an interview between two people debating the merits of putting jam on the cream or cream on the jam when eating a scone. If at the end of the podcast a task was set, maybe asking the learner to summarise what was discussed or prepare a short presentation of the key points, this would force the learner to listen several times, think more deeply about the task and what was being said, the result of which would be learning.

They can also be beneficial in the revision phase when the exam is just around the corner, for example, you could listen to key definitions supported by proven memory techniques such as visualisation, repetition and the use of rhyme. Talking out loud along with the podcast would also help. Why not produce your own podcasts, perhaps with another learner that can be listened to in the car or ask ChatGPT to write you a podcast script based on what you are trying to learn.

Podcasts do have a role to play in learning, they can help develop critical thinking by listening to a debate with counter arguments, the key is to engage, don’t be passive. However, audio as a modality on its own is not the most effective method of learning, but as another tool in the box, it’s worth having.

Kaplan – Learn better podcast
I have been hosting a podcast for the last two years for Kaplan and we are now in season three, in fact episode 22 was released this week. It is for a relatively niche market as is the case with podcasts but if you work in finance and would like to listen to some inspiring people, click here – enjoy.

Mobile phones for learning – The world in your pocket

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The statistics are striking, there are 5.44 billion mobile phone users in the world, that means that 68% of the world’s population have one. 92.3 % use their phone to go online at least some of the time, and mobile phones now account for more than 56.9 % of our online time.

This is according to Datareportals Digital around the world report 2023. It means that pretty much everyone in the West will have a mobile, as will most people studying over the age of 10. I say 10 because a recent BBC report stated that in the UK smartphone ownership rises from 44% at age 9 to 91% by the age of 11.

This means we have access to the world in our pocket and as a consequence the worlds knowledge.

“Mobile phones are misnamed. They should be called gateways to human knowledge. Ray Kurzweil, computer scientist.

Mobile phones and learning
We might have access to the worlds knowledge but as readers of this blog will know, having knowledge is not the same as learning. To solve this conundrum we need to start thinking of the mobile phone as a domain, a place to go when you want to learn, and less as somewhere that simply stores knowledge. As an analogy, If a book is knowledge, the library is the domain. But as a learning domain the mobile phone has limitations in particular in terms of screen size, the implication being learning has to be designed to be effective on a small screen.

But aren’t mobile phones bad? – Before exploring how we might improve the way we use mobile phones for learning we should probably address some of the concerns many have about them. They can become additive which perhaps unsurprisingly has been proven to result in lower grades. In addition they are a distraction, this study concluded that there was “a significant negative relationship between total time spent using smartphones and academic performance”. However, the researchers went on to say that having a mobile in class was not in itself the problem, it’s how and when it was used. The learning loss is more a result of us not being wired to multi task, and whilst we may think we can check a message on our phone and pay attention, we can’t.

“Smartphone is definitely smarter than us to be able to keep us addicted to it.” Munia Khan, author.

This brings us to one of those often-quoted statements, that technology is neither good or evil, its how people choose to use it. Also, I’m talking here not so much about a mobile devise used in and around the classroom but very much outside of it. Even to the extent where there is no classroom and studying is completely remote and online.

Mobile first learning
Luke Wroblewski who is now a Product Director at Google came up with the idea of mobile first in 2009. The concept is simple, you should design for the mobile platform first and then scale the experience for use elsewhere. It has led to a whole series of instructional design ideas:

  • Keep content short and focused (microlearning) – We have come across the concept of chunking before and it is implicit that if you want content that is short and focused it has to be chunked. The idea is that by keeping each segment short it allows the learner to complete some of the lessons in just a few minutes as well as reducing cognitive load.
  • Design for the small screen – Content layout, graphics, and text should all be imagined in terms of what they will look like on a mobile devise.
  • Build in social features – Mobile is dominant in the social space, very few people use anything other than a mobile to communicate with friends, think Snapchat, What’s App and Instagram. Any learning domain should certainly include a space where learners can share ideas and keep in touch.
  • Gamification/Game Mechanics – One of the problems with online learning in general is maintaining engagement, but games and gamification, the use of points, badges and leader boards are excellent in terms of holding attention and were made for mobile devises.
  • Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR & AR) – In the last three or four years, VR and AR have found their way onto mobile devices and into the wider online learning space. And although VR works best with a headset, AR is a good fit with mobile, allowing us to view the real world through a mobile screen whilst the technology augments what we see, bringing in new information and ideas. Examples would include Pokémon but more recently IKEA have developed IKEA place where you can overlay pictures of furniture into your own home and in education, look directly inside the human body to learn more about the anatomy.

 Learning in the flow of learning…….

“You can’t teach people everything they need to know. The best you can do is position them where they can find what they need to know when they need to know it.” Seymour Papert, mathematician, computer scientist, and educator.

Lessons for learners
A mobile phone is an amazing technology, its effectively a wearable devise that you take everywhere. It makes it possible to access huge amounts of knowledge that if structured properly using good instructional design can be a very effective way to learn. There are also so many different ways in which this knowledge can be consumed in addition to a full course for example podcasts, videos, specific apps such as Duolingo, short tests, and quizzes. However not everything works well on a mobile, reading large amounts of text on a small screen is difficult, takes more time, is not especially engaging and there is some evidence to prove it lowers reading comprehension.

Your mobile can be used to learn outside of the classroom ultimately because it makes learning both convenient and accessible, but one word of warning, don’t forget whose in control!

“It is okay to own a technology, what is not okay is to be owned by technology.” – Abhijit Naskar, Mucize Insan, Neuroscientist and author.

Top Gun: Maverick or a Study With Me Video?

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I like to think I’m reasonably up to date with what’s happening, especially when it comes to studying and learning but I have to confess I have only recently come across what are called “study with me videos”, which have actually been around for more than 5 years. Study with me videos are exactly what they say they are, a type of video in which people prepare for an exam on camera, while others watch and study at the same time, it’s literally a video of someone studying, either live streamed or recorded.

Before we go any further its worth taking a look at some of these videos.

Firstly, Thomas Frank who describes himself as a video creator and writer with a focus on productivity, learning, and personal development. Thomas has a huge following on YouTube with nearly three million subscribers, although he offers far more than just study with me videos, here is one of his, a  25-Minute Pomodoro Session.

Secondly a Korean YouTuber who broadcasts under the name of “the man sitting next to me”. In Korean they call making these video gongbang, which translates to “study broadcast”. Normally the man sitting next to me live streams but here is a recording with a background rain sound effect thrown in for good measure.

And thirdly Jamie Lee, who lives in New York and has a YouTube channel called “The Strive to Fit.” She started her channel when she was in medical school but even though she has now qualified as a doctor she continues to broadcast. Unlike The Man Sitting Next to Me, Jamie’s “study with me” video are pre-recorded. Two clips from Jamie, the first a typical study session, with background music, its already had 1.3 million views, and secondly a get to know me video where Jamie answers questions.

What purpose do they serve?

As you can see from these videos each person has their own individual style with some streaming live whilst others are pre-recorded and slightly more professional with music, the sound of rain or pen on paper etc. As a slight aside if you just want the background noise and a relaxing scene, here are a few more videos, an ancient library with a roaring fire, a cosy library with jazz playing in the background and heavy rain that will apparently help you throw away that stress.

But what’s the point of these videos, why do people find them helpful?

  • Motivational and help with feelings of isolation – the YouTubers who make these videos are all students, they are therefore by definition the same as the people watching, and if they can sit down for two and a half hours and study, I guess you can do the same. Rather than getting in with a “bad crowd” you’re in with the good guys, they are hardworking, studious, and ambitious, their behaviour and attitude can and does rub off. This is consistent with Albert Banduras social learning theory, where he discovered that when people observe others they begin to model and imitate their behaviours. In addition, these are communities, comments are made underneath the videos by the many students that watch them, reminding you that you are not alone, and that others are feeling the same pressures. These YouTubers often connect on a personal level, by explaining why they work so hard and sharing details of their personal lives, successes and failures. To all intents and purpose, they are your study buddy.
  • Excellent for time management – the Pomodoro technique, which was mentioned above is where you break your studying down into short 25-minute sessions, these videos work very much in the same way by helping manage your time.  In fact, as you saw in the Thomas Frank video, he actually studies for exactly 25 minutes. There is also some evidence to show that studying like this in short bursts helps with memory and improved attention.
  • An inspiring learning environment – environment plays an important when it comes to learning, having a physical location where you study can get you into the right mood as soon as you enter it. It’s one of the reasons people go to a library, you know that before you walk through those doors what you are there for and need to do. As a result, when you sit down at your desk open up your laptop and put on your study with me video, it’s time to start work.
  • Good study practice – in addition to producing the study with me videos many YouTubers will offer up study tips such as how to use mind maps, memory skills, effective note taking etc.   
  • But the research shows that silence is the best – it may be that the sound of rain or the scribbles of a pen on paper help you feel less isolated, almost all of the research in this area has shown that problem solving and memory recall tasks are performed better in silence. As a result, there may be a time when you would be best just turning the sound down.
  • They help the YouTuber as well – most of those making these videos acknowledge that because they feel a responsibility to their fellow students it motivates them to study as well.

One final observation about these videos they are not collaborative in the sense that students work together in order to solve a problem, that’s just not what they are trying to achieve.  

But which one is best, Top Gun or study with me videos?

In the interests of balance, here is the trailer for Top Gun: Maverick for you to decide for yourself.  

What the heck is Neurodiversity?

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Firstly a few definitions, Neurodiversity is a term used to describe the spectrum of differences that exist as to the way brains function differently from each other. Neurodivergent refers to an individual who processes information differently to what might be considered standard or typical.

“I am a very slow reader. I have to have things written in a pithy way.” Matt Hancock, Dyslexic.

Most people are classed as Neurotypical, meaning they process information in a manner that would be considered typical. In terms of behaviour, they tend to learn skills and reach developmental milestones around the same time as others. These words are chosen carefully to avoid using ‘normal’ and as a consequence ‘abnormal’. This is not about being politically correct but highlights that the differences can result in both positives and negatives depending on the circumstances.

By way of an example of what processing differently looks like watch this video of Stephen Wiltshire, MBE, the British architectural artist who was diagnosed with autism when he was 3.

Neurodiverse conditions
There are a whole range of different Neurodiverse conditions, they include Dyslexia, Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Dyspraxia. In terms of how diverse we are as a nation it is estimated that more that 15% of the UK population are Neurodivergent in some way with the most common being dyslexia at around 10%, followed by ADHD.

“Being dyslexic, I was told that I was an idiot all the time.” David Bailey (Photographer), Dyslexic.

I am going to focus on dyslexia because it’s the one most people have heard of but for completeness here are further details of the Neurodiverse conditions mentioned above.

  • Dyslexia, primarily affects the skills involved in accurate and fluent reading of words and spelling.
  • ADHD is behavioural resulting in people being restless, struggling to concentrate and having a tendency to be impulsive.
  • ASD, as the name suggests is a spectrum, with people experiencing a wide variation in the type and severity of symptoms. The main ones being difficulty with social communication and interaction, and restricted, repetitive behaviours or interests.
  • Dyspraxia affects movement and co-ordination.

“I had to train myself to focus my attention. I became very visual and learned how to create mental images in order to comprehend what I read.” Tom Cruise, Dyslexic.

What’s happening in the dyslexic brain
Like many other Neurodiverse conditions dyslexia results from the way in which the brain processes information. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has provided us with a unique picture as to what is happening in the dyslexic brain, for example we know that when people who are dyslexic read, a different part of their brain is activated. The main problem with the commonest form of dyslexia, phonological dyslexia is that the brain finds it difficult to recognise phonemes, these are the basic sounds of speech, for example the C in Cat is a phoneme. The impact is that it’s hard for the brain to connect the sound with the letter which in turn makes recognising words problematic. Unfortunately, in the time it takes to make the connection, comprehension is lost and the learner falls behind, creating the impression that they are slow and not very clever!

“Being diagnosed with dyslexia at age 60 was like the last part of the puzzle in a tremendous mystery that I’ve kept to myself all these years. “Steven Spielberg,” Dyslexic.

What causes Dyslexia
Knowing what is actually happening inside the brain of someone with dyslexia is interesting but there is perhaps a more pressing question, why do some people have it and others do not? Most of the evidence points to a genetic connection with some suggesting that if a parent has dyslexia there is a 40% to 60% chance of their children also being dyslexic. The risk is increased if the condition is known to exist in the wider family. That said the degree to which anyone is impacted is less well known and it may be relatively mild and as a result will go undetected. Environmental factors are also believed to play a part, these include the mother’s health during pregnancy and poor diet.

“Both my sons are dyslexic, and so, too, in a much milder form, is one of my daughters.” Theo Paphitis, Dyslexic.

At this point I did intend to add that dyslexia is two to three times more prevalent in males, however this is not universally accepted and there seems to be some contradictory research so I will leave that one for now.

“I suffer from severe dyslexia. I was the only child on my block on Halloween to go ‘trick or trout’ … Here comes that young William’s boy. Better get some fish. ” Robin Williams, Dyslexic.

What can you do?
Should you get a formal diagnosis, well maybe and it could be necessary especially if you want to get extra time in an exam. A diagnostic assessment for dyslexia is carried out by experienced specialist teachers and psychologists across the UK. The British Dyslexic Association (BDA) quotes an average fee for a specialist teacher of £515 and for a Psychologist £670 although there are cheaper options available. But if you just want to know a little more there are many free checklists or screening options, here is one from the BDA.

However, if you are a slow reader, have difficulty spelling, need to re-read paragraphs to better understand them and confuse similar words such as dog and dug then maybe you have enough information. Whatever route you choose for diagnosis, below are some positive steps that can help improve how you learn.

  • Do not use dyslexia as an excuse, it’s not who you are, nor a reason as to why you can’t succeed.
  • Recognise that dyslexia has nothing to do with intelligence, it’s a processing of information problem.
  • You may find that podcasts and other forms of audio recordings are an easier way of taking in information. You can also listen to them several times.
  • Ask for and use dyslexic friendly fonts. In a classic study, fonts that were found easier to read were Sans Serif fonts, such as Arial and Comic Sans with a font size of 12-14 point, another key takeaway was that italicising words severely decreases its readability.
  • Make lists and produce notes in a bullet style format. Also consider using more visual techniques such as mind maps and diagrams.
  • Allow for the fact that it will take you more time, tell yourself that slow is better.
  • Consider dyslexic tools such as coloured overlays, there are also many great apps out there that can help such as Voice Dream Reader which lets you listen to any document and ebook using text-to-speech.

The overall message is that we all process information in different ways, but a traditional school environment does not favour those with Neurodivergent traits. However, take full advantage of all the support and remember school may not be your best event in the “decathlon of life” but there will be other events at which you can and will excel.

I would like to thank two of my Kaplan colleagues Abbi Nolan and Kirsty Gibson for sharing their expertise and inspiring me to find out more about this fascinating subject.

The Metaverse and Learning – Blue or Red pill?

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Getting to grips with the Metaverse is one thing, attempting to figure out if you should take the blue or red pill and enter it as either a learner or educator is another. Which is my way of saying, this is a big, complicated gnarly subject and getting a definitive answer highly unlikely, partly because the Metaverse doesn’t exist just yet and as a result we have little or no evidence to prove its effectiveness either way.

However, maybe we could get some insight by looking at the component parts and imagining its potential.

A Virtual world
Although we need to define the Metaverse, to help better understand it let’s start with what a virtual world is. Here is what Stanford University have to say “A virtual world is a computer-simulated representation of a world with specific spatial and physical characteristics, and users of virtual worlds interact with each other via representations of themselves called avatars.” In 1994 Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino explained how you get from a real environment (world) to a virtual one in four stages, firstly, the real one followed by Augmented (AR) then Virtual (VR), finally ending up in the virtual environment.

Reality may not be the best of all possible worlds, but it’s still the only place where you can get a decent steak. Woody Allen

The Metaverse is a virtual world that has transitioned from the real one using technologies like AR and VR but has as a result become something more. *The Metaverse does not simply combine the physical and virtual worlds, instead it is a continuity of the physical world in the virtual one, to create an ecosystem that merges both (Physical and virtual). In other words, it is a brand-new world that is as engaging and important as the real one. Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) says that it is a world of endless and interconnected virtual communities, where people can meet each other, work together, play games and more. He sees it as the successor to the internet, an invention that changed all lives by allowing people to be online (in a virtual world) from anywhere and for as long as they would like.

“In simplest terms, the Metaverse is the internet, but in 3D” – Ed Greig, Chief Disruptor, Deloitte Digital

Take a look at how Meta see education in the Metaverse and check out the original promotional video in which Mark Zuckerberg “appears” in order to introduce the world to his new creation.

Changes in the environment change behaviour
There is of course another aspect to being in a virtual world, it is a different environment, and because of that it can have an impact on what you do and how you feel. It is well recognised that spending time in nature, a different environment to the one I am in just now as I write this blog, helps with mental health problems such as anxiety and depression. We also know that in some instances the brain finds it difficult to differentiate between what is reality and what is imagined. When these two ideas are combined it becomes possible to understand how a realistic virtual immersive environment could change levels of motivation, confidence and even beliefs. After all, don’t people behave differently online when using social media tools such as Twitter, being unknown in a virtual world is like a cloak of invisibility, you can be whoever you want and say and do whatever you like without any consequence!

Learning in the Metaverse
In terms of learning, the Metaverse like many technologies or learning environments, is neither good nor bad. Whilst some are sceptical and express concerns about loss of identity, hate and cybercrime, security, and privacy, others are excited and want to take advantage of the learning opportunities, here are a few.

High levels of engagement – Much is made of the term “immersive” when talking about the Metaverse, it means that you are surrounded by and become part of the environment. This can be incredibly powerful when it comes to learning resulting in high levels of excitement, motivation and engagement.

Real life skill development – The metaverse provides a safe environment in which you can practice skill development. This is particularly valuable where mistakes can be made that might be upsetting or result in significant cost and even death. Here are a few examples from an article by the World Bank. Note this is not the Metaverse but examples of VR and games-based simulations that would be part of its ecosystem.

High risk – Pharmaceutical industry leader Novartis had to quickly train 100’s of people on best practice production and procedures for a new leukaemia treatment. They had limited physical training labs and subject matter experts to train people in skills where mistakes have life and death consequences.

Not so much life and death but perception, how to see the organisation through your customers eyes. This was the challenge facing Fortune 200 healthcare leader DaVita.

Developing soft skills – Practising communication, decision making and emotional intelligence.

A virtual University campus – A virtual campus has the potential to make a university experience available for everyone around the world. Meet likeminded people in the virtual world, discuss ideas and share ambitions, just like you would in the real world. Virbela have developed a Virtual campus that can be used for both education and or work-based interactions. The pandemic has shown that people can easily work from home, the Metaverse may have a significant role to play in the future of work as well as learning.   

Takes the learner into the world – I was going to say that the Metaverse has the ability to bring the world to the classroom when in fact it’s the opposite. Although human imagination is a powerful tool think how impactful it would be if you could begin by explaining in a classroom that T Rex roamed the planet during the late Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago and that they could be up to 12m long and 6m tall, but then ask your learners to come and meet one, made possible by VR – Click here to see how the American Museum of Natural History has brought T Rex to life.

The social dimension – Social media allows people to interact, transact, and share interests with others virtually (pun intended) regardless of where they live. The metaverse is social media but in 3D, for better or for worse.

Conclusions
The Metaverse could end up being the biggest white elephant of all time. Reality Labs, the division building the metaverse, lost £3.16bn between July and September this year. Mark Zuckerberg has said that he would invest $10 billion to $15 billion per year, but that it may take 10 years before it yields results. That’s an estimated $100B+ investment into an unknown future.

BUT it might be as Zuckerberg predicts become the next iteration of the internet, personally I would like to give it a chance because it has the potential to contribute to a new and exciting next chapter as to how we help people learn.

That said, I don’t think I would be putting any money into it just yet.

And for a more in-depth explanation, Donald Clark in discussion with John Helmer   VR & Metaverse with Donald Clark

The picture is obviously From the matrix – the blue pill will allow the subject to remain in the fabricated reality of the Matrix; the red serves as a “location device” to locate the subject’s body in the real world and to prepare them to be “unplugged” from the Matrix. Once one chooses the red or blue pill, the choice is irrevocable.

*Is Metaverse in education a blessing or a curse: a combined content and bibliometric analysis

Beam me up Kirkpatrick – evaluating learning

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One of the most difficult questions to answer for both the learner and teacher is, “how do you know you or they are learning”?

On the face of it, the answer might seem simple, you are learning if you think you are, if what has been said makes sense and that you are happy with the way it’s being taught. But what does “make sense” actually mean? Presumably the process was logical and you understand it, you might even have found it interesting. However just to make sure you understood it, maybe we should ask some questions in the form of a test, and if you pass the test then that must mean you have learned it? But passing a test doesn’t mean you could apply it in a practical situation, isn’t that the best way to decide if it has been learned?

Each of these questions is doing something different, they are evaluating learning from a different perspective and if that seems the right approach you will probably very much like the Kirkpatrick model.  

The Kirkpatrick Model
In the 1950’s Donald Kirkpatrick developed the model that carries his name when he used it as the basis for his Ph.D. dissertation entitled, “Evaluating Human Relations Programs for Industrial Foremen and Supervisors.” But don’t let that put you off, the main point is, it’s a practical model designed to evaluate training not necessarily learning in a wider context or education. However as discussed in a previous blog, “Training V Education”, may not always be that far apart.

The model has four levels.

Level 1: Reaction – this measures the degree to which participants find the training useful, engaging, and relevant. Its focus is on the learner’s perception and as such is an opinion, which leads to the criticism that people may be happy but have learned nothing or vice versa. It is commonly evaluated using so called “happy sheets”, offering a range of smiley faces for the participant to indicate which one they think best captures how they feel, but they can be more sophisticated, with detailed questionnaires pre and post learning. This is the most popular method of measuring learning, with some suggesting around 80% of organisations use them.

Level 2: Learning – this is about the degree to which learners acquire the intended knowledge and skills and is most often evaluated using exams or tests. Critics will argue these only measure short term memory and not the longer-term deep learning that is required. Also, in practice the actual assessments are not always well written, partly because the expertise is not available to question the reliability and validity of the test.  

Level 3: Behaviour – this relates directly to how much the learners can apply in practice what they have learned. In the workplace this would be the application of what was learned reflected in improvements as to how the individual does their job. But it can also be assessed using assignments, case studies and real-world projects.

Level 4: Results – the last level is a measurement of the impact the training has had on the learning outcomes. Has the training achieved what it was originally designed to do. This is the least measured largely because of the difficulty and costs involved. Which is unfortunate because in many ways its the most important measure of success.

Kirkpatrick is far from perfect but the biggest criticism is probably in its application, with most organisations stopping at level 2 because 3 and 4 are too difficult. There are other models of assessment that some consider to be superior for example, the Philips model (ROI Methodology), the Kaufman model and Rob Brinkerhoff’s success case methodology, but obviously they are have critics as well.

Why does this matter?
Learning evaluation is clearly hugely valuable for educators, given the amount of time, energy and money that goes into training, it’s essential you know how effective it is. In addition, the Kirkpatrick model serves another purpose by helping with course design, just spin it around and ask the following questions. Starting with level 4, what do you want the training to achieve, what is the learning outcome? Then moving to level 3 ask, what behaviour will you see if learners are doing what is needed? Level 2, what knowledge and skills do learners need to do this? And lastly level 1, how do I want learners to feel, to help make the experience as effective as possible.

But it also has some value for learners, enjoying a course is important because it helps with concentration and to a certain extent motivation but the evidence shows, learners are not very good judges as to the effectiveness of learning. That’s not to say if something doesn’t’ make sense you shouldn’t challenge, just that sometimes you might find a particular exercise difficult, begin to question your level of intelligence and worry you’re not learning, when in fact the difficulty is a necessary prerequisite to embed the learning in the first place.

Lastly – What the Kirkpatrick model does is shift the perspective from measuring learning in terms of an emotion and the ability to answer a question, towards creating new improved behaviours and ultimately getting the results you want.

Footnote – the famous quote “Beam me up Scotty” is of course Captain or latterly Admiral Kirk speaking to Scotty his Chief Engineer. But Montgomery Scott to give him his full fictional name may have been a wizard with the Enterprise but unfortunately, he didn’t come up with a framework for evaluating learning.

Flash Ah, Ahhhh……..Cards

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I can’t believe I have not written about flashcards before. They are an incredibly popular learning tool and have moved relatively seamlessly to digital in recent years. Research published earlier this year found that 78% of students said they had used digital flashcards and of those who used both the digital and paper version, 60% preferred digital, largely because of their convenience and ease of use.

What is a flashcard? – essentially its a card with a question on one side and the corresponding answer on the other. You pick up the card and read the question, maybe it says, who was the 77th Prime minister in the UK? you then attempt to recall the answer in your head before flipping the card over to reveal the name “Boris Johnson”. Interestingly, in that same survey only 53 % of learners turn the card over to check if they were right, something we will discover later is not a particularly good idea. Which highlights another problem that might be happening, students are using flashcards, just not correctly.

Why do they work?
Of course, it doesn’t follow that just because lots of students use flashcards, they are good, but in this instance they are. Flashcards force students into doing things that we know are good for learning. For example, they are excellent for retrieval practice, spaced practice and interleaving, in fact, they support most of the evidenced based learning techniques. Let’s take a look at some of these in more detail.

Retrieval practice – The process of reflecting back and having to retrieve a memory of something previously learned is very powerful. When you look at the card and attempt to recall the answer the brain is working hard, this will result in the reinforcement of neural pathways, in simple terms you are learning. And of course, it requires effort, that’s the reason it works, don’t do as it would appear 47% of all learners and not check if you were right or flip the card over too soon.

Spaced practice – Spaced practice is the exact opposite of cramming, you effectively take the same amount of time to study, just do it over a longer period. The evidence shows that if you revisit what you have studied over time it boosts what is called retrieval and storage strength but if you study in a short period of time, your retrieval strength improves but your storage strength reduces. Flashcards can be used intermittently, effectively spacing out you’re learning, a good way to do this is to use something called the *Leitner system. Let’s assume there are three envelopes and on the first is written, “every day”, on the second, “every other day” and on the third, “once a week”. All flashcards initially start in envelope one, if you answer a flashcard correctly it moves into envelope two, if incorrectly it stays in envelope one. Each time you get a card correct, you move it to the next envelope but if you get it wrong, you move it back to the previous one. Eventually, in theory at least, all cards will end up in envelope three. Here is a video that shows exactly how it works.

*The Leitner system was developed by the German science journalist Sebastian Leitner in the 1970s.

Interleaving – Interleaving is simply studying different topics as opposed to studying one topic very thoroughly, this latter process is called blocking. Repetition is one of the main benefits of using flashcards, the process takes place naturally as you go through the pack several times, however that same repetition can make the process easier, because the brain will begin to remember cards by association with each other. This is not the same as remembering the information on the card, because if you change the order then the association is broken and you will forget. A simple technique is to shuffle the deck each time you go through it.

Paper based or digital
The evidence to support using paper-based flashcards or the digital version is mixed with some suggesting that digital is better, Azabdaftari & Mozaheb, 2012 and others Gilbert Dizon and Daniel Tang concluding that there is no significant difference. Although they do acknowledge as our earlier research did that students prefer digital when asked.

The arguments are that digital is more convenient, for example everyone carries a mobile and they easier to create and use due to the sophistication of some of the Apps available. However, in contrast producing your own papers-based cards, deciding what to put on them or how they should look, together with their tactile nature makes the learning more effective.

My advice, do whatever works best for you. Perhaps using an app such as Quizlet, Brainscape or the very popular AnkiApp for one subject and produce your own paper based cards for another.

Conclusions
I should have written about flashcards before, they are a hugely effective tool that utilise many of the best evidenced based strategies. Don’t worry about the, “should I use digital or paper” debate, it really doesn’t matter, try both.

And one last tip, don’t leave the use of flashcards until the end of your studies. To maximise their value start using them about a month before the exam, not the night before! Oh, and why not rate yourself in terms of confidence in getting the correct answer before turning the card over, it’s just another way of deepening learning through reflection.

You might find this helpful, it shows 5 ways to use flashcards, although in fairness some are just good note making skills, but then what’s wrong with that.

Gagne’s style – Nine steps to delivery

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Robert Gagne was an American educational psychologist who pioneered the science of instruction in the second world war working with the Army Air Corps, training pilots. His focus was on simplifying and explaining what he and others believed to be good instruction.

Like many academics he wrote and published papers on different areas, for example he developed a hierarchy of learning, similar to Bloom with behavioural aspects at the bottom and cognitive ones at the top. But he is probably most well-known for his Nine levels of learning or as it is referred to here, The nine steps of delivery.

Now the only problem with this is that there are nine steps and anyone who has read this blog before will know, nine is just to The answer is simple, chunk it down into smaller sections.

Why is this important?
Gagne’s objective was to provide a systematic process to help teachers and trainers better structure what they do in order to keep students engaged and help them retain knowledge. But the process he created also provides an insight as to how learning works and can be used by students to structure their own learning. Below are the nine steps broken down under three headings. As well as explaining how each step works, I will also add comments as to what it means for a student who might be studying on their own.

Preparation

  1. Gaining attention
    Start the learning experience by gaining the attention of your learners. The change in stimulus tells them that learning will soon take place. For the student this means you need to create a break from what you are doing and get into a mood to start studying. This might involve going to the library or setting an alarm on your phone to create a trigger telling you something different is about to happen.
  1. Informing the learner of the objective
    Share the learning objective with students early on. What should they know at the end of the session that they didn’t before. For the student it’s important you also know what you are trying to learn, what will you be aware of at the end of this session that you don’t know now. It also helps if your aware of why its important e.g. maybe it’s a very popular exam area or is developed in more detail later so you need to learn it now.
  1. Stimulating recall of prior learning
    Relate the new learning back to something learned before or a similar experience your learners have had, this forms a link between the old and new. For the student this is a reflective process, how does this topic relate to what you have learned in the past, how does it fit in?

Instruction and practice

  1. Presenting the content
    Present the new content to the learners. For the student this is where you start reading or listening to the new content.
  1. Providing learning guidance
    Explain to the learners what something means by giving examples, highlight what’s difficult and what’s not. For the student this is where you have to rely on the instruction provided in the learning materials
  1. Eliciting performance
    Here the learner has to practice what they have been taught in order to demonstrate understanding. For the student this is the equivalent to attempting a question or by way of analogy, trying to turn the theory of how to bake a cake into a reality by actually baking one.

Assessment and transfer

  1. Providing feedback
    Provide guidance to the learner as to what the difference was between their answer and the correct one, what do they need to do to close that gap? For the student this is where it is helpful to work with others, perhaps you mark their answer and they mark yours. To follow the cake example, take it out of the oven and look at it, is it the right texture and colour, then taste it. What do you need to do to make it the best cake ever?
  1. Assessing the performance
    Assessing learner performance is usually demonstrated by asking them to take a test. For the student its very similar this time, take the test and see what score you get.
  1. Enhancing retention and transfer
    The learner now needs to demonstrate this by applying it to their job or by teaching others. This last stage often requires continual practice and feedback to become competent. For the student who thinks their objective is to do little more than pass the exam it may not seem important, however in the medium to long term applying learning is the main goal.

And that’s all you have to do, nine steps that break down instruction and in so doing providing a roadmap to effective study. It has been argued that the process doesn’t work so well for more creative subjects, after all it was designed around training airline pilots. However, it can teach you to fly and most importantly land a plane it’s probably good enough for most areas of learning.

Who needs a teacher – the power of self-explanation

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One of the great skills of a teacher is that they explain things you don’t understand, that’s really helpful – right?

Well maybe not, a meta study entitled, Inducing Self-Explanation published back in 2018 concluded that it is better to ask a student to try and explain something to themselves, than for a teacher to do that for them. Although in fairness the teacher’s explanation was better than no explanation, which might seem an obvious point but it shows that the content is important and it’s not just the process. However, the process does help because it forces the student to recognise links between the knowledge or skills they have already learned and identify the gaps in their understanding which need to be bridged. In further defence of teachers, there is some evidence to show that the technique is more effective following an initial explanation, with the student asked to explain it to themselves afterwards.

In simple terms self-explanation requires the learner to try to explain concepts, ideas and processes in their head to themselves prior to answering a question. However there is a little more to it than that.

Self-explanation and elaborative interrogation
Elaborative interrogation is similar to self-exploration but not exactly the same. If you ask someone “why that makes sense” or “why is this true”, this is an example of elaboration, it generally relies on a specific chunk of prior knowledge that you are elaborating on. Self-explanation is more generic in that you could ask “what does this mean to you” or “explain what you have just read”. To answer these questions there is no need for past knowledge as the paragraph may only just have been read. As a result, self-explanation is better suited to knowledge acquisition.

But for all intent and purposes they are both techniques that force reflection, requiring the learner to assemble the component parts of process or argument in their head, challenge the conclusions and ask further questions to narrow the gap in their understanding. One last point, we also know that more effective learners (although you may think they are just really smart) are likely to engage in self-explaining naturally.

Learning requires effort – desirable difficulty
If this process sounds like hard work, it is, learning is not meant to be easy, it can be enjoyable and rewarding but not necessarily easy. Compare, trying to explain something to re-reading the textbook or highlighting key words. My guess is that you would much rather re-read or highlight, but they are both far less effective learning techniques.

The greater the difficulty, the greater the glory.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

This is yet another example of what Robert Bjork’s referred to as desirable difficulty (Bjork, 1994; McDaniel & Butler). It is the idea that having certain difficulties in the learning process greatly improves long-term retention. Other examples include, spacing, interleaving and retrieval practice which I have written about before. It’s the effort and reflection that helps transfer the knowledge from short term to long term memory and without that it would be forgotten.

More effective
The key point is not about the difficulty of learning but the effectiveness of the methods used to learn, and developing the confidence that when something is hard it’s probably a good thing. So, the next time you are asked a question that requires an explanation and you can’t give one, don’t jump straight back into the textbook to reread the entire chapter. Think and reflect on what it is you don’t understand, create a sentence that captures that lack of understanding, maybe even saying it out loud, find the answer and then attempt to explain it again.

A little more difficult of course but you will be learning and not just sitting there thinking you are.

My thanks to John Eaton for his observations on this topic and for the fab picture of Less Dawson.

Blooms 1984 – Getting an A instead of a C

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When people see the year 1984 most think of George Orwell’s book about a dystopian future, but a few other things happened that year. Dynasty and Dallas were the most popular TV programs and one of my favorite movies, Amadeus won best picture at the Oscars. You can be excused for missing the publication of what has become known as the two Sigma problem by Benjamin Bloom, of Blooms taxonomy fame. He provided the answer to a question that both teachers and students have been asking for some time – how can you significantly improve student performance?  

One of the reasons this is still being talked about nearly 40 years later is because Bloom demonstrated that most students have the potential to achieve mastery of a given topic. The implication is that it’s the teaching at fault rather than the students inherent lack of ability. It’s worth adding that this might equally apply to the method of learning, it’s not you but the way you’re studying.

The two-sigma problem
Two of Bloom’s doctoral students (J. Anania and A.J. Burke) compared how people learned in three different situations:

  1. A conventional lecture with 30 students and one teacher. The students listened to the lectures and were periodically tested on the material.
  2. Mastery learning – this was the conventional lecture with the same testing however students were given formative style feedback and guidance, effectively correcting misunderstandings before re-testing to find out the extent of the mastery.
  3. Tutoring – this was the same as for mastery learning but with one teacher per student.

The results were significant and showed that mastery learning increased student performance by approximately one standard deviation/sigma, the equivalent of an increase in grading from a B to an A. However, if this was combined with one-to-one teaching, the performance improved by two standard deviations, the equivalent of moving from a C to an A. Interestingly the need to correct students work was relatively small.

Bloom then set up the challenge that became known as the two-sigma problem.

“Can researchers and teachers devise teaching/learning conditions that will enable the majority of students under group instruction to attain levels of achievement that can at present be reached only under good tutoring conditions?”

In other words, how can you do this in the “real world” at scale where it’s not possible to provide this type of formative feedback and one to one tuition because it would be too expensive.

Mastery learning – To answer this question you probably need to understand a little more about mastery learning. Firstly, content has to be broken down into small chunks, each with a specific learning outcome. The process is very similar to direct instruction that I have written about before. The next stage is important, learners have to demonstrate mastery of each chunk of content, normally by passing a test scoring around 80% before moving onto new material. If not, the student is given extra support, perhaps in the form of additional teaching or homework. Learners then continue the cycle of studying and testing until the mastery criteria are met.

Why does it work?
Bloom was of the opinion that the results were so strong because of the corrective feedback which was targeted at the very area the student didn’t understand. The one to one also helped because the teacher had time to explain in a different way and encourage the student to participate in their own learning which in turn helped with motivation. As you might imagine mastery is particularly effective in situations where one subject builds on another, for example, introduction to economics is followed by economics in business.

Of course, there are always problems, students may have mastered something to the desired level but forget what they have learned due to lack of use. It’s easy to set a test but relatively difficult to assess mastery, for example do you have sufficient coverage at the right level, is 80% the right cut score? And finally, how long should you allow someone to study in order to reach the mastery level and what happens in practice when time runs out and they don’t?

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution
When Bloom set the challenge, he was right, it was far too expensive to offer personalised tuition, however it is almost as if AI was invented to solve the problem. AI can offer an adaptive pathway tracking the student’s progression and harnessing what it gleans to serve up a learning experience designed specifically for the individual. Add to this instructionally designed online content that can be watched by the student at their own pace until mastery is achieved and you are getting close to what Bloom envisaged. However, although much of this is technically possible, questions remain. For example, was the improvement in performance the result of the ‘personal relationship’ between the teacher and student and the advise given or the clarity in explaining the topic. Can this really be replicated by a machine?

In the meantime, how does this help?
What Bloom identified was that in most situations it’s not the learner who is at fault but the method of learning or instruction. Be careful however, this cannot be used as an excuse for lack of effort, “its not my fault, it’s because the teacher isn’t doing it right”.

How to use Blooms principles.

  • Change the instruction/content – if you are finding a particular topic difficult to understand, ask questions such as, do I need to look at this differently, maybe watching a video or studying from another book. Providing yourself with an alternative way of exploring the problem.
  • Mastery of questions – at the end of most text books there are a number of different questions, don’t ignore them, test yourself and even if you get them wrong spend some time understanding why before moving on. You might also use the 80% rule, the point being you don’t need to get everything right

In conclusion – It’s interesting that in 1985 Bloom came up with a solution to a problem we are still struggling to implement. What we can say is that personalisation is now high on the agenda for many organisations because they recognise that one size does not fit all. Although AI provides a glimmer of hope, for now at least Blooms 2 Sigma problem remains unsolved.

Listen to Sal Khan on TED – Let’s teach for mastery, not test scores

When a horse might be a cow – the importance of Schema

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Although there is a difference between learning, “the process of acquiring knowledge” and remembering, “the process of recording, storing and retrieving knowledge”, they are symbiotic, the one having little purpose without the other. Which goes someway to explaining why I have written so much about memory over the years. Here is one such example Never forget – improving memory.

In some of these blogs I have referred to the word schema but have not really explored it in much detail, it’s time to put that right.

It’s easy to think that when the brain transfers information from short to long term memory it just sits there floating in a vacuum, waiting for the day it will be needed. But it doesn’t work like that, the brain cannot simply pluck something from this vast space without having structured the information in the first place, effectively having filed it away correctly.

The packets that organise information and make sense of experience are ‘schemas’, the building blocks of cognition. Daniel Goleman

Schema – how information is stored
Schema can be derived from the word’s Greek origin, which means to shape or plan, but it wasnt until 1923 that the child developmental psychologist Jean Piaget used it in the context of learning.

Nine years later Frederic Bartlett described schema in more detail by saying that people organise concepts into mental constructs, models, or frameworks that help them process and remember information. The implication being that when faced with information that fits an existing schema, it will be remembered but if not, it is easily forgotten.

Schemas contribute to our understanding as to how information is stored in the brain and provide insight as to what we can do to learn more effectively. They are built through experience, for example a child may have been told that a cow is an animal that has four legs, eats grass and lives in a field, they may even have seen one. When they next come across a cow, they will associate what they see with that schema and say “cow”. However, if in the next field they see a horse which also has four legs, eats grass and lives in a field, they may believe that is also a cow. It’s at this point the child’s parents intervene by telling the child “No that’s a horse, can you see its taller and runs faster”, this leaves the child with two choices either, build a new schema or adapt the existing one.

Piaget gave us the answer as to what’s happening here, he called it Assimilation and Accommodation. Assimilation is when you make the new information fit with an existing schema for example, the child can adapt their schema by adding – not all animals that live in a field with four legs and eat grass are cows, some are horses. Alternatively, they create a new schema for horses, being fast, tall animals with four legs, that eat grass and live in a field, this is accommodation.

People who do well in maths are those that make connections and see maths as a connected subject.
Jo Boaler, 2014

Chess players use schemas
There is a general assumption that chess players have good memories, which on the face of it is true. But it’s not necessarily an innate ability, they have been building up information of past games and storing them in schemas for years. This is why an expert chess player is able to beat a novice, not because they are processing each move individually, they suffer from cognitive load like everyone else, they are simply accessing past schemas. (Chase & Simon, 1973 et al).

The reason experts remember more is that what novices see as separate pieces of information, experts see as organised sets of ideas. Donovan & Bransford, 2005

How does this help with learning?
If you aware of how your brain stores information you can change the way you study to work with your brain not against it. Below are a few tips you might want to consider.

  • Pre-Assessment or subject review – It’s a good idea before starting a new subject to test yourself or review the underpinning content. This is not so much about finding out what you know, although this might be helpful, it reminds you of prior knowledge and schemas that can be adapted to fit the new information you will learn.
  • Look for analogies and comparisons – when new information is presented think how this might fit with what you now. For example, if you have already learned about income tax, when you come to capital gains tax ask, what are the differences and similarities. They both fit into the schema of taxation.
  • Put Information Into context – when trying to understand something new, consider the context from which it comes, its possible that although the knowledge is new the context is familiar. For example, if you were learning about people who break the law, it might be a good idea to ask yourself in what context you would do this. This could help fit the new information into an existing schema.
  • Challenge your existing schemas – like many things’ schemas can be good or bad. Here is a riddle, a father and son have a car accident and are both badly hurt. They are both taken to separate hospitals. When the boy is taken in for an operation, the doctor says ‘I cannot do the surgery because this is my son’. How is this possible?

The answer is of course that the doctor is the son’s mother, but because we have a schema that tells us doctors are male, we get it wrong.

And one last big tip for teachers, inside your head you have created schemas that work, share them with your students, they have probably taken you many years to create making them hugely valuable in terms of knowledge transfer.

For more information here is a really good video that explains Memory Schemas in more detail.

Chatter – why talking to yourself matters

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If you are reading this, think for a moment as to what you are doing……… are you sounding out the words in your head or did you pause, reflect and ask yourself “what exactly am I doing?”, either way you have been using your inner voice, your internal dialogue or have been experiencing what Ethan Kross calls Chatter.

Ethan is the Professor of Psychology and Management at the University of Michigan and author of a book called Chatter, the voice in our head and how to harness it.

On the one hand this might all seem a little strange, how many people would you ask what they have been talking to themselves about today, perhaps you wouldn’t because it’s too personal a question or maybe you don’t want to admit you do it all of the time. The good news is its perfectly normal and the vast majority of people talk to themselves. It’s worth adding however that not everyone has an internal voice, with some suggesting that this might be more likely for people with dyslexia.

Where does it come from?
Evolution would suggest that if we have this ability, it must serve a purpose. Mark Scott from the University of British Columbia has found evidence that a brain signal called “corollary discharge” plays an important role in our experiences of internal speech. Corollary discharge arises when the brain generates an internal copy of the sound of our voice in parallel to the external sound we hear. Its purpose is to prevent confusion between a self-caused sound or sensation for example, a dog growling noise inside our head and an externally-caused sound, for example a real dog growling who is about to bite. If both are the same, we run pretty fast, if not the brain will cancel the internal sound. This is the reason we can’t tickle ourselves; the brain sends a signal that we are going to tickle ourselves before we actually do, effectively cancelling the sensation.

Interestingly children don’t develop this skill until around 6 or 7 although its gradual and starts much earlier. This is the reason a young child will just say what they think, regardless of the consequences!

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” Steve Jobs

Why it matters and what you can do?
One of the most powerful tools to help manage stress, wellbeing and self-esteem is your inner voice, and examinations provide a rich environment where without support all of these can bring you down. Heightened dialogue is not of course just experienced when studying or in the exam room, how was it possible that Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka missed penalties in the Euros. Maybe it was the result of too much chatter, telling themselves that they must score, they have to score, the country is relying on them?

“Non-judgment quiets the internal dialogue, and this opens once again the doorway to creativity.” Deepak Chopra

And this is where Ethan Kross offers a whole raft of advice. He talks about having the ability to step back from the Chatter by adopting a broader, calmer and more objective perspective. You also need to listen to what your saying, low self esteem for example can easily develop if you are continually criticising yourself, perhaps as a thoughtless parent might do, always finding fault no matter what.

Here are a few of the practical tools in the book.

  1. Use distanced self-talk – rather than saying “why can’t I do this”, use your name in the second person “why is it that Stuart can’t do this”. This results in reduced activation in brain networks associated with negative thoughts.
  2. Imagine advising a friend – this has a similar impact in that it helps you view the experience from a distance. “I know this is a tricky question but you’ve been in a similar situation before and you figured it out”. This is also an example of what Kross calls time travel, (temporal distancing) either going forward in time to look in the rear-view mirror at the problem, effectively leaving it behind or travelling back to a time when you were successful.
  3. Broaden your perspective – in this situation, compare what you’re worrying about with other adverse events or ask what other people would do in the same situation. A variation on the “what would Jesus do?” question.
  4. Reinterpreted your bodies chatter response – when you experience stress its likely your heart rate will increase and you will begin to sweat. Becoming aware of this can lead you to conclude that you are stressed which in fact makes the situation worse. Kross suggest you tell yourself that this is not bad news but the body doing what it has to in order to help you.

And finally, if you want to find out more, check out this video, Do you have an inner voice?

Old Marley was as dead as a door nail – the power of analogy

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“Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge’s name was good upon ‘Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a doornail.”

A Christmas Carol was written by Charles Dickens in October 1843 and published on December 19th the same year. By Christmas’s Eve it had sold 6,000 copies at 5 shillings each, unfortunately Dickens only made £230 due to the elaborate illustrations and a not so lucrative deal with Chapman and Hall, the publishers. Today you could by an original copy for around £40,000.

Although Dickens might not have struck a particularly good business deal, he used an excellent analogy to describe exactly how dead Marley, his business partner was. Incidentally the reason a doornail is considered so dead is to do with the way it is bent over and hammered flat, making it unusable. Click for a more detailed explanation.

Analogy
Put simply, analogies highlight shared characteristics between two things. It’s an umbrella term for a cognitive process where we transfer meaning or information from one subject to another and as a result improve understanding. For example, “life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re gonna get” is an analogy from Forrest Gump that makes the connection between the choices and surprises you face when deciding on what chocolate to have…. and life. It helps illustrate the uncertainty of life, the fact that faced with choice you don’t always make the best one and sometimes when you “bite” into life you might be pleasantly surprised. Many analogies are used in everyday speech, for example “doing that will be as about as effective as rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic”, meaning it will make no difference. Similes and metaphors can be used in the same way, in many instances providing the infrastructure to support the analogy. Life is like a box of chocolates, is a simile.

But the distinction between, analogy, metaphor and similia doesn’t really matter, the important point is that all of these can be used to improve understanding, navigate complexity and help with problem solving by using what is called analogical reasoning.

Making abstract concrete
There are many reasons as to why analogies work so well. They often require the use of images, connect existing information with new and encourage reflection, retrieval and the manipulation of ideas. All of which help move information from short to long term memory. There is also a strong connection with the 6 evidenced based learning strategies covered in previous blogs, in particular using concrete examples to make concepts more real. This is one of the most powerful ways to use an analogy.

How do you explain the dual concept in accounting? Here is the answer – the dual concept tells us that every transaction affects the business in at least two ways which are equal and opposite in nature.

Even though you have an explanation, because it’s a concept, an abstract idea, it has no form which makes it difficult for the brain to grasp. But if you can relate it by way of an analogy, perhaps thinking of the dual concept as a set of scales where whatever you put on one side you have to put on another, it becomes more tangible and an understanding develops.

Designing an analogy
Sometimes an analogy will just emerge, from my own experience this is often the case when I have thought about a particular topic or taught it for many years. The catalyst might be someone saying, I don’t understand. As a result, you rack your brains to come up with an alternative way of explaining, and the analogy just appears. However, when studying, you don’t have time for this but coming up with your own analogy might really help. Here is one way of doing it.

Pick two objects, ideas or domains
e.g. a carrot and learning
Write down the main characteristics
– Carrots – are orange, grow from a seed, need water, good for you etc
– Learning – requires effort, takes time, builds on prior knowledge, helps you in life etc
Evaluate by looking for commonalities
Learning is not dissimilar to a carrot, it starts very small, takes time to grow, needs nurturing and is good for you. A slightly silly example but hopefully it shows how the process could work.

A word of warning, as powerful as analogies can be they aren’t the answer to everything. Research shows they can cause learners to create incorrect mental models and as such draw the wrong conclusions, so always keep a check on the logic behind the analogy and at what point it stops working.

A few more analogies
– “A good speech should be like a woman’s skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest.” Winston S. Churchill
– “You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.” Albert Einstein
– “Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold.” Leo Tolstoy
They can also make you laugh – “When I die, I want to go peacefully like my Grandfather did, in his sleep – not screaming, like the passengers in his car.”

And as Tiny Tim said, “A Merry Christmas to us all; God bless us, every one!”
Happy Holidays and here’s to a much better 2022.

Simulations, Case Studies and Games – Strictly Take 2

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Last month’s blog looked at the difficult balancing act that has to be struck between knowledge and skills. It concluded that skills learned in one domain are not always transferable to another, making it important to have as realistic an environment in which to learn as possible.

The UK government believe, as set out in their skills for jobs white paper that by giving employers a central role in the design of technical courses it will ensure the education and training is directly linked to the skills needed in the world of work. Although this should result in a curriculum valued by employers, these skills won’t be learned unless they can be applied in a real-world environment. This is the reason the government promote apprenticeships and have built work experience into the new T levels.

But perhaps there is more that could be done, what if the transition between what is learned in the “classroom” and the real world was somehow smoother, almost as if it was the obvious next step.

Simulations, a type of rehearsal
One answer might be to use a simulation, an instructional scenario where the learner is placed in a world similar in some aspects to the real one. It is a representation of reality within which the student has to engage and interact. It’s controlled by the teacher who uses it to achieve a desired learning outcome.

Simulations are most effective when there is a need to explore relatively complex topics with many dimensions and factors. And because the student is placed in a situation of uncertainty, they are forced to navigate confusion, consider different possibilities, problem solve, think critically and in so doing develop those all-important higher-level skills so valued in the workplace. Despite there being good evidence, (Bogo et al, 2014, Cooper et al, 2012) as to the efficacy of simulations, in practice PowerPoints and chalk and talk are still all too common.

In terms of timing, simulations work best at the later stages of learning, after students have been taught theoretical concepts and the fundamental underpinning knowledge, effectively prior knowledge matters. The reason for this is our old friend “cognitive load” and the need not to overwhelm learners with too much information at any one time. (Kirschner et al., 2006).

Technology of course has a role to play, in particular Virtual Reality (VR) which although expensive has much to offer in areas where mistakes can be costly. This is perhaps most evident in the medical profession where VR can place students in realistic life and death situations but in an environment that is safe, controlled and allows for mistakes.

Case studies and games
Both case studies and games provide opportunities for a similar learning experience to simulations.

Case studies – are effectively real-world stories in which the student applies what they have been taught with the objective of solving a problem or offering alternative solutions. In the business world these are not new, for example Harvard Business School are celebrating their 100 years of teaching using the case study method this year.

Although it’s possible to study on your own using case studies, because of the absence of a single right answer it is beneficial to engage with other students, exchanging ideas, discussing different theoretical topics and listening to alternative answers.  After which if you require a group consensus there is a need to prioritise and persuade others within the group, all of which are valuable skills.

Games – Wikipedia defines a game as a structured form of play, usually undertaken for entertainment or fun, and sometimes used as an educational tool. Most games have the same components, rules, an objective, challenge and competition. As with case studies if used for teaching they can allow the student to explore and test themselves with different problems, many of which have alternative courses of action. Having a competitor adds another dimension, perhaps sometime they are rational which might make them predictable but on other occasions they are irrational and illogical.

“We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!”

Benjamin Franklin

Just to give some idea as to the scale of gaming and its popularity, in 2020 the video gaming Industry was estimated to be worth $160 Billion and by 2025 this figure is set to increase to $270 Billion. Now of course these aren’t educational games but it does show how valuable they could become if educators could somehow tap into their magic. And if you’re not familiar with how these games might be used, take a look at this short video that showcases the new and upcoming management games of 2021.

Realistic environments are not enough
Simulations, case studies and games all provide the opportunity to place the learner in a realistic environment to help them develop valuable work-based skills, but there is a caveat. Research has shown that simply putting the learner into a realistic environment is not enough (Clark, 2019), unless the very same evidence-based learning theories that are used in the classroom are also applied, that is deliberate practice, spaced practice, interleaving etc.

Like any form of teaching, these training environments need to be carefully constructed with the desired learning outcomes clearly identified and placed up front when designing the simulation or game. Yes, they can be fun, yes, they can be engaging but they won’t help you develop the required skills unless the evidence-based practices are used.

Strictly take 2 – How are contestants on strictly prepared for their real-world task, they have a rehearsal (simulation) on the Friday and two dress rehearsals (simulations) on the Saturday morning just before the show goes out live on the evening.

A few skills you can learn from a simulation

The knowledge verses skills debate – Strictly speaking

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The skills gap
Although it is estimated that by 2030 there will be more people than jobs for those with lower skills, research conducted by the Learning and Work Institute estimated that England faces a deficit in higher level skills of around 2.5 million people, this is why we have a skills gap.

It’s not that we don’t have enough people it’s that we don’t have enough people with the right skills. It’s an education problem not a resource one…..

The solution is of course easy, train more people, but its skills we need not knowledge, right?

What are skills
A skill is the knowledge and ability that enables us to do something well. There are many definitions of skills but I like this one because it highlights the importance knowledge plays. Although knowledge is valuable, on its own it has limitations. For example, knowing the steps to the Argentinian Tango doesn’t mean you will be able to dance it. Knowledge is theoretical, whereas skills are practical. There is arguably no better place to see how skills are learned than Strictly, the BBC’s hugely successful dance show. Celebrities with differing abilities are given a dance that they need to perform each week, the process they go through is however always the same, and involves practice, practice and more practice.

What is knowledge
Most people will assume that knowledge relates to something written in a text book, be it words, facts, dates, numbers etc, and they would be right. To be precise this type of knowledge is called explicit or declarative knowledge. You will also “know that you know it”, which on the face of it might sound strange but some types of knowledge (implicit and tacit) are unconscious. You have the knowledge but “don’t know” that you do, for example, “I can hit a golf ball straight down the fairway, but don’t ask me to explain how I do it, because I have no idea, I guess I’m just naturally talented”. One final point, for knowledge to be understood it should be applied in a specific context or illustrated by way of example, which lifts the words from the page, often putting the learner in a more practical environment where they can “see” what they need to learn.

The Knowledge V Skills debate
Often knowledge and skills are put into conflict, with some promoting knowledge as being the more important. The current national curriculum in England as set out by the then Education Secretary Michael Gove requires that pupils should be taught a robust “core knowledge” of facts and information.

“Our new curriculum affirms – at every point – the critical importance of knowledge acquisition”.
Michael Gove

Whilst others promote the value of skills over knowledge, suggesting that technology provides knowledge for free.

“The world no longer rewards us just for what we know – Google knows everything – but for what we can do with what we know.”
Andreas Schleicher, Special Advisor on Education Policy at the OECD

But like so many things this type of dichotomy is not helpful, with evidence on both sides attesting to the importance of each. The truth is you need both, you can’t learn skills without knowledge and although knowing something has value, it’s what you can do that is most highly prized.

How do you learn skills?
To learn a skill, you first need knowledge, for example here is some of the knowledge required to help dance the Argentinian Tango.

Every dance has its own unique music, and you can’t master it without developing a feel for the music. Tango is a walking dance, meaning that all the steps are based on walking. When you start learning, you must first master some basic movements. Beginners usually start with 8-Count Basic or simply Tango Basic. The rhythm is slow, slow, quick, quick, slow.

We can then follow what is called the four-step approach to learning skills:
One – Demonstrate the skill with little or no explanation (demonstration)
Two – Repeat with an explanation whilst encouraging questions (deconstruction)
Three – Repeat again with the learner explaining what is happening and being challenged (formulation)
Four – Learner has a go themselves with support and coaching (performance)

Skills are developed through continual practice and repetition, learning by trial and error, asking questions whilst receiving advice to improve performance. An analogy or metaphor can sometime help e.g. Finding your balance is about feeling stable like a ship with an anchor.

Transferable skills are not that transferable
The ultimate goal of those that promote skills development is that once learned they can be taken with you from job to job, they are in effect transferable. However, research suggests that this is not the case. In July 2016 the Education Endowment Foundation in the UK released the results of a two-year study involving almost 100 schools. The experiment looked at the benefits of teaching chess as a means of developing generic skills, in this instance mathematical ability. It concluded, that there were no significant differences in mathematical achievement between those who had the regular chess class and the control group. Playing chess, does not make you better at maths, on the whole it only improves your ability to play better chess.
This supports the argument that skills are domain specific and that critical thinking learned whilst studying medicine does not necessarily help you become a better critical thinker in other areas. One reason for this may be that to become a good critical thinker you need large amounts of knowledge on which to practice. Which brings us full circle, skills need knowledge and knowledge becomes more valuable when applied in the form of a skill.

Strictly foot note – there is an argument that the celebrities on Strictly are only skilled in one dance at a time, and what is learned from one dance does not transfer easily to another.

Inquiry based learning is harmful – ouch!

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Can I ask you a question, would you prefer to discover something for yourself or be told what you should know?

Choices as to how you want to learn are to a certain extent personal, perhaps even a learning style, but shouldn’t we be asking which is the most effective, and when it comes to that, we have evidence.

The problem is you might not like the results, I’m not sure I do.

The headline for this month’s blog is not mine but an edited one from John Sweller, of cognitive load fame, in a paper published this August by the Centre for Independent Studies in Australia. Although I have written about some aspects of Inquiry based learning before (IBL), it’s worth taking a closer look, especially given the impact Sweller believes IBL type methods have had in Australia. He suggests that the countries rankings on international tests such as PISA have reduced because of a greater emphasis on IBL in classrooms across the country.

But first…..

What is inquiry-based learning?
Inquiry based learning can be traced back to Constructivism and the work of Piaget, Dewey, Vygotsky et al. Constructivism is an approach to learning that suggests people construct their own understanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing it and reflecting on those experiences. This sits alongside Behaviourism (see last month’s blog) and Cognitivism to form three important theories of learning.

As a process IBL often starts with a question to encourage students to share their thoughts, these are then carefully challenged in order to test conviction and depth of understanding. The result, a more refined and robust appreciation of what was being discussed, learning has taken place. It is an approach in which the teacher and student share responsibility for learning. There are some slight variations to IBL that include Problem-based learning (PBL), and Project-based learning (PjBL), in these rather than a question being the catalyst, it’s a problem.

This method is intuitively attractive and promoted widely in schools and higher education institutions around the world. Which is what makes Swellers argument so challenging, how can someone “learn better” when they are being told as opposed to discovering the answer for themselves?

What’s wrong with it?
To answer this question, I will quote both Sweller and Richard E Clark who challenged enquiry-based learning fifteen years ago in a paper called, Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work.

Unguided and minimally guided methods… ignore both the structures that constitute human cognitive architecture and evidence from empirical studies over the past half-century that consistently indicate that minimally guided instruction is less effective and less efficient than instructional approaches that place a strong emphasis on guidance of the student learning process.

The cognitive architecture they are refereeing to is the limitation of working memory and the need to keep cognitive load to a minimum e.g. 7+-2. In the more recent paper Sweller goes onto explain how the “worked example effect” demonstrates the problems of IBL and the benefits of a more direct instructional approach. If one group of students were presented with a series of problems to solve and another group given the same problems but with detailed solutions, those that had the worked example perform better on future common problem-solving tests.

“Obtaining information from others is vastly more efficient than obtaining it during problem solving“. John Sweller

In simple terms if a student (novice) has to formulate the problem, position it in a way that they can think about it, bring to bear their existing knowledge, challenge that knowledge, the cognitive load becomes far too high resulting in at best weak learning, and at worst confusion.

“As far as can be seen, inquiry learning neither teaches us how to inquire nor helps us acquire other knowledge deemed important in the curriculum.” John Sweller

What’s better – Direct instruction?
Sweller is not simply arguing against IBL, he is comparing it and promoting the use of direct instruction. This method you might remember requires the teacher to presents information in a prescriptive, structured and sequenced manner. Direct Instruction keeps cognitive load to a minimum and as a result makes it easier to transfer information from working to long term memory.

Best of both worlds
It may be that so far this blog has been a bit academic and does little more than promote direct instruction over IBL, my apologies. The intention was to showcase IBL, clarify what it is and point out some of the limitations. In addition to highlight how easy it is to believe that something must be good because it feels intuitively right. And in that IBL is compelling, we are human and learn from asking questions and solving problems, it’s what we have been doing for thousands of years. But that alone does not make it the best way to learn.

The good news is these methods are not mutually exclusive, and for me John Hattie, coincidentally another Australian has the answer. He says that although IBL may engage students, which can give an illusion of learning, if you are new to a subject (a novice) and have to learn content as opposed to the slightly deeper relationship between content, then IBL doesn’t work. Also, if you don’t teach the content, you have nothing to reason about.

But, there is a place for IBL…..its after the student has acquired sufficient knowledge that they can begin to explore by experimenting with their own thoughts. The more difficult question is, when do you should do this, and that is likely to be different for everyone.

One for another day perhaps.