1. Educational Psychologist
How children learn
ITT session
21st September 2016
Nicky Phillips
Educational Psychologist

2. Key Learning Theories Behaviourism – Skinner/ Pavlov
Cognitivism – Piaget
Constructivism – Bruner/ Vygotsky
Brain based learning theory...
Education Endowment Foundation

4. What works? (additional months’ progress over a year)
Collaborative learning +5 months
Feedback +8 months
Homework (secondary) +5 months
Meta-cognition and self-regulation +8 months
Peer tutoring +5 months
What doesn’t?
Repeating a year -4months
Setting / streaming -1 month
School uniform 0 months

5. The adult’s role in children’s learning and development - according to VYGOTSKY:
The big, wide world
Adult
Child

6. VYGOTSKY
A view that argues that everything children learn – and the way in which they learn - is, or can be, ‘mediated’ by the adults around them.
How and what children learn depends on the quality of the mediation they receive – the extent to which adults are able to interpret, transform and explain the world, and the extent to which adults are sensitive to children’s responses to the mediation they receive.
This is a “can-do” outlook on child development– all children can learn if we can understand and meet their needs effectively.

7. Vygotsky’s ‘Zone of Next Development’
What a child can achieve with assistance/ mediation from another person
A great deal
Any two children might be capable of the same achievements alone, but one may be capable of considerably more than the other with appropriate assistance/mediation
The ZND is the ‘cutting edge’ of the child’s development and is illuminated by dynamic, but not static, assessment approaches
What a child can achieve on their own
Nothing

8. MEDIATED LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Reuven Feuerstein suggested a number of qualities/behaviours that are demonstrated by adults in all cultures who are successful ‘teachers’ of children. The three ‘essentials’ are:
Intentionality and Reciprocity
Meaning
Transcendence
They can be ‘de-jargonised’ to become...

9. Interest
Showing interest in the other person; noticing and taking account of their mood and feelings; seeking and holding their attention
Explanation
Why I want you to do this; why, in this relationship/room/school/community, this thing I want you to do is valued
Making Links
Linking the ‘here and now’ with the past and the future; why the thing(s) you are learning now will be important in the future; other times you’ve done something like this or seen it before

10. ?
Start
164miles
79 miles
What is the answer?

11. Asking quality questions…
Helps children to reflect on their own cognitive processes
Encourages children to give explanations which help to embed learning
Introduces questions and processes a child can use to help themselves with learning and generalising

12. Key cognitive processes
Key cognitive processes fundamental to effective learning Attributes, skills and behaviours that we need to see in a learner Specific feedback and questions should aim to draw attention to and encourage these processes (metacognition)

13. Look at the questions and cognitive processes in your group
Which processes do the questions relate to?
What questions could you add to increase a child’s awareness of other cognitive processes?

14. The importance of attentional control
The ability to direct, focus and sustain attention on relevant information and actively ignore irrelevant information (self regulation)
Single most important cognitive skill???
Fundamental for effective Working Memory
Working Memory underpins learning and correlates strongly with academic attainment

15. Working memory
The ability to hold information in mind and do something with it for a few seconds
A mental ‘sketch pad’ which ‘self-destructs’
Very limited capacity – either quickly forgotten or moved into Long Term Memory and remembered
Strongly linked with overall intelligence and studies suggest that WM predicts school attainment better than IQ

16. Two volunteers for a quick memory task Look at the letters for the given time, then recall as many as you can

17. The ‘secrets’ of making learning ‘stick’
1. Three lots of 10 minutes is better than 30 minutes
Learning needs ‘down time’ for things to sink in
2. Do ‘quizzes’ often to check what has been learnt and to help children not to forget it!
‘fetching’ knowledge strengthens memory (little, often and fun)
3. Ask a child to summarise and explain what they have learnt
Telling (and teaching) someone else what you know helps it ‘stick’
4. Use new knowledge in lots of different ways and places
Immediate experience of using knowledge helps it ‘stick’

18. Further reading
Make it Stick – the science of successful learning by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger & Mark Daniel (2014)
How Children Learn - educational theories made easy by Linda Pound (2005)
Working Memory and Learning – a practical guide for teachers by Susan Gathercole and Tracy Alloway (2012)
Improving Learning through Dynamic Assessment by Fraser Lauchlan and Donna Carrigan (2013)