5. What might we be wrong about?
• We don’t really know what learning is
• We can’t always trust ‘the experts’
• Just because we like it, doesn’t make it
right.
6. No one wants to wrong
• Confirmation Bias & The Backfire Effect
• The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight
• Sunk Cost Fallacy
• The Anchoring Effect & Availability Bias
10. We believe “engaging in learning
activities…transfers the content of the activity to
the mind of the student…”
But “as learning occurs, so does forgetting…”
“learning takes time and is not
encapsulated in the visible here-and-now
of classroom activities.”
Graham Nuthall (2005)
The input/output myth
13. Learning is invisible
• We can only infer learning from
performance
• Performance is a very poor indicator of
learning
• Reducing performance might actually
increase learning
Robert A Bjork, UCLA
14. Sustained & rapid progress
• Learning vs. performance
• If nothing has changed in long-
term memory, nothing has been
learned
• Learning happens when you think hard
15. But…
• “Anything that occupies your working
memory reduces your ability to think.”
• “Memory is the residue of thought.”
21. ‘Poor proxies’ for learning
• Students are busy: lots of work is done
(especially written work)
• Students are engaged, interested, motivated
• Students are getting attention: feedback,
explanations
• Classroom is ordered, calm, under control
• Curriculum has been ‘covered’ (i.e. presented
to students in some form)
• (At least some) students have supplied correct
answers (whether or not they really understood
them or could reproduce them independently)
Rob Coe, CEM Durham University
Improving Education: a triumph of hope over experience
25. What Hattie actually says
Feedback is one of the most powerful
influences on learning and achievement, but
this impact can be either positive or negative.
Simply providing more feedback is not the
answer, because it is necessary to consider
the nature of the feedback, the timing, and
how the student ‘receives’ this feedback (or,
better, actively seeks the feedback)
The Power of Feedback (2007)
26. What Hattie actually says
With inefficient learners, it is better for a
teacher to provide elaborations through
instruction than to provide feedback on
poorly understood concepts…
Feedback can only build on something;
it is of little use when there is no initial
learning or surface information.
The Power of Feedback (2007)
28. Bjork on feedback
Empirical evidence suggests that delaying,
reducing, and summarizing feedback can be
better for long-term learning than providing
immediate, trial-by-trial feedback.
Numerous studies—some of them dating back
decades—have shown that frequent and
immediate feedback can, contrary to
intuition, degrade learning.
Learning vs Performance (2013)
29. But, why?
• Providing feedback of success is a
waste of effort (opportunity cost)
• Immediate feedback can prevent
memorisation
• Students can become dependent
• Slows down pace of learning
• ‘Spaced’ feedback has the most
powerful impact.
30. Engagement, courtesy,
collaboration & cooperation.
• More proxies?
• What % of feedback do pupils get
from each other?
80%
• And 80% of this is wrong!
31. The Cult of Outstanding™
• ‘Outstanding’ lessons focus on
performance at the expense of
learning
• There is no such thing as an
outstanding lesson
• Don’t get me started on lesson grades!
32. What should we do?
• Abandon the Cult of Outstanding
• Use research to predict measurable
and meaningful outcomes.
• Murder your darlings
33. For there’s nothing good or
bad but thinking makes it so.
@LearningSpy
learningspy.co.uk
ddidau@gmail.com
