Teachers Need to Learn About the Science of Learning
In this video, Dr. Justin Baeder discusses why cognitive psychology and the science of learning should be a bigger part of teacher preparation, even though it currently isn't.
Key Takeaways
- Cognitive science should inform teaching - Understanding how memory, attention, and learning work would make teachers more effective
- It's largely absent from teacher prep - Most education programs don't teach the science of learning in meaningful depth
- This knowledge is practical - Understanding concepts like retrieval practice, spaced repetition, and cognitive load directly improves instruction
Transcript
Why don't educators learn more about learning?
If I think back on my teacher training, on my master's degree, I had a lot of courses in various types of psychology, child and adolescent development, things like that, but almost nothing about the science of learning and especially cognitive neuroscience and the kinds of things that cover memory, retrieval practice, how people acquire new information, how knowledge works, how learning works, how retention works, how forgetting works, all those things that we know a fair amount about.
we seem to not actually be teaching teachers.
And I'm curious if that was your experience as well.
Did you get training in how learning works, how memory works, how retrieval works, any of those kind of cognitive psychology topics that aren't really covered in a child and adolescent development?
Let me know what your experience has been.
I think we've got to start covering these things if we want teachers to teach effectively.
Let me know what you think.