The Science Behind Learning

What Actually is Learning

To best illustrate how our techniques are better equipped to bolster learning, let’s first look at the science. I am sure most of you will have heard of the term ‘neuron’ which we may think of in the sense of our brains wiring. These neurons have lots of projections coming off of them called dendrites – imagine the neuron being the trunk of a tree and the dendrites being the branches. Along these dendrites there are lots of little spines (picture the leaves on the branches), these dendritic spines act as the synaptic site, essentially a junction through which information is passed. Dependent upon how important/often we use that junction it either becomes strengthened or weakened through a process called pruning. You may have heard this notion colloquially as ‘use it or lose it’. As we encounter a learning task more of these spines appear on the activated neurons and new pathways are formed. When we then revisit this learning task through memory retrieval those neurons are reactivated. However, if we cede to revisit then the pathway becomes weakened.

What Promotes Learning

Here it is important to identify the importance of both learning and understanding as either side of the same educational coin. For example, a student may learn that 3 times 5 is 15 but may not be able to determine how many of the 15 sweets they need to give out equally to 5 of their friends. This is considered as the transfer of learning to a different context, characteristic of understanding. This transfer is critical to success on exams, particularly in demanding tests such as the 11+. Therefore, we must take advantage of providing contextual learning requiring us to provide the same basic learning content in various contexts. In our example above, instead of just having the times tables shown on a whiteboard at the front of a classroom or on a printout on the desk we broaden the context window outside of numbers, showing the grouping of unique objects either visually and/or physically. Following, this we can then introduce ‘what-if’ conditions to the context, so what if now I only have 10 sweets, but I still want to share them equally. This encourages the student to broaden their context window.

Another critical component of learning is motivation. I am sure we are all familiar with a lack of motivation killing our drive to complete a task, the same holds true in learning. If a concept is too easy the student may not get any satisfaction from completing the task and conversely if a concept is too difficult a student may believe they will never get it right and hence lose motivation to learn. Hence, adaptive learning is critical to maintain the correct challenge level for the student and promote this longer motivation. However, not only must the challenge level be appropriate, but the reward must also be sufficient to provide the satisfaction and promote motivation for the subsequent task. A powerful tool to use in this context is the gamification of learning, wherein the task is presented within a window of interest to the student – whether that be dinosaurs, space, football or any other interest. To which end, they ‘win’ a prize and want to continue to win the next one.

To reinforce learning, spacing and retrieval are incredibly powerful tools. Of course, we have all heard of, if not experienced, the opposite of spacing often termed cramming. Maybe it was a week of all-nighters in the library before a final exam which undoubtedly will result in a look of perplexity at a question on the exam paper which we have simply forgotten the answer to. Instead, much shorter and frequent sessions looking at the learning in different contexts promote the retention and understanding of the information. As students frequent learning content more often, they become quicker and more accurate at retrieving that information over time. Developing this fluency in retrieval is critical to time-pressure exams such as the 11+.

Finally, is the entanglement of experts and teaching. This is to say being an expert in a subject matter does not guarantee that the expert will be proficient in teaching it. In fact, expertise can sometimes hinder the ability to teach as some experts conflate what is difficult and what is easy for a student to understand. Such is the reason that in the development of various educational resources subject matter experts are paired with experts from distinct areas and they converse until the learning instructions become clear. Resultantly, you cannot have an optimal learning programme without an expert in pedagogy to deliver the content.

The NeurofiED Techniques

Retrieval: Learning Through Consistent Interaction

Instead of sitting through a 20-minute video explaining a topic and then attempting a worksheet, NeurofiED uses consistent interaction across a topic to ensure the student is actively recalling what they are learning as they are learning. This may be through low-stake quizzes, flashcards, short-answer prompts, or a question asking a child to explain why an answer is either correct or incorrect. NeurofiED doesn’t leave learning to a passive video, it interacts with the student across various context windows including recall, choose, match, and apply. Resultantly, establishing these recall exercises as lower-stakes and more manageable for students whilst also exposing them to many different contexts allowing for transfer of the learning to novel problems.

Spacing: Returning Before The Knowledge Disappears

As we discussed above, cramming lures us into a false sense of security by providing us with short-term familiarity. Spacing works to optimise this by presenting students with regular reminders to return to previously covered content, whether that be in a couple of hours, tomorrow or in two weeks. The power of this permits us to allow for just enough ‘forgetting’ before effortful retrieval is invoked to bring back that information and strengthening it.

Unlike a worksheet, NeurofiED can recall how long ago it was from when a student last struggled with a topic and can determine how soon to revisit it. This helps to eliminate the late minute panic run through of a topic you forgot about 6 months ago. Instead, it creates a rhythm of learning and takes out the guessing of what to practise next and allows the parents to see which topics are becoming stronger over time and which ones seem to be deteriorating.

Interleaving: Learning To Choose The Right Strategy

The most common learning strategy in traditional classrooms is blocked practice which involves a student working through a question sheet where the first 10 questions are on the same method and then another block of 10 on the next method. Whilst this is useful when used effectively towards the beginning of a learning procedure as it helps to build early confidence and reduce cognitive load, it is not assisting with training the discrimination of the student and is not particularly representative of exams. NeurofiED, uses interleaving to position related question types in varying sequences to bolster recognition of the type of problem a student is facing and the relevant strategies to solve it. This encourages the student to ask themselves: what is this problem really asking me to do - instead of the child following the assumptions they made on the last question. Critically, this is the difference between preparing a student to complete a worksheet and preparing them to think under exam conditions.

Instant Feedback: Correcting Errors While Thinking Is Fresh

Feedback is one of the most important driving forces in learning, but its value depends on quality and timing. Traditionally, frequent and quality feedback from teachers is difficult given the number of students and amount of work they need to mark. Oftentimes meaning it could be weeks from completing a test to receiving feedback on it. NeurofiED provides a combination of immediate and delayed feedback to engage different learning systems in the brain. Importantly, effective feedback should not just be a readout of the score the student achieved like many question banks and mock papers provide. Rather, feedback should prioritise rewarding and improving student learning not simply judging them.

Why This Matters For Modern Education

The current education system is under incredible pressure with teacher numbers dropping consistently over the last few years with the number of newly qualified teachers going to work in England’s state schools dropping to a record low per recent data. Parents want to help, but the market is saturated with workbooks, test banks, mock exams, videos, advice, tutors, and apps that often contradict one another. It is evident how difficult it is to discern which content is useful and correct, NeurofiED solves that problem from you by presenting the opportunity to move away from the jungle of perpetuated content delivery and move towards a specialised learning design.