Now, to be clear, this the definition of learning chosen by Ofsted is not the one I prefer. If we count all papers using cognitive load theory, we are likely to have many thousands of school children who have been tested from around the world. Furthermore, I’m only talking of papers with me as a co-author. We are talking of several hundred experiments and several thousand school children. Most of the data from school children are based on secondary school children but a large proportion (let’s say about 1/3) tested primary school children. J ohn Sweller, the academic who first formulated the theory, weighed in to point out that more than three-quarters of the research supporting CLT had come from school children with the rest coming from apprentices and university students: Although the definition is indeed central to CLT the claim the theory isn’t based on school age children is plain wrong. The other popular criticism of Ofsted definition of learning is that it is derived from cognitive load theory (CLT) and, in the words of Dame Alison Peacock, the head of the Chartered College, the theory “ is not research based on school-age children”. Hermann Ebbinghaus in Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology (1885) says that “memory, is to be taken here in its broadest sense, including Learning, Retention, Association and Reproduction.” It is now something of a commonplace to point out that learning is impossible without also remembering. William James’ in Talks to Teachers (1899) argued that memory is “explained as a result of the association of ideas.” which as he goes on to explain is very similar to the way we currently think of schema formation in long-term memory. The observation that memory and learning are broadly synonymous goes back to the dawn of experimental psychology as a discipline. If anything, I’d go further than this and say that whatever these “other aspects of learning” might be, if they don’t produce changes in long-term memory then it’s hard to argue for their utility.Īnd in fact, this view has represented the consensus for well over a century. Ofsted are clear that their definition of learning “must not be reduced to, or confused with, simply memorising facts” and they allow that “there are … other aspects to learning”. To my mind all this seems suitably caveated, possibly even overly cautious. It is, therefore, important that we use approaches that help pupils to integrate new knowledge into the long-term memory and make enduring connections that foster understanding. As Sweller et al (2011) have pointed out, ‘if nothing in the long-term memory has been altered, nothing has been learned’, although there are, of course, other aspects to learning. Learning is at least in part defined as a change in long-term memory. If the link wasn’t immediately obvious, the Overview of Research published by Ofsted makes it completely transparent: Any instructional recommendation that does not or cannot specify what has been changed in long-term memory, or that does not increase the efficiency with which relevant information is stored in or retrieved from long-term memory, is likely to be ineffective. (p. If nothing has changed in long-term memory, nothing has been learned. The aim of all instruction is to alter long-term memory. What are the instructional consequences of long-term memory? In the first instance and at its most basic, the architecture of long-term memory provides us with the ultimate justification for instruction. The concern seems to stem from the fact that some of the wording in this passage is very similar to the wording of Kirschner et al’s influential 2006 paper Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: “Learning … is defined as a change in long-term memory.” (p. School Inspection Handbook, Draft for Consultation, p. Inspectors will be alert to unnecessary or excessive attempts to simply prompt pupils to learn glossaries or long lists of disconnected facts. This must not be reduced to, or confused with, simply memorising facts. Pupils also need to develop fluency and unconsciously apply their knowledge as skills. In order to develop understanding, pupils connect new knowledge with existing knowledge. However, transfer to long-term memory depends on the rich processes described above. If nothing has altered in long-term memory, nothing has been learned. Learning can be defined as an alteration in long-term memory. Amazingly, one of the most contentious aspects of the document is the definition given to learning: As everyone already knows, Ofsted have published a draft of the new Inspection Framework which is currently undergoing a process of consultation.
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