Synopsis: “... 77 studies every teacher should know about"

Pick up any light-reading magazine and it is awash with articles on motivation and mindsets and stress-busting. Anyone and everyone, it seems, are experts in keeping us functioning and feeling 'normal'.

But what about the information from real experts in the field? Specifically, how does all this play out in the classroom and how does it affect the way parents can support their children in school? The authors of this book have the answers. They are very likeable chaps and quite entertaining. I listened to a Craig Barton podcast they appeared on as guests and wanted to share it with you.. The podcast is almost 90 minutes long by the way, so you might prefer reading on a while longer!

The study of how we learn is meeting of generalised concepts and highly specialised vocabulary that often acts as a barrier to entry. A substantial amount of material is locked behind pay-walls, setting the barrier even higher. Even for teachers reports and research findings can be inaccessible due to the specialist vocabulary.

Those who rise to the comprehension challenge are met with another - figuring out exactly what practical changes might actually effect the anticipated improved results. Many freely acknowledge that this is a real problem.

Schools run best when they are highly-organised with well-established routines in place. It’s no mean feat to implement changes in response to research findings. Though educators may be enthusiastic about making improvements they are naturally cautious.

The Authors

Inner Drive, is a mindest coaching company, with clients as diverse as Eton College and Manchester United F.C and Pepsi. The directors of InnerDrive wrote a beautiful book entitled "The science of learning: 77 studies that every teacher should know about". Their styles are completely different and this is reflected in the layout of the book. One hates reading and the other is a ‘detail’ guy. It's logical then that each study is presented as a two-page spread. On one page the main points are highlighted using cartoons and imagery and on the facing page there is an in-depth analysis for those who want it.

Both authors are experts in their own right so don’t let the cartoon imagery fool you. I listened to a podcast by Craig Barton who interviewed them as a double-act. Their personalities shone through, adding weight to the content of the book. Here are some snippets of conversation from the podcast.

Calling all Parents

I wrote this primarily for parents. They may be reassured to know such issues are raised and addressed. Whilst not everyone will read through to the bitter end, I hope you will be one that does and that you will feel inspired to join in the discussion by leaving a comment.

The Main Points

Resilience

Resilience is about how a person copes in the face of adversity and what kind of skills they employ in an effort to overcome challenges and even to thrive afterwards. Naturally, it is fundamental to sustained and effective learning because, it speaks to becoming self-motivated and resourceful. Both are essential if a student is to maximise their learning potential. If you are interested to learn more about this topic the American Psychological Association has written a guide for parents and teachers entitled Resilience Guide for Parents & Teachers.

It featured in the podcast because research findings support the idea that

"... schools should set the bar high, and then give good quality support to their students to help them through it. It’s no use dumbing down the material and spoon-feeding if your goal is to teach students how to learn."

They commented that both were equally important - the high expectations and the quality of support, adding that the whole school has to be onboard for best results. For those teachers who already get it, but are in the minority at their school, their results will be greatly diminished and disappointing. Some may interpret this as a snippet of career's advice.

Importance of parents

Feedback about the importance of the role of parents is a breath of fresh air. Bradley and Edward have discovered that

For best results, parents, like teachers, must also have high expectations of their children and provide strong support. In addition, they must also support the school by getting involved and promoting a unified front.

The authors acknowledge there is still much work to do in this area, because on average, only 22% of parents turn up to parents evenings. It’s an indication of how hard it can be to reach out to parents, particularly as the ones who do attend are often already informed and involved.

It’s naturally harder to work with those parents who themselves had a bad experience at school and the ones who have an attitude of 'I gave him to you to teach!'. More work needs to be done in this area as there is not much common ground to begin constructive dialogue.

Having worked in health care in a past life I well-recognise the need for a holistic approach to helping a ‘vulnerable’ family member. Whether it be caring for elderly people in a medical situation or teaching children, it is natural that close relatives feel protective and want to be involved. For me that makes it so for me, it’s always 100% a family affair.

We all need each other’s support along the way whether we are the student, the professional or the carer. The happiest faces I see are when all have been working well together and we are actually getting somewhere, and appreciating each other’s contribution to that progress.

Feedback

There are plenty of articles about how to provide feedback. Research-based findings specifically for homeworks and tests etc. reveal that 38% of feedback does more harm than good. Staggering! It transpires that in order to be able to learn, students don't have to like their teacher but they do have to trust them.

This requires teachers to be consistent, particularly with feedback. It's likely a student will dismiss offered advice if they feel the person giving it is untrustworthy. Probably we have experiences of this in our own lives, but it’s still interesting to hear that research bears this out.

There is an iconic study called The Marshmallow Experiment about delayed gratification, and it has recently been updated to investigate the relationship between student and teacher.

Students were offered a marshmallow and told that if they waited they could have a second. The short version is that they found that students who trusted their teacher waited 12 to 14 minutes before losing patience and giving in versus those who didn't trust their teacher who only waited two or three minutes.

Imagine if students feel hard-pushed for time and are assessing whether their homework is really necessary or not before they choose whether to do it or not. Trust would very likely affect their judgement.

Homework

Is homework all it’s cracked up to be? Students may be pleased to learn that the optimum is 60 minutes per night in total, although how that is managed across all subjects is a good question. They differentiate between optimum and best, noting that students can achieve best marks by studying longer (100 minutes per night), but that the trade-off between time and improvement was costly. Evidence also shows that little and often is better than sporadic mammoth efforts.

Interestingly, students who did their homework without their parent's help gained more real knowledge than those who had help.

That's not to say that parents can't contribute by providing a good environment and supervising the homework sessions etc. It was simply to say that when parents readily provide the answers, the child is actually disadvantaged. It’s important that tutors do not fall into the same trap.

I’ve long been aware of this and it makes me skeptical about the true value of the new wave of short online 'help with homework' tutorials on offer. What can a tutor teach a student in 20 or 30 minutes when there are questions already on the table that need answering pronto? It’s more likely that the student is teaching the tutor how to have a quiet life - “Just answer the question, teacher!”

No amount of research can help when the student does not make an effort themselves. Choosing and setting homework and marking it afterwards is a very time-consuming exercise. If it is beneficial then all well and good. We can't ignore though, how many times students copy from each other on the way to school, or come to school with an excuse instead of an answer script.

Mobile Phones

It was music to my ears to hear that there is concrete evidence that

even just having a phone in front of you, on your desk, not even interacting with it, detracts from your performance.

GCSE exam results were compared for schools who do allow mobiles and those who do not. In schools where mobiles are banned their results were a modest 6% better. More importantly, if you focus on the less-able students, schools who did not allow mobiles in class enjoyed a 14% advantage over schools that did.

The authors acknowledge the great benefits phones bring to the classroom, for example by making technological maths support rapidly accessible, but say this is not really enough to justify their presence carte blanche. The presence of mobile phones in school is seen as a topic that people are not ready to address just yet because they don’t have definitive evidence.

Sleep deprivation

Despite there being a massive amount of research data out there already, both authors are always surprised by people’s lack of knowledge about the effects of lack of sleep. (It’s important to note their tone is not judgmental in any way.) In tests, sleep deprivation was shown to cause a 40% deficit in memory performance. It’s a no-brainer. 40% is mahoosive!

They implore parents to educate their children on sleep and get them onboard. Tell them they can be superhumans with superbrains if they simply choose to sleep more. Once they are on the path they will soon be self-motivated, recognising for themselves the improvement in their mental capacity.

Given the lengths many parents go to, often at great expense, to help their children ace their studies, why wouldn’t they want to grab a 40% advantage free of charge.

The presence of mobile phones in the bedroom at bedtime goes against healthy sleep habits. But parents are reluctant to go head-to-head with their children on this. Many report that they can’t disallow the phone in the bedroom at bedtime because their children say they need their phone for the alarm function (!) and the second most popular response is that they don’t want to be mean parents given that ‘it’s their phone’. Yes it’s their phone but mum and dad are paying for it and expect it to be of overall benefit.

A compelling argument in favour of banning the phone at bedtime relates to the addictive quality of mobile phones. What else, the authors ask, that is as addictive as a mobile phone would parents pay for and allow their child to keep in their bedroom to use unsupervised 24 hours per day? Children need protecting from mobiles.

‘Always remember, you are not your child’s friend. You are their parent.’

Another interesting little snippet they quoted was that for each electrical device in a child’s bedroom that is not a light, sleep is reduced by one hour. It means that even if they only have a TV and a mobile in their bedroom they are losing two hour’s sleep every single night. It’s not looking good for mobiles.

Research into sleep is so advanced that researchers can predict both the amount and the quality of sleep a person will have based on what they do in the hours leading up to bedtime. It’s worth reporting that if you fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow you are going to bed too late. I didn’t know that before. I previously thought it was a good thing to be able to fall asleep so fast.

Motivating bored students

It’s reported that threats of tests do little to motivate students. What is effective is tapping into their internal motivation which is centred on their own desires and needs.

Though students respond well to enthusiasm displayed by a teacher, it’s known that it is more beneficial to tap into their own enthusiasm at the earliest opportunity as this is more long lasting and effective.

Motivation plus support leads to some measure of achievement, which is in itself more motivating. The wheel of motivation and achievement is kept spinning because motivation and achievement have been shown to be bidirectional. It won’t work if the motivation is not backed up by support though. Often demotivated students are behind in their studies and it takes time for their new efforts to bear fruit. That period is especially challenging for them.

Aside from the above, one practical suggestion the authors offered was to put lazy students with more hard-working ones. Kind of like real life!

Dos and Don’ts of Revising for Exams

Best practice is most efficiently relayed in the form of a list.

Don’t:

• Multi-task with music. Contrary to popular belief, music has a detrimental effect on performance.

• Have your mobile phone anywhere near you during revision periods.

• Don’t skip breakfast. You can skip lunch, but not breakfast.

Do:

• Practice retrieval. The act of trying to remember is much more beneficial than repeatedly reading over material.

• Lots of tests

• miix up topics (but not subjects) within a single session and make heavy use of comparing and contrasting between topics. This is especially easy in maths.

• Imagine you are going to have to teach someone else what you are learning yourself. This is called the protege effect, by the way, and massively improves your overall ability in any subject area. It is the logic behind finding a teaching buddy to study with.

Maths Anxiety

It is not that people are anxious about not knowing the subject - it is more akin to actors having a fear of forgetting their lines on stage. As a matter of fact, people with a reputation of being smart suffer more

Maybe this is because they have a reputation to protect. The authors referenced a study where teachers were asked to make a judgement about a students ability based on a single test result. A bit unfair you might think. Anyhow, the teachers were classified according to their mindset (growth or fixed).

The growth mindset group generally set extra practice and explained to the student that provided they follow the plan of action they will be successful in the end. That was in contrast to the teachers with a narrow mindset; they offered condolences and made comments such as ‘ never mind - we can’t all be good at everything’.

Interestingly,

the students preferred the responses of the ‘growth mindset’ teachers and felt encouraged to get down to work and show their true worth.

The students of teachers with a narrow mindset felt inadequate and had thoughts of giving up.

If you would like to find out more I highly recommend you read their book and visit the websites they rate.

1. Their own website: www.innerdrive.co.uk

2. Education Endowment Foundation

3. Mac Smith The emotional learner

What do you think?

It would be fascinating to hear what you all think about these findings. Please leave a comment. Healthy discussion is beneficial for all of us.

A Note on the Authors

Bradley has coached Premiership footballers and members of Team GB, but is most heavily involved with supporting teachers and parents across the nation and throughout Europe to maximise their potential. He has worked with over 200 schools and thousands of teachers as well as regularly speaking at national education conferences. A Loughborough graduate and former university lecturer. Bradley is the co-author of Release Your Inner Drive, a book aimed at teenagers that illustrates what a successful mindset looks like, and lays out the path to obtaining it.