Mary Blake Education Consultant ePace

© ePace All rights. reserved Let’s Talk about Learning....

“If a child cannot learn the way we teach; maybe we should teach the way they learn.” Anon. Focus of Ofsted is now firmly on Teaching and Learning Teachers are expected to have the skills to inspire so that highly effective learning can take place.

At the heart of every class are 30 very different pupils.. They all come into school to learn the same material in a wide variety of ways

Advances in our understanding of neuroscience is helping to expand our knowledge about how the human brain learns and responds: MRI Scans Learning more about functioning of brains Studies into cognitive behaviour

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How much do we look at skills and strengths? Do we have learning conversations with our pupils? Do they know how they learn best? How far do the pupils feel they are partners in their own learning?

Computer science can give us further insight. Over last 40 years our understanding of how computers work has given us comparisons.

As a child matures from 4 to 12 years old: speed of information processing increases (rather like a computer increasing the speed of its central processor) working memory increases (perhaps like a computer getting more RAM) and of course knowledge improves several hundred fold (perhaps like having lots of information stored on a computer’s hard disc). Professor Rod Nicolson 9

BUT Learning is far more than that to human brains... 10

Let’s look at some examples 11

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We can’t tell by looking at a child’s face whether they are learning The more we understand about how they are able to Process Store Retrieve Recall.....

The better we will teach Thank you.

And don’t forget, it happens to all of us! 17