1. Don’t practise until you get it right
Don’t practise until you get it right. Practise until you can’t get it wrong
How does this link to development?

2. Friday, August 02, 2019
Willingham’s learning theory and the effects of learning on development

3. STRETCH - even more and I will be able to:
Learning objectives
EXPECTED PROGRESS- I  will learn how to:
STRETCH - even more and I will be able to:
Target 4/5
Evaluate one strength and one weakness of Willingham’s theory, using some key terminology.
Evaluate two strengths and one weakness of Willingham’s theory, using key terms accurately.
Target 6
Evaluate two strengths and two weaknesses of Willingham’s theory, using key terms accurately.
Target 7/8
Critically evaluate whether Willingham’s theory offers a valid explanation for the link with development and cognitive devlopment, using key terms precisely.

4. Key terms
Short term memory-our temporary memory store that is temporary and limited.
Rehearse-repeat information over and over to make it stick.
Long-term memory-a memory store that holds potentially limitless amounts of information for up to a lifetime.
Motor skills- actions that involve muscles and brain processes, resulting in movement.

5. Key terms Social learning-learning by coping and observing others.
Self-regulation-limiting and controlling yourself without influence from others.
Nature –explanations of behaviour that focus on innate factors (things that we are born with).
Nurture- explanations of behaviour that focus on environmental factors (the things that happen to us).

6. Willingham’s ask the cognitive scientist
Can teachers increase a student’s self control?
Does practice make perfect?
What will improve a student’s memory?
What do you think is the answer? Is there one?
Can you think of any issues with this?

7. Factual knowledge precedes (comes before) skill
What does this mean?
How can it be applied to learning?
Are there any issues?

8. Factual knowledge precedes (comes before) skill
Knowing facts helps when building the skills of problem-solving and reasoning.
An issue with learning and developing skills is that previous knowledge is often needed e.g. if a child reads ‘she has more likes than me’, they would need previous knowledge about the idea of ‘likes’ to understand what was being said.
Knowledge can also free up space in our working memory to allow us to use mental skills such as problem solving.

9. Factual knowledge precedes (comes before) skill
Working memory involves different processes, working on information that comes in through our senses.
Visual information is stored and processed separately from sound information.
A part of working memory is used for making decisions about the information and working memory is limited.
Willingham suggest that what someone already knows leaves them more processing power to solve a problem and aids understanding.

10. The importance of practise and effort
Practice and effort enable us to master knowledge and skills.
Short-term memory involves practice, which means rehearsing what is to be remembered.
What is learned then goes into the long-term memory where material has to be reviewed and practised in order to remember it. Once here, it is less likely to be forgotten than if it was not practised.
This can be done via quizzes or different tasks.

11. Activity 1 - Example
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Step 1. Do we have knowledge of this?

12. Example
Now we have knowledge of it! It has freed up space in our working memory so now we can use skills such as problem solving. We have stored and processed visual information and sound information. Step 2 - how can we learn to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious? Practice and effort! Practice it until it becomes automatic - we could also ‘chunk’ the information. Keep rehearsing and practice so that information moves from your short-term memory to your long-term memory.

13. Example
The material needs to be stuck in your long-term memory so well, that it is much less likely to be forgotten. Step 3 - we need to keep repeating the skill so that it becomes automatic. Throughout this week in our lessons keep quizzing each other on how to spell supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

14. Stroop test-automatic processing

15. Stroop test
Name the colour the word is written in

16. ORANGE

17. BLUE

18. GREEN

19. YELLOW

20. ORANGE

21. GREEN

22. PURPLE

23. GREEN

24. BLACK

25. YELLOW

27. BLUE

28. YELLOW

29. RED

30. YELLOW

31. GREEN

32. RED

33. BLUE

34. GREEN

35. RED

36. BLUE

37. The importance of practice and effort
Willingham emphasises that practice and effort enable us to master knowledge and skills.
It is important to practise enough to be able to do things automatically.
This is necessary in order to leave enough working memory for learning new things.
Practice is not the only thing that’s important – a skill must be repeated many times and kept up.

38. Importance for building skills
Problem solving and creative thinking are skills a student needs to learn and these skills use working memory.
Skills need to be developed so that they become automatic and use little space in working memory.

39. Strategies to support cognitive development
Use problems that are new and within a student’s ability but that also require some effort.
Understand a student’s likely stage of development when planning activities.
Remember that a student’s abilities are variable and can change from day to day.
Consider factors other than developmental level. For example the student might not understand the task.

40. Strategies to support physical development
Focus on what movements will be suitable and in what order they need to be carried out.
Practise the movements in that order enough times to make the muscle commands automatic.
Use conscious effort. For example, make changes in order to develop the motor skill, such as raising the bar when developing jumping skills.

41. Strategies to support social development
Build on a child's ability to take the view of someone else. Willingham disagrees with Paiget’s view. He thinks that it can occur during the first 18 months, not 7 years as Piaget proposed. Piaget later changed his view of egocentrism and decentration to the same as Willingham’s.
Demonstrate appropriate social behaviour. The child will use social learning where children imitate the behaviour of others.
Help a child to stop impulsive behaviour, which means behaving without considering the consequences and mainly without thought.

42. Strategies to support social development
Encourage practice, which requires self-regulation. Willingham refers to nature and nurture in this respect. Self-regulation can come from genes. It can also be influenced by parents giving a child emotional support.
Delay giving a reward for a task to encourage a child to keep working at it, which requires them to have self-control.

43. Decide what is a strengths and Weakness
Willingham’s ideas come many areas of neuroscience (the role of brain in muscle movements), memory theory and cognitive development. This means that his ideas are not really one singular theory that can be tested by gathering data.
Betty Repacholi and Alsion Gopnik’s (1997) study provides experimental support, showing that young children were not as egocentric as Piaget thought.
 Willingham’s work can be applied to education and other situations to promote a child’s development in a positive way.
 Willingham did not emphasise the importance of individual differences in learning, though some of his theory relates to genes. What is in someone’s genes cannot be changed easily using strategies.
Yellow task sheet

44. Strengths and weaknesses
Willingham did not emphasise the importance of individual differences in learning, though some of his theory relates to genes. What is in someone’s genes cannot be changed easily using strategies.
Willingham’s work can be applied to education and other situations to promote a child’s development in a positive way.
Willingham’s ideas come many areas of neuroscience (the role of brain in muscle movements), memory theory and cognitive development. This means that his ideas are not really one singular theory that can be tested by gathering data.
Betty Repacholi and Alsion Gopnik’s (1997) study provides experimental support, showing that young children were not as egocentric as Piaget thought.
Students to read through and decide which are the strengths and which are the weaknesses

45. Differentiated sheets for evaluation task

46. Willingham’s ideas come many areas of neuroscience (the role of brain in muscle movements), memory theory and cognitive development. This means that his ideas are not really one singular theory that can be tested by gathering data.
Betty Repacholi and Alsion Gopnik’s (1997) study provides experimental support, showing that young children were not as egocentric as Piaget thought.
Strength
Weakness
Green task sheet