2. From error springs insight.
Erring [is] vital to any process of
invention and creation.
How can we trust when perception is
accurate and when it is not?
We cannot.
Katherine Schultz, Being Wrong

3. The Illusion of Naïve Realism
Katherine Schultz, Being Wrong

4. The Illusion of Naïve Realism
Katherine Schultz, Being Wrong

6. • Our brains are not rational or logical:
we protect ourselves from being wrong
– Confirmation bias
– The Illusion of Asymmetric Insight
– The Backfire Effect
– Sunk Cost Fallacy
– The Anchoring Effect
David McRaney, You Are Not So Smart

7. • You can see learning
• Increasing pupils’ performance is a
good thing
• Outstanding lessons are a good thing
• Feedback is always good (AfL)

8. • We can only infer learning from
performance
• Performance is a very poor indicator
of learning
• Reducing performance might actually
increase learning

9. The input/output myth
We believe “engaging in learning
activities…transfers the content of the
activity to the mind of the student…
as learning occurs, so does forgetting…
learning takes time and is not
encapsulated in the visible here-and-now
of classroom activities.”
Graham Nuthall

10. Rob Coe

11. Introducing difficulties at the point of
acquisition increases long term retention
and transfer.

12. Storage strength
The (New) Theory of Disuse
Telephone
number you
had 20 years
ago
Old friend’s
telephone
number
What you
learn in this
session
New friend’s
telephone
number
Retrieval strength

13. • Increasing retrieval strength only
improves performance
• Increasing storage strength depends
on the power of forgetting:
– Spacing
– Interleaving
– Variability
– Testing

14. Hermann Ebbinghaus, 1885

15. Topic
2
Topic
3
Topic
4
Topic 5
Topic 6
Topic 3
Topic 1
Topic 4
Topic 2
Topic
1
Topic 2
Topic 4
Topic 3
Topic 5
Topic 1
Topic 6
Topic 1
Topic 3
Topic 4
Topic 6
Topic 2
Topic 5
Blocking vs interleaving
Topic
5
Topic
6

17. Which study pattern will result in the best
test results?
1. STUDY STUDY STUDY STUDY – TEST
2. STUDY STUDY STUDY TEST – TEST
3. STUDY STUDY TEST TEST – TEST
4. STUDY TEST TEST TEST - TEST

18. •
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sustained & rapid progress ✗
Consistently high expectations ✓
Excellent subject knowledge ✓
Systematic, accurate assessment ?
Well judged, imaginative teaching strategies ?
Sharply focused & timely support ?
Enthusiasm, participation & commitment ?
Resilience, confidence & independence ?
Frequent & consistently high quality feedback ✗
Engagement, courtesy, collaboration & ?
cooperation

19. • ‘Outstanding’ lessons focus on
performance at the expense of
learning
• There is no such thing as an
outstanding lesson
• Don’t get me started on lesson grades!

20. The power of feedback
Feedback indicates performance…
Response type
exceeds goal
falls short of goal
Exert less effort
Increase effort
Change goal
Increase aspiration
Reduce aspiration
Abandon goal
Decide goal is too
easy
Decide goal is too hard
Feedback is ignored
Feedback is ignored
Change
behaviour
Reject feedback
Dylan Wiliam

21. Feedback is one of the most powerful
influences on learning and
achievement, but this impact can be either
positive or negative.
Simply providing more feedback is not the
answer, because it is necessary to consider
the nature of the feedback, the timing,
and how the student ‘receives’ this
feedback (or, better, actively seeks the
feedback)

22. With inefficient learners, it is better for a
teacher to provide elaborations through
instruction than to provide feedback on
poorly understood concepts…
Feedback can only build on something;
it is of little use when there is no initial
learning or surface information.

23. • Empirical evidence suggests that delaying,
reducing, and summarizing feedback can
be better for long-term learning than
providing immediate, trial-by-trial feedback.
• Numerous studies—some of them dating
back decades—have shown that frequent
and immediate feedback can, contrary to
intuition, degrade learning.

24. • Working memory is severely limited
• Experts think differently to novices
• Our brains are not designed for
thinking.

25. @websofsubstance

26. @websofsubstance

27. @websofsubstance

28. • Abandon the Cult of Outstanding
• Be careful about how we give feedback
• Introduce ‘desirable difficulties’
• Question all your assumptions – be
prepared to ‘murder your darlings’

29. David Didau
@LearningSpy
www.learningspy.co.uk
ddidau@gmail.com