New EEF Research on Cognitive Science
The EEF has released a new review of the evidence on cognitive science approaches in the classroom. The evidence summary looks at the impact of the principles of cognitive science when they have been applied in the classroom and all the studies have taken place within schools. The review looks at several practices that have found their way into classrooms:
- Spaced learning
- Interleaving
- Retrieval practice
- Managing cognitive load
- Working with schemas
- Multimedia learning (including dual coding)
- Embodied learning
The report details the theory and the evidence supporting the effectiveness of each of these areas. It notes the research to practice gap, that there is limited evidence for how to effectively apply cognitive science principles in everyday classroom conditions. There is also an acceptance that the social, emotional and physical aspects to cognition and learning have received less attention and that these are also important considerations for research and practice in the future.
Whilst it is useful to know principles of cognitive science there is a lot more work to be done on how these principles might work in the real world. The EEF states that they will continue to evaluate approaches and fund scalable programmes and training to look at the effective deployment of cognitive science principles.
