The cognitive challenges of effective teaching

Abstract

The authors describe a research-based conceptual framework of how students learn that can guide the design, implementation, and troubleshooting of teaching practice. The framework consists of nine interacting cognitive challenges that teachers need to address to enhance student learning. These challenges include student mental mindset, metacognition and self-regulation, student fear and mistrust, prior knowledge, misconceptions, ineffective learning strategies, transfer of learning, constraints of selective attention, and the constraints of mental effort and working memory. The challenges are described with recommendations on how to address each one. What is effective for one situation may not be effective in others, and no single teaching method will always be optimal for all teachers, students, topics, and educational contexts. The teacher’s task is to manage this complex interaction successfully.

Keywords:

• Pedagogy
• science of learning
• teaching improvement

JEL CODES:

• A20
• A22
• A23

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 For each challenge, first the cognitive process involved is described and then the situation where the cognitive process can undermine learning.

2 See pp. 152–68: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php

3 See pp. 142–51: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php

4 https://www.uwlax.edu/catl/guides/teaching-improvement-guide/how-can-i-improve/metacognition/

5 https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.12-03-0033

6 See pp. 7–19: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php

7 See pp. 104–17: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php

8 See pp. 293–98: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php

9 See pp. 259–73: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php

10 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f991/c0cc11404a6ade236c93997958fb048ffc56.pdf

11 pdf.poojaagarwal.com/Pyc_Agarwal_Roediger_2014_APA.pdf#page=298

12 See pp. 131–41: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php

13 See pp. 91–103: http://teachpsych.org/ebooks/asle2014/index.php