3 Steps by the George W. Bush’s Institute

Complete the interactive activities in the Seneca app to work towards your CPD certificate.

Implementing Cognitive Sciences in Key Stage 3

The George W. Bush’s Institute has developed a set of suggestions as to how to apply findings from cognitive sciences to middle schools - which would be the equivalent of UK’s Key Stage 3.

Recommendation 1

Invest time in dealing with misconceptions.
Students will be interested in facts that go against what they previously believed to be correct. Teachers should make sure to thoroughly explain the correct version to students, illustrating the fact whenever possible.

Recommendation 2

Use examples, dis-examples and contextual variation.
It is more effective for students to learn something when they can see it applied to different contexts and situations.

Recommendation 2 - Example

For example, if students need to learn about a chemical reaction, this should be explained using more than one example with different chemical elements.
The reaction can also be explained in different formats, such as in words, in diagrams and in mathematical formulas. This is also a bit of dual-coding, as the same information is being processed via more than one model.

Recommendation 3

Provide effective feedback.
Feedback helps students re-evaluate their knowledge and keep only relevant, accurate and useful information.
However, there is a trade-off.
Feedback given immediately after a mistake is made will prevent students from elaborating wrong information.
However, it may also have a negative impact on their self-efficacy.

Recommendation 3 - Good feedback

Importantly, feedback should be qualitative. The Institute recommends that good feedback have three characteristics:
- 1. Identifies the elements in the student’s answer that is problematic.
- 1. Provides steps in causal or logical way to justify the feedback.
- 1. Contrast the incorrect information with the correct one.

Recommendation 4

Interleaved and retrieval practice.
Revisit content after a certain period of time and provide a large amount of low-stake quizzes.
These practices were covered in detail in our Cognitive Science Course Level 1 and will not be repeated here.