Cognitive science and science teaching

I think many science teachers would agree that science teaching is hard, but why?! What exactly is it that makes science sometimes difficult to teach (and tricky to learn)?

One of the significant challenges of science teaching, as opposed to teaching other subjects, is that teaching science  requires students to learn new knowledge and unlearn many of their existing ideas. For example, learning that matter is actually conserved when paper burns despite observations to the contrary. For the most part, science teachers are having to tackle these two problems simultaneously: demolition and construction. On top of this, many of the new ideas we are teaching are abstract, cannot be seen and do not easily relate to pre-existing ideas. The graphic below comes from a fascinating paper by A.H. Johnstone entitled “Why is science difficult to learn? Things are seldom what they seem“. The paper provides a useful framework to explore the challenges of learning and teaching science in a bit more detail.

Why is learning science hard?

1. Many scientific concepts cannot be easily experienced as there are no immediate sensory ways to get at the scientific idea. I know what a cat is because I have seen and stroked a cat. But how do you experience natural selection or translation?
2. Students will perceive and observe in a selective way based upon previous knowledge and expectations stored in their long -term memory e.g. believing heavy things sink and light things float. Science is counterintuitive and this makes it hard to learn. For example, a ferry will float despite being much heavier than a one penny piece.
3. Storage. For many topics nothing can be pulled out, or retrieved, from long-term memory to match or anchor new ideas to. Students do not initially have developed schemas to make sense of new science knowledge and so ‘filing’ these new ideas away, such as voltage, allele or electron, in long-term memory is difficult. This, of course, changes as students develop their knowledge of key concepts over time. That’s why you may not need to start with something concrete and tangible when building on knowledge of moles in chemistry or quanta in physics.
4. Retrieval. Much of what is retrieved from long-term memory is in fact wrong (misconceptions), or at least not scientifically acceptable.

With all of the above, confusion can reign and working memory space can become overwhelmed. This is especially true if teachers jump from observation, to explanation to representation without giving students enough time to consolidate their learning and make links across these different aspects of learning.

So, how can knowledge of cognitive science help science teachers?

Some key cognitive principles taken from the Deans for Impact report

1. Students learn new ideas by relating them to what they already know
   • have clearly established progression maps for key concepts in science education so that you can sequence the curriculum
   • activate and check prior knowledge and build from there
   • start from the concrete/familiar and move to the abstract/unfamiliar – analogy models will help
2. Information is withdrawn in a similar way to how it went in
   • teach for meaning – stories and simple contexts can help here
   • ask students to explain how or why something happened
3. Students transfer new information from working memory to long-term memory. Working memory is limited in its capacity and can be overwhelmed by information that is too challenging
   • don’t challenge too much when first teaching concepts
   • use clear instruction to teach initial ideas
   • make sure practical work is focused on developing key aspects – be mindful of the procedural and conceptual demands of practical activities
4. Learning does not happen in an age-related way – it happens in fits and starts
   • have a clear progression map for how concepts should be learnt but recognise not everyone will follow this path
   • don’t avoid teaching concepts because they are ‘biologically inappropriate’ e.g. an eight year old can understand atomic structure if they have the necessary prerequisite knowledge. At the same time avoid overly technical language unless it is helpful for learning.
5. Practice is essential for learning and remembering new knowledge
   • the act of retrieving knowledge when spaced out over time can help students to remember. Note, avoid conflating retrieval tasks (i.e. used to help students to remember what they’ve previously learned) with learning tasks (i.e. used to help students learn and make sense of new ideas).
6. Each subject has a set of facts that aid problem solving and free-up working memory
   • some important topics to get right: chemical formula, particle model, energy, evolution
7. Learning requires motivation
8. Feedback is important in acquiring new skills
   • written feedback
   • check for understanding and responsive teaching

Further reading

• Deans for Impact. (2015). The science of learning. Deans for Impact. http://www.deansforimpact.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/The_Science_of_Learning.pdf
• Lee, H. S., & Anderson, J. R. (2013). Student learning: What has instruction got to do with it? Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 445–469.
• Millar, R. (1991). Why is science hard to learn? Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 7(2), 66–74. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.1991.tb00229.x
• Johnstone, A.H. (1991). Why is science difficult to learn? Things are seldom what they seem. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 7(2), 75-83.
• Sweller, J., Ayres, P., & Kalyuga, S. (2011). Cognitive load theory. Springer.

1. Big ideas of science education
2. Challenge
3. Deep learning and making meaning
4. Diagnostic teaching
5. Knowledge versus understanding
6. Misconceptions
7. Motivation
8. Novices and experts
9. Progression
10. Zooming in and out