Dartmoor Dispatch Teaching & Learning Podcast

Dylan William has called Cognative Load Theory "The most important thing that teachers should know". In this episode, John explains what Cogniative Load Theory is and how the idea should transform not only what happens in your classroom but what the classroom itself should look like.

How can we find the best way to teach? We pay large sums of money to listen to experts at conferences, we chat to our colleagues about what works best for them, we observe other colleagues, we get feedback from people observing our lessons about what we do well, we might visit local successful schools, we steal ideas from other teachers on Twitter. Yet most of this is hearsay, conjecture and speculation. Or, ‘this works for me, so it must work for you.” No-one has ever really put their finger on what actually works best in the classroom. Until now. In this episode, John begins to explore the findings of recent academic research that tries to guide teachers towards the strategies that have been proven to have the highest chance of success in our classrooms. No longer do we need to rely on hearsay and guesswork; we have evidence of what really works. Part 1 focusses mainly on the work of John Hattie and Part 2 will focus on the recent findings of the Educational Research Foundation and other recent research

How does the brain develop at different stages of our childhood? How should we educate children at different stages of their brain's development? In this episode we explore what neurologists have uncovered about the development of the brain, from birth to the end of adolescence, and what this means for classroom teachers. If you have ever wondered why sixteen year-old young adults have tantrums like two year-olds and when do some children think it is OK to play Russian Roulette, then this is the podcast for you!

It is amazing what scientists have learnt in the past decade about the human brain and how it learns. It is almost as amazing how few people in education know about this research. This episode is a brief summary of some of the key findings that scientist have made about our brains and how we learn. This new knowledge has clear implications about how teachers should teach in schools and how learners should learn. This new research shows us that to be a great teacher you need to spend less time trying to fill students' heads with knowledge and more time making them feel safe, secure and nurtured.