The Learning Scientists

The Learning Scientists Blog View all of our posts on our website!

“This is hard work. This is the hard work of education.” On boxes, working memory, and how each learner is different. (via @learningscientists.bsky.social) buff.ly/8yCfL0W #EduSky #AcademicSky

Motivation Effects and Efficiency of Retrieval Practice over Lecture — The Learning Scientists Retrieval practice is one of the most robust strategies that we have for durable learning. Today I’m reviewing a study that pushed retrieval practice to it’s limits. If retrieval practice is THIS effe...

"Across all studies, the conditions that included retrieval practice far outperformed lecture only conditions."
@drcindynebel.bsky.social via @learningscientists.bsky.social www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/10...

A Practical Guide to Exam Taking Strategies — The Learning Scientists Taking exams is often associated with discomfort and anxiety in students. Students will feel nervous as these are high-stake performance situations. Exams require students to commit information to mem...

NEW POST: "A Practical Guide to Exam Taking Strategies" by @drckt.bsky.social

www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/12...

Thank You To Our 2025 Community! — The Learning Scientists Today is (American) Thanksgiving so we wanted to take the opportunity to thank our community! We are so grateful for the continued support, encouragement, and contributions of our community…

NEW POST: Thank You To Our 2025 Community!
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/11...

The Box Metaphor for Working Memory — The Learning Scientists How many boxes can you hold? It is clearly a trick question. The answer, like so many things in our complex world of education is, of course, it depends. It depends on several factors that match up ...

NEW POST: "The Box Metaphor for Working Memory" by @drcindynebel.bsky.social

www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/11...

A Framework for Training Students to Better Use Evidence-Based Learning Strategies — The Learning Scientists If you read our blog, even sporadically, you are almost certainly aware that investigations into evidence-based learning strategies have been ongoing for quite some time. In fact, as we near the end o...

NEW POST: "A Framework for Training Students to Better Use Evidence-Based Learning Strategies" by @drsumeracki.bsky.social

www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/11...

How Do You Like Them Apples? On the Importance of Teaching in the Time of AI — The Learning Scientists … I think of those conversations with my dad often. About the enthusiasm and curiosity they inspired in me. And the stark contrast in how I felt about technology and the future then to how I feel abou...

NEW POST: "How Do You Like Them Apples? On the Importance of Teaching in the Time of AI" by @drkaminske.bsky.social

www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/10...

Digest #182: How To Increase (Self-)Motivation — The Learning Scientists No matter whether you are a student or a teacher, sometimes it can be difficult to find motivation to start or complete a task. Instead, you may spend hours procrastinating with other activities and t...

NEW POST: "Digest #182: How To Increase (Self-)Motivation"
By @drckt.bsky.social

www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/10...

GUEST POST: Scaffolding Speech: A Mother’s Journey into Language Development Without a Therapist — The Learning Scientists It was a hard hit knowing that my second son’s speech was not conventional. I had done well with my 1st son, teaching him to read before age 3 but I didn't track his progress intentionally to know how...

NEW GUEST POST: "Scaffolding Speech: A Mother’s Journey into Language Development Without a Therapist" by Salome Olajide-Buari

www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/10...

Motivation Effects and Efficiency of Retrieval Practice over Lecture — The Learning Scientists Retrieval practice is one of the most robust strategies that we have for durable learning. Today I’m reviewing a study that pushed retrieval practice to it’s limits. If retrieval practice is THIS effe...

NEW BLOG: "Motivation Effects and Efficiency of Retrieval Practice over Lecture" by @drcindynebel.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/10...

Retrieval Practice: Hiding Broccoli in the Brownies (repost) — The Learning Scientists Today’s piece is a repost from a number of years ago. I’ve loved comparing “hiding broccoli in the brownies” to infusing retrieval practice into fun activities. Doing so is a great way to get even mor...

NEW BLOG: "Retrieval Practice: Hiding Broccoli in the Brownies (repost)" by @drsumeracki.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/10/2

Time Management & Study Skills For Students One of the biggest challenges with learning is to get organised and to stick with a healthy study routine. It is easy to feel overwhelmed. In Level 2 Psychology we introduced Time Management & Study S

I have recently updated my "Time Management and Study Skills For Students" resource. It comes with slides for teaching and activities for students. Feel free to browse and use: sway.cloud.microsoft/BysO9ChOrHMQ...

Time Management & Study Skills For Students One of the biggest challenges with learning is to get organised and to stick with a healthy study routine. It is easy to feel overwhelmed. In Level 2 Psychology we introduced Time Management & Study S

sway.cloud.microsoft/BysO9ChOrHMQ... - this from @drckt.bsky.social might help #AcademicSky folks. Some great resources. As Caroline says, it's easy to be overwhelmed and links to tonight's #LTHEChat

Episode 93: Compassion Fatigue in Educators with Dr Chiara Horlin — The Learning Scientists This episode was funded by listeners like you. For more details on how to help support our podcast and gain access to exclusive content, please see our Patreon page . Show Notes: In Episode...

NEW PODCAST EPISODE! Episode 93: Compassion Fatigue in Educators with Dr Chiara Horlin

www.learningscientists.org/learning-sci...

I wrote about ADHD in adults this week for The Learning Scientists! I've been thinking about this a lot lately as the standard advice we give to medical students is often counterproductive for ADHD.

PAPER PUBLISHED: I worked on this project during my postdoc at WashU St. Louis in 2014. Our lab contributed to this Memrise competition to test the best way to study foreign vocabulary and we were one of the finalists. Kudos to Rosalind Potts for leading on this.
psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/202...

Adult Learners with ADHD — The Learning Scientists As of last October, the CDC estimates that approximately 1 in 16 adults in the United States have been diagnosed with ADHD (1). Despite the high prevalence of ADHD in adults, there are few resources f...

NEW BLOG: "Adult Learners with ADHD" by @drkaminske.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/9/18

Wondering about the application in math…

GUEST POST: The Motivation Cheat Code: Sidestep Willpower Using Science — The Learning Scientists Got a million things to do but, zero motivation to start? We’ve all been there, one task turns into ten and suddenly things become overwhelming very quickly. In this blog, I use the latest science to ...

NEW GUEST POST: "The Motivation Cheat Code: Sidestep Willpower Using Science" by Annabel Noble
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/9/...

GUEST POST: What 130,000 Student Questions to AI Reveal About Critical Thinking — The Learning Scientists The conversation around generative AI in education is often dominated by a sense of apprehension. Will these powerful new tools encourage students to take shortcuts, offload their thinking, and sidest...

NEW GUEST POST: "What 130,000 Student Questions to AI Reveal About Critical Thinking" by Dr Muireann Hendriksen
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/9/...

Interleaving Is Less Effective When Taking Notes — The Learning Scientists The study I’m reviewing today took place in the laboratory, but examined a common situation in the classroom that might matter: note-taking. If students are able to take notes while learning, does tha...

BLOG: "Interleaving Is Less Effective When Taking Notes" by @drcindynebel.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/8/...

Cognitive Networks: Exposure Matters — The Learning Scientists In my last blog, I wrote about cognitive networks and implicit bias . The gist of the post was that our systems allow us to categorize and generalize, flexibly and automatically, and that this genera...

BLOG: "Cognitive Networks: Exposure Matters" by @drsumeracki.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/8/21

Retrieval Practice in the Health Professions — The Learning Scientists Cover image by u_9p7tw4noz0 from Pixabay By Althea Need Kaminske Note: The following describes Health Professions Education within the U.S. As a learning scientist interested in how ...

BLOG: "Retrieval Practice in the Health Professions" by @drkaminske.bsky.social
www.learningscientists.org/blog/2025/8/7

The Learning Scientists Blog View all of our posts on our website!

For all that there are effective ways to study, many students would rather stick to what they’ve always done. From @learningscientists.bsky.social, how can they be convinced to used evidenced-based strategies? buff.ly/CChVpfb #AmademicSky

Great suggestions from others - some additional favs

For students:
Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning Better and Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide both @learningscientists.bsky.social
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning by Brown, Roediger & McDaniel 1/

The Learning Scientists Blog View all of our posts on our website!

“What truly excited us, however, was the proportion of questions that went deeper.” On @learningscientists.bsky.social, read an analysis of how students interacted with AI to not only define, but examine ideas from introductory biology through a textbook chatbot. buff.ly/TWSDT3t #AcademicSky