Elizabeth Mountstevens

Not all wrong answers are equal. I used to think students just needed the right information to fix misconceptions but then I read the work of Michelene Chi🧵⬇️

Cogsci Book Summaries Here is a reading list of 65 books about cognitive science and its application to the classroom. 2. Here are my summaries of a selection of these books. For each book there is a pdf of my summary a…

My book summaries are now in one place! Yay! Together with the cogsci reading list of 63 books!

And which books, or series, would it be useful to do next?

itsalearningcurve.education/cogsci-book-...

#iteachphysics
#cogscisci

The effect of teacher subject-specific qualifications on student science achievement I investigate the effect of teacher subject-specific qualifications on student science achievement using data from TIMSS 2015, a large-scale assessmen…

This paper by Pietro Sarcassani is a nice illustration of the importance of subject knowledge to teacher effectiveness. In this study of Science teaching he finds that holding a subject degree in the relevant taught science (e.g. Biology, Physics...). sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Useful modern context when teaching corrosion to at GCSE.

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Come to Bluesky for the educational discourse, stay for the Mountstevens’ train journeys!

How the SCARF model helps us in the classroom: www.azimuth.org.uk/its-not-magi... I found this a novel and useful way to look at motivation and behaviour in the classroom.

Although originally written as advice for SLT, I found it useful when thinking about supporting trainees and ECTs. Activities such as identifying curriculum connections and misconceptions, creating exemplars and identifying potential pitfalls are all very useful activities.

How do you explain practice to your students? We know that retrieval practice makes students feel they are learning less than reading their notes. Analogies are a great way to overcome this barrier.

The 'Adaptive Teaching' Collection Adaptive teaching describes the moment-to-moment responsiveness that is orchestrated continuously in the classroom by expert teachers.  In the past few years, in England at least, its prominence has ...

This is a really useful collection of resources for anyone who wants to find out more about adaptive teaching. alexquigley.co.uk/the-adaptive... Thanks @alexjquigley.bsky.social!

New research from MIT found that those who used ChatGPT can’t remember any of the content of their essays.

Key takeaway: the product doesn’t suffer, but the process does. And when it comes to essays, the process *is* how they learn.

arxiv.org/pdf/2506.088...

My logic exactly!

Competency as a powerful motivator confirmed by @teachertapp.bsky.social. We mustn’t forget it takes more than saying well done. It needs careful change management, support with classroom challenges and relevant CPD.

Interesting background for teaching benzene at A Level.

Useful context for teaching colour and transition metals at A Level.

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It also shows how much students rely on resources shared by their teachers, so we need to ensure they’re effective and that we’re teaching them how to use the resources effectively.

Interesting study on students’ study choices in university chemistry, showing they often choose strategies linked to assessments. This agrees with my experience of A Level students trying to learn mark schemes and neglecting deeper understanding.

Fabulous demonstration of magnetic fields, I’ll be sharing with our Physics teachers next week.

Powerful blog from @mikehobbiss.bsky.social on the importance of directing student attention. We should all be asking ourselves “are the tools and routines I am using to do this sufficient?”

A summary covering the basics of an organic reaction mechanism and the curly arrow (aka the greatest invention ever). There are six sections to this summary. The first tries to explain what a reaction mechanism is. The second then introduces the curly arrow and its colleague, the curly fishhook. Third is a list of some of the more common nucleophiles and electrophiles. Fourth is one way of approaching writing a reaction mechanism (there are other approaches. This may not even be my favourite approach as I have taught a number but it seemed to work well in this context). Fifth is the three common 'types' of curly arrow (they aren't different, so type might be the wrong word. Basically, students will commonly encounter three combinations of source and acceptor). Finally, there are some common reaction patterns that you see in many reactions.

The previous #ChemEd #Chemistry #ChemSky summaries provided the background to org rcts (except the acid/base 1 which is THE most important org rct). Here are curly arrows, the last thing I need before starting reactions! It's a summary, more details elsewhere www.makingmolecules.com/blog/curlyar...

Scaffold learning and put collision theory and rates of reaction in context for your 14–16 students 👇
edu.rsc.org/cpd/how-to-t...
#iteachchem

Scaffold learning with decision trees Help students unravel complex topics with a decision tree - a visual support you can gradually remove

Visual support for tricky topics 👀
Decision trees help students navigate tough chemistry concepts, from identifying bonding types (14– 16) to solving acid-base problems (16– 18). Use these downloadable resources in your lessons: edu.rsc.org/ideas/scaffo...

#uked #chemed

The same visuals can be used in the encoding & retrieval stages of the learning process. This is known as the 'Encoding Specificity Principle' (Tulving & Thompson 1973!), a retrieval cue can provide a prompt to support initial retrieval success, especially if students have seen the cue before! 👏

Cognitive offloading can help scaffold students learning by overcoming some of the limits of working memory.

OECS thematic collections.

If you haven't been looking recently at the Open Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science (oecs.mit.edu), here's your reminder that we are a free, open access resource for learning about the science of mind.

Today we are launching our new Thematic Collections to organize our growing set of articles!

As we head into End of Year exams season, it's worth revisiting a helpful technique: annotating exam questions.

There's a growing body of evidence supporting its effectiveness. Here are some ways I use annotating along with some recent evidence.

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This might be of interest to anyone who was at @nikika.bsky.social’s #CogSciSci talk.

With this year's conference wrapped we begin work on the next one!

We are looking for a host school for the Friday of the may half term.

We have been around London the last few years so would really like to go to the midlands or North next time.

Let us know by DM or email 🙏#sciteachUK