In this first episode of our fifth season, we explore the field of learning. Dr Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel is a cognitive psychologist who specialises in how we learn best. She is part of an inspiring initiative called the Learning Scientists. She shares some of her valuable insights with us.

Questions we explore:

• Is there a trick or a secret to communicating "science"?
• What motivated Carolina to take up a specialisation in learning?
• How do we find a balance between what and how we teach and how people learn?
• Briefly, what are the six learning strategies? The strategies include retrieval practice, spaced practice, elaboration, interleaving, concrete examples and dual coding.
• Do we remember visuals better than words?
• Are then any pitfalls to using the six learning strategies?
• How important is routine in learning?
• What is the importance of testing the learning strategies?
• How should we go about finding evidence-based content on the subject of learning?
• Books mentioned: Powerful Teaching by Pooja Agarwal and Patrice Bain, Uncommon Sense Teaching by Barbara Oakley, Beth Rogowsky and Terrence Sejnowski, How Learning Happens by Carl Hendrick and Paul Kirschner, Small Teaching by James Lang, any book by Kate Jones
• Blogs mentioned: The Learning Scientists (of course) and The Effortful Educator by Blake Harvard
• Podcasts: Besides The Learning Scientists also Exam Study Expert by William Wadsworth or The HippoCampus Podcast by Lisa Quinn
• How do the Learning Scientists decide on which topics to cover?
• A quick question on intersectionality...
• Are there different learning strategies for content and skills?
• Is scaffolding retrieval practice good practice?
• How does a learning expert design a lesson?
• Is the school model compatible with the research findings on how we learn best?

Find Dr Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel on Twitter @pimpmymemory and the Learning Scientists @AceThatTest. Visit www.learningscientists.org and listen to their podcast at The Learning Scientists Podcast.

Please send your comments and suggestions to @WilliamHPalk or @C_duPlessis.

Thanks for listening!

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