I share this magnificent post by Hector Ruiz Martin where he introduces us 12 key ingredients that help promote meaningful learning.

Hector (@hruizmartin) is director of the International Science Teaching Foundation and researcher in cognitive psychology of memory and learning in educational contexts

In this publication he shares 12 principles that allow us identify the actions and circumstances that are most likely to contribute to promoting student learning. Is about science-based principles about how we learn, but also in research that analyzes educational methods and studies the practices of teachers who achieve the best results.

Below I share an excerpt from his publication and leave you here the full article.

12 principles of evidence-guided teaching

1. Activate prior knowledge.

Our brain remembers better what it can relate to what we already know.
It is necessary for each student to activate their own knowledge that is most relevant to the learning in question. Some students do this spontaneously, but the majority need it to be expressly promoted.

2. Promote elaboration

If to learn we need to connect what we learn with our previous knowledge, the way to promote these connections is to try to give meaning to what we learn.

As teachers, we must incorporate questions, discussions and problems to solve through what has been learned, and dynamics that only allow progress through feedback that our students provide. Studies show that teachers who ask many questions during their lessons usually get their students to obtain better results.

3. Use the practice of evocation

A large amount of evidence reflects that the most effective way to consolidate new knowledge is to try recover the information we try to learn from our memory, either to explain it or to interpret new situations or solve new problems.

4. Organize the practice in a spaced way

To master what we learn we need to review and practice, but it is not worth doing it just any way. The research leaves no doubt that it is much more effective to study in several spaced sessions than to mass study. Furthermore, for learning to last, it is important to incorporate periodic review sessions, increasingly spaced throughout the entire course.

5. Interweave the practice

One way to space out practice is to interweave the study of diverse topics. To learn different things, it is better to combine them than to focus on completely mastering one before proceeding to the next (as long as the first is not an essential requirement to learn the second).

6. Provide multiple examples

Our brain is not particularly good at learning abstract concepts, it is much easier for it learn from concrete examples. However, our brain also has a tendency to associate what we learn with the specific examples and contexts in which we have learned it, so we may fail to identify the same concepts or procedures in other analogous situations. For all this, it is important Provide students with different examples, as well as activities to apply them in different contexts.

7. Decompose and integrate

Working memory is the mental space where we maintain and manipulate the information to which we pay attention at all times. It is the "place" where we reason, imagine and learn. However, working memory has a very limited capacity, so it can only handle a small amount of information at a time. If it exceeds its capacity, it overflows and prevents learning. This is the basis of Cognitive Load Theory.

We learn more effectively when the components of learning are worked on temporarily in isolation and are progressively combined. Even a small practice in one of the learning components produces a significant improvement in overall learning, although it is recommended that this practice always be carried out without the student losing sight of the final learning objective.

8. Employ dual coding

Working memory is a limited resource, but it has mechanisms to process auditory or verbal information on the one hand, and visual information on the other. We can get the most out of it if we receive information about what we learn through both channels simultaneously: through words and images.

The advantage of combining word and image is also related to the possibility of creating more connections between the information we receive and our previous knowledge. Besides, The human brain is specially prepared to process and store visual information., so using visual information or even trying to visualize what we have learned mentally helps us remember it better.

9. Limit learning objectives and focus on them

Another of the recommendations for teaching that derive from the Cognitive Load Theory alludes to the importance of restrict the number of goals to the maximum.

10. Offer opportunities for independent practice

For consolidate learning It is important to use what has been learned to explain it, interpret new situations or solve new problems. Besides,There are procedures that we need to automate to free up resources in working memory when we carry them out.

The most effective teachers provide opportunities for students to practice both during and after class. Now, this practice must occur after having offered the appropriate instructions, with examples worked out with the entire class. Only when students have shown understanding and certain mastery can it be extended outside the classroom.

On the other hand, independent practice usually benefits through cooperative learning.

11. Use formative assessment

Formative evaluation occurs throughout the learning process, not only at the end. Formative evaluation is not only desirable because it allows measures to be taken to adjust the teaching-learning processes based on how each student progresses, but because it promotes the type of actions that contribute to consolidating learning, especially spaced recall.

12. Create a challenging but encouraging learning environment

The socio-emotional environment that each teacher fosters has clear implications for the results of their students. Research shows that the most effective teachers manage to create an environment in their classes disciplined learning, based on the I respect and the cooperation, con high expectations for all students, who interpret the error as a necessary step in learning, and that attributes both successes and failures to things that each student can change.

You can read the full article by Héctor Ruiz here: 12 principles of evidence-guided teaching

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