“The question is not whether these experts are well trained. It is whether their world is predictable.”
Daniel Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow p.221
This is the first in a series of blogs I am writing about initial teacher education (ITE). Since July, I have been developing a programme for novice teachers, with the aim of using cognitive science to help them become experts faster.
For a new teacher, a classroom is a place of exceptionally high cognitive load. Hundreds of small decisions adding up to a successful lesson or an unsuccessful one.
Reducing the cognitive load allows new teachers to learn more quickly. One way to do this is to practice in a simplified, predictable environment – a training room. We are using Paul Bambrick’s “Get Better Faster” programme, combined with Lemov’s “Teach Like a Champion” strategies to practise out of the classroom.
The idea is to make the classroom predictable: the solutions to everyday problems like getting students into the classroom and ready to learn become automatic, so that a teacher can learn faster.
The next blog is about solvign problems in the classroom.
Reading for Learning 
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