The Problem Solving Methods Learners Use – and How to Develop Them

Solving problems, especially in physics, has been well studied (e.g. Larkin, McDermott, Simon and Simon 1980: here and Chi, Glaser … More

Visible Physics – My ASE Presentation

Many thanks to everyone who came. I really enjoyed it and am grateful to colleagues who chose to come. I … More

How Seductive Details Do Their Damage

I have been doing my homework on using images for learning and found this great 1997 paper by Harp and … More

My ASE Talk January 10th 2019 – How to Teach Problem Solving in Science (with added Bar-Models!)

I have planned the outline of my ASE Annual Conference talk (Thursday 12.00). It may develop a little, but the … More

Applying Efrat Furst’s Model of Building Long-Term Memory Representations

One of the challenges facing teacher is to know when to apply specific tasks to support long-term learning. I have … More

Using Visual Representations to Help Solve Abstract Physics Problems

By year 6, pupils are skilled mathematical problem solvers. They can solve multi-step questions involving abstract concepts. This sounds like … More

Can the Singapore Bar-Model Reduce Cognitive Load in Physics?

I was convinced by the Singapore bar-model when I invigilated the 2016 Key Stage 2 maths reasoning exam. One of … More

Using Physics Questions to Build Problem Solving, Literacy and Knowledge.

A few weeks ago I observed an English teacher pull a sentence apart. A line from Romeo and Juliette was … More

What are the Cognitive Loads of reading and how can we reduce them?

Reading is a physics problem that doesn’t receive much attention in class. I think it should. Science professionals read a … More

Ratio, Load and Difficulty – 3 Lesson Sliders

In my mental lesson control booth, I have three sliders I try to get right. Ratio The first slider is … More