The Learning Scientists Part 2: The Curse of Knowledge (or Thinking Like Your Students)

Episode Notes

We’re back with part two of our series with The Learning Scientists! Today, cognitive psychologists Dr. Megan Sumeracki and Dr. Cindy Nebel pick up where we left off in the first part of this series. 

They jump into a demonstration with hosts Josh and Paula that illustrates some aspects of how our brains work. That leads into a discussion about why it’s cognitively so important to understand your students’ contexts in learning.

Paula also asks Dr. Sumeracki and Dr. Nebel to discuss what it means to use research-based curriculum and why we need to depend on research rather than our intuition when it comes to teaching. They also discuss the benefits and uses of interleaving versus blocking content.

Here are links to the resources mentioned in this episode:

• The Bransford and Johnson research on “Contextual Prerequisites for Understanding: Some Investigations of Comprehension and Recall”
• The Rohrer and Taylor research on “The shuffling of mathematics problems improves learning”
• The Learning Scientists’ Downloadable Materials:
• Ace That Test: A Student’s Guide to Learning Better by Drs. Megan Sumeracki, Cynthia Nebel, Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel, and Althea Need Kaminske
• Understanding How We Learn: A Visual Guide by Dr. Yana Weinstein (Jude Weinstein-Jones) and Dr. Megan Sumeracki
• Five Learning, Teaching Myths Debunked by Adam M. Brown and Althea Need Kaminske

Learn more about the Arizona K12 Center at azk12.org.