Unlock your students’ intellectual curiosity and engage them in chemistry lessons with cognitive interest cues
I think my teaching has improved as my understanding of cognitive science has increased. So much so that I have written about using cognitive science for more effective lesson planning and how to apply cognitive load theory to chemistry lessons. Knowing why you do something improves your decision making: I recently read The new classroom instruction that works by Bryan Goodwin and Kristin Rouleau, which has given me food for thought about how to start lessons.
I think my teaching has improved as my understanding of cognitive science has increased (rsc.li/3FUelfi). So much so that I have written about using cognitive science for more effective lesson planning and how to apply cognitive load theory to chemistry lessons (rsc.li/3FX4xRL). Knowing why you do something improves your decision making: I recently read The new classroom instruction that works by Bryan Goodwin and Kristin Rouleau, which has given me food for thought about how to start lessons.
In many schools a lesson now starts with a retrieval practice exercise and I am starting to wonder if five lessons a day, five days a week of this might start turning students away from learning. To engage in learning, students must first decide if the content is worthy of their attention; curiosity primes the brain for learning and supports its retention. In their book, Bryan and Kristin write about cognitive interest cues, which aim to spark students’ intellectual curiosity and demonstrate that there is value and interest in learning about things that do not have much to do with them. These cues can add variety to learners’ experience in the classroom.
Design your cues
Bryan and Kristin design cues that capture attention and are also key elements of the lesson, because they relate directly to the desired learning outcomes. They provide a process you can use to design a cue:
- What will students learn? (Related to the learning outcomes)
- Spark curiosity (A mystery, cognitive conflict, suspense or controversy)
- Connect to students’ lives (How they might use what they learn).
Cues sound like starters but should be more structured, because they should take into consideration what prior knowledge students have and how the new learning will modify it.
Try it yourself
As an example, consider the order of metals and carbon in the reactivity series which we teach students at age 11–14:
1. What will students learn?
The reactivity series of metals and the position of carbon. More reactive elements displace less reactive ones.
2. Spark curiosity
‘Gold is unreactive – so why is it so expensive?’
3. Connect to students’ lives
Many students will wear jewellery or use mobile phones which contain gold parts (in a class of 30 students who all have a mobile phone, there will be approximately 1 g of gold which would be worth £60 – it soon adds up).
Next steps
You could then show learners some metals like magnesium, iron, copper and aluminium and ask them to consider ranking their reactivity. You might do this before you have taught them the reactivity series. This might also generate some suspense in the lesson. Students now have an investment in their own learning to find out what the reactivity series looks like; a skilled teacher will make sure they refer to the students’ predictions later in the lesson.
Cues encourage engagement
Stimulating student interest by showing them cognitively challenging concepts and ideas, engaging them in hands-on and relevant learning and drawing on personal experiences can help you overcome the filters of boredom and perceived irrelevance that cause students to disengage in lessons. Unlike starters or attention grabbers, you plan cues around the lesson outcomes so that you can use them as a point of contact throughout the lesson.
When designing a cue, you can activate prior learning to highlight any gaps in learners’ knowledge. A template you can use is: ‘You know X, but did/do you know Z?’ For example, ‘You know that aluminium is used in cans, bikes and foil, but did you know that it is more reactive than iron?’
Using a cognitive interest cue at the beginning of lessons provides a structured focus for students because it relates to the learning outcomes. But this is only the beginning of the learning process in a classroom: the next challenge is how to sustain learners’ interest as the lesson progresses.
Dom Shibli
No comments yet