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A Changing Profession
from Stick the Learning
Education is rapidly changing, and teachers and students need brain-based instructional techniques to help them make the most of their time and create deep learning. This book aims to provide techniques to create sticky learning— knowledge that stays with students for the long term.
This introduction discusses some of the factors driving change in education and the need for teachers to evolve their practice to meet increasing demands. By adopting brain-based techniques endorsed by scientific research into learning, teachers can become more effective and efficient educators. This book offers three proven techniques—spaced repetition, interleaving, and retrieval—to save teachers time, increase student achievement, and stick the learning.
A Changing Profession
Educators face many challenges and assume many roles. In addition to the role of instructor, for example, a classroom teacher often takes on the duties of a counselor, caregiver, diagnostician, and more. Because of these demands, teachers can find it very difficult to get everything done. In their report Changing Expectations for the K–12 Teacher Workforce, writers for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2020) state:
Increased expectations for learning, combined with the demand to create a responsive learning environment that supports the needs of diverse students, call for innovative approaches to instruction that may differ substantially from teachers’ own experiences as students or their preservice education. (p. 3)
The COVID-19 global pandemic shone a spotlight on a stark reality: already overburdened teachers suddenly had to enforce masking and social distancing, assume personal health risks, and navigate virtual learning (Pressley, 2021). Those who returned to school after the first year of the pandemic faced new challenges due to staffing shortages, low morale, and unprecedented pres-
Doing more of sure to bolster student achievement (Gewertz, 2022). the same will not If teachers are to fulfill the expectations of their changing proget better results fession, they’ll need new tools to adapt. Doing more of the same and will only will not get better results and will only exasperate them and their students. I’m not proposing adding yet another burden or new exasperate teachers initiative to a teacher’s already full plate. Without any foreseeable and their students. change in these trends, educators must look for more effective and efficient ways to succeed.
