MrDingMaths

Research Map

9 min read

Research map of educational practice and cognitive science

Scope of the collection

This collection links notes on learning, teaching and relationships. The instructional notes draw on cognitive load theory and memory research. The emotional wellbeing notes connect personal reading with research and classroom practice, distinguishing book frameworks, empirical findings and professional guidance.

Core thesis: Learning occurs through changes in long-term memory. Working memory has a limited capacity of approximately four elements, so instruction must be designed to accommodate this constraint through explicit teaching, worked examples, and systematic practice.

Research orientation: This collection defends knowledge-based, explicitly taught curricula against progressive or discovery-based approaches, drawing on cognitive science research and classroom implementation studies.

Starting concepts

These core concepts provide the basis for the research:

  • Cognitive Load Theory - The central theoretical framework explaining how working memory limitations constrain learning
  • Memory - The two-component architecture (working and long-term memory) that underlies all learning
  • Learning - Defined as change in long-term memory, distinct from performance
  • Schema - How knowledge organises into interconnected networks in long-term memory
  • Prior Knowledge - The foundation upon which new learning builds

Notes by topic

Cognitive science foundations

Theoretical basis for instructional design:

Instructional methods

Evidence-based approaches to teaching:

Cognitive effects and phenomena

Specific research findings that inform instruction:

Memory and practice effects:

Instructional design effects:

Presentation effects:

Assessment and feedback

Monitoring and responding to student understanding:

Classroom management and behaviour

Creating conditions that enable learning:

Classroom techniques

Specific tactical implementations:

Questioning and participation:

Listening and communication:

Problem design:

Pedagogical philosophies and curriculum approaches

Competing educational philosophies and their critiques:

Subject-specific applications

Domain-specific pedagogies and debates:

Mathematics:

Literacy:

General:

Student development and individual differences

How students develop and what affects their learning:

Psychological foundations:

Cognitive development:

Individual needs:

Common errors:

Historical figures and theoretical traditions

Key thinkers and their contributions:

Research literacy and critical thinking

Understanding research quality and common errors:

Planning and learning conditions

Additional areas of focus:

Emotional wellbeing and relationships

For the basic vocabulary, begin with Emotions.

Emotional Intelligence distinguishes Bradberry and Greaves’ four skills from scientific models and reviews the evidence for training. Its practical work has separate homes in Self-Awareness, Emotional Regulation, Active Listening and Communication. Validation explains acknowledgement without assuming agreement.

Childhood Emotional Neglect brings together Webb’s framework, parenting examples and possible adult difficulties. Emotionally Immature Parents covers Gibson’s account of family roles, coping styles and expectations. These frameworks can support reflection. They cannot diagnose a parent or establish the cause of a person’s difficulties. For adult relationships, follow Attachment to Emotional Maturity, Boundaries and Assertiveness. Self-Compassion addresses shame and self-criticism; Self-Care collects exercises about preferences, enjoyment, help and daily habits. Sleep covers the sleep practices and evidence separately.

For teaching, use Supporting Students Experiencing Emotional Neglect alongside Relationships and Regulation. The student-support note follows classroom observations through everyday support, wellbeing planning and NSW public-school reporting. It keeps adult recovery exercises separate from teacher responsibilities. What Research Can You Trust explains the evidence distinctions used throughout these notes.

Conceptual hierarchy

The research contains dependencies between concepts that affect the order in which they are best understood:

Memory and learning

These concepts explain the cognitive architecture that constrains all learning:

  1. Memory - Two-component memory system
  2. Cognitive Load Theory - Working memory limitations
  3. Learning - Change in long-term memory
  4. Schema - Knowledge organisation

Knowledge and task demands

These principles show how teaching responds to cognitive constraints:

  1. Prior Knowledge - Learning builds on existing schemas
  2. Experts and Novices Think Differently - Experience changes cognition
  3. Element Interactivity - Task difficulty and cognitive load

Guidance and practice

Evidence-based teaching approaches that apply these principles:

  1. Explicit Teaching - Systematic direct instruction
  2. Worked Examples - Demonstrating solution processes
  3. Practice - Consolidating knowledge
  4. Scaffolding - Supporting complex learning

Classroom applications

Specific classroom techniques that deploy these methods:

  1. Check for Understanding - Monitoring learning
  2. Cold-Call, Mini-Whiteboards - Assessment tools
  3. Retrieval Practice - Strengthening memory
  4. Classroom Management - Creating learning conditions

Adapting instruction

Deeper understanding that refines practice:

  1. Expertise Reversal Effect - Adapting to learner expertise
  2. Responsive Teaching - Adjusting to student needs
  3. Culture of Error - Creating safe learning environments

Reading paths

Different entry points depending on focus:

Instructional design

  1. Cognitive Load Theory
  2. Worked Examples
  3. Expertise Reversal Effect
  4. Element Interactivity
  5. Split-Attention Effect, Redundancy Effect, Modality Effect

Explicit teaching

  1. Explicit Teaching
  2. I Do, We Do
  3. Check for Understanding
  4. Worked Examples
  5. Scaffolding

Assessment

  1. Retrieval Practice
  2. Spacing Effect
  3. Diagnostic Questions
  4. Mini-Whiteboards
  5. Formative Assessment

Classroom management

  1. Classroom Management
  2. Routines, Rules, Norms
  3. Script Language of Behaviour
  4. Relationships and Regulation
  5. Culture of Error

Mathematics teaching

  1. Maths Wars
  2. Procedural Alongside Conceptual
  3. Concrete Pictorial Abstract
  4. Fluency
  5. Problem-Solving