Encode Often

Hey

Thank you. Now, last snack before Easter hols…

Big idea 🍉

The best teachers use lots of quick activities during their explanations. Choral response, turn-and-talk, MCQs. We tend to think of these as ways to check for understanding, or to sustain student attention. Both are super important… but there's something even more fundamental going on.

Every time we ask our students to briefly use an idea we've just introduced, we're catalysing encoding: the process by which learning gets embedded in the brain.

When we just explain, our students have to try to encode by listening alone. It's a bit like trying to press a shape into hard clay without actually pushing down. The information touches the surface, but doesn't leave much of an impression. This is weak encoding.

Which is why, when we explain lots of new ideas back-to-back without encoding along the way, most of it gets forgotten. It's like someone reading out a long string of numbers and expecting us to remember them all.

So why does actively using knowledge make such a difference? When we have to produce an answer (rather than merely receive it), our brain treats it as a much more valuable thing. Even something as brief as a true-or-false question forces our students to rehearse and reorganise the idea. That creates a much deeper neural impression than merely listening alone.

And further: brief encoding moments don't just strengthen what came before... they also improve our students' ability to encode what comes next. Retrieval seems to clear working memory and reset attention, making the brain more receptive to new information. So when we pause to encode after introducing each new idea, we're not just consolidating existing knowledge: we're prepping for more.

In short, if we think of these moments primarily as checks for understanding, we’re likely to underprice and so underuse them. But if we see also them as vital encoding opportunities, we'd do them far more often. Which would be a very. good. thing.

🎓 For more, check out this paper on retrieval practice.

Summary

• Effective teachers frequently use quick activities to check understanding, often catalysing encoding without realising it. 

• When learners actively use knowledge, learning is strengthened.

• Encoding moments both consolidate prior knowledge and prepare the mind for what comes next.

Little updates 🥕

• Study on praise → finds mixed impact on motivation & performance depending on setting.

• Paper on psychological needs → links need fulfilment to improved motivation & resilience.

• Research into curiosity → suggests it may drive science learning more than intelligence, once prior knowledge is considered.

• Paper on long-term memory → suggests retrieval depends on similarity, not storage location.

Upgrade your evidence edge → Get Snacks PRO