LearnSmartly · the science and modelling
LearnSmartly measures five patterns that research links to how adults learn, reads them together, and turns the results into a structured conversation about growth.
Metacognition
How accurately do I see myself as a learner?
What the research shows
People often misjudge what they know, and that steers what they study next. Senge makes personal mastery (purpose plus an honest view of reality) a core discipline of the learning organisation.
Affective neuroscience
What happens to my learning under pressure?
What the research shows
Emotion and cognition are intertwined in the brain. Emotion shapes what we attend to, what we remember and whether we can use it, so emotional patterns can open or close the door to learning.
Cognitive psychology
How do I take in and make sense of new information?
What the research shows
Working memory holds only a little at a time, so the way information is structured and processed decides how much is understood, retained and applied.
Social cognitive theory
How do the people around me shape my learning?
What the research shows
Much of what adults learn comes from observing, modelling and working things out with others. Social context shapes individual learning and the learning of the team.
Motivation science
What drives, or drains, my engagement?
What the research shows
Engagement grows when needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness are met. The goals people hold for themselves shape how they respond when learning gets difficult.
Context matters. The same person learns differently in different settings. Hutchins, 1995
Built for growth. Results describe current patterns, which can change with practice.
No. Research does not support matching teaching to a preferred learning format Pashler et al., 2008. LearnSmartly looks at factors the evidence does link to learning: self-insight, emotion, information processing, social context and motivation.
No. Results describe how someone is learning now, as the starting point for a development conversation.
LearnSmartly · the science and modelling
Senge, P. M. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. Doubleday.
Names personal mastery as one of five disciplines of a learning organisation: holding a personal vision alongside a clear view of current reality.
Metcalfe, J., & Finn, B. (2008). Evidence that judgments of learning are causally related to study choice. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15(1), 174–179.
Learners’ sense of how well they know something drives what they choose to restudy, even when that sense is inaccurate.
Kruger, J., & Dunning, D. (1999). Unskilled and unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one’s own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(6), 1121–1134.
People with less skill in a domain tend to overestimate their performance, partly because judging it draws on the same skills.
LeDoux, J. E. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain. Annual Review of Neuroscience, 23, 155–184.
Reviews the brain circuits of emotion, centred on the amygdala, and how they connect with memory and cognition.
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Damasio, A. (2007). We feel, therefore we learn: The relevance of affective and social neuroscience to education. Mind, Brain, and Education, 1(1), 3–10.
Draws on neuroscience to show that emotion is integral to thinking, learning and decision-making, with direct implications for education.
Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12(2), 257–285.
Shows how heavy demands on working memory impede learning; the founding paper of cognitive load theory.
Baddeley, A. (2003). Working memory: Looking back and looking forward. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 4(10), 829–839.
Reviews the model of working memory: the limited-capacity system that holds and works on information while we learn.
Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Prentice-Hall.
Social cognitive theory: people learn by observing and modelling others, and person, behaviour and environment shape one another.
Dweck, C. S., & Leggett, E. L. (1988). A social-cognitive approach to motivation and personality. Psychological Review, 95(2), 256–273.
Shows that the goals people adopt, such as aiming to learn and improve or aiming to demonstrate ability, shape how they respond to setbacks.
Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55(1), 68–78.
Self-determination theory: motivation and wellbeing flourish when needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness are supported.
Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the wild. MIT Press.
Distributed cognition: thinking is spread across people, tools and settings, so context shapes how people perform and learn.
Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9(3), 105–119.
Systematic review finding no adequate evidence that matching instruction to a learner’s preferred ‘style’ improves learning.
Dimensions and methodology follow The Research Foundation of LearnSmartly.
A 30-minute conversation about your group, what you want to change and how you will check it.