1. What? idea have you been deliberately practising?

2. Why? have you chosen this idea? Why do it that way?

3. How? did you introduce the idea? How does it work (or not)?

4. What if? this worked in another subject area? What would you recommend?

1. How do teachers adapt tasks to account for the limits of working memory?

2. Are teachers aware of the cognitive load imposed by their instructions?

3. How can teachers create more structured and distraction-free environments in the classroom?

4. Do teachers use retrieval practice strategies, such as low-stakes quizzes, regularly?

5. How do teachers help students organise and prioritise information?

6. How do teachers incorporate dual coding to aid memory?

7. How can teachers better support students with weaker working memory?

8. How do teachers ensure that instructions are clear and broken down into manageable steps?

9. How do teachers measure improvements in working memory through classroom activities?

1. Are teachers giving too many instructions at once?

2. Do lesson materials include unnecessary details that might distract students?

3. Are worked examples being used before independent problem-solving tasks?

4. How is instruction adapted for novice versus experienced learners?

5. Could classroom displays or resources inadvertently add to cognitive overload?

6. Are students given opportunities to consolidate knowledge into long-term memory?

7. Do teachers actively reduce the need for students to split attention across different sources of information?

8. Is feedback tailored to help students focus on the most critical aspects of their learning?

9. How often do teachers revisit prior learning to strengthen long-term memory retention?

10. Are strategies in place to help students connect new knowledge to what they already know?

1. How do you support students to structure their knowledge in lessons?

2. Are students encouraged to make connections between topics?

3. How could retrieval practice be used more effectively?

4. How does cognitive overload impact recall in different subjects?

5. How do you support knowledge retention for SEND students?

6. Are students using effective organisation strategies for revision?

7. How can teachers integrate schema-building into their lesson planning?

8. What changes could be made to improve retrieval-based learning?

9. How does executive function impact students’ ability to organise knowledge?

10. What professional development opportunities could help teachers?

Cognitive psychologists have identified six highly effective learning strategies for improving long-term memory, and Dual Coding is one of them. This approach is based on the idea that when students see and hear information simultaneously, they have two ways to encode knowledge, making it easier to retrieve later.

Key benefits of Dual Coding include:

• Enhancing memory retention – Students remember information better when it is presented visually alongside text or speech.

• Reducing cognitive overload – Well-structured visual representations prevent working memory from becoming overwhelmed.

• Supporting all learners – Dual Coding helps students of all abilities by providing clear, structured ways to process complex ideas.