Understanding Learning in the Language Classroom

May 2025

If learning is something we build in our classroom, what tools do we, as teachers, need at hand to do our jobs well? That’s what we’re investigating in this month’s issue: the core elements of learning. Together, let’s examine the blueprints of learning provided by neuroscience. We also consider how best to deploy our new learning tools with practical advice from teachers.

“The great aim of education is not knowledge but action.” –Herbert Spencer

APA Reference for this Issue

(author). (2025). (article title, sentence case). MindBrainEd Think Tanks: Understanding Learning in the Language Classroom, 11(5), (pages).

Watch before you read...

This month we’re exploring the building blocks of learning. In the Main video, Doug Neill breaks down three essential concepts: retrieval practice, spaced repetition, and varied learning. In the More video, neuroscientist Lila Landowski presents six fundamental elements of learning: attention, alertness, sleep, repetition, breaks, and mistakes. Then, Heather Kretschmer introduces the Think Tank.

In the Think Tank, Stephen M. Ryan sets the stage by detailing what learning actually entails. Next, Geoff Richman whets our appetite for integrating distributed practice and practice testing in our classrooms, while Leah Goldberg takes a deep dive into retrieval practice. Then, Surekha Nagabhushan explains the science behind a form of self-directed learning for children, and Curtis Kelly emphasizes the importance of play for learners of all ages. Next, Julia Daley and Afon (Mohammad) Khari examine the roles of attention, active engagement, error feedback, and consolidation in learning. Finally in our Plus, Mirela C. C. Ramacciotti profiles three scientists who have shaped our understanding of attention.

Our Thoughts on Learning Essentials

Have you ever told your students to study harder for tests? Start studying sooner? Or perhaps you’ve spent valuable class time on activities aimed at helping your students learn vocabulary, grammar, or other features of the target language, only for your students to do poorly on the test afterwards? Maybe your students are like the hyena in this story…

Think Tank Articles

When I was a young teacher, tasked with teaching English Conversation to classes of 30-40 students, I found the perfect textbook. It checked all the boxes for me. Suitable for the students’ level? Check. Interesting and engaging layout/illustrations? Check. Needed little explanation from me? Check. Practice activities that went on long enough that I could get round the whole class to check students were doing as asked? Check. It worked great. I used it in all my classes. The publisher loved me for ordering in volume. Only one thing I forgot to check: were the students actually learning anything?

Some years ago, I read an article in Educational Leadership magazine by Daniel Willingham, a cognitive scientist from the University of Virginia, titled “Strategies That Make Learning Last,” In it, he illuminated distributed practice and practice testing as foundational strategies to make one’s learning durable. That same year, Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, III, and Mark A. McDaniel highlighted these same habits in their book, Make It Stick (2014).

Unlike the boundless capacity of long-term memory storage in the brain, which is primarily located in the neocortex, my office space is limited. I keep my oh-so-precious EFL worksheets and sample exams in a few messy binders, tucked away on the hard-to-reach shelves. Everything is digital now, and I no longer need this material. Once a year, during the spring cleaning time, I remember these forsaken worksheets, determined to free up some space on the shelves. I recall Marie Kondo’s teachings, take stacks of them into my hands, and ask myself: “Do they spark joy?” The answer is clear: “Definitely, no!” The verdict is unforgiving: “Throw them away!” But I don’t. Why is that? Cognitive neuroscientists would know the answer. It’s because I look at what’s inside.

In 1963, Terrace wrote a paper on errorless learning in which he taught pigeons to peck a red circle as opposed to a green circle by reinforcing the behavior in such a way that they were always discouraged from pecking the green circle. Voila! Pigeons performed in an errorless manner! From this, many misinterpretations flowed into mainstream education about how we can reinforce errorless performance. Errors became the villains and, with that, teachers did all they could to explicitly instruct everything under the sun, lest the child make that dreaded mistake! The child is expected to be at the receiving end and the teacher “teaches.” Unlike pigeons, we are capable of looking at errors differently, as stepping stones in learning. Unlike pigeons, children can be guided to explore in ways that are friendly with errors and lead them to make connections for themselves. In this article, I explore the concept of auto-education through the lens of Montessori pedagogy and explore the underlying processes that may apply more generally.

Animals play. That is how they learn basic life skills. Dogs chase each other to simulate hunting. Birds play with twigs to learn how to pry bugs out of holes. Octopuses blow jets of water at floating bottles to learn how to move things in their environment (Borell, 2009). Play builds intelligence, which explains why “biologists have found that the more intelligent an animal is, and the more time it takes to mature into adulthood, the more it plays” (Mardell et al., 2024, p. 39). Play is needed to build that intelligence.

Every day, language teachers make hundreds of intuitive decisions: how to sequence a lesson, when to repeat a concept, or how to keep students engaged. What many may not realize is that these choices often reflect key principles from cognitive science and neuroscience. Understanding the brain’s learning mechanisms doesn’t mean turning classrooms into labs; it means becoming more intentional with methods that already work, and avoiding those that don’t.

Think Tank Plus

In a previous article in this series on memory and retention, we saw how remembering shapes learning and how we came to that understanding through the works of Ebbinghaus, Craik, and Lockhart. But can we remember something that we did not attend to?

Become a Think Tank star! Here are some of the future issue topics we are thinking about. Would you, or anyone you know, like to write about any of these? Or is there another topic you’d like to recommend? Do you have any suggestions for lead-in, or just plain interesting, videos? How about writing a book review? Or sending us a story about your experiences? Contact us.

Don't just fade to black: Ending a course with purpose

In his article, Todd Zakrajsek makes a compelling case for using part of the final class session to prompt students to reflect on what they’ve learned in a course. He notes, “[a] well-designed final session can help students articulate their growth—and see how the course fits into a broader academic and professional journey.” Zakrajsek describes seven activities instructors can easily integrate into the final class session, and he links each activity to the science of learning. Although designed for higher education courses, the activities can be adapted to other teaching and learning contexts.

The Learning Scientists

The Learning Scientists website is an excellent resource for teachers, students, and parents who would like to learn more about the science of learning. Four cognitive scientists provide up-to-date accessible information in a variety of formats. The website offers a plethora of free high-quality resources:

Blog: The team of cognitive scientists and guest contributors regularly post on a wide variety of topics related to learning. Each post is labeled for the target audience(s).
Podcast: The learning scientists team releases episodes fairly regularly, and they have just started devoting episodes to reading select blogs audio-book style. For example, Episode 89 on creating study plans connects really well to this month’s Think Tank issue and is definitely worth a listen or read.
Videos: Short videos focus on the six main strategies for effective learning.
Downloads: The download section includes posters, bookmarks, slides, and stickers giving the most important information on the six main learning strategies. Some materials are offered in languages other than English.

The MindBrained Think Tanks+

is produced by the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) Mind, Brain, and Education Special Interest Group (BRAIN SIG). Kyoto, Japan. (ISSN 2434-1002)

Editorial Staff

Stephen M. Ryan Curtis H. Kelly Julia Daley

Afon (Mohammad) Khari Heather Kretschmer Nicky De Proost

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Understanding Learning in the Language Classroom

May 2025

Watch before you read...

Our Thoughts on Learning Essentials

The Real Bones of Learning Heather Kretschmer

Think Tank Articles

What Even Is Learning? Stephen M. Ryan

Teaching Students to Adopt Learning Strategies Geoff Richman

Retrieval Practice or How to Never Throw Your Old Worksheets Away Leah Goldberg, EDD

The Science Behind Auto-Education Surekha Nagabhushan

Play: An Underrated Tool of Learning? Curtis Kelly

The Four Pillars of Learning: A Teacher’s Guide to Cognitive Success Afon (Mohammad) Khari & Julia Daley

Think Tank Plus

Great Ideas from the Brain Sciences: How Attention Defines Learning Mirela C. C. Ramacciotti

Call for Contributions: Ideas and Articles Think Tank Staff

Don't just fade to black: Ending a course with purpose

The Learning Scientists

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