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Get Far from the Shallow Now: Going Deep with Learning

Chances are high that when we first met I forgot your name as soon as you uttered the final syllable. As it turns out, there’s some pretty straightforward psychology behind why this happens and it doesn’t have anything to do with my age. Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart would point out that this name slip-up isn’t about me being old and forgetful, but about my brain’s “depth of processing.” If I don’t do something meaningful with that name, I might as well wave goodbye to ever recalling it later.

The big idea is that long-term learning depends more on how meaningfully you handle new information than on whether you simply repeat it a bunch of times or ‘intend’ to learn it. According to Craik and Robert Lockhart, the mental trace we form from deep, meaningful engagement is sturdier and more likely to stay with us long after we’ve left the classroom.

The concept of “depth of processing” highlights that shallow methods like underlining text or transcribing lectures word-for-word don’t do our brains any favors. Instead, we should embrace strategies that help students wrestle with meaning and link new ideas to something they already know. That way, the new knowledge isn’t just drifting around like a lonely balloon, but is instead anchored to robust mental connections.

Shallow vs. Deep Processing

  • Shallow processing can include focusing on superficial features, like a word’s typeface or simply repeating information. Handy in the moment, but if your students are just copying down everything you say verbatim, they’re storing the info about as securely as a dog hides a bone on the driveway.
  • Deep processing asks students to analyze meaning by drawing connections, elaborating on ideas, and linking them to prior knowledge. That’s how you get long-term recall.

“Multistore” Model vs. Levels of Processing

  • Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multistore model described how information travels from our short-term to long-term memory.
  • Craik and Lockhart, however, believed how deeply we process that info is the real secret sauce determining whether it actually settles in for a long stay.

The Myth of Multitasking

  • We’re not the incredible multitaskers we imagine ourselves to be. We can only do one genuine act of information processing at a time without compromising depth. Reading a text message while “listening” to your colleague’s instructions? Let’s be honest you’re only half-listening, if that.

Intention Doesn’t Guarantee Learning

  • Endel Tulving joined Fergus Craik later in showing that “how the material is processed is more important than the student’s intention to learn.” In other words, the student who’s forced to deeply analyze content even if they’d rather be anywhere else might actually learn more than the eager one who skims it shallowly in hopes of acing the test.

Implications for Practice

  1. Make It Meaningful
    ​    If you’re teaching about photosynthesis, don’t just have students memorize the definition. Get them to connect it to the bigger picture: why does it matter for life on earth, and how does it tie into global cycles or sustainable agriculture?
    ​
  2. Encourage Elaboration
    ​    Ask students to put that new knowledge into their own words, or create concept maps. The act of talking it out, summarizing, or sketching a diagram fosters deep processing.
    ​
  3. Leverage Prior Knowledge
    ​    Always nudge learners to connect fresh material to stuff they already know. Even a silly link “This new geometry concept is kind of like stacking blocks in Minecraft” can make the difference between a fleeting fact and a powerful memory trace.
    ​
  4. Apply, Apply, Apply
    ​    Have students practice or demonstrate how the new info works in a different scenario. For instance, after learning about synonyms and antonyms, encourage them to rewrite a paragraph of a story with synonyms to see how it changes the tone.
    ​
  5. Check Your Note-Taking
    ​    If you let students type everything verbatim, you might be fostering shallow, phonemic-level processing. I’ve learned the hard way that taking notes by hand, forcing some paraphrasing tends to produce better retention.​
    ​
  6. Group Discussions or Think-Pair-Share​
    Pose a thought-provoking question about the lesson content so students need to interpret and reason deeply before they share with a partner.
    ​
  7. Concept Mapping
    ​    Provide a half-completed map so students must fill in and connect the missing ideas.
    ​
  8. “Stop and Jot” Intervals
    ​    Every 10–15 minutes, ask students to pause and write down how the info relates to something they learned previously or to their daily life.
    ​
  9. Students Teaching Students
    ​    Pair them up and have them teach a mini-topic to one another. Explaining concepts is a surefire path to deeper encoding.

The Challenge

Pick just one lesson this week and crank up the depth of processing dial. Maybe you add a quick reflective question, or you try out concept mapping for the first time. Then watch what happens to your students’ engagement and recall. You might be surprised at how that small tweak can amplify their learning.

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Craik, F. I. M., & Lockhart, R. S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 11(6), 671–684. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5371(72)80001-X
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For more information on this concept, read How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice (https://a.co/d/a0tZSMR) This post is a summary of individual chapters from How Learning Happens.

11 Ways to Boost Writing in Your Classroom

While trying to collect enough hours for my first column advancement last week, I watched an edWeb webinar with Alyson A. Collins, and Stephen Ciullo on teaching writing in K–12 classrooms.Their 2024 meta-analysis “Evidence-Based Recommendations for Teaching Writing,” synthesizes years of data (nearly 1,000 studies!) into 11 concrete and actionable strategies. 

According to the authors, many teachers feel they’re “not quite prepared” to teach writing as effectively as they’d like. That gap can prevent students from fully realizing writing’s potential. As they put it, “students who do not learn to write well cannot draw fully on its power to promote and extend learning.” Writing is not just an isolated academic exercise, it’s a gateway skill. When learners write, they clarify their own thinking and communicate more powerfully with the world.

Eleven Evidence-Based Recommendations

1. Write, But Writing Alone Isn’t Enough

  • Just upping the quantity of writing doesn’t automatically turn students into essay virtuosos. Research showed that more writing time alone produced positive but very small improvements.
  • Students need to practice, but pair that practice with explicit teaching and supports (like the strategies below). Otherwise, it’s a bit like tossing them into the deep end of the pool with no swimming lessons.

2. Support Students as They Write

  • The “process approach,” or Writers’ Workshop, and specific tactics such as pre-writing activities, goal-setting, inquiry tasks, peer assistance, and teacher feedback all produced notable boosts in writing quality.
  • In the Classroom:
    • Pre-Writing: Have students brainstorm on sticky notes, create quick graphic organizers, or discuss ideas in small groups before putting pen to paper.
    • Goal-Setting: “Today, let’s all make sure our revision adds at least three details to support our main idea.”
    • Feedback: Beyond just red pen marks, try brief (but focused) conferencing, using rubrics that are kid-friendly.

3. Teach Foundational Writing Skills

  • Handwriting, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure matter. If these foundational skills are shaky, students’ higher-level thinking gets bogged down. The authors note that teaching spelling and handwriting can yield small to moderate improvements in overall writing.
  • In Action:
    • Handwriting: Short, targeted practice for letter formation in the early grades frees up mental bandwidth for ideas.
    • Grammar in Context: Instead of endless worksheets on the difference between “they’re,” “their,” and “there,” invite students to revise a short draft, spotting and correcting usage errors in real writing.

4. Teach Writing Strategies

  • Strategies are step-by-step guidelines, such as brainstorming ideas or structuring a paragraph logically. A standout framework is Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD), which adds self-talk, goal-setting, and self-monitoring to writing tasks.
  • Try This: Model how to set a goal for each section, walk them through thinking aloud about their steps, and teach them self-reinforcement (“Yes, I included all my main points!”).

5. Teach Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Imagery

  • For older students, direct instruction in creative thinking or critical analysis helps them break out of formulaic writing and dig deeper into ideas. For younger students, using imagery (like visualizing scenes) can spark more vivid text.
  • Classroom Tip:
    • Creativity: If you’re teaching similes or metaphors, have students create unusual, silly comparisons first to flex that creative muscle (e.g., “My backpack is like a black hole devouring everything in sight”).
    • Critical Thinking: Offer prompts like “What if the opposite were true?” to encourage a deeper logical stance in persuasive essays.

6. Teach Summary Writing

  • When students learn to condense reading or lessons into concise summaries, it tightens their overall writing and comprehension. Research showed especially solid gains for middle and high schoolers.
  • Try It: Assign each student or pair a short article or chapter and have them write a one-paragraph summary focusing on key points no fluff, no filler. “Eliminate redundant information, synthesize related information,” as Graham, Collins, and Ciullo advise.

7. Enhance Students’ Writing Knowledge

  • Sometimes we forget that students need explicit knowledge about genres, text structure, and so forth. Provide models of good writing, talk through genre features, and let them see how different texts are put together.
  • Practical Approach:
    • Model Analysis: Show them an example of a strong paragraph, dissect it together, and then have them emulate it in their own writing.
    • Reading-Writing Connection: Give them an authentic piece (e.g., a newspaper editorial) and let them pick out key elements: introduction, argument, supporting evidence, conclusion.

8. Apply Twenty-First Century Writing Tools

  • Many students draft essays in a swirl of scrawled handwriting, but the authors highlight how word processing and “word processing plus” programs can help, especially for older students. There’s also computer-assisted instruction (CAI) to teach writing fundamentals.
  • Realistic Application:
    • Let them type, revise, or check spelling digitally.
    • CAI programs like Writable that supply interactive lessons on grammar or provide revision feedback can be efficient.

9. Write Across the Curriculum

  • Asking students to write in social studies, science, and math actually improves their learning in those subjects. This includes writing summaries, creating arguments, and reflecting on what they read or hear in those classes.
  • Practical Tip:
    • Science: After a hands-on experiment, have students write a brief procedure summary or explanation of results.
    • Math: Ask them to articulate (in words!) how they solved a complex problem. Or get them to explain the concept to a hypothetical classmate who’s absent.
    • By the way, this kind of writing also deepens critical thinking. Win-win.

10. Connect Writing and Reading Instruction

  • Reading and writing are like peanut butter and jelly. Teaching one can enhance the other. For instance, reading good example texts can boost writing quality, while writing about texts boosts reading comprehension.
  • Concrete Strategies:
    • Reading to Write: Have students note how authors structure arguments or create suspense. Then they try it.
    • Writing to Read: After reading a passage, they can write a short reflection or argument, which cements understanding.

11. Create a Motivating Writing Environment

  • In a meta-synthesis of effective literacy teachers, the authors found that these teachers established a positive, collaborative, and purposeful writing community. They wrote with passion, shared student work, encouraged risk-taking, and made high expectations clear.
  • The most reluctant writers light up when the class celebrate each other’s drafts. Posting their stories, poems, or even outlines can do wonders for building a sense of pride. As Graham, Collins, and Ciullo sum it up, “making writing visible” and sharing it publicly can build both skill and confidence.

Collectively, these 11 recommendations show us that (1) writing is complex, so students need multiple avenues of support; (2) simply having them “write more” isn’t magic. Explicit teaching and scaffolding matter; and (3) reading–writing connections and writing across content areas enhance both literacy skills and subject learning.

The Challenge: Your Next Step

Pick one of these 11 recommendations you’re not already doing, and integrate it into your next writing unit. Try a simple version first, maybe a goal-setting exercise, a quick self-regulated strategy, or a lively peer-feedback routine. See how students respond, track their progress, and then tweak as needed.

Graham, S., Collins, A. A., & Ciullo, S. (2024). Evidence-based recommendations for teaching writing.Education 3-13: International Journal of Primary, Elementary and Early Years Education, 52(7), 979–992. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2024.2357893

Why Cognitive Load Matters

If you’ve ever had the thought, “I love the glorious chaos of letting my students thrash around in problem spaces,” please continue reading.

Originally developed by John Sweller, Cognitive Load Theory is built on the idea that our working memory is like a tiny post-it note; it can only hold so many details before something falls off and you end up running in circles.

Sweller famously wrote, “There seems to be no clear evidence that conventional problem solving is an efficient learning device and considerable evidence that it is not.”

He’s telling us that making learners solve complicated tasks from scratch especially if they lack the knowledge to handle them isn’t a shortcut to learning.

In plain language, cognitive load means how much mental heavy-lifting your brain does at any given time. If it’s too high, learning stalls. If it’s managed effectively, like giving just the right support, learning thrives.

The Problem with “Problem-Solving”

You’ve probably heard the refrain “Students need to learn how to solve problems by solving problems.” It sounds so… obvious. But according to Sweller, this is where we all get stuck in the proverbial mud.

  • Means-Ends Analysis: This is a fancy way to describe a trial-and-error approach in which novices constantly compare where they are with the ultimate goal and make random (and often desperate) moves to reduce the gap. Sweller found this approach can consume all of a learner’s working memory like having too many browser tabs open, leaving no space to actually learn new strategies or store knowledge in long-term memory.
  • Expert vs. Novice: If you’re an expert, you can rely on stored mental frameworks (called schemas) to quickly identify what strategy works best. But novices? They’re fumbling around in the dark, searching every nook and cranny for solutions. This is exactly how A. D. de Groot discovered that chess masters weren’t magical geniuses, but had memorized thousands of meaningful patterns.
    • Think of a schema as a mental filing cabinet for a specific topic. The more advanced (expert) you are, the bigger and better organized your filing cabinet is, so you can reach for the “file” you need without rummaging around.
  • Daisy Christodoulou put it beautifully, explaining that experts “aren’t reasoning; they’re recalling,” thanks to their massive store of domain-specific knowledge.

In short, novices benefit from explicit guidance. Otherwise, they get bogged down in searching for answers instead of retaining them.

Classroom Applications

Many of us have tried inquiry-type tasks, and then watched half the class glaze over. Luckily, there are research-backed ideas beyond pure guesswork that let you reclaim your sanity and your students’ enthusiasm.

  1. Teach the Knowledge Before the Skill
    Sweller’s research screams: you can’t problem-solve effectively unless you actually know something about the domain. So if you want kids to solve equations or design experiments, first teach them the relevant content and procedures.
  2.  Instead of generic “skills” that supposedly transfer anywhere, domain-specific knowledge means you understand a specific subject’s facts, procedures, and patterns like a musician learning chord progressions and scales first, so later they can jam fluidly.
  3. Use Interleaving Instead of Blocking
    Interleaving means switching up the types of problems or questions, rather than drilling the same type over and over (that’s blocking). Research by Jeroen van Merriënboer and Paul Kirschner shows that mixing up problem types helps students see deeper connections and choose the right strategies. Think: ABCBCA, instead of AAABBB.
  4. Be Wary of “Discovery Learning”
    We all love to let kids explore, right? But if the territory is too unfamiliar, it’s like dropping them in the wilderness with a blindfold, a can of beans, and zero instructions. They’ll wander, sure but might not learn the survival skills you intended. Instead, use guided discovery: show them the path and let them explore side trails without getting lost.
  5. Reduce the Mental Noise
    Start simple, add complexity gradually. Provide worked examples early on models that show how to solve a problem step by step. Then, once students have built some mental frameworks, let them tackle more complex tasks on their own.

If your students’ working memory is overwhelmed, they can’t form sturdy mental concepts. The leaps you want them to make aren’t leaps at all they’re more like leaps off a cliff without a parachute.

The Challenge

So, my challenge for you should you not be too cognitively overloaded from reading all this is to take one lesson you’re about to teach and reduce the guesswork for students. Let them in on the background knowledge, the how, and the why of the process before unleashing them on the end goal. Notice if they’re more focused on learning and less bogged down by “Where do I even start?”

Sweller, J. (1988). Cognitive load during problem solving: Effects on learning. Cognitive Science, 12, 257–285. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog1202_4

For more information on this concept, read How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice (https://a.co/d/a0tZSMR) This post is a summary of concepts from How Learning Happens.

Why Novices Aren’t Just Little Experts

Our brains are marvels: they weigh barely 2% of our body mass but consume around 20–25% of the energy we produce. That’s a lot of vig! According to John Sweller (an Australian educational psychologist best known for formulating Cognitive Load Theory), “Without an understanding of human cognitive architecture, instruction is blind.” In other words, if we ignore the way our brains process and store information, we might be throwing great lessons at our students that never stand a chance of sticking.

In more cases than we’d care to admit, novices are treated like mini experts. We just expect them to poof!, figure out complex tasks on their own. ButMichelene Chi, Paul Feltovich, and Robert Glaser debunked this thoroughly. In their classic study, they concluded, “Not only do experts have more knowledge and can work faster than beginners, they also look at or tackle problems differently (i.e., what you know determines what you see).”

Surface-Level vs. Deep Principles

When novices look at a problem, say, a math puzzle they tend to notice superficial features like, “Oh, it has a fraction!” Experts, however, see foundational principles: “This puzzle involves ratio and proportion.” This gap in how each group perceives and categorizes challenges is massive.

  • Novices often rely on surface characteristics (“inclined planes,” “familiar phrases,” “shapes in the figure”).
  • Experts draw on deep conceptual knowledge called schemas to figure out solution paths almost automatically.

A schema is your mental filing system. Think of it like those (messy) color-coded binders we used to have. When new knowledge comes in, the brain tries to slot it into an existing binder (schema). If it doesn’t fit, we either create a new binder or tidy up an old one so the new knowledge has a place to live.

Assimilation vs. Accommodation

  • Assimilation is when you tuck new information into an existing schema without changing the schema itself.
  • Accommodation is when you realize your schema has, shall we say, “holes and questionable content,” and you update or replace it entirely.

As Jean Piaget (the Swiss psychologist famous for his work on child cognitive development) would say, learning involves a constant dance between assimilation and accommodation. With novices, we have to guide them in that dance step by step.

Guidance vs. Discovery

There’s an important phenomenon called the expertise reversal effect, as explained by John Sweller, Paul Ayres, Slava Kalyuga, and others:

  • Highly structured, step-by-step instruction (like worked examples) is great for novices who are still forming schemas.
  • Advanced learners often benefit from less guidance because they already have robust schemas and they want to practice applying them in more open-ended ways.

In short: novices need the scaffolding; experts can handle the open sandbox. It’s both cruel and counterproductive to drop novices into complex problem-solving tasks without support. That’s about as effective as standing back and watching a toddler try to build a bike from scratch, fun to watch, maybe, but not very kind (or safe!).

Classroom Applications

  1. Model and Think Aloud
    Walk students through your expert thinking process. Show them how you identify underlying principles before focusing on the surface details.
  2. Use Worked Examples, Then Gradually Fade
    For novices, illustrate solutions step by step. Over time, give them partially completed examples, and finally let them handle full problems solo. This “fading” technique respects their growing cognitive capacity and helps them build proper schemas.
  3. Check for Misconceptions Early
    Don’t assume your students come in with zero knowledge. They probably have plenty. Some of it may be correct and some of it wildly off-base. Invite them to share their initial thinking so you can spot and correct misunderstandings.
  4. Beware the “Curse of Knowledge”
    Once you’re an expert, you forget how you learned. So when you’re exasperated by a child who isn’t “catching on,” remember they literally don’t see the problem the way you do. Anticipate their confusion and break it down.
  5. Differentiate by Prior Knowledge
     In a mixed-ability classroom, not every student is a wide-eyed novice. Give more advanced students more challenging or less-structured tasks, while providing clearer support for those who are still forming basic schemas.

Sometimes folks say, “Oh, but Einstein figured things out by daydreaming in a patent office!” Right. Because we can clearly replicate that in a second-grade science class. Let’s not romanticize the rare exceptions. The vast majority of kids aren’t Einstein, and even Einstein started as a novice! So let’s offer them a bit of guidance.

The Challenge

Give your students some worked examples or guided thinking time before they tackle an new learning task. Then observe who’s ready for more independence. Encourage students to talk through their thinking; ask them why they chose a certain path. You’ll discover volumes about the schemas they’ve developed and the holes that still need patching.

“What you know determines what you see.” – Chi, Feltovich, and Glaser

Chi, M. T. H., Feltovich, P. J., & Glaser, R. (1979). Categorization and representation of physics problems by experts and novices. Cognitive Science, 5, 121–152. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15516709cog0502_2

For more information on this concept, read How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice (https://a.co/d/a0tZSMR) This post is a summary of concepts from How Learning Happens.