An investigation into the confidence and competence of physical education secondary teachers in the delivery of cognitive science strategies

According to The Education Endowment Foundation (2021), cognitive science is a high-quality educational tool that, when implemented well, has the ability to help students to develop memory and problem-solving skills and enhance decision-making. In turn, the Education Endowment Foundation (2021) reports that such instructional aids can be used as strategies and interventions to meet the needs of all students as an accessible resource—a requirement outlined in the Teaching Standards (Department of Education, 2011). Ofsted (2021) also reports the importance of embedding cognitive science strategies within education.

The impact on education when these strategies are well implemented is said to be relevant due to the chances of increasing retention of memory whilst capitalising on the learning processes. James et al. (2006) suggest that the cognitive science strategy ‘Retrieval Practice’ could move learners up two grades, whilst Bircan and Sungur (2016) report that improving metacognition will increase motivation and engagement for learners.

This small-scale study (51 participants) was conducted as an online survey via the platform ‘X’ (formerly Twitter), of which analysis was completed of the statistical data using the SPSS package. Descriptive statistics were grouped via coding and themes. Five cognitive science strategies were reviewed: Retrieval Practice, Scaffolding, Spaced Learning, Dual Coding and Chunking. A comparison was made between the confidence and competence of current PE teachers regarding the implementation of these five strategies, while variables such as experience levels and Ofsted grading were considered.

The data outlined that confidence and competence were lowest in Spaced Learning (52.94%) and Dual Coding (72.549%), whilst Retrieval Practice scored the highest (96.08%).

This study concludes that CPD could be both a vital and accessible tool to be implemented regarding the areas of weakness outlined in this study.