When I read the above tweet I made a connection. A lot of people have been writing recently (and not-so-recently too) about the fact that trying to teach students science by the scientific method doesn't work because novices approach problems in different ways to experts. Novices don't have the same background knowledge as their expert counterparts, meaning that they don't have sufficient info in their long-term memory to evaluate complex problems and are essentially rendered ineffective in complex situations due to overloaded working memory.

But have we applied this to our teacher training too? Is it reasonable to expect a pre-service teacher to comprehend and apply the science of learning in a complex classroom that requires them to simultaneously apply content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, then pedagogical content knowledge.

I'm thinking about what load reduction instruction look like for pre-service teachers. Surely we'd need to “Present new material in small steps with student practice after each step” as Rosenshine tells us.

A good lesson is made up of a balanced confluence of clear instruction and searching questions, teacher direction and independent work time (etc,), with key transition points existing at the junction between each of these facets of the lesson. Maybe micro-teaching is the gateway for novice teachers to master these skills, with an expert teacher guiding and holding the other elements of the class as the novice focusses on one at a time.

Food for thought, and something I'll be keeping in mind when I take on my first pre-service teacher later this year.

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