Education Research Reading Room · Ollie Lovell: Teacher, author, podcaster, blogger, PhD candidate. @ollie_lovell

ERRR #067. Byers, Leighton, and Perry on Developing Self-regulated Learners

·2 hr·5 clips

Students' grades went up with Cornell notes, but they refused to use them again because they felt the strategy was too hard.

This episode of the Education Research Reading Room features host Olly Lovell in conversation with three education researchers: Terry Byers and Vicky Leighton from Anglican Church Grammar School in Australia, and Tom Perry from the University of Warwick. They discuss their collaborative "Learner's Toolkit" project, a multi-year initiative designed to help secondary students become self-regulated learners using evidence-based strategies. The project originated in response to a major Queensland curriculum shift in 2019, which introduced external standardized exams accounting for up to 80% of final marks. The team identified six core learning strategies from cognitive science: retrieve it, space it, jumble it, visualize it, connect it, and read it. They initially presented these with formal terminology like "retrieval practice" and "interleaving" but found the academic language was a barrier to student engagement. Terry Byers references the work of Mark McDaniel and Gil Einstein, highlighting their "Knowledge, Beliefs, Commitment, and Planning Framework" as a pivotal model for moving students beyond simply knowing about strategies to actually using them. A key insight was that simply teaching students *about* effective strategies often failed to generate large-scale changes in their independent study habits. The team realized fostering student self-efficacy and resilience was as crucial as teaching the strategies themselves. Tom Perry notes that his Cognitive Science in the Classroom review for the Education Endowment Foundation found a significant gap between laboratory research on these principles and their effective application at scale in real classrooms. Vicky Leighton explains the project's goal was not to overlay theory but to translate and embed the science of learning directly into school curriculum and teaching practices. An interesting challenge was engaging older, "crystalline" students who were set in their study habits. The team emphasizes that the real test occurs when a student studies alone and must independently choose to employ a new strategy. Terry Byers likens their early approach to trying to "eat a whole elephant," leading them to adopt more efficient, student-friendly language and methods. The discussion also touches on the broader purpose of education, with Terry advocating for equipping lifelong learners and Vicky citing a vision of education for meaningful community engagement. The tone is collaborative and exploratory, blending practical school-based experience with academic research perspectives. The style is conversational and reflective, as the guests dissect what worked, what didn't, and the complexities of implementing research in a real-school context. This episode is ideal for teachers, school leaders, and education researchers interested in the practical challenges of fostering student metacognition and self-regulated learning. Listeners seeking a purely theoretical discussion of cognitive science principles without the messy realities of implementation might find less value here.

As heard by us

A measured look at teacher expertise, retrieval practice and the limits of standardizing learning inside school timetables.

Teacher expertise sits at the center here, along with clear limits for new teachers and the idea that a school cannot be treated like a lab. Terry Byers, Vicky Leighton and Tom Perry revisit retrieval practice, brain dumps, worked examples and faded examples, while Tom Perry's…

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

For when you want practical evidence on teaching, retrieval, and teacher expertise.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Education Research Reading Room