How learning works
How success builds belief, and how students learn to manage their own learning. Here you'll find reading and podcast episodes on motivation, self-efficacy, metacognition and study strategies. Many of them make the case that success comes first and belief follows.
Practices in this area:Mastery experiencesAttributionStudy strategiesSelf-regulation
Webinar
Think Forward Educators, with Peps Mccrea · About 1 hour · 2026 · UK
Peps Mccrea sets out a framework of five evidence-informed strategies teachers can use to lift learning, motivation and equity.
FreeOpens at thinkforwardeducators.org
Talk
researchED, with Peps Mccrea and Caroline Spalding · About 1 hour · UK
Peps Mccrea and Caroline Spalding's researchED Home session on using the science of motivation in schools. A starting point for staff discussion about student motivation.
FreeOpens at youtube.com
Talk
Macquarie University Centre for Reading · About 50 minutes · Australia
A Macquarie University Centre for Reading seminar asking why children who struggle with reading are more likely to have emotional difficulties. A reminder to watch wellbeing alongside intervention.
FreeOpens at youtube.com
Webinar
ADHD Australia, with Rebecca McLinden · About 35 minutes · Australia
Behaviour analyst Rebecca McLinden, speaking for ADHD Australia, on how ADHD affects the way rewards work, and why motivation and consistency can be hard to keep up.
FreeOpens at youtube.com
Webinar
Positive Partnerships · About 45 minutes · 2026 · Australia
A recorded webinar on planning, shifting attention, flexible thinking and self-regulation in young autistic people, with slides, a strategy list for home and school and a planning template.
FreeOpens at positivepartnerships.com.au
Metacognition
Evidence into Action
Alex Quigley and Corinne Settle discuss implementing metacognitive strategies, with experts and practitioners describing what the approaches look like in practice and their effect on learners.
FreeOpens at evidenceintoaction.podbean.com
Study habits
Education Research Reading Room · with Daniel Willingham
Daniel Willingham discusses his book Outsmart Your Brain, explaining why learning is hard and which study habits help students learn independently.
FreeOpens at ollielovell.com
Motivation
Education Research Reading Room · with Peps Mccrea
Peps Mccrea discusses his book Motivated Teaching and how to build students' motivation to learn in the classroom.
FreeOpens at ollielovell.com
Rebecca Birch (On Education) · Substack · 2026 · Australia
Birch questions the hunt for intrinsic motivation in school subjects and describes realistic alternatives, such as teacher enthusiasm, clear rationales and success, that support students' effort and learning.
FreeOpens at rebeccabirch.substack.com
Craig Barton (Tips for Teachers) · Substack · 2026 · UK
Barton unpacks a study of primary maths worksheets pairing correct and incorrect worked examples with self-explanation prompts, looking at their effect on students' motivation and how they view errors.
FreeOpens at tipsforteachers.substack.com
Jamie Clark · Poster · Australia
An A3 poster on retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, dual coding and elaboration, explaining why and how to use each. Suitable to share with secondary students and families.
FreeOpens at jamieleeclark.com
Stephanie Dehghani, Think Forward Educators · Blog post · 2026 · Australia
Stephanie Dehghani takes Graham Nuthall's line that ability is the consequence, not the cause, of what children learn, and considers what it means for supporting every student.
Opens at thinkforwardeducators.org
Nathaniel Swain · Substack · 2026 · Australia
Swain describes two classroom cultures that block learning, opting out and perfectionism, and explains how a deliberate culture of error and expected participation helps students take the risks learning needs.
FreeOpens at nathanielswain.substack.com
Carl Hendrick (The Learning Dispatch) · Substack · 2026 · UK
Hendrick reviews new evidence that growth mindset interventions do little for achievement on their own, and argues that real success through effective practice is what builds students' belief in themselves.
FreeOpens at carlhendrick.substack.com
Natalie Wexler (Minding the Gap) · Substack · 2025 · USA
Wexler argues that motivation tends to follow achievement, so clear teaching that lets students succeed is a more reliable way to motivate them than choice, relevance or rewards.
FreeOpens at nataliewexler.substack.com
Greg Ashman (Filling the Pail) · Substack · 2025 · Australia
The last in Ashman's series takes on the claim that explicit teaching kills motivation, arguing from experience and research that early success through clear instruction is what motivates learners.
FreeOpens at fillingthepail.substack.com
Daisy Christodoulou (No More Marking) · Substack · 2026 · UK
Christodoulou explains why tailoring lessons to students' interests rarely improves learning, and warns that arguments for personalisation often promise better pacing but deliver isolated screen time.
FreeOpens at substack.nomoremarking.com
Doug Lemov (Doug Lemov's Field Notes) · Substack · 2026 · USA
Drawing on Peps Mccrea's work, Lemov explains how students' sense of what peers approve of shapes their behaviour, and how teachers can amplify positive norms, especially around academic effort.
FreeOpens at douglemov.substack.com
Craig Barton (Tips for Teachers) · Substack · 2026 · UK
Barton summarises a very large international analysis linking maths anxiety with lower achievement, and considers what teachers can reasonably take from a correlational finding of this kind.
FreeOpens at tipsforteachers.substack.com
Rebecca Birch (On Education) · Substack · 2025 · Australia
Using her own fear of flying, Birch argues that school accommodations for anxiety can reinforce avoidance, and that participation and low-stakes testing better support students' competence and belonging.
FreeOpens at rebeccabirch.substack.com
Jamie Clark · One-page guide · Australia
Explains why students remember what they produce themselves, and offers five classroom moves for sequencing AI use so it does not take over the thinking students need to do.
FreeOpens at jamieleeclark.com
Garon-Carrier and colleagues · 2016 · Longitudinal study
Opens at selfdeterminationtheory.org
Newsletter · UK
Opens at snacks.pepsmccrea.com
Blog and downloads · USA
Opens at learningscientists.org
