Hello! Welcome back to these updates after a short (shorter than usual, actually!) summer hiatus.
I couldn’t wait to get back to things, and as I mentioned back in July, one of the first topics I’ll hit relates to the concepts of episodic and semantic memory – key concepts in the science of memory, but less fully covered in discussions of pedagogy compared to ideas like cognitive load and desirable difficulties.
Look out for that next week.
The following week, I’ll also be returning to the idea of practitioner ‘action’ research. I’ll cover some of the key pitfalls, but also provide some guidelines in a pair of new posts (following on from one that I wrote back in December – see update #131). I hope that these posts will be well timed for anyone who is undertaking classroom-based research in the coming months.
My forthcoming book, The Psychology of Education, is a textbook aimed at students of Education, particularly those new to the subject (either undergraduate or postgraduate). It is also very relevant to teaching courses and to teachers and other education professionals. I think it would be a very good resource for a CPD library, too!
Example topics that each have their own chapter include: Working memory, long-term memory, motivation, reading, writing, learning theories, brain and development, to name but a few … in short, a lot of core psychology/education content over 22 chapters in total.
The current status is that I have sent off the final edited draft, so the book is in production, and I will be dealing with copy-edit queries and proofs in the coming weeks. It therefore won’t be published for a few months yet, which is not great news for anyone just beginning a course next month – sorry! However, it will be out in plenty of time to review it ahead of the next academic year.
A wee reminder that I’m running a 1-day seminar in Glasgow on the theme of memory and education (broadly defined!). It’s free to attend. More info below:
Link to attend the event:
Before I sign off, here is a recent read that I enjoyed and which is very relevant to readers of these updates:
Smith, M. (2026). Smarter: Lessons from the new science of learning. David Fulton.
Marc Smith is an author who I’ve worked with in the past, and whose expertise includes both memory and social-emotional side of learning. It’s a very readable and valuable book, and I’ve already cited it myself! You can also find Marc’s Substack posts here.
All the best for the coming week,
Jonathan
Last time: Summer Recap and What’s Next
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