Using Schema Theory to Understand How Students Learn
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How can understanding memory’s three steps boost your teaching impact?
Schema theory simplifies learning into encoding, storing, and retrieving information—teachers can use this framework to design better lessons and rethink curriculum planning.
Recent research, Innovations with Schema Theory: Modern Implications for Learning, Memory, and Academic Achievement (Meylani, 2024) explains how schema theory frames learning. In three simple stages:
- encoding (processing new information),
- storing (organising it), and
- retrieving (recalling it when needed).
This approach reveals how students’ mental frameworks – or schemas – impact attention, memory, and comprehension. By understanding these stages, teachers can better design lessons and improve curriculum effectiveness.
Schema is best described as a mental filing systems; this help students make sense of new information by connecting it to prior knowledge. Perhaps consider your clothes wardrobe at home. How do you store your t-shirts and trousers? Are they categorised and grouped together, or are they all jumbled up in a mess?
The more organised the information is, the easier it is to build on it and retrieve.
Reflection questions for teachers
- How do teachers activate students’ prior schemas at the start of each lesson?
- What strategies help students encode new material effectively?
- How can teachers help students store information for long-term memory?
- What retrieval practices can teachers incorporate to strengthen knowledge recall?
- How can curriculum design support the encode, store, retrieve cycle?
- How do teachers identify and address misconceptions in students’ schemas?
- What tools (e.g., concept maps, analogies) enhance schema-driven learning?
- How do teachers ensure lessons connect to prior knowledge across subjects?
- What strategies can encourage critical thinking and challenge flawed schemas?
- How can SEND needs be met using schema theory in diverse classrooms?
Teachers can embed the encode, store, retrieve cycle in lessons by activating prior knowledge through questioning or visuals, reinforcing storage with concept maps, and boosting retrieval with quizzes or discussions. Curriculum planning should revisit key ideas regularly to strengthen schema connections across time.
The research concludes
While schema theory provides valuable insights, there are areas for further research and development, such as investigating individual differences.
