To Think Deeply, We Have to Know Deeply
Vincent Chian
Driving Innovation in Education | Inspiring the Next Generation | Leading with Passion, Vision, and Excellence in Education
Teacher Andi stood frozen at the whiteboard. Her Year 10s had just googled the definition of mitochondria, read it aloud, then moved on as if the knowledge had fused with their brains. Research says otherwise: students recall 40 percent fewer facts when they believe the information is stored online (Sparrow et al.). At the same time, a meta-analysis of over 200 controlled contrasts shows practice testing delivers a large retention boost (d = 0.70) (Adesope et al.). The gap between what the class thought they knew and what they could truly retrieve made Andi’s stomach knot 😬.
The Skill Illusion
The IB loves inquiry, but Andi noticed colleagues skipping factual drills in favour of project time. She dug into the literature and found that early numeracy skills predict later mathematics achievement at r = 0.49 (Jordan et al.). If basic facts matter this much, ignoring them is like skipping scaffolding when building a skyscraper. She shared the finding in the staff room, and one teacher sighed, “Facts are old school.” Andi replied, “Fluency is rocket fuel for thinking 🚀.”
Determined, she mapped every MYP science unit to non-negotiable knowledge objectives. Her subtle promise echoed Fairview’s ethos of substance over show. Students received vocabulary lists, five-minute recall drills, and colour-coded knowledge organisers.
Retrieval in Action
Resistance came fast. A senior colleague called quizzes “pedantic.” Andi countered with evidence: practice-testing versus restudy cuts forgetting almost in half (g = 0.61) (Rowland). She kept quizzes low-stakes. Stickers instead of grades, so safety remained intact 🙂. Within three weeks, the class average on open-response items jumped 11 percentage points. More surprising, discussions deepened. When Andi posed a Socratic question on cellular respiration, students no longer reached for tablets. They leaned on memory, freeing up bandwidth for analysis.
From Recall to Reasoning
Andi’s most anxious student, Mei, once blanked during presentations. After a fortnight of daily “three-fact flashes,” Mei quoted the Krebs cycle unprompted and then connected it to endurance sports. Research notes that prior knowledge lowers cognitive load, mediating 12 percent of learning engagement gains (Berger & Leclerc). Mei’s transformation proved the point 🌱.
When the department reviewed mid-term data, factual questions saw the steepest rise, yet higher-order questions rose too. Knowing deeply had unlocked thinking deeply. Peers who doubted her approach now asked for her templates. Andi smiled, but she knew the work had just begun.
A Provocative Plea
Progressive curricula are in danger of producing eloquent students who sound smart while outsourcing memory to the cloud. That is educational malpractice. If hospitals tolerated a 92 percent dosage-calculation failure rate (Simonsen et al.), patients would flee. Our learners deserve the same respect for intellectual safety 💡.
Audit your schemes of work this week. Strip out fluff. Embed retrieval every lesson. Facts are not the enemy of creativity; they are its ancestor. Let us build classrooms where knowledge is stored in the one place AI cannot hack, the disciplined human mind. Share this with a colleague who thinks “looking it up” is learning.
Deep knowledge is the only path to deep thought, and tomorrow’s thinkers are waiting for us to teach it right.
Works Cited
Adesope, Olusola, et al. “Retrieval Practice and Learning: A Meta-Analytic Review.” Educational Psychology Review, vol. 29, no. 4, 2017, pp. 681-704. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-017-9433-z
Berger, Sarah, and Félix Leclerc. “Prior Knowledge, Cognitive Load, and Engagement in Secondary Students.” Journal of Educational Research, vol. 118, no. 2, 2025, pp. 140-152.
Jordan, Nancy C., et al. “Number Sense Growth in Kindergarten Predicts Mathematical Achievement in Fifth Grade.” Developmental Psychology, vol. 45, no. 3, 2009, pp. 850-867. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014939
Rowland, Christopher A. “The Effect of Testing versus Restudy on Retention: A Meta-Analytic Review of the Testing Effect.” Psychological Bulletin, vol. 140, no. 6, 2014, pp. 1432-1463. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0037559
Sparrow, Betsy, et al. “Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips.” Science, vol. 333, no. 6040, 2011, pp. 776-778. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1207745
Gifted Education Specialist | Founding Director, Passend Education Sdn. Bhd. | Business Consultant | Entrepreneur | Executive Search Consultant | Key note speaker
1moFacts are essential! We apply most of the above, except replacing the low stakes quizzes with something tangible. Either specific self reflection tools, mind maps or other left brain activation activities. We also use gamified versions of this. When working with exam students we look for at least 6 type of recall activities that are different as to prevent boredom. The most important part is to look for a motivator to commit to the work. This involves explaining/letting run into a natural need for the ready knowledge. Once this work happens we positively reinforce it for growth mindset. I believes going back to quizzes puts danger on fixed mindset formation which is the original reason we should be moving to inquiry based learning. Stickers are still an extrinsic motivator to some!
Love this, Vincent. So true!