Teach17

There is plenty of educational research available to teachers. The harder part is knowing what matters, what the research actually says and what it might look like in a busy classroom on Monday morning.

That is where InnerDrive has carved out an interesting role. The company specialises in cognitive science and evidence-informed education, offering teacher CPD, student workshops, parent sessions and its online Teacher CPD Academy. Its focus is not on providing another school management system or teaching scheme, but on helping schools think more carefully about how pupils learn and what teachers can do about it.

Here are 17 ways it could help your school.

1. Turn cognitive science into something teachers can actually use

Terms such as working memory, cognitive load, retrieval practice and metacognition now appear regularly in school improvement plans.

Understanding the terminology is one thing. Knowing what to do differently in Year 9 period five is another.

InnerDrive’s main strength is taking research and turning it into practical classroom approaches. Its teacher training covers areas including the Science of Learning, Rosenshine’s Principles, retrieval practice and cognitive load.

2. Help teachers understand memory

If information does not make its way into long-term memory, pupils are unlikely to be able to use it weeks or months later.

InnerDrive’s work explores the relationship between working memory and long-term memory and considers how lesson design can make learning more manageable.

Its Cognitive Load Theory training, for example, examines worked examples, scaffolding, split attention, redundancy and strategies for strengthening long-term memory.

That has obvious applications across the curriculum.

3. Make retrieval practice better

Many schools now begin lessons with retrieval questions.

But retrieval practice is more than putting five questions on the board.

Questions need to revisit useful material, be appropriately challenging and give pupils opportunities to correct errors. InnerDrive’s resources explore spacing, feedback, questioning and different forms of retrieval rather than treating retrieval as a fashionable starter activity.

4. Improve questioning

Good teachers constantly need to know: Have they actually understood this?

InnerDrive’s training around Rosenshine’s Principles includes questioning, cold calling and wait time alongside modelling and scaffolding.

These are small classroom techniques, but used consistently they can give teachers much better information about what pupils know.

5. Help teachers manage cognitive load

Sometimes pupils struggle because the material is difficult. Sometimes they struggle because the way it has been presented has made it unnecessarily difficult.

InnerDrive’s Cognitive Load Theory training looks at how teachers present new information and how techniques such as worked examples and scaffolding can reduce unnecessary demands on working memory.

This is particularly relevant when introducing complicated processes, equations or multi-stage tasks.

6. Strengthen adaptive teaching

Adaptive teaching does not mean preparing 30 completely different lessons.

It means noticing when pupils require more support or more challenge and adjusting teaching accordingly.

InnerDrive’s material on adaptive teaching considers explanations, modelling, questioning, practice, feedback and retrieval. It also looks at practical changes such as adding cues and scaffolds for pupils who need greater support, or removing them when pupils are ready for more independence.

7. Give teachers practical ideas for supporting SEND pupils

There is no single teaching strategy that works for every pupil with SEND.

However, ideas such as careful modelling, manageable cognitive load, explicit instruction, scaffolding, checking understanding and adapting practice can all be particularly important in mixed-attainment classrooms.

Because these areas feature strongly within InnerDrive’s work, its resources could form one useful part of a school’s wider approach to inclusive classroom teaching.

8. Make feedback more useful

Teachers can spend enormous amounts of time producing feedback that pupils barely use.

InnerDrive encourages schools to think about what happens after feedback is given.

Its adaptive-teaching material emphasises feedback that is actionable, timely and followed by an opportunity for pupils to respond. It also highlights the potential value of verbal feedback rather than assuming that everything important must be written in an exercise book.

That could lead to better feedback without automatically creating more marking.

9. Develop pupils’ metacognition

Strong learners gradually become better at deciding what to do when they get stuck.

InnerDrive’s Memory and Metacognition workshop teaches pupils to think about how they learn, monitor their understanding, ask themselves useful questions and select appropriate study strategies.

This area is supported by a substantial wider evidence base. The Education Endowment Foundation currently describes metacognition and self-regulation as a high-impact, very-low-cost approach when implemented effectively.

10. Improve the quality of GCSE and A-level revision

“Read your notes again” is not much of a revision strategy.

InnerDrive’s student work covers retrieval practice, spacing, memory, note-taking and independent study.

This could help schools give pupils a more coherent revision message across subjects rather than every department producing a completely different set of revision tips.

11. Help pupils understand why rereading can fool them

One of the problems with revision is that familiarity can feel like learning.

A page looks familiar, so a pupil assumes they know it.

Teaching pupils about retrieval and memory can help them move towards strategies where they actually have to produce an answer from memory.

InnerDrive’s student workshops explicitly explore what does and does not work well for memory, including retrieval practice and spacing.

12. Tackle concentration and mobile-phone distraction

This is increasingly difficult for schools to ignore.

InnerDrive now offers student workshops specifically on concentration and managing mobile phones, alongside its broader study-skills programme.

Even where a school has a strong phone policy during lessons, pupils still need to manage distractions when studying independently at home.

13. Help pupils deal with setbacks

Getting a disappointing test result, struggling with a new topic or making repeated mistakes can quickly knock a pupil’s confidence.

InnerDrive’s student programmes include work on motivation, growth mindset, perfectionism, setbacks and dealing with failure.

Used carefully, this can move resilience away from simply telling pupils to “try harder” and towards giving them practical ways to respond when something has gone wrong.

14. Build more independent learners

One theme running through much of InnerDrive’s student work is independence.

Its Memory and Metacognition programme, for example, encourages pupils to monitor their own learning, use feedback and ask themselves better questions.

The aim is not to remove teacher support. It is to help pupils gradually become less reliant on someone else telling them exactly what to do next.

15. Give CPD leaders ready-made material

Creating high-quality professional development from scratch takes time.

InnerDrive’s Teacher CPD Academy contains more than 20 topic areas, interactive courses, expert interviews and classroom materials. Its CPD Suite also includes nine editable training packages with presentation slides, staff handouts and additional resources.

For a teaching and learning lead or head of department, that could save a considerable amount of preparation.

16. Make CPD something that continues after INSET day

A good presentation in September does not automatically change teaching in November.

This is probably one of the more interesting aspects of InnerDrive’s model.

Schools can combine live training with the Teacher CPD Academy so staff can revisit ideas through shorter courses, videos, articles, quizzes, classroom examples and supporting resources.

That gives schools a better chance of turning one CPD session into an ongoing conversation.

17. Create a shared language about teaching and learning

Perhaps the biggest benefit is not any individual workshop.

A school can easily end up with one department talking about cognitive load, another about retrieval, another about Rosenshine and another using completely different terminology.

A coherent CPD programme can help staff understand how these ideas connect.

InnerDrive’s current Teacher CPD Academy covers more than 20 areas including metacognition, Rosenshine’s Principles, retrieval practice and Cognitive Load Theory, while its live training can be tailored to a school’s priorities.

That could help a school move from a collection of teaching initiatives towards a more consistent understanding of effective learning.

So, is InnerDrive worth considering?

Potentially, yes, particularly if your school is reviewing teaching and learning, cognitive science, revision, metacognition or whole-school CPD.

InnerDrive says it now works with more than 3,000 schools and its current offer extends well beyond one-off INSET sessions. Schools can choose from face-to-face CPD, student workshops, parent talks, online professional development and free resources.

But there is an important caveat.

Buying a workshop does not improve teaching by itself.

The more important question is what happens afterwards. Which ideas will teachers practise? How will departments adapt them for different subjects? When will staff revisit them? How will the school know whether anything has changed?

Used as the starting point for those conversations rather than as another isolated INSET session, InnerDrive could be a genuinely useful addition to a school’s professional development programme.

Find out more about InnerDrive: InnerDrive website