Page 45 - EngineerIT AugustSeptember Issue 2026

Adults are often expected to manage this without sufficient
clarity, practice or feedback. When they struggle, organisations
may classify the problem as performance rather than learning
or design.

Teams also need to investigate how attention, prior knowledge,
motivation, language, access and environment affect what
people can do with a system.

Learning science makes teams more precise about the human
outcome, the assumptions beneath the design and the
evidence of whether the technology has achieved its purpose.

The question beneath the technology
HOW LEARNING
Dick applies these questions through learning science and
EdTech. I have encountered them through classrooms,
neurodiversity and work between families, schools and SCIENCE CAN BE
organisations. We arrived through different experiences, but
USEFUL FOR YOU
shared a refusal to accept an outcome without examining
what produced it.

Why is the user resisting the platform? What has the WHAT IS LEARNING SCIENCE?
organisation asked people to do without creating the • It is the study of how people learn using insights
conditions that would make it possible? Which process is from psychology, neuroscience and education.
necessary and which exists because it always has? Where is • Focuses on improving learning outcomes through
the person affected by the decision while it is being made? research-based strategies.
• Helps individuals of all ages learn more effectively
Wherever technology meets human behaviour, these and efficiently.
questions move the conversation beyond whether a product
works towards whether it works for the people and purpose for KEY BENEFITS OF LEARNING SCIENCE
which it was created. • Enhances memory retention and recall.
• Makes studying more efficient and organised.
The cost reaches beyond wasted development spend or • Helps manage time and reduce learning stress.
disappointing adoption. In Dick’s example, a year of a child’s • Contributes to both academic and personal
learning time has been used. In a workplace, the result may growth.
be repeated errors, duplicated effort or skilled people being
judged against a system that has made their work harder. PROVEN STRATEGIES
• Active recall helps reinforce memory through
People are, in Dick’s words, “cavalier with time”, particularly self-testing.
when the time belongs to an end user who had little say in • Spaced repetition strengthens retention over
the design. longer periods.
• Multimodal learning involves using different
The issue is therefore ethical as well as technical. Technology methods such as reading, writing and visual aids.
becomes human-centred when the reality of the person • Pomodoro Technique boosts focus with timed
using it can alter what is built, how success is measured and study intervals and short breaks.
what the organisation does when the expected outcome
OVERCOMING LEARNING CHALLENGES
does not appear.
• Procrastination is reduced by breaking tasks into
What are we failing to understand about the human being smaller goals.
inside the system? • Difficulty focusing is managed with structured
study routines.
Understanding should not be postponed until implementation • Poor retention is improved through spaced reviews
and practice.
has failed. It must begin before major design assumptions
• Complex topics become easier with step-by-step
become fixed and remain part of development, testing and
explanations and visual learning.
implementation.

45 | EngineerIT August/September 2026