Slow learning

"The Educationalist", by Alexandra Mihai

Welcome to a new issue of “The Educationalist”! For this first edition of 2026 (skipped January, sorry… life just got in the way) I want us to take a deep breath and slow down. Yes, I know I am asking for much. Unfortunately, this is the case for many of us. But let’s give it a try, albeit even just for the duration of reading this post (although I certainly wish the impact lasted a bit longer, at least for the entire week :)). Our lives are so fast paced, flooded with stimuli and requests for immediate input. Should our classrooms also look and feel like that? Is this helping the learning? If we’re honest, we have to agree it’s not. But we’re also often running on autopilot, joining our students (or drawing them?) in a hamster wheel that just keeps turning. So today I want us to contemplate the idea of slow learning. How would this look like? What do we need to put it in practice? How would it benefit our students, and how do we get them in the mindset for it? I’ll explore some ideas and add some resources, as usual, and I am looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Have a nice week ahead!

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Just imagine this…

Walk into the classroom.
Give students pens and paper. No, they most likely won't have their own. Who owns analogue tools anymore? Tell them this is a device-free moment. You will get some eyes rolling, but eventually everyone will close their laptops and put their phones away.
Ask them to work individually on a task for 10 minutes. It can be anything- more or less- related to the topic of your course. Something without a quick answer they can just look up. Something that requires some deep(er) thinking and connection-making.
All they need to do is sit in silence, think and (hand)write. Yet, this seems to be so much more difficult than any other task we could give them.
Count until they get bored and start fidgeting, talking to each other or desperately waiting to scroll on their phone.
If you're lucky, you reach 5 minutes.
Sad but true.

The problem

Education has become so transactional.

We are all bombarded with so many stimuli and conditioned to act and respond fast, swiftly moving from task to task. Unconsciously, we internalise the efficiency mantra we keep hearing these days.

The result? We begin to see thinking as a luxury. There is so much “noise” that we cannot hear our thoughts anymore. Students hardly see the value of deep thinking either. They lose patience easily. They seek fast rewards. They demand immediate answers, feedback, grades. They take shortcuts. All with the aim of achieving goals quicker.

But what if the goal was the way? What if they realised that by slowing down and taking each step mindfully they gain more than by rushing through the process?

All they need is guidance and space to practice deep thinking, instead of constantly focusing on task after task, losing track of the bigger picture. Yet, most courses don't explicitly provide that, for fear of falling behind on content (oh, the Holy Content!). So here are some ideas on how we can embed such moments in an effective way; it often takes just a small tweak into what we are already doing- different tools, a slightly modified task, a changed environment or setting. And, of course, reflection and open discussion, to close the loop.

The truth about learning

The scenario above is from a course I was teaching last semester, a skills course where students had to work on new competencies and reflect on the process. I was quite taken aback, I must say, to observe students’ reactions. To see how uncomfortable they were with silence. How new the idea of “just sitting and thinking” was to them. How unfamiliar they found the idea of handwriting.

I kept thinking that, if this is the case, we are doing something wrong. We are missing the point, and as a result, they are missing the point. Alas, all we hear around us these days is how to train students to make better use of GenAI. I felt a huge dissonance. I was almost violently pushed back into thinking what really matters, as we go about the daily business of shaping young minds. We keep rushing to try to keep the pace with overcrowded curricula, overzealous assessment strategies, rigid accreditation criteria, new and intrusive technologies, a raging world… And we often feel like we are getting nowhere. We are somehow always behind.

But what if we could take back control and set our own rhythm? Not chasing external factors but focusing on what should, in fact, take place in our classroom. Focusing on learning. Slow, patient learning.

These days, this is an act of resistance. Are we up for it?

We can start by acknowledging, together with our students, that learning takes time, and that’s ok. Everyone learns at their own pace, some topics are more complex and take longer to process, some skills take a lot of practice. Learning takes patience.

Then, I feel we need to talk more- with students and with colleagues- about learning as a process, instead of focusing so much on the end products (exams, papers, presentations, etc).

For me slow learning involves:

• Focused reading: reading to understand (as opposed to reading to answer a question in the exam), to absorb ideas, enrich your vocabulary, access other minds and worlds; something you can never get from an automatically generated summary;

• Deep thinking: going beyond quick answers, making connections, nurturing new ideas, testing them, reflecting, letting your mind wander and bringing it back- think of it as sending your mind to the gym- doing it regularly and creating a habit of it really pays off;

• Meaningful conversations: practicing active listening, exchanging ideas freely but always respectfully, building and supporting an argument; co-constructing ideas;

• Cultivating attention: being intentional about where you direct your attention, actively turning away from distractions, noticing your surroundings and yourself, being fully present with whatever you are doing.

For how many of these do you currently make space in your classroom in an explicit way?

Re-thinking the environment

For all of the above to take place, we need to reconsider both our learning environment and our learning design. Let’s first turn to the learning environment. This is something we so often take for granted, ignoring the fact that we can actively shape it.

Slow learning starts by reclaiming time and space. This may include rethinking the way our physical classrooms look like (especially if we are lucky to have flexible furniture), using virtual spaces intentionally when they bring added value, or even taking our students to more unconventional learning spaces- outdoors on a sunny spring day, walking or on a study visit. This spatial element, though often overlooked, has a very important role in rewiring our brains and helping us learn.

Another way to claim space, mental space this time, is to try to reduce distractions. I am not suggesting we entirely ban digital devices from our classrooms (though in some cases this may actually work). I am thinking more in terms of embedding device-free moments in our classes- moments where the focus is on deep thinking or connecting with peers, not looking for answers. The added benefit is that students can use these moments to practice working with analogue tools like pen and paper, an aspect almost forgotten, despite the proven cognitive benefits.

Last but not least, slowly moving into learning design, it’s important to provide students with some tangible incentives to play along (at last until it hopefully becomes a habit). Rethinking assessment and especially the use of grading to de-centre immediate rewards can be a starting point. I find this extremely difficult, as it really means breaking the vicious circle, but we have to start somewhere. And of course, we need to be honest, communicate this explicitly to students and trying, through sustained practice and reflection, to get them to a point where the benefits become obvious to them.

Slow learning in practice

The good news is that we can start small. We don’t have to change our whole syllabus to include moments of slow learning. We can build in small elements, see if/ how they work, adjust, and try again. In the end it’s more about changing the rhythm, sometimes the medium or the environment, end eventually, hopefully, the mindset.

Here are some ideas you might want to try, to support…

• …reading:

  • scaffolding reading tasks with questions and meaning-making exercises; this can easily be done in an online asynchronous mode, using the discussion board of a VLE for instance;

  • annotation- digital or analogue, individual or in pairs/ small groups, in class or in preparation for class;

  • note-taking: opportunities to practice the skill of capturing the essence of a text in your own words; always more effective when handwritten;

• …thinking

  • making connections: have students draw mind-maps of specific concepts they are learning; you can provide templates for them to fill in (to avoid the black page); pen & paper & device-free works best as they cannot simply look-up and copy-paste the answers without thinking;

  • reflection: embed short reflective moments or assignments; they can be more structured or rather informal, individual or collective- you can find some ideas here;

  • creativity: break the pattern, try something new, have students play around with the ideas & concepts in new ways; all you need is some large pieces of paper, colourful pens & markers and post-its.

• …conversation

  • active listening exercises: have students talk to each other, in a device-free environment, and then use the information retrieved through conversation in another activity;

  • "Yes, and ..." and "No, but ..." techniques, used in improvisational comedy, to train the skill of refining and challenging ideas in a constructive manner;

• …attention

  • treasure hunt: ask your students to collect/ record various pieces of information on the topic of next week’s class; they can be snippets of conversation they hear, videos, podcasts, newspaper articles… This will make them receptive to the topic and their findings can enrich the class discussion;

  • attention monitoring: ask students to make a chart (in whatever form they want) to record they attention levels at certain moments in class. Ask them to do it for a few weeks and then reflect on it. If you think it’s useful, have a class discussion on this topic.

  • more tips to cultivate attention here.

Regardless of which slow learning moment you choose and how you embed it in your class, the most important thing is that it provides students with an opportunity to slow down, enjoy silence, put away their digital devices for a bit, be in tune with their thoughts and with each other and practice patience. In a few years they will thank you for it. Because this will not only improve learning but will eventually have a positive impact on our life and our students’ lives.

Resources

Ness Letters: Cognitive Luxuries: interesting blog written by Anne-Laure Le Cunff (I recommend subscribing to her newsletter); this post is about cultivating spaciousness, agency and depth in our thinking;

Ness Letters: Analog Renaissance: same blog, this time an insightful article about how to bring back the analogue to parts of our life;

An Introduction to Slow Thinking Pedagogy: another one to subscribe to- Lily Abadal’s blog “Wisdom in th Machine Age” is full of ideas on how to implement slow learning in the classroom- all tried and tested by her;

Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman: a book that explains the two systems that drive the way we think: System 1- fast, intuitive & emotional and System- slower, more deliberative and more logical;

Why Writing by Hand Is Better for Memory and Learning, by Charlotte Hu: some evidence on the benefits of handwriting for learning;

“Give me a break!” A systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of micro-breaks for increasing well-being and performance: some evidence on positive of small breaks;

What is “Yutori”: learn more about the Japanese concept of “spaciousness” or “room to breathe”.

Photo by Javier Mazzeo on Unsplash