The Problem with Teaching is Learning

Teaching Is Visible. Learning Is Invisible. How teachers search for evidence that learning has actually happened.

The true goal of teaching lies in something they cannot see directly - learning. Photo by Gülfer ERGİN on Unsplash

Teachers spend most of their time doing things that are visible. Explaining ideas, modelling processes, asking questions and designing activities. But the most important thing in education cannot be seen at all.

Learning.

It happens quietly inside the learner’s mind, often long after the lesson has finished. This raises a fundamental question: how do we know when children have actually learned something?

This question sits at the heart of research in educational psychology and the learning sciences. Teachers can carefully design lessons and activities, but teaching does not automatically produce learning. Because learning cannot be observed directly, educators must rely on evidence such as changes in understanding, behaviour, and performance to infer whether learning has taken place. As John Hattie argues, learning itself is largely invisible and must be inferred from the evidence that pupils produce.

It is tempting to assume that if something has been taught clearly, it has also been learned. Anyone who has spent time in a classroom knows this is not always true. A teacher may explain an idea carefully, provide examples, and guide pupils through practice. They might regularly check for understanding using hinge questions, mini whiteboards and multiple-choice questions. In the moment, everything appears to make sense. Pupils nod along, answer questions, and complete the activity. Yet when the same idea appears again later, perhaps on a test or in a different context, many pupils struggle.

This gap between teaching and learning has long been recognised by psychologists such as Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. Both argued that learning involves changes in how children think, not simply exposure to information.

Learning is reflected in shifts in children’s thinking processes and changes in brain structure and function. Photo by Milad Fakurian on Unsplash

Because learning is invisible, teachers must look for signs that it has taken place. These signs rarely come from a single moment. Instead, they appear through patterns of behaviour and understanding over time.

One clear indicator is observing performance. If a child can now do something they could not do before such as solve a problem, read a passage, or explain a concept this suggests learning has occurred. However, performance alone can sometimes be misleading. A pupil might repeat a procedure exactly as it was demonstrated without fully understanding it.

Another powerful indicator is explanation. When children can explain an idea in their own words, they reveal how they are organising that knowledge in their minds. Their explanations show not only what they know, but how they are thinking.

Educational frameworks such as the taxonomy developed by Benjamin Bloom highlight that learning progresses through different levels of cognitive complexity. Pupils may begin by remembering information, but deeper learning occurs when they can explain, apply, analyse, and eventually create new ideas using that knowledge.

Perhaps the strongest sign of learning is transfer, the ability to use knowledge in a new situation.

Imagine a pupil who has learned how to use expanded noun phrases in English lessons and then can apply this learning when visiting the aquarium at the weekend:

“Look, a massive, fierce shark.”

When this happens, it is evidence that knowledge has become flexible. Transfer shows that learning is not simply memorised information but part of a growing system of understanding that can be applied in different contexts.

Another challenge is that learning rarely happens instantly. Understanding often develops gradually through repeated encounters with an idea. A concept that seems confusing one week may suddenly make sense the next. Pupils need time to reflect, revisit, and reorganise what they have heard.

Cognitive scientist Daniel T. Willingham describes learning as the lasting residue of thought, emphasising that what pupils think about and process deeply is what they are most likely to remember.

Research by psychologist Robert A. Bjork also suggests that learning often benefits from what he calls desirable difficulties. Strategies such as spacing practice, retrieving information from memory, and revisiting ideas over time can make learning feel harder in the moment, but they strengthen long-term understanding and retention.

This is why effective teaching rarely relies on a single explanation. Instead, ideas are revisited, explored from different angles, and applied in multiple contexts.

All of this creates a dilemma for teachers. Their work is judged largely by what they do: the lessons they plan, the explanations they give, the activities they organise.

Yet the true goal of teaching lies in something they cannot see directly.

Learning.

Teachers therefore spend much of their time acting like investigators. They observe how pupils respond, listen carefully to their explanations, and design tasks that reveal what pupils really understand. As assessment researcher Dylan Wiliam argues, effective teaching involves continually creating opportunities to elicit evidence of pupils’ thinking so that instruction can be adapted in response.

Recognising the difference between teaching and learning changes how we think about education. It reminds us that a successful lesson is not simply one that is well delivered, but one that produces lasting changes in understanding.

Teaching is visible. Learning is invisible. So, the real work of teaching lies in learning how to see the invisible.

References and Further Reading

Bjork, Robert A., R. A., & Bjork, E. L. (2011). Making Things Hard on Yourself, But in a Good Way: Creating Desirable Difficulties to Enhance Learning. In M. A. Gernsbacher et al. (Eds.), Psychology and the Real World: Essays Illustrating Fundamental Contributions to Society.

Bloom, Benjamin, B. S. (Ed.). (1956). Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York: Longmans.

Dunlosky, John, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, Daniel T. (2013). Improving Students’ Learning with Effective Learning Techniques: Promising Directions from Cognitive and Educational Psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

Hattie, John, J. (2009). Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement. Routledge.

Hendrick, Carl & Kirschner, Paul A. (2020). How Learning Happens: Seminal Works in Educational Psychology and What They Mean in Practice. Routledge.

Kirschner, Paul A., P. A., Sweller, John, J., & Clark, R. E. (2006). Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work. Educational Psychologist.

Piaget, Jean, J. (1952). The Origins of Intelligence in Children. International Universities Press.

Vygotsky, Lev, L. S. (1978). Mind in Society: The Development of Higher Psychological Processes. Harvard University Press.

Wiliam, Dylan, D. (2011). Embedded Formative Assessment. Solution Tree Press.

Willingham, Daniel T., D. T. (2009). Why Don’t Students Like School? Jossey-Bass.