Why I teach in structures. And why it works.

I have always taught in structures because my brain works in structures. Everything fits into a category and has a logical place, and over time I have realised this is a significant part of why my students succeed.

Over the years, educational trends have come and gone. Growth mindset, learning styles, discovery learning, various waves of pedagogical fashion. Many contain useful ideas and I have explored them thoughtfully. But I always return to the same foundation: students learn most securely when knowledge is built into organised, reinforced schemas.

Cognitive psychology tells us that we organise knowledge into schemas, mental frameworks that help us encode, store and retrieve information efficiently. When new material fits into an existing structure, cognitive load reduces and learning strengthens. Research from Bartlett’s early work on schema theory through to Rumelhart’s models of organised knowledge, alongside Sweller’s cognitive load theory, consistently shows that learners retain and apply information more effectively when it connects to a coherent framework rather than isolated facts.

In class and tutoring, I reinforce this constantly. We recall essay plans from memory, redraw diagrams, map topics back onto the specification, and repeatedly ask, “Where does this fit?” AO1 has a defined role, AO3 has a defined structure, and application has a precise function. Nothing is vague and nothing is accidental. Students know exactly what a high-level answer looks like and where each component belongs, which allows them to think more deeply rather than guess what the examiner wants.

I believe this structured approach, where knowledge is categorised, practised and reinforced until it becomes automatic, is one of the reasons 45% of my students achieved an A* last year. Structure does not limit thinking; it enables it. Once the framework is secure, confidence and nuance can grow.