Instructional Illusions
In classrooms worldwide, we often confuse busyness with learning, novelty with effectiveness, and engagement with deep understanding. In Instructional Illusions, Kirschner, Hendrick and Heal (2025) pull back the curtain on ten pervasive but misleading assumptions about teaching and learning—what look like good practices on the surface, but which cognitive science shows are often counterproductive. This post walks through each illusion and suggests ways instructional designers and teachers can sidestep them—so we focus less on what feels good, and more on what actually works.
The Engagement Illusion
The misconception that a busy student or a happy student equates to deep, meaningful learning. Students can be highly engaged and still not be learning, or appear bored while doing the deep, cognitive work required for retention.
Counter with: Design activities that require students to actively process information, not just be busy or entertained. Use retrieval practice, elaboration, and reflection—rather than simply participation. Along with group activity, build in opportunities for individual retrieval practice, like low-stakes quizzes or “think-pair-share” exercises.
The Expertise Illusion
The trap where expert teachers struggle to teach beginners because their own extensive, automated knowledge (their expertise) makes it hard for them to remember what it’s like to not know the basics (the Curse of Knowledge).
Counter with: Don’t just present your subject-matter expertise. Carefully scaffold content from simple to complex. Break down complex topics into smaller, manageable chunks and provide explicit instruction, lots of examples, and practice for each step before moving on.
The Student-Centred Illusion
The student-centred illusion stems from the idea that student-centred learning and teacher-led instruction exist as a false binary (an “either/or” situation), forcing educators to choose one side over the other
Counter with: Balance student autonomy with clear guidance. While student-centered learning has value, foundational knowledge often requires direct, explicit instruction. Reserve student-led activities for applying concepts after students have a solid grasp of the fundamentals.
The Transfer Illusion
The overly optimistic assumption that skills learned in one context will automatically and easily transfer to completely new, different contexts or domains, ignoring the need for explicit instruction and practice in applying knowledge.
Counter with: Design for transfer by having students practice skills in varied contexts. Don’t just teach a concept and test it in the same way. Present problems that require students to apply the same core principle to different scenarios to show them how knowledge can be used in the real world.
The Easy-Wins Illusion
The seductive idea that learning should be quick, easy, and stress-free for the student. This ignores the robust finding in cognitive science that effortful, challenging practice (desirable difficulties) is what builds strong, lasting memory.
Counter with: Embrace desirable difficulties. Effective learning doesn’t always feel easy. Incorporate strategies like spaced practice (revisiting topics over time) and interleaved practice (mixing different types of problems) to make learning more challenging in the short term, which leads to better retention long-term.
The Motivation Illusion
The assumption that you must motivate students before they learn, when the reality is that the most powerful motivation comes after a student experiences success and competence (mastery) from effective instruction.
Counter with: Focus on designing for success, not just trying to motivate students directly. Students are most motivated when they feel competent. A well-structured course with clear objectives, manageable tasks, and supportive feedback builds competence, which in turn fosters motivation.
The Discovery Illusion
The idea that students learn best when they discover new concepts entirely on their own without any explicit guidance. Research consistently shows that minimal guidance often leads to frustration, inefficiency, and the learning of misconceptions.
Counter with: Don’t force students to “discover” foundational knowledge on their own. Instead, use a guided discovery approach. Provide enough structure and guidance to prevent frustration while allowing students to construct connections for themselves, which is more effective than unguided, free-form exploration.
The Uniqueness Illusion
The notion that every student’s learning process is fundamentally unique and requires a completely individualized teaching method. While differences exist, the core principles of how the human brain learns are universal and should guide instruction.
Counter with: Acknowledge individual differences but design based on universal principles of learning. While every student is unique, cognitive science offers a strong foundation for how the human brain learns. Design your core curriculum around these principles and then offer a few optional pathways or resources for different learning needs.
The Performance Illusion
The false confidence that high performance during a lesson (like answering practice questions immediately after a topic is taught) signals lasting learning. This high short-term performance often fades quickly, and true learning is measured by retention and application much later.
Counter with: Differentiate between short-term performance and long-term learning. Use a variety of assessments, including cumulative exams that require students to recall information from throughout the course. This encourages them to move beyond short-term memorization and work toward true mastery.
The Innovation Illusion
The misplaced belief that new, flashy, or technologically-driven teaching methods are inherently superior to proven, evidence-based methods, simply because they are “innovative” or current.
Counter with: Critically evaluate new technologies and pedagogical fads. Start with the learning goal, not the tool. Only adopt a new method or technology if there is strong evidence that it will demonstrably improve learning outcomes. A simple, well-designed course is always more effective than a “flashy” one that lacks a solid instructional foundation.
Categories article, engagement, Science of Teaching and Learning, student success