Presented by: Peng

Cognitive and academic skills are crucial for child development. Traditionally, therelationship between these skills has been viewed as static, with cognitive skills being the investing variable for academic success. That is, students rely on cognition to process information, understand and remember concepts, and apply knowledge in various learning contexts. However, recent research highlights an educational connection between cognition and academic skills. This article presents some contemporary research to emphasize this evolving perspective. First, I discuss studies on the mutualism of cognitive and academic skills, demonstrating how they interact and support each other with development. Next, I present research in the context of cognitive load theory to explore whether multi-component explicit instruction follows a “the more the better” or an “optimal combination” principle. Finally, I discuss the domain-specific approach of working memory training to highlight how to embed working memory into academic instruction.