AUT25-110 Have you considered ratio? Mastering student engagement in your history lessons

Date:     Thursday, 13th November 2025
Time:      7 - 8 pm
Venue:   Online via Zoom

Target Audience: Post primary History Teachers

In its most basic form, cognitive science tells us that humans remember what they think about. If students remember what they think about, then the real challenge in any lesson isn’t just what we say, it’s what they’re doing with it. That’s where ratio comes in.

Ratio refers to the proportion of cognitive work done by students during a lesson. Simply put: who’s doing the thinking, you or them? The higher the student ratio, the more likely it is they’ll retain and understand the content. But achieving this isn’t about gimmicks, it’s about purposeful planning and instructional decisions.

In this session, Lee will explore the three core areas where ratio lives in every History lesson:

• Ratio through questioning
• Ratio through writing
• Ratio through discussion

Using these three lenses, we’ll break down practical, high-impact strategies to increase the quality and quantity of student thinking. You’ll leave with approaches that create desirable difficulty, draw more students into the work of the lesson, and shift cognitive effort where it belongs, to the learners.

Presenter: Lee O`Donnell

Lee O’Donnell is a teacher of Geography & History at Woodbrook College in Wicklow. He is the Author of ‘The Natural World’ LC Geography book with Edco. Additionally, he is the co-author of ‘A History of Change’ JC History textbook with CJ Fallon. Geography/History Methodology Lecturer at University College Dublin. LC History content creator for Exam Revision. Host of the Leaving Certificate revision podcast ‘Skin in the Game’. Additionally, he holds an Assistant Principal I post in his school.