Interesting and relevant problems are the foundation of effective lessons, not learning outcomes.

Give me a good question over a good learning outcome everyday.

“This makes learning fun and easy.” Yeah, don’t fall for that.

When interviewing candidates, their answers should begin with “it depends….” If they don’t, you are talking with the wrong applicants or you are asking the wrong questions.

I reviewed an article and sent back feedback. About a month later, I was asked to review the same paper, but the text was exactly the same. 🤦

There is nothing worse than a boss who sits in their office and asks for updates. My immediate assumption is that they don’t care enough about what I’m doing to actually engage with me and my clients.

One reason we should admire science is practitioners try really hard to be wrong. They start from the hypothesis that their results are just random.

One thing I learned during 35 years in education: Doing nothing is sometimes a good strategy.

Just because you are “in charge” does not mean your ideas are worth following.

A blog post on interaction in onoine classrooms, now with audio: www.hackscience.education/interaction-...

One thing I learned during 35 years in education: No matter how carefully practices are defined by researchers, by the time they reach teachers, they have been transmogrified into something much different.

Conspiracy theories are so tiresome.

You can keep your beliefs, but I’ll take empirical observation… especially observation confirmed by others and that accurately predicts other observations.

The Dunning-Kruger effect is so obvious when talking with parents about teaching.

One thing I learned during 35 years in education: it’s almost impossible to differentiate those who did well in prerequisites from those who did not by looking at current performance.

I am increasingly adopting a positivist approach to life.

The sense that you know something can be the biggest impediment to actually learning it.

“People aren’t motivated by money.” Yeah, but they sure make decisions as if it matters.

Ignorance is not nearly the problem that the illusion of knowledge is.

Does anyone else notice the claims “you can do this with AI” are things we have been able to do without AI for some time?

“Budgets are moral documents” is the most accurate thing I’ve heard recently.

If your classroom protocols are not faded, then they are not working.

Learning is an interesting phenomenon. How it proceeds depends 100% on the learner *and* 100% on the teacher/ coach/ mentor.

Data/driven folks always assume their interventions caused every “positive” change (no matter how minute).

One more time: just because you have an opinion does not mean I am obligated to take it seriously.

When leaders say “that’s what I said, but it’s not what I meant,” I stop listening to them.

“Improving results” is a signal you have a too simple view of learning to be an effective educator.

We can trace lecturing to Plato. Do we really believe there have been no better teaching methods developed in the centuries since?

I think it’s time we start asking candidates for leadership positions to “describe one time your decisions added to institutional drama and what you did to minimize it afterwards.”

All of those people you are blaming for your bad decision… they warned you not to do it.

“Who could have predicted it?” Actually lots of people… but you ignored them.

“Knowing stuff” and “knowing how to interact with others who know the same stuff” are not the same.

Your learning outcomes do not motivate students to the degree you have been led to believe. #teaching

Can we draw any conclusions (as educators) from the observation that cave paintings are dominated by prey and predators?

We can trace lecturing to Plato. Do we really believe there have been no better teaching methods developed in the centuries since?

Some conspiracies are true. That doesn’t mean all conspiracies are true.

Do you confuse productivity and learning?

So much good practice is rejected because folks (falsely) believe their current practice is optimal.

Yeah, can we stop with “I have more of a comment than a question” during Q&A? We all do. Write it on your blog.

“Most learning happens in the absence of a teacher.” Yeah… I can’t dispute that conclusion.

Yeah, so I’m at that age where I see “old people” and then learn they are younger than I am.

Following authoritarian leaders requires too much creativity for me. I cannot invent enough delusional stories to adjust to their changing lies.

Knowledge matters. The ability to use that knowledge matters more.

Yes, you may be knowledgeable, but that doesn’t mean you know all of the nuances.

One thing I learned during 35 years in education: what you do for short-term learning is usually wasted (a few exceptions can be justified).

Those who are governed by reason desire nothing for themselves which they do not also desire for the rest of mankind. -Spinoza

When our guiding principles are myths, data are useless.

“Why don’t they just x?” is a sure sign you lack the expertise to be making recommendations.

The more accurate way to say it is “always base the opinions upon which you base your facts.”

The lesson of history is that tyrants cannot be appeased. Appeasement only feeds their insatiable hunger for power. Tyrants prey on people who feel unsafe and vulnerable. But without mass submission, a tyrant is powerless. Remember this.