I'm not crying, you're crying - wife asked me if I had a cable. Yes, yes I did!

The beauty of this book cover isn't AI. My talented wife created the look to match my words. She made the strip herself (see the shaded bit where it was glued on the left). Then sought the background colour she liked (it was notebook cover) and took a photo to form a shadow from the sun's rays.

Wanting to write a blog post about the limits and problems of Engelmann's behaviourist theory, I began reading again. And, good god, look at this paragraph and realise why science education in the UK has gone to soul-destroying transmission and mini-whiteboards:

WHen people write about 'questioning' for teachers, it's basically just about how to use questions as formative assessment - as part of some form of training towards a closed goal. But you can also ask questions to find out what the students actually think and take an interest in their answers!

Possibly controversial opinion. This 'I do, we do, you do' thing that is everywhere now is about instruction rather than education. We are being too adult controlling about learning atm. Whatever happened to a bit of open endedness, lateral thinking and self-expression? Glad I teach in early years.

Lemov, Pondiscio and the closing of the academic mind open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

Lemov, Pondiscio and the closing of the academic mind open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

The phrase ‘learning is invisible’ is a lazy and sloppy cliche which we should probably stop using. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

Warum "Lernen ist unsichtbar" eine beliebte, aber an sich wenig sinnvolle Phrase ist. @bernardandrews.bsky.social #Lernen 👇

"Others might bring up that abomination of a sentence, ‘learning is change in long-term memory’, which just ignores most of the ways in which we use the word..." I enjoyed this very thorough exploration of the visibility of learning, from @bernardandrews.bsky.social

This is very interesting indeed. Unfortunately I think the idea that learning can only be made 'visible' by testing a learner's memory has got embedded in our education and accountability systems.

The phrase ‘learning is invisible’ is a lazy and sloppy cliche which we should probably stop using. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

New post! ● Does "checking for listening really help learning"? Please share 🙏 christianmooreanderson.com/does-checkin...

New post! ● Teaching tricks, fidelity, and the illusion of "best bets" #UKEd #EduSky christianmooreanderson.com/teaching-tri...

Evan Thompson on how "controlled hallucination" and "Predictive Processing" are wrong. @musingsofadr.bsky.social @mrbates.bsky.social @adamwteach.bsky.social @bernardandrews.bsky.social

This is such an important perspective, which is so often missing from discussions of "what works" in education. From @bernardandrews.bsky.social bernardandrews.substack.com/p/efficiency...

Fantastic read for a Saturday morning: by @bernardandrews.bsky.social substack.com/inbox/post/1...

This is an important and good interview, regardless of one's opinions on what the prof says.

"I’ve been quite swept up by the autism spectrum idea, and it’s only in the past 10 years or so that I have felt things have gone too far, and very slowly I have come to say, 'No, this is not right'" Autism expert professor Uta Frith talks to @helen-amass.bsky.social www.tes.com/magazine/tea...

The most important part of the White Paper will be *how* decisions are going to be made about which support is effective and who should get it. In the end, that’s the crux of any SEND reform.

The other day, @agittner.bsky.social prompted me to describe how I would teach a concept. I found it almost impossible. And, it had me wondering why, a full time biology teacher, head of biology, & someone who has written so much on biology education, couldn't do it easily. Here's my answer 🧵

Happiness and life-goals open.substack.com/pub/ofgodsan...

Happiness and life-goals open.substack.com/pub/ofgodsan...

A tough but incredibly rewarding book for me is Maturana's The Origin of Humanness in the Biology of Love. It paints a very different picture from this. Humans are a loving species who get physically ill when deprived of it.

I declare this book finished. It's been intense. So much editing. This is the most important work I've written. As far as I'm aware, the first book for general teachers that's deeply rooted in *enactive* cognitive science. Teaching Meaning: What Works When Telling Isn't Enough Out soon!

Bei @bernardandrews.bsky.social gibt es immer Interessantes zu lesen. Ein "Bookmark" für seine Seite wäre meine Empfehlung: bernardandrews.substack.com Und ja, Bildung braucht die Philosophie ganz dringend.

bernardandrews.substack.com/p/predictive... Beide Artikel zeigen, inwiefern die "Cognitive Sciences" einem Szientismus verfallen, wenn sie meinen, die Grenzen ihres Gegenstandes überschreiten zu müssen (etwas vereinfacht gesagt...). 2/2

Interessanter Artikel von @bernardandrews.bsky.social zum Problem mit Modellen wie "Predicitve Processing", der auf einem anderen Artiekl aufbau, nämlich... 1/2

Any RTs would be gratefully received.

In this post, I trace the idea that we can ‘reverse engineer’ the mind back to its roots in Kant’s transcendental arguments and argue that the idea doesn't make as much sense as it might first appear. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

The 'Predictive processing' theory is a zombie-ant fungus. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

On why Engelmann's theory doesn't make sense and how it can be improved. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

On why Engelmann's theory doesn't make sense and how it can be improved. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

Really nice post from @bernardandrews.bsky.social #EduSky #UKEd substack.com/inbox/post/1...

A major problem with the EduCognitivist revolution was trying to algorithmise teaching. Algorithms are such thin rules that they can only ever work in a tightly controlled environment (no exceptions). Therefore, to allow their algorithms to work, they also had to homogenise students & classrooms.

Lots of food for thought here.

Last time for this. Section 57 of the 1944 Butler Act formalised a horrible prejudice: that some people are incapable of being educated. It is a prejudice we have failed to properly address. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

SEN are a property of the eudcators not the educated. A new substack post in which I argue that Special Education policy should never have focussed on what the child *needs* to be educated, but instead on what the LEA *needs* to educate the child. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

SEN are a property of the eudcators not the educated. A new substack post in which I argue that Special Education policy should never have focussed on what the child *needs* to be educated, but instead on what the LEA *needs* to educate the child. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

SEN are a property of the eudcators not the educated. A new substack post in which I argue that Special Education policy should never have focussed on what the child *needs* to be educated, but instead on what the LEA *needs* to educate the child. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

Wacky idea #1000: it has never been the children that have special educational needs, it's the LEAs! open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

Wacky idea #1000: it has never been the children that have special educational needs, it's the LEAs! open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

What do we mean by 'learning'? Most of us agree that it's about more than just exam grades, but we need a formal definition if we want education policy that works for all, writes @bernardandrews.bsky.social

A very interesting read from @bernardandrews.bsky.social

'Retrieval practice' is not a synonym for teaching or learning. The learning = memory narrative is really problematic for our conception of what education is. #EduSky

A reminder, if one were needed, that for all their talk of “vile criminal gangs”, our states would punish the Good Samaritan himself if he were to help a migrant

Huh this was quite the read, and also the profile pic is great

Every day this seems like a better and better idea. I can't think of any better way to enable media literacy (and support decent journalism) than to have the govt pay for subscriptions to decent newspapers. euroweeklynews.com/2025/05/10/p...

He really does.

This is a direct consequence of Jenrick's attacks. He needs to be held responsible.