Another summary! This time the marvellous Mental Models by Dr Jim Heal and Rebekah Berlin delving deep into developing students thinking, what it means and how to do it. AND updated Cogsci Reading List - now up to 74 books. itsalearningcurve.education/cogsci-book-...

Want to introduce some cogsci practices into your classroom but not sure what that looks like? Check out some easy+no cost ideas here (specifically for physics but adaptable!): itsalearningcurve.education/cogsci-in-th... #iteachphysics

The Most Persistent Myth... 'that (fill in the gap...) will revolutionize education'. @veritasium.bsky.social , please you could you update your excellent video to include AI? www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEmu...

Thanks @carlhendrick.substack.com for shining a light on something that has bothered me about the 'mastery' model assessment. It has to factor in forgetting... link.springer.com/article/10.1... #iteachphysics #cogscisci

Best intro to a book about physics stuff... So Planck should have had two constants... 🤷 #iteachphysics

Following on from the 'a physics teacher needs a large number of explanations for things' post, which are the topics/concepts that need the MOST? Mine are: #1 - potential #2 - field #3 - anything to do with circuits. #iteachphysics

Unsurprising but reassuring. And I think that 'being able to explain it differently' has a place of great importance in physics. My students have said that they notice this, or rather the lack of it, especially in math(s) and physics. #iteachphysics teachinglicense.study.com/resources/st...

This. "Humans who rely on an LLM to generate outputs for them do not understand those outputs well enough to do anything with them... the reliance on AI is preventing junior entrants into every field from developing the very skills they would need to check that AI’s work."

When I told my classes I was leaving one student said (to general agreement) that the thing that they would miss most was how I said .... Wonderful @xkcd.com

This is the exception to the Betteridge's Law of Headlines (that the answer to any headline that's a question is always 'no'). Thanks @daisychristo open.substack.com/pub/daisychr...

You may have sussed my antipathy for AI (in relation to education/learning/physics). It doesn't 'forget'. Doh. Well, of course not, but that is why it is NOT learning: carlhendrick.substack.com/p/the-parado...

Excellent sim for dot product = parallelness. #iteachphysics

There aren't prerequisites in the UK -we have a national curriculum. I really don't understand them. For me: Physics was required for AP1 AP1 was was required for AP2 Either AP1 preferably AP1+2 is required for APC... Otherwise it's exposure not getting stuff into long term memory (aka learning).

Naming things... 'adaptive forgetting' is such a useful term, makes sense of the idea that forgetting is the key to abstraction. Forgetting = repurposing what we know to find patterns, is the price we pay for understanding. Excellent blog @C_Hendrick carlhendrick.substack.com/p/the-parado...

Super excited to be about metacognition in 3 weeks!! Tickets here- $85 for a jam-packed day of amazing professional development, and ideas that you can use on Monday! www.dmns.org/learn/tpd/ev... #iteachphysics #cogscisci

A nice practical application for reviewing vectors and introducing dot and vector product.... ... with answers, yay! spacemath.gsfc.nasa.gov/earth/10Page...

As term starts you might be thinking of including more cogsci type things in your classroom... but what does that actually mean? #cogscisci #iteachphysics Here's my take on it... itsalearningcurve.education/why-use-cogn...

I will say it again... Planning by thinking about what they are thinking about is a very different ballgame to planning by thinking about what they are doing. Many, many years of 'activity planning' alas, which was, I have to say, a lot easier. Anyone else have that? #iteachphysics #cogscisci

As term starts you might be thinking of including more cogsci type things in your classroom... but what does that actually mean? #cogscisci #iteachphysics Here's my take on it... itsalearningcurve.education/why-use-cogn...

There are very many reasons to have a 'physics lens' through which to view the world... and this is defo one of them! Along with rainbows, the night sky, flowers... all that awe and wonder stuff. arxiv.org/html/2409.05... #iteachphysics

A leaving gift from a student who studied AP1 then AP2 then APC with me and made AP Physicsland! Awesome... #iteachphysics

I'm not into that 'fun' lesson thing - learning is actually awesomely fun, but occasionally I have to do a 20 minute intro/taster thing and we make Pringle Ringles. Totally recommend it. And it's edible. Which is ideal for a taster lesson. #iteachphysics

I'm trying to stay open but actually 1. AI wastes time - if you know your stuff you still have to check 2. AI wastes time - if you don't know your stuff you'll have to redo it all later when you realise it's wrong.

I'm trying to stay open but actually 1. AI wastes time - if you know your stuff you still have to check 2. AI wastes time - if you don't know your stuff you'll have to redo it all later when you realise it's wrong.

Really thought-provoking post from @C_Hendrick - brilliant, thank you! Thought 1: Diagnosing miscategorisation is my my day job in physics Thought 2: Are some disputes about pedagogy rooted in different categorizations? Hence citing research doesn't work? carlhendrick.substack.com/p/well-organ...

My book summaries are now in one place! Yay! Together with the cogsci reading list of 63 books! And which books, or series, would it be useful to do next? itsalearningcurve.education/cogsci-book-... #iteachphysics #cogscisci

A benefit of having my website is that there is a place to put everything. My physics resources are here, and I will gradually upload the things on my laptop and the things in my brain that could be of use to this section. itsalearningcurve.education/physics-teac... #iteachphysics

Super excited to announce that I am now a company! My days teaching in a school are at an end. My new venture is tutoring + providing professional development + outreach in physics and cogsci. Here's the site - if you find anything amiss let me know! 😊 itsalearningcurve.education

The (so far) one thing I am grateful to AI for it is that it engenders (for me) a lot of reflection as to what it means to be a teacher, or a learner, and what it means to teach and to learn.

Yep. Digital asbestos. Add to that the AI produced material purporting to be 'research'.

Excellent discussion of the terms we use and their impact. Thanks @paulkirschner.bsky.social paulkirschner173727.substack.com/p/language

Woo hoo! Super chuffed that I'll be speaking @researchED_US @DenverMuseumNS. My session is: 'Metacognition: What it means for students and why you need to teach it' Hope to see you there!

Some BRILLIANT lectures coming up to watch @greshamcollege.bsky.social! And free! gresham.ac.uk/whats-on?see...

I'm putting this out there again because it is one of my favourite quotes, and one to remember every time the word 'grade' enters one's consciousness. (You can guess its age from the font!)

Fabulous book, and agreed I don't think anyone else could have written a book quite like it! Great present for anyone interested in science...

Why run a marathon when you could just take an Uber? BRILLIANT from @daisychristo.bsky.social ... thought-provoking wisdom... substack.nomoremarking.com/p/what-is-th...

A tour de force by @didau.bsky.social who kindly read and followed up all 37 footnotes to Kohn's critique so we didn't have to. SO much to learn about how to (or how not to) interact with the research, the importance of defining terms. Thank you! daviddidau.substack.com/p/ideology-m...

Here's an application of physics. I am getting a quote for new windows (in Arizona) and he's saying that there is more noise reduction from a standard + a thinner pane, than from two standard panes. Unequal thicknesses produce better reduction... why would that be? #iteachphysics

SUPER interesting and useful summary of how we got here with AI jedediyah.github.io/atmim2024/#/.... with some EXCELLENT questions to ask. (Bias - atm I'm in the 'hot garbage' camp in relation to education because it's about thinking and the process NOT the product).

EXCELLENT article from @didau.bsky.social, well worth a read. Again, it highlights the issues of nuance and definition - explicit instruction may not mean what you think it means. Which is the irony - this platform doesn't have enough words for that. daviddidau.substack.com/p/in-defence...

Super chuffed with my AP Physics scores (average over the four courses with 28 students was 4.3). I put it down to cogsci... they knew their stuff, exuded confidence, calm and smiling going in and coming out. And if I give them a paper in September I bet they'd get the same. 😊 #iteachphysics

SUPER cool example of developing a model in physics about a real world situation that they will know about! When and how should you attack in the Tour de France! Brilliant from @oxfordmathematics.bsky.social people.maths.ox.ac.uk/griffit4/pap... #iteachphysics

Brilliant example of getting things right without thinking so without learning. I can think of many examples in physics - games where thinking was about entirely different things. In a lot of cases it was 'how to win'. carlhendrick.substack.com/p/correct-an... Thanks @carlhendrick.substack.com

LOVE these from stebashin - don't know how to attribute... ? #iteachphysics

I know there's a debate about distracting material on the wall, but I've had students put their hand up and ask 'can you talk about that poster, like what it all MEANS?' I've done that for an hour... SO much fun. Thanks CERN/Graphic News. #iteachphysics

Another version of @adamboxereducation.bsky.social 's excellent meme over on the other place... thanks! This is where I am when people say 'AI can do ....' It may well be true, but is it - solving a problem I have - so that I or them do more hard thinking....? 🤷 It's the process not the product.

Pretty sure there will be an education equivalent to this.

For those thinking of Building Thinking Classrooms for physics... Consider how that's going to work for the people in the left column. (From @didau.bsky.social - thanks - it's become very useful). #iteachphysics

Ooo... how brilliant is this for AP2/APC/Gauss and more! Thanks @simonpoliakoff.bsky.social !! #iteachphysics