New article: Experimental education research: rethinking why, how, and when to use random assignment Out today (even though it’s Saturday): doi.org/10.1080/1380... With @drsamsims.bsky.social @mjinglis.bsky.social @benweidmann.bsky.social @benstyles.bsky.social & Hugues Lortie-Forgues

Some thoughts from me and five others on when, why and how experiments and RCTs should be used in education. doi.org/10.1080/1380...

Reading some stuff about geometrical cognition today reminded of the time that David Tall, who died last year, described me as being “stuck at Van Hiele Level 2”. This is easily the best niche academic insult I’ve ever heard.

👀 A new forthcoming paper with @mjinglis.bsky.social is up on the Philsci Archive. "Interesting and Important Mathematics" A corpus linguistics study of the uses of the words "interesting" and "important" in maths preprints. philsci-archive.pitt.edu/29996/1/Tans...

My colleague Colin Foster has released a new resource designed for secondary mathematics teachers: “Teaching the Big Ideas in School Mathematics”. Available here: bigmathematicalideas.org

In memory of Barbara Jaworski. blog.lboro.ac.uk/cmc/2026/04/...

This THE article quotes an EEF spokesperson discussing a 2019 Educational Researcher article on RCTs I coauthored. But the EEF has misunderstood: “uninformative” does not mean “finds no difference”. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/time-review-sidelining-education-faculties-researcher

Powerful photographic testimony in this local news article.

Evaluating the evaluation of psychology in UK universities… @lizstokoe.bsky.social @mjinglis.bsky.social @colinfoster77.bsky.social @hugolf.bsky.social @profvicsimms.bsky.social share tales from the Research Excellence Framework. www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...

For anyone interested in #psychology, #research assessment and evaluation, how the expert panel rated research submitted to #REF2021 - and especially the fate of #qualitative research - our article in Cogent Psychology is #OpenAccess (link in next post). 1/2

Today I found a very sinister picture of mathematician John Napier (after whom Edinburgh Napier University is named) in this collection of proofs of Pythagoras’s Theorem: files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED0...

I haven’t read all the articles in this special issue on bases in numeration systems yet, but the ones I have read are excellent. royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/cur...

Superb Tug of War content here. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

I’m looking for a study where someone has looked at accuracy on Raven’s matrices (or similar) items under extreme time pressure at the item level (not time pressure at the test level). I can’t find anything, but surely this study must exist?

“Isaac Newton-style act” www.nottinghampost.com/news/notting...

Very niche thread, apologies! I want to reply to a criticism made in this preprint by Bill D'Alessandro (who I think isn't on bluesky?). philpapers.org/archive/DALT...

Attacked by the Charnwood Borough Council mace at today’s graduation ceremony.

Can your fear of maths shape your child's future? New research from @lborouniversity.bsky.social & University of Bologna finds link b/ween parents’ maths anxiety & lower achievement in children. Read Kinga & Carlo's @theconversation.com article on our blog today: blog.lboro.ac.uk/cmc/2025/06/...

This is a great summary of a very peculiar interaction. I wonder how Geraint Rees is coping with the new OfS duty that requires him and his UCL colleagues to “support constructive dialogue on contentious subjects”.

Fully-funded PhD studentship to work on children’s financial literacy. Deadline end of June. https://ufncollaboratory.ac.uk/childrens-financial-literacy/

A really lovely article about the 2008 cup-winning squad. I particularly enjoyed the Hermann Hreidarsson bloodied-pigeon “That’s how we deal with things in Iceland” anecdote. www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/footba...

I wrote a blogpost about how the REF may have influenced how British academics write papers.

Evidence of @driro.bsky.social’s photography skills on show at Megan Foulkes’s PhD viva celebrations.

That’s more than Jimmy Dickinson.

This Christmas I discovered my grandfather got interested in family history before he died. In amongst his folders of stuff there are some enjoyable one-paragraph biographies of distant relatives. Examples follow.

Spotify makes up musical genres.

Was reminded today of this email from an editor I once received in response to a manuscript submission.

Excited to discover that this important new documentary about the history of students in Leamington Spa offers two photos of me as evidence for the claim “Leamington has always offered an appealing social scene for students”. See 14:45 here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Lg64GR1Mo

My sister has a giant photo of Tony Blair saying “hello is it me you are looking for?” in her toilet.

Turns out that Semmelweis, the guy who invented antiseptics, was actually Willie Thorne.

Do you plan to measure Approximate Number System in children? Check recommendations at doi.org/10.1016/j.dr... by @krajcsi.bsky.social D Chesney @krzysztofcipora.bsky.social @coolenilse.bsky.social @camillakgilmore.bsky.social @mjinglis.bsky.social M Libertus @tuebang.bsky.social V Simms, B Reynvoet

Discussing their recent study of #REF2021 environment statements, @lizziegadd.bsky.social, @lizstokoe.bsky.social & @mjinglis.bsky.social highlight eight features of 'good' statements & suggest how they can be incorporated into work for #REF2029 #ResearchEvaluation #HigherEducation wp.me/p4m9em-cSm

New! @lizziegadd.bsky.social, @lizstokoe.bsky.social and I analysed the things that were associated with getting high environment scores in the last REF. In press at Research Evaluation. Open Access version: doi.org/10.1093/rese...

Weirdly, my thoughts on yesterday’s football will be in tomorrow’s newspaper. www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/footba...