Meaning can't be transmitted. Many teachers I've spoken to haven't understood why. Chapter 1 of Teaching Meaning makes it easy to understand. Read it here: christianmooreanderson.com/wp-content/u... And check out my conversation with Drew discussing its consequences ↓↓

The fundamental argument of the CogSci crowd is that students lack durable knowledge, so embodied processes won't work. Learning can only occur when students are explicitly given dots in a systemic, replicable way. The important knowledge students have from other contexts doesn't count.

I woke up still upset about this diagram. No recognition of humans as agents in their environment or as active sensemakers & constructors of knowledge & understanding. Just lay down on the floor, class, and collect information like water and I'm a human sprinkler!

All cognition involves cognitive offloading. Cognition is action. Action is interaction. The thing we interact with provides constraints, affordances and tendencies. All cognition involves cognitive offloading. www.preprints.org/manuscript/2...

Kalyuga further develops his reflections on Gal’perin’s ‘Orienting Basis of Activity’ (OBA) by demonstrating that the debate over whether we should teach ‘general schemata’ (such as critical thinking) or ‘concrete, domain-specific facts’ is asking the wrong question. 1/4 #Kalyuga #Gal'perin #CLT

I loved this podcast episode, as always, by @rethinkingjames.bsky.social and with kindered spirit @bruceleeedu.bsky.social Extra bonus was hearing my book mentioned several times! drjamesmannion.substack.com/p/the-missin...

Stephen Vainker has researching and writing about the contradictions between these folks' stated positions and the pedagogies and practices at places like Alpha. stephenvainker.substack.com/p/the-scienc...

NEW POST: ● Understanding isn't just knowledge (and how we can teach it) → christianmooreanderson.com/understandin...

Deeper concepts are by definition more powerful, they apply to a greater range of situations. But deeper concepts are also by definition more abstract, they are further removed from concrete experience. /1

I second Bernard

Well described thoughts on the use of the term ‘lethal mutation’.

Learning is constructed. Do with that what you will, but know that learning is constructed.

Great way of seeing a useful difference between knowledge and understanding.

On knowing how to play a song... open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...

Knowledge is constructed 😃

Learning is a positive feedback loop. Learning always leads to an increase in the potential to learn.

What a fantastic review of my book Teaching Meaning! Thank you :D

Knowledge task: doing something they have done before (no real variation) Understanding task: doing something they have not done before (variation around previous knowledge task)

Love this. Dovetails with a post by @markmccourt.bsky.social Build curriculum so pupils do not simply meet knowledge, repeat knowledge or recall knowledge. They learn it clearly, return to it often, compare it carefully and use it in increasingly varied contexts.

If you would like a way to think about knowledge and understanding - here you go. If you would like to see how this applies to your teaching - again Christian provides. If you would like to see what makes the difference between teaching for better understanding - 👇😀👇

% confidence A straight forward metacognitive thinking task that reveals to them and to you.

On the workload front, Im actively trying to help. Im populating my website with my drawings, and if people bought into my teaching game, they'd not need to make a worksheet or slide deck again. They just need to understand the rules and moves (explained in my books). I'll soon be making videos, too

Every time you think you retrieve. Every time you act you retrieve. It’s always about what kind of thinking and action you want them to be doing. ‘Retrieval practice’ is intentionally placing the emphasis on the practice of retrieving during practice.

Take time to take in Christians way of teaching Biology. I started out a biology teacher and retrained to be a physics teacher because biology teaching felt fundamentally fact based. Christian shows us a different, more meaningful way to teach biology.

And internal imaginal sense making is also an action. It causes change just like every other action.

Can understanding be known?

New post: ● The problem with "teaching consistency" ● christianmooreanderson.com/the-problem-... #EduSky #UKEd

Intentionality is the most important thing when making decisions in complex situations.

This looks juicy and will, I'm sure, offer the more nuanced, finely-observed side of cognitive science, beyond the merely behavioural instantiation (that is temptingly simple to understand and convert into evaluation checklists).

When we focus more on the meaning the pupils are making, our teaching becomes more meaningful.

11 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings already! For some time many EduBooks have covered similar concepts: cognitive load, memory, attention, and retrieval. But what does cognitive science say about sense-making and when telling isn't enough? Teaching Meaning offers something unique.

Play is an iterative interaction with something. The result is we learn something about that thing. Learning is an iterative interaction with something. The result is we learn something about that thing. Where is the distinction?

If we find an explanation or method that works well, we should try it on and see where it fits. What we shouldn’t do is assume it will work for every situation. Too often we fall into the comforting but false trap of reductionism through linear logic. What meaning are they making?

Brilliant post Christian helps make sense of the distinction between instruction and learning. He helps clarify the reasons why an emphasis on instruction is highly beneficial but also when an emphasis on instruction is highly limiting. It helped me make meaning 😃

It feels like there’s a lesson here for artists…

New Post whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2026/05/coul...

Learning is memory because both are dependent on a change in us. But learning is more importantly the process of change itself not just the result of the change. The change is dependent on meaning.

I once had a pupil who spent a whole weekend doing this whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2022/11/dual... for the whole vocab list. She got an A.

@theniceman.bsky.social how would you advise to revise a GCSE language?

How do we help pupils to understand- we tell, we show, we ask. If they are paying attention, will they then understand? We know the answer is uncertain. But how much of our time and actions is spent on assuming telling and showing is enough?

A theory of how learning works... in theory. But does it work on real human beings? Or does it try to demand that the pupils conform to the theory...? whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2026/02/sphe...

From last week: An important post for our times in which transmission and retrieval have over-dominated the discourse.

Best seller over in the USA? ● Teaching Meaning: What Works When Telling Isn't Enough

🔤 ☑️ 📡 💭 ❌ 📡 Message sent but is it understood?

Christian is 100% focused on teaching as an interaction where meaning making and understanding is always foregrounded. His ideas are explained using a deep understanding of a broad range of cognitive science disciplines and from a refreshingly novel and eye opening perspective.

Is anyone in a school that has managed to establish making and using flashcards a regular part of the pupils’ routine? What logistical decisions and resources were needed to result in pupils making, organising and regularly using flash cards? (Apart from just telling them to do it)

I would extend this by proposing giving some thought to provisionally getting some sort of measure of how much of any particularly learning event we can accurately describe with our currently understanding of learning. I propose it is closer to 0% than to 1%.

The realisation that the beauty is really in the ongoing conversation and the reward of finding the solution pales in significance.

A lot of people live & breathe the Science of Learning. Others are just beginning their journey of seeing T&L through the perspective of SoL. Many others have understood SoL, appreciate it but realise it is just one way of seeing T&L. Others just have a totally different perspective. ⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️