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An (edu) fad's purpose is what it does
Not long ago a drive emerged against "fun" lessons. The push was to rid the focus on fun and return it to subject knowledge itself. Soon followed the argument that students had to accept boring lessons. Now I hear ever more reports of widespread boring lessons. Often, it seems, following a script of teacher does, students do.
With an ontology of controllability comes the urge to pin systems down like an insect to a cork board. While learning through entertainment didn't wor
Christian Moore Anderson
4 days ago5 min read
360 views


Content and Metacontent: A key distinction for teaching for long-term learning
Including metacontent in your teaching will ensure students learn for the long-term.
Christian Moore Anderson
Dec 29, 20246 min read
284 views


Knowledge doesn't equal understanding
Does knowledge = understanding? This simple equation suggests that the extent of a person's understanding is purely equal to the extent...
Christian Moore Anderson
Dec 1, 20249 min read
1,245 views


Should management mandate precise teaching activities? Probably not.
Often, people seem to discuss schools as centres for optimising students' learning and teachers' teaching. However, I want to share a...
Christian Moore Anderson
Aug 15, 20246 min read
988 views


What's the purpose of rehearsal (during lessons)?
Recently the idea of "rehearsal" has appeared in UK-based educational blogs. But there appears to be confusion. What's it for? Here are...
Christian Moore Anderson
May 14, 20244 min read
306 views


Evidence-based educational movements are actually games
Around 2012ish, a new movement rode into the UK (school) educational scene. It came with the banner of "evidence-based", to counter the...
Christian Moore Anderson
Feb 12, 20245 min read
2,405 views


Helping students develop study skills: a simple model.
Advising students how to study is complex. Learning is messy, with ups and downs. Sudden insights may punctuate periods of seemingly...
Christian Moore Anderson
Jan 14, 20242 min read
2,149 views


What the variation theory (of learning) is and isn't. A brief introduction.
The variation theory of learning is a theory about how we learn and, therefore, how to teach. It isn't a theory of how memories are...
Christian Moore Anderson
Sep 21, 20235 min read
1,909 views


Initial thoughts on the new IB Biology syllabus (Part I)
Summer is ending and the new syllabus is rolling out. I just spent a few months developing my resources for the entire course and I want...
Christian Moore Anderson
Aug 25, 20236 min read
2,981 views


Retrieval practice: the ups & downs of my experience
For years I've toiled with quiz questions in my biology courses (AKA core questions). I've used quiz questions as starter quizzes, to...
Christian Moore Anderson
Aug 7, 20238 min read
2,335 views


A simple model for teacher sustainability and growth
What are the most important factors for teacher sustainability? I'm sure there are many. Student behaviour, planning time, teaching...
Christian Moore Anderson
Sep 20, 20223 min read
2,220 views


Upgrading formative assessment: The questions that actually lead to responsive teaching
Short answer questions are currently ubiquitous in UK secondary biology education. They work well for providing objectivity. This gives...
Christian Moore Anderson
Jun 30, 20226 min read
1,449 views


Putting nature back into secondary biology education: a framework for integration
This is a summary of my paper here in the Journal of Biological Education , whose ideas have been vastly advanced and presented in my...
Christian Moore Anderson
Oct 27, 20216 min read
2,400 views


Why Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve isn't useful for teaching
Ebbinghau's forgetting curve has seen a resurgence in popularity. While I agree that knowledge is essential for domain specific...
Christian Moore Anderson
Aug 27, 20214 min read
5,301 views


The scales of curriculum planning: why sequence isn't king.
In the UK, the knowledge curriculum seems to be enjoying high levels of popularity. The pendulum has swung (and rightly so) away from...
Christian Moore Anderson
Jul 31, 20205 min read
3,736 views


The knowledge curriculum in biology: How retrieval practice and knowledge organisers may distort it
How the 'cult of pedagogy' of pedagogy can distort the knowledge of the biology curriculum One of the defining characteristics of my...
Christian Moore Anderson
Jan 23, 20205 min read
745 views
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