Archive - David Didau: The Learning Spy

Repost: It's always better to know

The risks and rewards of checking students understand what's been taught

Jul 21 •

Occam's Razor: to cut or not to cut?

On the elegance - and the temptations - of simple explanations

Jul 19 •

The economics of effort: why we don't like thinking hard

How recent research debunks the myth of mental depletion, and what teachers can do to make effort feel worth the price.

Jul 16 •

Monthly round-up #4

15th June - 13th July 2025

Jul 15 •

Is there an "engagement crisis" in schools?

Why chasing 'fun' and 'relevance' could kill learning

Jul 13 •

and

Martin Robinson

Why good people get poor results: the systems that sabotage our best intentions

And the psychology behind our obsession with individuals

Jul 12 •

Cognitive load, conceptual fog: when ideology masquerades as evidence

Alfie Kohn’s critique of explicit instruction and Cognitive Load Theory reveals more about his educational philosophy than about how learning actually…

Jul 10 •

In defence of Cognitive Load Theory

Alfie Kohn misreads both the science and the spirit of Cognitive Load Theory: what he sees as dogma is, in fact, a model of intellectual humility and…

Jul 7 •

Stop misjudging people: the hard truth about how bias works

How the Fundamental Attribution Error makes fools of us all

Jul 6 •

Stop misjudging people: the hard truth about how bias works

How the Fundamental Attribution Error makes fools of us all

Jul 5 •

The real barriers to engagement: why schools must rethink leadership, not curriculum

Why blaming the curriculum misses the point and what leaders can do to make teaching both rigorous *and* engaging

Jul 4 •

Breathing exercises won’t fix a broken system

The uncomfortable truth about schools, mental health, and the illusion of wellbeing

Jul 3 •

and

Martin Robinson

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts