David Didau
@didau.bsky.social
Same old same old
Substack: daviddidau.substack.com/
Substack: daviddidau.substack.com/
Reposted by David Didau
Just finished listening to “it’s your time you’re wasting” with @trivium21c.bsky.social & @didau.bsky.social who were talking about favourite Shakespeare quotes. Mine is “You taught me language, and my profit on’t Is I know how to curse.”"
What’s yours? And yes, I do want Martin say it out loud
What’s yours? And yes, I do want Martin say it out loud
November 15, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Just finished listening to “it’s your time you’re wasting” with @trivium21c.bsky.social & @didau.bsky.social who were talking about favourite Shakespeare quotes. Mine is “You taught me language, and my profit on’t Is I know how to curse.”"
What’s yours? And yes, I do want Martin say it out loud
What’s yours? And yes, I do want Martin say it out loud
Reposted by David Didau
Retrieval practice is both necessary and insufficient. This week’s essay explores the tension between the zeal of retrievalism and the philosophical worry that recall tells us nothing about truth. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The limits of retrieval practice
Why retrieval practice strengthens memory, why it cannot explain learning on its own, and why both extremes miss the point
open.substack.com
November 15, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Retrieval practice is both necessary and insufficient. This week’s essay explores the tension between the zeal of retrievalism and the philosophical worry that recall tells us nothing about truth. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Retrieval practice is both necessary and insufficient. This week’s essay explores the tension between the zeal of retrievalism and the philosophical worry that recall tells us nothing about truth. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The limits of retrieval practice
Why retrieval practice strengthens memory, why it cannot explain learning on its own, and why both extremes miss the point
open.substack.com
November 15, 2025 at 6:40 AM
Retrieval practice is both necessary and insufficient. This week’s essay explores the tension between the zeal of retrievalism and the philosophical worry that recall tells us nothing about truth. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Reposted by David Didau
NEW: Good schools make good trachers
If teachers don’t always improve with experience, the problem isn’t them. It’s the environment. Schools that get better do so because they make feedback clearer, practice more deliberate, and culture more trustworthy.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
If teachers don’t always improve with experience, the problem isn’t them. It’s the environment. Schools that get better do so because they make feedback clearer, practice more deliberate, and culture more trustworthy.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Good schools make good teachers
What kind domains, wicked traps and school culture mean for improvement
open.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:24 AM
NEW: Good schools make good trachers
If teachers don’t always improve with experience, the problem isn’t them. It’s the environment. Schools that get better do so because they make feedback clearer, practice more deliberate, and culture more trustworthy.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
If teachers don’t always improve with experience, the problem isn’t them. It’s the environment. Schools that get better do so because they make feedback clearer, practice more deliberate, and culture more trustworthy.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
NEW: Good schools make good trachers
If teachers don’t always improve with experience, the problem isn’t them. It’s the environment. Schools that get better do so because they make feedback clearer, practice more deliberate, and culture more trustworthy.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
If teachers don’t always improve with experience, the problem isn’t them. It’s the environment. Schools that get better do so because they make feedback clearer, practice more deliberate, and culture more trustworthy.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Good schools make good teachers
What kind domains, wicked traps and school culture mean for improvement
open.substack.com
November 13, 2025 at 6:24 AM
NEW: Good schools make good trachers
If teachers don’t always improve with experience, the problem isn’t them. It’s the environment. Schools that get better do so because they make feedback clearer, practice more deliberate, and culture more trustworthy.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
If teachers don’t always improve with experience, the problem isn’t them. It’s the environment. Schools that get better do so because they make feedback clearer, practice more deliberate, and culture more trustworthy.
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Latest chapter of SSOL out now open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
Chapter 14
“Yellow is the colour of sun rays” Soul II Soul, “Keep On Movin’”
open.substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 8:47 AM
Latest chapter of SSOL out now open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
Reposted by David Didau
Chapter 13 of The Second Summer of Love has just dropped!
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
Chapter 13
“Everybody's looking for a meaning, everybody's doing their own thing” Coldcut, “People Hold On”
open.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:30 PM
Chapter 13 of The Second Summer of Love has just dropped!
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
Reposted by David Didau
Thanks for this David and @trivium21c.bsky.social . It was a really helpful overview.
November 7, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Thanks for this David and @trivium21c.bsky.social . It was a really helpful overview.
The new Curriculum & Assessment Review is a curate’s egg: good in parts. There’s real promise in its vision for English but much depends on whether its promise of clarity helps students think more deeply, or just grind towards ticking a new set of boxes
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The Curriculum & Assessment Review: A curate's egg
Good in parts: The Curriculum and Assessment Review offers welcome ideas but whether they amount to real change or just better packaging remains to be seen.
open.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:48 AM
The new Curriculum & Assessment Review is a curate’s egg: good in parts. There’s real promise in its vision for English but much depends on whether its promise of clarity helps students think more deeply, or just grind towards ticking a new set of boxes
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Chapter 12 of my novel, The Second Summer of Love
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
Chapter 12
“Bass kicking out when I turn my back, suckers wanna try but they'll get smacked” Tyree Cooper, “Turn Up the Bass”
open.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Chapter 12 of my novel, The Second Summer of Love
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
open.substack.com/pub/secondsu...
It is so easy to be wrong – and to persist in being wrong – when the costs of being wrong are paid by others.”
Policy-makers get plaudits; teachers get the blame; children pay the bill.
New post: the consequences of being wrong open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Policy-makers get plaudits; teachers get the blame; children pay the bill.
New post: the consequences of being wrong open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The consequences of being wrong
How the most vulnerable in society have forced to pay for the mistakes of education reformers
open.substack.com
November 5, 2025 at 6:34 AM
It is so easy to be wrong – and to persist in being wrong – when the costs of being wrong are paid by others.”
Policy-makers get plaudits; teachers get the blame; children pay the bill.
New post: the consequences of being wrong open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Policy-makers get plaudits; teachers get the blame; children pay the bill.
New post: the consequences of being wrong open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Reposted by David Didau
we should definitely impose silence on students, and I think Ben has elevated my descriptor. I use it to describe the point in "noise" at which interruptions will not disturb the room. I think using the language with students and actively teaching them what it means is genius
November 4, 2025 at 4:48 PM
we should definitely impose silence on students, and I think Ben has elevated my descriptor. I use it to describe the point in "noise" at which interruptions will not disturb the room. I think using the language with students and actively teaching them what it means is genius
Reposted by David Didau
The bigots and ghouls of the racist right believe there is no place in the UK for this hero and his family; and they claim to speak for the silent majority, disgusting freaks that they are.
What an absolute hero Samir Zitouni is - doubtless he saved lives that day
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Train hero who saved passengers during attack named
The rail worker credited with saving multiple lives is named as Samir Zitouni.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 4, 2025 at 12:44 PM
The bigots and ghouls of the racist right believe there is no place in the UK for this hero and his family; and they claim to speak for the silent majority, disgusting freaks that they are.
Reposted by David Didau
📖 Litdrive CPD 📖
Jekyll and Hyde: Continuing with this novella from yesterday's resource post, check out this exploration of 'Why the end of Jekyll and Hide is weirder than you think' with David Didau and Claire Woolzey 🐝
Link: buff.ly/MlmWhoZ
#LitdriveCPD #TeamEnglish
Jekyll and Hyde: Continuing with this novella from yesterday's resource post, check out this exploration of 'Why the end of Jekyll and Hide is weirder than you think' with David Didau and Claire Woolzey 🐝
Link: buff.ly/MlmWhoZ
#LitdriveCPD #TeamEnglish
March 9, 2025 at 8:00 AM
📖 Litdrive CPD 📖
Jekyll and Hyde: Continuing with this novella from yesterday's resource post, check out this exploration of 'Why the end of Jekyll and Hide is weirder than you think' with David Didau and Claire Woolzey 🐝
Link: buff.ly/MlmWhoZ
#LitdriveCPD #TeamEnglish
Jekyll and Hyde: Continuing with this novella from yesterday's resource post, check out this exploration of 'Why the end of Jekyll and Hide is weirder than you think' with David Didau and Claire Woolzey 🐝
Link: buff.ly/MlmWhoZ
#LitdriveCPD #TeamEnglish
Reposted by David Didau
Next up as I seem to be on an edu-podcast binge is David Didau #learningspy
Interesting theme coming out from several now - Didau, Bibi, Goodrich, and Boxer also talks about this, not finding teaching easy or natural as a newbie. “Like a fridge to water”
open.spotify.com/episode/6CaI...
Interesting theme coming out from several now - Didau, Bibi, Goodrich, and Boxer also talks about this, not finding teaching easy or natural as a newbie. “Like a fridge to water”
open.spotify.com/episode/6CaI...
October 31, 2024 at 9:36 AM
Next up as I seem to be on an edu-podcast binge is David Didau #learningspy
Interesting theme coming out from several now - Didau, Bibi, Goodrich, and Boxer also talks about this, not finding teaching easy or natural as a newbie. “Like a fridge to water”
open.spotify.com/episode/6CaI...
Interesting theme coming out from several now - Didau, Bibi, Goodrich, and Boxer also talks about this, not finding teaching easy or natural as a newbie. “Like a fridge to water”
open.spotify.com/episode/6CaI...
Reposted by David Didau
@didau.bsky.social is spot on here:
It’s not that teachers are talking too much... but that students are doing too little with what is said.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
It’s not that teachers are talking too much... but that students are doing too little with what is said.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
The “Just Tell Them” Trap
How direct instruction gets mistranslated as 'teacher talk,' lecturing and all sorts of other dull bobbins
substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:19 PM
@didau.bsky.social is spot on here:
It’s not that teachers are talking too much... but that students are doing too little with what is said.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
It’s not that teachers are talking too much... but that students are doing too little with what is said.
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Barnaby Rudge is such a good read!
@didau.bsky.social I see what you mean about relevance “Whether it was the fact or otherwise, few men knew, or cared to ascertain’
November 3, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Barnaby Rudge is such a good read!
Reposted by David Didau
“For a difference to be a difference, it must make a difference.”.
Education loves new distinctions, but unless they change what we do or how students learn, they’re just semantics. Are schemas and mental models really different or just two terms for the same thing? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Education loves new distinctions, but unless they change what we do or how students learn, they’re just semantics. Are schemas and mental models really different or just two terms for the same thing? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Schemas vs Mental Models: Does the difference make a difference?
Why the distinction between “schemas” and “mental models” tell us more more about our language than our minds.
open.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:59 AM
“For a difference to be a difference, it must make a difference.”.
Education loves new distinctions, but unless they change what we do or how students learn, they’re just semantics. Are schemas and mental models really different or just two terms for the same thing? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Education loves new distinctions, but unless they change what we do or how students learn, they’re just semantics. Are schemas and mental models really different or just two terms for the same thing? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Caution required: much so called “dual-coding” does more harm than good
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
November 3, 2025 at 1:38 PM
Caution required: much so called “dual-coding” does more harm than good
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
“For a difference to be a difference, it must make a difference.”.
Education loves new distinctions, but unless they change what we do or how students learn, they’re just semantics. Are schemas and mental models really different or just two terms for the same thing? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Education loves new distinctions, but unless they change what we do or how students learn, they’re just semantics. Are schemas and mental models really different or just two terms for the same thing? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Schemas vs Mental Models: Does the difference make a difference?
Why the distinction between “schemas” and “mental models” tell us more more about our language than our minds.
open.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:59 AM
“For a difference to be a difference, it must make a difference.”.
Education loves new distinctions, but unless they change what we do or how students learn, they’re just semantics. Are schemas and mental models really different or just two terms for the same thing? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Education loves new distinctions, but unless they change what we do or how students learn, they’re just semantics. Are schemas and mental models really different or just two terms for the same thing? open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Chapter 10 of The Second Summer of Love
The Stratford Road Job Centre: where dreams go on the dole. Luke had hoped failure would come with guidance, maybe even sympathy. Instead, he got Glennys, patron saint of soap dodgers, and a job interview with Synapse Dynamic Communications. Whatever that is.
The Stratford Road Job Centre: where dreams go on the dole. Luke had hoped failure would come with guidance, maybe even sympathy. Instead, he got Glennys, patron saint of soap dodgers, and a job interview with Synapse Dynamic Communications. Whatever that is.
November 2, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Chapter 10 of The Second Summer of Love
The Stratford Road Job Centre: where dreams go on the dole. Luke had hoped failure would come with guidance, maybe even sympathy. Instead, he got Glennys, patron saint of soap dodgers, and a job interview with Synapse Dynamic Communications. Whatever that is.
The Stratford Road Job Centre: where dreams go on the dole. Luke had hoped failure would come with guidance, maybe even sympathy. Instead, he got Glennys, patron saint of soap dodgers, and a job interview with Synapse Dynamic Communications. Whatever that is.
Reposted by David Didau
Just over a week until publication of my new book on the joys and power of curiosity - the perfect gift for someone interested in maths or politics or archaeology or physics or art or poetry - also ideal for anyone not yet interested in those things who should be.
October 28, 2025 at 1:43 PM
Just over a week until publication of my new book on the joys and power of curiosity - the perfect gift for someone interested in maths or politics or archaeology or physics or art or poetry - also ideal for anyone not yet interested in those things who should be.
Reposted by David Didau
A pictures worth a 1000 words, right? But when words and pictures pull in different directions, learning falls apart. My latest piece looks at where dual coding goes wrong and how to make visuals actually help students think. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The Dual Coding Delusion
How dual coding theory became a victim of edu-mythology and why adding visuals won’t make your teaching more memorable.
open.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 7:19 AM
A pictures worth a 1000 words, right? But when words and pictures pull in different directions, learning falls apart. My latest piece looks at where dual coding goes wrong and how to make visuals actually help students think. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...