Catherine Cook

We have to do what’s best for our students! #KnowBetterDoBetter #bced #SD27_CC

Today I met one of Australia's most famous residents - John Sweller, the father of cognitive load theory. He's been studying cognitive load theory for 50 years and it's only become well-known in the last five years. It was great to meet him in person! (I personally do not think this is parka weather at all, but he wasn't the only one wearing a parka in Sydney.)

@tetheredtoed1 🎯

This is false and bad advice

No, explicit instruction does not cause Learned Helplessness. *New Post*

That this even needs to be stated in 2026 🤦🏻‍♀️ ……

However, once learners have enough prior knowledge, inquiry can become a way of activating, testing, and reorganising what they already know.

Does ability grouping only help top students? 📚 We talk about how the framing around ability grouping needs to change. It can help all students, not just a select few. 🔗 Link below

@ShiftParadigm @jane_strauser @Mrsnevill1 @GridironSchol91 @Kathy_Rice @ErinCKing @CarolineDobso18 @Miss_Molnar1 @mommagordon2 @CurricuMap @Gr8educ8tor @mspiggyd1 @kumabair44 @MrRoughton @DiggerKPs139 @kurks91 @DebraHassa @tracyscottkelly @BethFratesMD @narelleford @AngelaAbend @AllysonApsey @leighmragsdale @skelley6162 @bethhill2829 Thank you, Mark, for mentioning me, and providing some new teachers for me to follow!

TEACHERS #follow TEACHERS @jane_strauser @Mrsnevill1 @GridironSchol91 @CatherineCook58 @Kathy_Rice @ErinCKing @CarolineDobso18 @Miss_Molnar1 @mommagordon2 @CurricuMap @Gr8educ8tor @mspiggyd1 @kumabair44 @MrRoughton @DiggerKPs139 @kurks91 @DebraHassa #repost #growPLN

This is worth bringing up again, this is from Graham Nuthall's book. He found students needed three encounters with the material to do well with it.* But a prolonged "figure-it-out" period robs students of this practice.

@S_Oberle Teachers should never be expected to toilet train students. It’s a ridiculous expectation.

This is a thing. And everyone says, “not it” when it comes to managing the mess.

Students like and prefer strict teachers

Thanks @New_Old_Paul for re-sharing these ideas on aligning trauma-informed teaching and the principles of cognitive science (aka effective teaching for all). We can ease the cognitive load for teachers and students alike when we start with first principles.

@tetheredtoed1 @PepsMccrea 💯 agree.

@PepsMccrea I would avoid saying just fidget spinners per se don’t work. All toys and gadgets given “to help them focus” are a problem. Often a big one. target.com/p/link-31-piec… Rampant in US SPED thinking

🚨New paper released today: 10 Common SEN Mis(Interventions)—An Evidence Summary steplab.co/news/common-se… Supporting students with Special Educational Needs (SEN) is a vital and growing challenge for schools. But it’s not straightforward. Learning is complex, marketing claims are confident, and the evidence is often hard to access. As a result, we can sometimes end up adopting approaches which are less effective than we initially think. For some, this may well be uncomfortable reading. As a profession, many of us have put time, effort and belief into these things, and lots will have seen students who looked like they were getting something from it. However, it’s essential that we temper our intuition with evidence, because ultimately: our most vulnerable students deserve it. This new paper co-authored with @Barker_J is an attempt to raise the visibility of the best available evidence around several commonly used SEN interventions. For each, we provide an overview of what the research says, offer a more informed approach, and provide a suite of rigorous links to help you get started. We hope it will serve as a useful resource and over time: push us to be even more 'evidence demanding' as a profession. As ever, let me know what you think. If you have pushes or suggestions for how this paper could be better, hit reply and give it to me straight. 👊

@Educhatter @cbokhove Questioning Building Thinking Classrooms effectiveness is definitely overdue. I've tried it and I know there are better ways to teach math. Jump Math is a better place to start. @rastokke @BarryGarelick @greg_ashman @ToddTruitt76508 @johnmighton

Math Education Watch: Canadian Math guru Peter Liljedahl's Building Thinking Classrooms is finally attracting more critical analysis. "Vertical whiteboard" pedagogy has its limitations and kids may not learn their math. Age level and class size matter. Ty @cbokhove #mathed

@oliviajune82 I like this community too! I have learned so much from everyone on here.

As annoying as Twitter can be, I really love this community of people who want to make schools better for kids and want to talk about every detail of curriculum and education

@C_Hendrick Happy Birthday, Carl! What a fun celebration!

For my birthday, my daughters wanted to throw me an "Ireland-themed" party. So they bought me some Tayto crisps and Club orange. Perfect.

@PCSnow1604 @rastokke Thank you for your kind words, Pam! They mean a great deal to me! 💖

@CatherineCook58 @rastokke Thank you Catherine! That’s very kind. Yours is a voice of reason that always brings experience, wisdom and humility to discussions about classroom teaching 🌻

Look who I met today. The one and only Pamela Snow! @PCSnow1604

@rastokke @greg_ashman Fabulous! Anna, you're getting to meet another of the most important voices about effective education in Australia, Greg Ashman! What an amazing trip you're on! I'm only a lot jealous! 😊

What a pleasure to finally meet Greg Ashman in person! I’ve been a longtime admirer of his work. It was an incredible experience to visit his amazing school in Ballarat to learn about the outstanding work they're doing. Thank you @greg_ashman!

@PCSnow1604 It’s a great explanation! Politics aside, we need to do what’s best for students instead of calling names and side tracking the arguments.

"Politically motivated" is a tired trope in education debates and it's also an own-goal. "Political" comes from the Greek {polis} meaning "a city or the overarching community of citizens". Everyone in education has an ethical responsibility to endorse practices that optimise outcomes for the overarching community of students. Personal ideology and political allegiances need to be called out and take a back seat. @rastokke does a great job of addressing this here.

@PCSnow1604 @rastokke @latrobe @tserry2504 What a fabulous group to discuss all things initial teacher education!

It was fabulous today to finally meet ⁦@rastokke⁩ in person⁩ and spend time talking all things initial teacher education via our #SOLAR and SOME Labs in the School of Education ⁦@latrobe⁩. With Prof Joanna Barbousas and @tserry2504.