Simon Johnson

@timmiclark @mathillustrated It's amazing how these 100 different student interests he specifically caters to all happen to align with the curriculum. Also fascinating how he knows his methods work better than ones he's never employed.

@mathillustrated You are not there to help the students pursue their interests or only do that which they find fun. What a pathetic education that would be. You are there to teach them to do things that they can’t or wouldn’t do on their own. You are there to extend them beyond themselves.

I can find out what students find interesting, valuable, or fun. I can help students connect to their intrinsic interests, and realistically facilitate students’ pursuits of their interests, values, likes, and dislikes - even for more than 100 students. In so doing, I cab increase the likelihood that students experience success and find new motivations. I can sequence learning, provide clear explanations, scaffold appropriately, and create opportunities for students to ask questions, learn material in multiple ways, and build lasting understandings.

@warmMagnet @PCSnow1604 @3dancingfeet How do the studies you cite demonstrate causality from mid-line crossing activities to reading and writing development? This was the original assertion in question.

@PCSnow1604 @3dancingfeet Feel free to beat up on Brain Gym all you want, Pamela. Someone other than Rachael brought that up. Meanwhile, the recent papers I shared above were both published out of what is probably the most highly reputed neuroscience lab in the world.

I’m blocked by @3dancingfeet b/c of previous efforts to set the record straight on some of her posts so cannot reply to this directly (shared with me by a PG student). It’s important that current and future teachers know that this idea is not supported by empirical evidence. It’s also unfortunately sometimes promoted by OTs. @speechwoman and I address it in @EBPRoadmap

@Life191621Jo @le0nardpoetry Because the entire purpose of the original post was teacher bashing.

@le0nardpoetry Why is everyone focussing on the kid and not on the irresponsibility of the adults who allowed a sports day take place in a heatwave? And the way so many people can't wait to have a bash at kids' behaviour, without really knowing much about the case, is ridiculous.

Reason number 500 why people leave teaching: entitled parents posting the name of a teacher online for following a pretty obvious and fair policy, and getting 21,000 likes for it. Can you imagine how this poor teacher feels? Unbelievable

@DanaPalubiak 1. Alpha school doesn't employ EI 2. Phonics is not EI 3. No advocate of EI takes the critic you mentioned seriously. 4. You've made a claim about some sort of "pivot" without providing any support for that claim.

Critics like Dr. Rachael Jefferson have been calling out the explicit instruction monopoly for years saying it's "soul destroying." Now the network is quietly adopting the language of nuance without ever admitting she was right. That's a pivot. 🎪

Have you noticed? Three weeks ago, the mantra was "explicit instruction is the only way,” differentiation a fad, inquiry a waste. Now the same voices are singing a different tune: "It depends," "don't over-teach," "nuance matters." What changed?

@abemurray @teachthemx3 There's not a shred of objective, reliable evidence that it's working other than their marketing material.

@IBeconteacher @teachthemx3 Meh you can just ignore things I think folks get grumpy because it is working and showing how poor status quo is “First they deny you then they fight you …”

We can do so much better as a society Excited for Alpha school and will never understand the hate they get Waiting for the public school that says “we are doing better and here’s how” vs the cope and complaints I see to date Need a hostile takeover of public system / replace internals with alpha and wear the bureaucracy like a skin suit

@teachthemx3 @abemurray Quite simple: The criticism is directly correlated to the aggressiveness of their marketing on X and the distain that marketing has for any alternative to Alpha School.

@abemurray I’ve been struggling to understand why certain people on X focus so much energy on criticizing Alpha.

@greg_ashman Still resurrecting the same Ken Robinson tropes.

A load of cliched nonsense. I am getting very sick of the Alpha School PR machine that is flooding Twitter.

@greg_ashman @PCSnow1604 The latest is that you're not qualified to have an opinion on anything outside the specific scope of your PhD thesis. They are, of course.

@PCSnow1604 I don’t know why they do it because everyone else is repulsed by it.

I don’t know whether to be flattered or mildly disturbed by this attention, but let me put the record straight. I started blogging about education in 2012 when I began reading education research and discovered it was at odds with the narratives I had consumed during training and in my career so far. As part of my blogging, I started a dialogue with John Sweller and that resulted in starting a PhD with Sweller and Slava Kalyuga at UNSW in 2015. Twitter critics at the time used to use my candidacy against me, claiming I would never get a PhD for reasons x or y or even doubting I was doing one at all because it was taking so long. I did indeed take a long time because I completed it alongside by day job in a school, first as head of maths and latterly as deputy principal. I finished it in 2022 and was awarded my PhD then. I don’t use the title of Dr in every day life. I use it when relevant, such as when presenting at a conference. I did not use this title prior to completing my PhD in 2022. These other sources are simply out of date.

@TheCopeBrigade @DrewPavlou How long have you lived in Australia for?

@DrewPavlou Yea, Australia is a total shit hole. No surprise there. You are welcome to immigrate, just don’t bring your shitty Australian politics with you

I’m in Dallas, Texas, literally a land of kings. How can anybody move to America and become a communist. The general wealth that exists here is just crazy, even just middle class people live so much better than Australia. My Australian friend from uni lives here. Pays 20% tax, earns way more than he would earn in Australia. Can actually afford a home and can support his wife on a single income. CRAZY. We have fallen so far behind in Australia.

@greg_ashman Is she referring to ResearchED?

Would someone who isn’t blocked ask this person to delete their false claim about workshops at my school? (You may also want to ask them if they’ve ever worked in a posh private school themselves and for how long) H/T YKWYA

@mathillustrated @warmMagnet Bless. Why don't you take my reply, then yours, and post them into AI to reveal your own logical fallacy? Or better still, maybe you're ready to recognise one all by yourself. Given how excited you are by your recent discovery of them, it might be a great step forward for you.

@IBeconteacher @warmMagnet “fidelity tests” lol Fully explain or else.

One thing that is absolutely clear is that misrepresenting instructional practices is some people’s favorite social media game.

@warmMagnet @mathillustrated @greg_ashman I've not met a single teacher who doesn't believe they fully model and explain concepts and procedures. Conversely, I rarely observe it being implemented with any fidelity.

@IBeconteacher @mathillustrated @greg_ashman Sorry, could you clarify who does what delusionally?

@DrWHKitchen @petergates3 @New_Old_Paul @umes_shrestha He believes explicit instruction is a far right conspiracy. This is the type of thinking you're choosing to engage with.

@petergates3 @New_Old_Paul @umes_shrestha Are you saying the first three are true, as in they are true statements about learning, or true statements about what constructivism teaches?

The Great Constructivist Confusion, by @umes_shrestha How a theory of learning became a dogma of teaching open.substack.com/pub/umesko/p/t…

@warmMagnet @mathillustrated @greg_ashman They certainly convince themselves they do. It's an exercise in delusion.

@mathillustrated But trads themselves say various forms exist, practices/terms shift, some use it incorrectly, etc. I like @greg_ashman’s 2023 defn: “Explicit teaching means fully explaining concepts and demonstrating procedures before asking Ss to apply them.” Of course, non-Trads do that too!

@greg_ashman But he hasn't even given it any prompts, so it must be accurate!

According to this thread, Ralph is prompting AI to write criticisms of my posts. This is very funny.

@mathillustrated Are you genuinely suggesting that because you cannot find enough hits on google for these exact quotes, this is evidence that nobody ever uses these arguments? Is this satire?

8 more to go…

Alas, “Arguments” like “Teaching is too complex to be studied scientifically” that @PCSnow1604 sees “most commonly on social media” are not easily found on Google searches (with or without quotes.) A better article would have addressed more realistic arguments.

@ShakinthatChalk @mathillustrated @greg_ashman That was the kind of answer I suspected. Says a lot.

@IBeconteacher @mathillustrated @greg_ashman Teaching maths outside of his narrow ideological camp.

Imagine you have been promoting students’ inquiries in your classroom for decades and you learn of false dichotomies setting inquiry in opposition to “explicit teaching”. You realize you’ve been accomplishing the same goals for decades and sleep well at night.

@ShakinthatChalk @mathillustrated @greg_ashman What specifically is he ignorant about?

@IBeconteacher @mathillustrated @greg_ashman Greg very clearly does not understand that which he professes to be an expert in.

@mathillustrated @greg_ashman You could always offer us very specific examples of your own practice to illustrate your chosen definitions of inquiry and explicit teaching. Could you show us where to find them so we can see why his definition is limited and yours is enlightened?

“@greg_ashman relates a problem he has invented: why don’t teachers use “explicit teaching” exactly as he defines it”

@gorge_lilley @DanaPalubiak Yes. Wow. Imagine academics having both agreements and disagreements. Contrast this with the desperate gotcha moments, unhinged conspiracy theories and personal attacks we see from others.

@IBeconteacher @DanaPalubiak Seems like SoL use Hattie when it suits, eg Hattie was keynote at the 1st ResearchEd in Australia & again promoted as keynote last year. Then Kirschner & Wiliam's recent book, Hattie is co-author & is the most cited reference- link.springer.com/book/10.1007/9…

If Hattie was the intellectual cover for the Knowledge Cartel, and his 'evidence' base was fundamentally flawed... what are the implications for all the other 'evidence-based' frameworks they've been pushing? Was Hattie just the first domino?