Episode Details

Have you ever taught a "perfect" lesson where every student got the answer right, only to find they remembered absolutely nothing the next day? In this episode, education author David Didau joins me to reveal why what looks like learning is often just a "performance"—and how our best intentions might be fueling the illusion. 

 

We dig into five common teaching habits you need to stop immediately, including why "Sat Nav teaching" is creating dependency rather than independence and why the popular idea of "productive struggle" might actually be setting your students up to fail. David challenges deep-seated beliefs about practice, compliance, and memory, offering a provocative look at what it really takes to make learning stick.

Resources mentioned:

Books

• David Didau – What If Everything You Knew About Education Was Wrong? 
• David Didau – Intelligent Accountability 

Websites & Tools

• Carousel Learning 

People

• Robert Bjork 
• Adam Boxer 
• Carl Hendrick 
• Christina Milos

You can connect with David:

Twitter/X: @DavidDidau

Linkedin

Substack: https://daviddidau.substack.com/

Website: https://learningspy.co.uk/

 

About David DIdau

David Didau is an educator, author, and professional learning leader known for his evidence-informed work on teaching, writing, and curriculum. He is the author of several highly regarded books including What If Everything You Knew About Education Was Wrong? and The Secret of Literacy. David writes in his blog The Learning Spy, a widely read platform supporting educators to translate research into classroom practice.

 

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter/X: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Linkedin: @brendan-lee-kft

Website: learnwithlee.net

 

Support the Knowledge for Teachers Podcast: 

https://www.patreon.com/KnowledgeforTeachersPodcast

 

The Primary Maths Instruction Framework For teachers

This is a three day online course for teachers where we focus on how learning happens and how to design maths lessons that support acquisition, build fluency and help students generalise what they know.

Register here

Implementing Effective Primary Maths Instruction For School Leaders

This is a two day online course for school and middle leaders and it is all about implementation. We look closely at curriculum and lesson design, assessment, coaching and the systems that help teachers change practice in a sustainable way.

Register here