I create solutions to the written word being dense and the spoken word transient,
London
Joined June 2026
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Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
Learning Through Talk: If talking helps learning, that means everyone needs to talk. teacherhead.com/2026/10/11/l…
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
I always deeply appreciate how Bernard takes a sound, philosophical, and epistemically grounded approach—here to a debate that's driven by slogans rather than substance. Rather than picking a side between "knowledge" and "skills," he digs into what these words actually mean, leaning on philosopher Gilbert Ryle to show that skills aren't separate from knowledge—they're a form of it. He reminds us knowledge isn't just memorized facts, but something shown through context-sensitive, flexible action.
What really stands out is how he connects this back to virtue, practice, and voluntary action rather than rote repetition. He makes a compelling case for why standardized tests like PISA struggle to measure real knowledge, since genuine understanding depends on judgment and context that can't be reduced to simple steps. It's a refreshingly careful piece that raises the bar for how these education debates ought to be conducted. bernardandrews.substack.com/…
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
Oh yes! That’s exactly it. Thank you for that! You don’t know quite what you think till you’ve said it. The same is true for writing. Thoughts emerge in the process - it’s more than just getting fully formed ideas on paper.
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
If you would like an accessible overview of Direct Instruction theory, my second book might be of interest. With a foreword by Kurt Engelmann, it explores how DI selects, categorises and sequences knowledge.
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
Amazing experience talking at @ResearchEd_CL in Santiago. Thanks so much for the opportunity @rolopezd @Aptus_org 1400 people x Rosenshine. 🔥#54
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
Wicked response to the first two, here’s #3 PERSISTENT LEARNING PROBLEMS
How do coaches and teachers diagnose the problem that most needs addressing?
Based on the thinking of the brilliant @overpractised - highly recommend digging in to her blog overpractised.wordpress.com/ too 👍🏼
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
Funny but also too cynical. Given how many thousands of students sit in lessons day after day without ever having anyone ask their opinion or the chance to share their ideas as they form just maybe there’s gonna be renewed energy in this area and I think we should be excited for it.
Great session at the Voice21 Oracy conference: @teacherhead & @elaisabrina1234 on how Voice21 & @WALKTHRUs_5 work brilliantly together v
If you've just a whiff of confidence regarding DI and its role in Early Years education, read this account of Project Follow Through, written not by secondary-based teacher/leader but one steeped in experience and reading.
I promised a blog after @hopkinsmmi tagged me in a thread about Project Follow Through. So here it is... ruthswailes.com/i-think-youl…
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
It's not just that the grammar is decontextualised. It is dressed up in pseudo-scientific language that compresses meaning unnecessarily, and creates a barrier to learning that T has to unpack. Good teaching explains things clearly. Bad teaching obscures them. This is bad teaching.
Putting politicians who don't understand learning in charge of education has been disastrous, and all governing parties need to take a bite of the resulting sandwich. And very big bites for @educationgovuk and the sociologists who have wrecked teacher training.
I like this way of thinking about AI.
Dan's argument is sharper than "use AI carefully." His claim: students should only use AI for things they already know how to do *well*. Not brainstorm-with-AI-but-draft-yourself, which is basically what every district policy says. He argues that's the wrong line entirely.
His point is that those policies borrow a workplace model — AI as associate, student as lead, product is the thing. But for students, the product isn't the point. The essay itself has no value; it exists so the student practices building an argument, integrating sources, thinking like a reader. Skip that mental work and the assignment is hollow, even if the output looks great.
So his real test isn't "how much AI is too much" — it's "would doing this yourself teach you something." If yes, no AI. If you've already mastered it and repeating it teaches nothing, AI's fine — like a calculator once you know arithmetic.
I like this argument a lot.
And I noticed he never once says "offloading." That word already carries a verdict — like something was shirked. Dan just asks whether a step was a *learning* step or a merely *supportive* one.
That's why it matters to me. Most discourse treats any AI use as offloading — a small moral failure — instead of asking Dan's actual question, which is whether that specific step is where the learning happens. His framing lets the answer be boring and mixed: fine here, real cost there. dtwuva.substack.com/p/studen…
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
We spend countless hours in education debating teaching ideologies, but ideology doesn't run a classroom.
A study tracking over 1,000 students (now one of the most-cited papers in the history of Jorurnal pof Teaching and Teacher Education) measured exactly what makes a teacher effective. The results should change how we structure professional development.
The data showed that a teacher’s commitment to constructivism, the idea that students should discover knowledge themselves rather than receive direct instruction, has absolutely no correlation with student achievement or daily instructional quality. Having a student-centered theory on paper simply cannot make up for a lack of practical teaching skills.
What actually works? The research isolated three concrete drivers:
1. Self-Efficacy: The grounded confidence to direct a room. This was the only trait directly linked to students understanding the material.
2. Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK): Knowing the subject well enough to anticipate where students will get confused and how to explain it clearly.
3. Enthusiasm: Genuine energy that makes the material engaging and builds a supportive classroom climate.
We need to stop spending training hours on abstract pedagogy. If we want better outcomes, we have to equip teachers with deep subject mastery and the structural tools to manage a classroom effectively. Competence naturally builds the confidence required to teach well.
Read more here: ammaramerhbi.substack.com/p/…
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
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All brought together in one fully resourced professional development toolkit for your organisation. Explore everything included in membership in our brochure...
@teacherhead @MattTeachCoach @olivercavi @LisaWorgan
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
Fabulous group of people coming to @StroudGreenSch to hear about @WALKTHRUs_5. Good luck with your PD journey 👏👏
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
Why don’t we just keep going with our current busy school improvement agenda without people wanting to change course and/or add more? From last year before PISA:
“It’s not that many other agendas don’t have value – they do – but you can’t just layer them onto core practices that still have so much scope for improvement. Deeper knowledge, richer experience, better behaviour.. for all; keep firmly focused on that and the rest follows. Sadly, keep going, keep working on it, keep doing the hard yards, deepen don’t add – are not political messages anyone wants to give.
The agenda we have is right .. I see so many schools and FE colleges making great strides .. but we just need to be the allowed time, the space and the resources to see it through.”
teacherhead.com/2025/06/28/w… via @teacherhead
Oliver Caviglioli retweeted
If we're going to bemoan the education establishment's lack of uptake from Project Follow Through, perhaps we should also wonder why many in the Science of Learning advocacy don't know much about Kalyuga and Singh's 2015 work on cognitive load theory that challenges assumptions.
