In order to understand learning, we need to understand the result of learning - expertise. This is much easier to approach in so-called "kind" domains, such as chess, where the rules are fixed and all information is available. However, there ex

155. How experts see

Dec 18th, 2023 41m 49s

There has been a ton of research on how experts see things differently than novices. (Like, with their eyes.) Everything from where they look, how long they focus for, and their use of peripheral vision, to their ability to anticipate what is g

154. Mindsets everywhere

Dec 11th, 2023 29m 47s

Mindset was the first thing I spoke about on this podcast. I even did a separate episode going into the controversies surrounding replication of Carol Dweck's original work. Then there were stress mindsets, introduced by Kelly McGonigal in her

153. Comparing learning different dance styles: Argentine Tango vs. Ballroom & Latin (Dancesport)

Nov 26th, 2023 1h 17m

I haven't spoken on the podcast yet about my personal experience learning dancing. At university, I took part in dancesport, which is competitive ballroom and latin dancing; and in the last few years I have been learning to dance tango. I am st

152. [VIDEO] Education and generative AI: conference video for STEM MAD Melbourne, October 23

Nov 19th, 2023 8m 9s

This is my first ever attempt at a VIDEO podcast. If you just listen to the audio, you should be fine. This was a video produced for the STEM MAD conference in Melbourne in October 2023. Unfortunately I couldn't attend the conference, so I made

151. 8 years, 150 episodes

Nov 13th, 2023 36m 3s

This is a quick review of where I am now after 150 episodes and just short of 8 years of Education Bookcast. Thanks for all of your support! Feel free to leave a review of the podcast, or, if you wish, support me on https://www.buymeacoffee.com

150. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

Oct 26th, 2023 58m 51s

Since I've now reached episode 150, I've decided to do something I've never done before - discuss a fiction book. (This episode contains spoilers.) A Wizard of Earthsea is a fantasy novel from 1968, a time when the genre was still not very well

Oct 23rd, 2023 47m 7s

A lot of the classic expertise research, especially the research about deliberate practice and the "10,000 hour rule", is inspired by K. Anders Ericcson's study of violinists at the Berlin Conservatory. However, we have seen before how misleadi

148. You Know the Fair Rule by Bill Rogers

Aug 18th, 2023 1h 13m

Any teacher in a Western cultural context knows that classroom behaviour is the most challenging part of the job. A lot of the time, it seems like crowd control is the main issue, and "teaching" is secondary. Unfortunately, teacher training cou

147. Large language models (LLMs) - interview with Dr Guy Emerson

Jul 24th, 2023 1h 11m

Dr Guy Emerson (a.k.a Guy Karavengleman) is a computational linguist working at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory. In this episode, we discuss issues surrounding LLMs such as ChatGPT, GPT-3, GPT-4, and Google Bard. Guy is concerned a

147. Large language models (LLMs) - interview with Dr Guy Emerson

Jul 24th, 2023 1h 11m

146b. Lessons from EdTech - The 90% Rule

May 7th, 2023 31m 14s

In the second part of this two-part episode about lessons learned from my time working in the education technology sector, I wanted to share a very significant quantitative finding to improve learning: what I call the "90% rule". Desirable diff

146a. Lessons from EdTech - the Fundamental Duality of Educational Materials

Apr 30th, 2023 48m 15s

I've now been working as a data scientist in educational technology for over four years. In that time I've thought a lot about various educational concepts within edtech, and I want to share some of what I've learnt. In the first part of this t

145b. How to be a better lecturer (practice) - a message for Guy

Apr 22nd, 2023 1h 7m

This is the second part of the message for my friend Guy about becoming a better lecturer. In this part, I go over 27 practical techniques and tips for improving lecturing (as well as improving the way homework exercises are designed), referrin

145a. How to be a better lecturer (theory) - a message for Guy

Apr 22nd, 2023 56m 2s

Another in the series of "really long voice notes from Staś". My friend Guy is a lecturer in natural language processing. He asked me if I could give him some tips about how to lecture better, so I told him I would record a podcast episode abou

144. Developing Talent in Young People by Benjamin Bloom

Apr 15th, 2023 1h 2m

Benjamin Bloom is best known for Bloom's Taxonomy, a scheme for categorising ways of thinking about or interacting with learning content on a scale from less to more sophisticated. However, the project he led investigating the lifelong developm

143. Talent, revisited

Mar 19th, 2023 1h 9m

Cover image: horse and rider by Nadia, age 5. The nature of talent is something that I dealt with near the beginning of the existence of Education Bookcast, reviewing books like Genius Explained, Outliers, The Talent Code, and Bounce. The gener

142. Season 2 of the Pedagogue-Cast is out now! Taster: Music and Learning

Mar 11th, 2023 36m 28s

Season 2 of the Pedagogue-Cast is here! The Pedagogue-Cast is a separate podcast project I share with Justin Matthys, founder of Maths Pathway. We discuss the kinds of questions that teachers might have about good practice which touch on cognit

141+. Feedback on constructivism

Mar 10th, 2023 45m 23s

After my last episode on behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism ("A Message for Zoë"), I heard back from Zoë herself, and also heard from Malin Tväråna, an education researcher in Sweden. I decided that it was worth recording an episode

141. Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism - a message for Zoë

Feb 25th, 2023 44m 22s

My friend Zoë (hi Zoë!) is taking a course on learning design. In it, she heard about Behaviourism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism, and while she said that she found it confusing, her main takeaway is that "you need a bit of each". I recorded

140b. Political economy pt. II: The Invisible Hook

Jan 30th, 2023 42m 50s

In the previous recording, I was speaking about political economy using the example of prison gangs, taken from David Skarbek's book Social Order of the Underworld. In this recording, I give the example of 18th-century Atlantic pirates, as disc

140a. Political economy pt. I: The Social Order of the Underworld

Jan 29th, 2023 1h 10m

Please be advised that this episode contains mentions of violence and may be unsuitable for some listeners. I'd like to flesh out what I've been saying before about the power of economic analysis in explaining people's actions. Whereas when we

139. Reflections after 7 years

Jan 1st, 2023 50m 26s

Education Bookcast released its first episode on the 1st of January 2016. I'd like to take this opportunity to talk about some of the big things that I think I've learned in that time. I speak about: Psychology is overrated - the replication c

138. The science of self-belief, part II: self-efficacy

Nov 14th, 2022 34m 29s

This is the second episode concerning self-related beliefs taken from chapters of The Cambridge Handbook of Motivation and Learning. Here I talk about self-efficacy, which concerns how much you believe that you can do something specific, e.g. s

137. The science of self-belief, part I: self-concept

Oct 31st, 2022 54m 51s

Among the huge academic tomes that I've been ploughing through recently is The Cambridge Handbook of Motivation and Learning. I've long felt that my understanding of motivation is superficial and incomplete, and I wondered whether motivation wa