Bernard Andrews
@bernardandrews.bsky.social
Philosophy teacher. Immigrant. Valencia, Spain https://bernardandrews.wordpress.com
"But there is no honour for the humanities in regaining their standing through the attention of AI companies, if they engage only on the technology industry’s terms. In that case, they will have become important in exactly the wrong way." www.ft.com/content/bdb3...
Why this philosopher turned down Anthropic
The AI industry is courting the humanities — but it is asking the wrong questions
ft.com
New Scandinavian wings at Wandsworth and Pentonville jails have seen a 45% fall in assaults, 57% drop in self harm and halving of staff absence rates - fascinating results from trial into a more rehabilitative approach to prisons observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
‘Scandi wings’ offering pianos, pool and tea parties coul...
A unit in London’s Wandsworth prison has been transformed using methods from Sweden and Norway that prioritise rehabilitation over retribution
observer.co.uk
How to reform the education system when no one can agree on what it's for... open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...
Education reform 'in the meantime'
“One keeps forgetting to go right down to the foundations. One doesn’t put the question marks deep enough down.”–Wittgenstein, Culture and Value
open.substack.com
By day five of my labour, I didn’t want an ‘ideal birth’. I only wanted to survive | Natalie Morris
By day five of my labour, I didn’t want an ‘ideal birth’. I only wanted to survive | Natalie Morris
Yvette Cooper’s maternity reforms must change a system that too often fails women when they’re at their most vulnerable, says journalist and author Natalie Morris
theguardian.com
I’ve spent years researching what it means to be alive. This is what I’ve learned | Melanie Challenger
I’ve spent years researching what it means to be alive. This is what I’ve learned | Melanie Challenger
To understand the experience of life, don’t look to the mind. Look to the body
theguardian.com
++BREAKING++ The UK and Spanish governments have issued a joint statement overnight: "[We] agreed that this summer’s wildfires demonstrated that climate change was now a national security emergency facing Europe and threatening our way of life." www.gov.uk/government/n...
@cmooreanderson.bsky.social is someone I really admire. Rather than just beating the drum for a particular approach, he's always willing to dig into the details and go back to first principles. Edu-chat would be greatly enriched if his stuff were read more. christianmooreanderson.com/understandin...
Understanding isn’t just knowledge (& how we can teach it) – Christian Moore-Anderson
The knowledge-understanding problem is perennially debated. Many sense a difference and argue that we should ensure students learn knowledge and understand it.
christianmooreanderson.com
You never told me what you thought of this: christianmooreanderson.com/understandin...
Understanding isn’t just knowledge (& how we can teach it) – Christian Moore-Anderson
The knowledge-understanding problem is perennially debated. Many sense a difference and argue that we should ensure students learn knowledge and understand it.
christianmooreanderson.com
More fantastic stuff by Bernard. *And, if I may, it points to the fundamental role of variety.
Bernard Andrews @bernardandrews.bsky.social · 2mo agoOn knowing how to play a song... open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...
In the UK there is an ‘unspoken rule’ that nothing at school events should look too polished – but parents at international schools in other cultures have different expectations, writes principal Jill Cowie
The tricky art of satisfying parents’ expectations for school events
A leader with experience in the UK, China and now Nigeria reflects on why leaders have to be flexible over the different ways communities host and engage with parent-focused school events
tes.com
"A child isn’t born with SEND. They aren’t born knowing that they don’t fit," says the writer. "This is something they learn; something that they’re taught." This piece is one of the most beautiful mediations on SEND I have read. www.tes.com/magazine/ana...
Why working in SEND made me reluctant to diagnose my son
A decade of working in alternative provision led this teacher to question the usefulness of labels and the benefits of having his autistic son diagnosed
tes.com
It can rapidly become difficult to understand what people actually mean by these technical terms. @bernardandrews.bsky.social talks about it extensively. I think many normal language terms, such as knowledge, understanding, meaning, sense-making, distinguishing, and practising, do the job fine.
This question about whether AI can understand has interesting parallels with narratives in education. Some people claim that understanding is made up of more bits of knowledge. I don't think that's right because embodiment matters (which means AI can't understand). HT @cmooreanderson.bsky.social
Tania Lombrozo@tanialombrozo.bsky.social · 3mo agoDo LLMs *understand* language? Do educational AI agents *understand* the material they teach (or their students)? Claims about what AI systems do or don't understand are pervasive, but assessing them requires an account of MACHINE UNDERSTANDING
New post! ● Direct Instruction’s Limits: ⇒ A Nuanced Look at Engelmann’s Ideas #EduSky #UKEd christianmooreanderson.com/direct-instr...
A delight to read @bernardandrews.bsky.social 's new post this Friday morning: "The biggest problem in education: Underdeterminism" bernardandrews.substack.com/p/the-bigges...
The biggest problem in education
the paradox of underdetermination
bernardandrews.substack.com
As a prominent authority in educational academia, and a fan of his work, I was really happy with Michael Reiss's endorsement.
Education has explored a science of memory... But what about a science of meaning? This is what @creativehigg.bsky.social thought when she offered to endorse my book ↓↓↓ Book: mybook.to/teachingmean...
I'm not crying, you're crying - wife asked me if I had a cable. Yes, yes I did!
The beauty of this book cover isn't AI. My talented wife created the look to match my words. She made the strip herself (see the shaded bit where it was glued on the left). Then sought the background colour she liked (it was notebook cover) and took a photo to form a shadow from the sun's rays.
Christian Moore-Anderson@cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 4mo agoAmazon has a global technical issue; my paperback is still stuck. But! The eBook & hardback are available. If you want to read beyond telling and retrieval get a copy: mybook.to/teachingmean... I'd really appreciate the support (and an honest review to help this calamitous launch).
Wanting to write a blog post about the limits and problems of Engelmann's behaviourist theory, I began reading again. And, good god, look at this paragraph and realise why science education in the UK has gone to soul-destroying transmission and mini-whiteboards:
WHen people write about 'questioning' for teachers, it's basically just about how to use questions as formative assessment - as part of some form of training towards a closed goal. But you can also ask questions to find out what the students actually think and take an interest in their answers!
Possibly controversial opinion. This 'I do, we do, you do' thing that is everywhere now is about instruction rather than education. We are being too adult controlling about learning atm. Whatever happened to a bit of open endedness, lateral thinking and self-expression? Glad I teach in early years.
Lemov, Pondiscio and the closing of the academic mind open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...
Lemov, Pondiscio and the closing of the academic mind
1. There was an interesting article in the Athletic recently about how Michigan Basketball coach, Dusty May, had been learning from Doug Lemov.
open.substack.com
Lemov, Pondiscio and the closing of the academic mind open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...
Lemov, Pondiscio and the closing of the academic mind
1. There was an interesting article in the Athletic recently about how Michigan Basketball coach, Dusty May, had been learning from Doug Lemov.
open.substack.com
The phrase ‘learning is invisible’ is a lazy and sloppy cliche which we should probably stop using. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...
Learning is not invisible
The idea that ‘learning is invisible’ is a lazy and sloppy dogma which we should probably reject.
open.substack.com
Warum "Lernen ist unsichtbar" eine beliebte, aber an sich wenig sinnvolle Phrase ist. @bernardandrews.bsky.social #Lernen 👇
Bernard Andrews @bernardandrews.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe phrase ‘learning is invisible’ is a lazy and sloppy cliche which we should probably stop using. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...
"Others might bring up that abomination of a sentence, ‘learning is change in long-term memory’, which just ignores most of the ways in which we use the word..." I enjoyed this very thorough exploration of the visibility of learning, from @bernardandrews.bsky.social
Bernard Andrews @bernardandrews.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe phrase ‘learning is invisible’ is a lazy and sloppy cliche which we should probably stop using. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...
This is very interesting indeed. Unfortunately I think the idea that learning can only be made 'visible' by testing a learner's memory has got embedded in our education and accountability systems.
Bernard Andrews @bernardandrews.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe phrase ‘learning is invisible’ is a lazy and sloppy cliche which we should probably stop using. open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...
