New article: Experimental education research: rethinking why, how, and when to use random assignment Out today (even though it’s Saturday): doi.org/10.1080/1380... With @drsamsims.bsky.social @mjinglis.bsky.social @benweidmann.bsky.social @benstyles.bsky.social & Hugues Lortie-Forgues

Experimental education research: rethinking why, how, and when to use random assignment

Over the last twenty years, education researchers have increasingly conducted randomized experiments. Such experiments are usually designed in the hope of supporting comparisons of cost effectivene...

doi.org

Some thoughts from me and five others on when, why and how experiments and RCTs should be used in education. doi.org/10.1080/1380...

Experimental education research: rethinking why, how, and when to use random assignment

Over the last twenty years, education researchers have increasingly conducted randomized experiments. Such experiments are usually designed in the hope of supporting comparisons of cost effectivene...

doi.org

Reading some stuff about geometrical cognition today reminded of the time that David Tall, who died last year, described me as being “stuck at Van Hiele Level 2”. This is easily the best niche academic insult I’ve ever heard.

👀 A new forthcoming paper with @mjinglis.bsky.social is up on the Philsci Archive. "Interesting and Important Mathematics" A corpus linguistics study of the uses of the words "interesting" and "important" in maths preprints. philsci-archive.pitt.edu/29996/1/Tans...

My colleague Colin Foster has released a new resource designed for secondary mathematics teachers: “Teaching the Big Ideas in School Mathematics”. Available here: bigmathematicalideas.org

In memory of Barbara Jaworski. blog.lboro.ac.uk/cmc/2026/04/...

This THE article quotes an EEF spokesperson discussing a 2019 Educational Researcher article on RCTs I coauthored. But the EEF has misunderstood: “uninformative” does not mean “finds no difference”. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/time-review-sidelining-education-faculties-researcher

‘Time to review’ sidelining of education faculties in research

Positive impact of channelling government funding into charity at expense of universities has yet to be proven, argues learned society

timeshighereducation.com

Powerful photographic testimony in this local news article.

Apology after pensioner left waiting months for repairs to her garden wall

Since August Gail Simmons has been unable to access her front gate due to debris left from when a car crashed into her garden wall

nottinghampost.com

Evaluating the evaluation of psychology in UK universities… @lizstokoe.bsky.social @mjinglis.bsky.social @colinfoster77.bsky.social @hugolf.bsky.social @profvicsimms.bsky.social share tales from the Research Excellence Framework. www.bps.org.uk/psychologist...

Evaluating the evaluation of psychology in UK universities | BPS

Elizabeth Stokoe, Matthew Inglis, Colin Foster, Hugo Lortie-Forgues and Victoria Simms share tales from the Research Excellence Framework.

bps.org.uk

For anyone interested in #psychology, #research assessment and evaluation, how the expert panel rated research submitted to #REF2021 - and especially the fate of #qualitative research - our article in Cogent Psychology is #OpenAccess (link in next post). 1/2

Today I found a very sinister picture of mathematician John Napier (after whom Edinburgh Napier University is named) in this collection of proofs of Pythagoras’s Theorem: files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED0...

I haven’t read all the articles in this special issue on bases in numeration systems yet, but the ones I have read are excellent. royalsocietypublishing.org/toc/rstb/cur...

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences: Vol 380, No 1937

royalsocietypublishing.org

Stephen Chrisomalis@schrisomalis.bsky.social · 10mo ago

My paper "Base structures across lexical and notational numeral modalities" (PhilTransB) addresses a whole class of questions around the role that semiotic modality, and specifically number words vs. number symbols, plays in the structure of numerical systems.

Superb Tug of War content here. www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...

Take the strain: Tug of War World Championships

Action, emotion and exhaustion in Nottingham where teams from across the globe vied for supremacy in an ancient test of strength

theguardian.com

I’m looking for a study where someone has looked at accuracy on Raven’s matrices (or similar) items under extreme time pressure at the item level (not time pressure at the test level). I can’t find anything, but surely this study must exist?

“Isaac Newton-style act” www.nottinghampost.com/news/notting...

Claims youths threw apples at punters' heads in Newton-style act

The company that runs the library says the unruly boys have now been moved on

nottinghampost.com

Very niche thread, apologies! I want to reply to a criticism made in this preprint by Bill D'Alessandro (who I think isn't on bluesky?). philpapers.org/archive/DALT...

Attacked by the Charnwood Borough Council mace at today’s graduation ceremony.

Can your fear of maths shape your child's future? New research from @lborouniversity.bsky.social & University of Bologna finds link b/ween parents’ maths anxiety & lower achievement in children. Read Kinga & Carlo's @theconversation.com article on our blog today: blog.lboro.ac.uk/cmc/2025/06/...

This is a great summary of a very peculiar interaction. I wonder how Geraint Rees is coping with the new OfS duty that requires him and his UCL colleagues to “support constructive dialogue on contentious subjects”.

Warren Pearce@warrenpearce.bsky.social · last yr.

After two really enjoyable days at #Metascience2025, I wrote about how one 🌶️ moment encapsulated the controversy over metascience's issues 📑, inclusivity 🤗and future public value 🔮 #STS #AcademicSky All feedback welcome on here, or by email 😀 warrenpearce.pika.page/posts/what-i...

Fully-funded PhD studentship to work on children’s financial literacy. Deadline end of June. https://ufncollaboratory.ac.uk/childrens-financial-literacy/

A really lovely article about the 2008 cup-winning squad. I particularly enjoyed the Hermann Hreidarsson bloodied-pigeon “That’s how we deal with things in Iceland” anecdote. www.portsmouth.co.uk/sport/footba...

'I slept with the FA Cup': The magical inside story of Pompey's 2008 Wembley triumph

On the 17th anniversary of Pompey’s FA Cup win, three figures from behind the scenes tell the magical inside story

portsmouth.co.uk

I wrote a blogpost about how the REF may have influenced how British academics write papers.

Beth Woollacott@bethwoollacott.bsky.social · last yr.

New @lborodme.bsky.social blogpost today! @mjinglis.bsky.social reviews his work looking at the REF and its definition of research quality: Has the research excellence framework changed how we write papers? The case of mathematics education. Read below: blog.lboro.ac.uk/cmc/2025/02/...

Evidence of @driro.bsky.social’s photography skills on show at Megan Foulkes’s PhD viva celebrations.

That’s more than Jimmy Dickinson.

Neil Allen@pn-neil-allen.bsky.social · last yr.

Forgive the self-indulgence, but tonight marks my 1,000th #Pompey game for The News. It began at West Brom in February 2001 - and since then plenty of are-you-watching-the-same-game player ratings and match reports. My apologies. I might get the hang of it one day…

This Christmas I discovered my grandfather got interested in family history before he died. In amongst his folders of stuff there are some enjoyable one-paragraph biographies of distant relatives. Examples follow.

Spotify makes up musical genres.

Was reminded today of this email from an editor I once received in response to a manuscript submission.

Excited to discover that this important new documentary about the history of students in Leamington Spa offers two photos of me as evidence for the claim “Leamington has always offered an appealing social scene for students”. See 14:45 here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Lg64GR1Mo

Leamington Spa: University Town

YouTube video by Leamington History Group

youtube.com

My sister has a giant photo of Tony Blair saying “hello is it me you are looking for?” in her toilet.

Turns out that Semmelweis, the guy who invented antiseptics, was actually Willie Thorne.