Education Bookcast
Episodes
Goodbye :)
31 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Hello everyone, I have not been recording podcast episodes for over a year. This is because I started a company this year, Panglot Labs Ltd, and I've ...
156. Entrepreneurial expertise
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
155. How experts see
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 lo...
154. Mindsets everywhere
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
153. Comparing learning different dance styles: Argentine Tango vs. Ballroom & Latin (Dancesport)
26 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
I haven't spoken on the podcast yet about my personal experience learning dancing. At university, I took part in dancesport, which is competitive ball...
152. [VIDEO] Education and generative AI: conference video for STEM MAD Melbourne, October 23
19 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 conf...
151. 8 years, 150 episodes
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
150. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin
26 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
149. How Popular Musicians Learn by Lucy Green
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
A lot of the classic expertise research, especially the research about deliberate practice and the "10,000 hour rule", is inspired by K. Anders Ericcs...
148. You Know the Fair Rule by Bill Rogers
18 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 cro...
147. Large language models (LLMs) - interview with Dr Guy Emerson
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Guy Emerson (a.k.a Guy Karavengleman) is a computational linguist working at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory. In this episode, we disc...
146b. Lessons from EdTech - The 90% Rule
07 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 si...
146a. Lessons from EdTech - the Fundamental Duality of Educational Materials
30 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 con...
145b. How to be a better lecturer (practice) - a message for Guy
22 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 fo...
145a. How to be a better lecturer (theory) - a message for Guy
22 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
144. Developing Talent in Young People by Benjamin Bloom
15 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 fr...
143. Talent, revisited
19 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 Boo...
142. Season 2 of the Pedagogue-Cast is out now! Taster: Music and Learning
11 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 dis...
141+. Feedback on constructivism
10 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
After my last episode on behaviourism, cognitivism, and constructivism ("A Message for Zoë"), I heard back from Zoë herself, and also heard from Mal...
141. Behaviourism, Cognitivism, Constructivism - a message for Zoë
25 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
My friend Zoë (hi Zoë!) is taking a course on learning design. In it, she heard about Behaviourism, Cognitivism, and Constructivism, and while she s...
140b. Political economy pt. II: The Invisible Hook
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 t...
140a. Political economy pt. I: The Social Order of the Underworld
29 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 sayin...
139. Reflections after 7 years
01 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
138. The science of self-belief, part II: self-efficacy
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This is the second episode concerning self-related beliefs taken from chapters of The Cambridge Handbook of Motivation and Learning. Here I talk about...
137. The science of self-belief, part I: self-concept
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 u...
136+. Interview with Prof. Christian Lebiere on ACT-R and Cognitive Architecture
16 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this interview, I have the honour to speak with Professor Christian Lebiere, researcher in cognitive architecture, co-author of The Atomic Componen...
136. Cognitive architecture and ACT-R
11 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I have recently discovered the field of cognitive architecture. I have been reading around the area for the last couple of months, and I would like to...
135. Professional writing expertise
10 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
One of the patrons of the podcast wrote to me on the forum that while I have covered the research on learning to read in a fair amount of detail, I'm ...
134. Philosophy for children
05 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, I have Judith Millecker on as a guest. Judith is the author of the Philosocats series of books, which aims to help children ages 4-10...
133. Patterns are fast, rules are slow
20 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I was reading the Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance edited by K. Anders Ericsson yesterday, and after going through a chapter on ...
I have a new podcast!
10 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I now have a new podcast, the Pedagogue-Cast! Together with Justin Matthys, co-founder of Australian education technology company Maths Pathway, we di...
132b. Direct Instruction: the evidence
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this part of the episode, I will discuss the evidence for the effectiveness of Direct Instruction, drawing from Project Follow Through, but also fr...
132a. Direct Instruction and Project Follow Through
08 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I've spent a lot of time on the podcast so far discussing discovery learning, but not had any episodes explicitly dedicated to what might be considere...
131. Mindset: does it replicate?
01 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
[By the way, the cover image is of the proportion of children in different countries who have a growth mindset (darker red is more). The data was take...
130. How children learn that the Earth is not flat
25 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I stumbled across a fascinating paper looking into how children conceptualise the world around them. Mental Models of the Earth: A Study of Conceptual...
Support the podcast & join the community forum!
20 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
You can now support Education Bookcast and join the community forum, where we discuss all things education. Visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/edubook...
129. A Transfer of Learning bombshell
18 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
This episode has such huge implications that I didn't know what to call it. Efficiency and Innovation in Transfer, the actual name of the book chapter...
128. Nuance
11 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
I wanted to talk a bit about some areas in which my thinking about education has improved with the addition of nuance, and about the ways in which thi...
127. Necessary Conditions of Learning by Ference Marton
27 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
A listener of the podcast by the name of Malin Tväråna (senior lecturer at Uppsala University's Department of Education) requested in a review of th...
126. The Master and his Emissary by Iain McGillchrist
19 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
"Are you left-brained or right-brained?" Brain lateralisation has been known about in neuroscience since the early days, but it has been a taboo over ...
125+. Interview with Rasmus Koss Hartmann
02 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Rasmus Koss Hartmann is an associate professor at Copenhagen Business School and author of the article that I covered in the first part of this epi...
125. Entrepreneurship education and conspicuous consumption
09 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Entrepreneurship is an important part of a thriving economy, and entrepreneurship education is intended to make sure that those who have the potential...
124. The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences
13 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I picked up The Cambridge Handbook of the Learning Sciences hoping for a longer term project of enrichment from a volume published by one of the most...
123. How the Brain Learns by David Sousa
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How the Brain Learns is one of the first books I bought about education, all the way back in summer of 2014. It sat on my shelf for seven years before...
122. Hive Mind by Garrett Jones
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In my episode on Stuart Ritchie's Intelligence: All that Matters I spoke about IQ and intelligence, after a long silence on this issue. In Hive Mind...
121b. Attachment Theory around the world
02 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is the second part of the episode on the book Multiple Faces of Attachment - Cultural Variations on a Fundamental Human Need. In this section, we...
121a. Attachment Theory as cultural ideology
01 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The title of this episode might ruffle some feathers. Attachment Theory is developmental psychology's shining star, the theory with the greatest predi...
120. Aztec education
18 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Which country was the first ever to have universal, free, compulsory education? Zero points if you said "Prussia". The correct answer is the Aztec emp...
119. Stages of learning
04 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I realised I missed something, and I kicked myself. For a while I've been toying with the idea that learning occurs in two stages, which can be mapped...
118. The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
20 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This book touched my heart, and it changed my mind about neuroscience. I wasn't going to read this book. While I was at my friend's house, I picked th...
117. Gut Feelings by Gerd Gigerenzer
06 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode feels almost nostalgic, as it is a return to the theme of the roles and interactions of the conscious and subconscious mind, something wh...
116h. Summary and conclusion
09 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode concludes the series on Jin Li's fantastic book Cultural Foundations of Learning, East and West. After reviewing the key differences betw...
116g. Speech, silence, action
08 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is the final part of the series on Jin Li's book Cultural Foundations of Learning, East and West before the summary and conclusion. Speech is se...
116f. Socratic and Confucian mothers
07 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is a continuation of the series on Jin Li's book Cultural Foundations of Learning, East and West. In this recording, we will see how mothers inte...
116e. Curiosity begets enquiry, heart begets dedication
06 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is a continuation of the series on Jin Li's book Cultural Foundations of Learning, East and West. In this episode, we will see the emotional side...
116d. Mind-oriented vs. Virtue-oriented learning processes
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is a continuation of the discussion of Jin Li's book Cultural Foundations of Learning, East and West. In this recording, I discuss the difference...
116c. East Asians don't respond to intrinsic motivation, and other gems
04 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is the third in a series of recordings on Jin Li's book Cultural Foundations of Learning, East and West. In this episode we will see a range of e...
116b. Mastering the Universe vs. Transforming the Self
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is the second in a series of recordings on Jin Li's book Cultural Foundations of Learning, East and West. In this part, we will see how the funda...
116a. Cultural Foundations of Learning, East and West by Jin Li
02 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
You may have noticed that I am generally quite disappointed in professors of education. It seems that the work of cognitive scientists, (some) psychol...
115. Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
12 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"It’s as if someone were out there making up pointless jobs just for the sake of keeping us all working. And here, precisely, lies the mystery." The...
114. Philosophy of Science - the good bits
28 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I was recently contacted by a fan of the show asking for advice in the choice of their research topic. Oddly, the best advice I could give them pertai...
113. The Hidden Half by Michael Blastland
14 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When we ask the question of whether something is "nature or nurture", we are implicitly suggesting a dichotomy, or excluded middle - it is either natu...
112. Out of our Minds by Sir Ken Robinson
31 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
So far, one of my most downloaded episodes has been number 42, on Sir Ken Robinson's talk Do Schools Kill Creativity? Numerous members of the audience...
111. Intelligence: All That Matters by Stuart Ritchie
17 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Let's set things straight - intelligence isn't really *all* that matters. The editor seems to have forced a provocative title that even the author doe...
110b. Declarative knowledge is central to transfer
04 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is the second part of the episode about Robert Haskell's book Transfer of Learning. In this part, we go in detail into the importance of rich dec...
110a. Transfer of Learning by Robert Haskell
03 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
One central question which I find very difficult to answer is "What is education for?". There seem to be many parallel purposes, most of which are sub...
109. America's Critical Thinking Crisis by Steven Pearlman
19 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"Critical thinking" is an idea commonly discussed in education. Most people who talk about it say we need more of it. Almost nobody seems willing or a...
108. Expert Political Judgement by Phillip Tetlock
05 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Phillip Tetlock is an expert on expertise, but of a different kind to the late K. Anders Ericsson. While Ericsson's work focused on experts within "ki...
107. Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jaron Lanier is a Silicon Valley veteran and a pioneer of virtual reality technology. In Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right N...
106i. Summary and conclusion
01 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is the last part of the multi-part episode on David Lancy's The Anthropology of Childhood. I share the main points of what I've learned, what I t...
106h. School
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This is the second from last part of the multi-part episode on The Anthropology of Childhood by David Lancy. This part concerns school. It answers que...
106g. Adolescence
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This recording is the seventh part of a multi-part episode on Professor David Lancy's book The Anthropology of Childhood. In this episode, we look at ...
106f. The Chore Curriculum
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This recording is the sixth part of a multi-part episode on Professor David Lancy's book The Anthropology of Childhood. In this episode, we look at ch...
106e. Play
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This recording is the fifth part of a multi-part episode on Professor David Lancy's book The Anthropology of Childhood. In this episode, we look at th...
106d. How children learn?
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This recording is the fourth part of a multi-part episode on Professor David Lancy's book The Anthropology of Childhood. In this episode, we look at t...
106c. "It takes a village"
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This recording is the third part of a multi-part episode on Professor David Lancy's book The Anthropology of Childhood. In this episode, we look at co...
106b. Family and reproduction
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This recording is the second part of a multi-part episode on Professor David Lancy's book The Anthropology of Childhood. In this episode, we look at r...
106a. The Anthropology of Childhood by David Lancy
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The Anthropology of Childhood is a monumental work of scholarship. Professor David Lancy has combed the ethnographic record with an eye to understandi...
105. Rote memorisation
22 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rote memorisation is commonly reviled. I think some careful consideration of its role is in order. In short, my position is that rote memorisation is ...
104. Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow Schüll
08 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This book is about slot machines. It is creepy. By way of this book, we can arrive at a new psychological idea which Natasha Dow Schüll calls "the ma...
103+. James Paul Gee's 36 Learning Principles
01 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This recording serves as an appendix to the episode on James Paul Gee's book What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. In his boo...
103. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee
25 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy is a book that I read early in my education research quest. At the time, I thought that ...
102. Psychology is overrated
11 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I endeavour to understand and explain the field of education through many disciplines, including neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, anthropo...
101. Review of episodes 1-99
02 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This episode starts with some unfinished business from episode 100. Then I review the topics and themes that have arisen over the history of the podca...
100. Reintroducing the podcast after 5 years
01 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
I started the podcast on the 1st of January 2016 with an episode introducing myself. In this episode, I reintroduce myself, my reasons for starting th...
99. China's Examination Hell by Ichisada Miyazaki
21 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Chinese culture has the concept of the "four great inventions" (四大發明) - inventions from ancient China that are points of pride in Chinese hist...
98. Range by David Epstein
14 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Range is a book that I saw in a bookshop and called out to me like little else can. Subtitled "Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World", I felt...
97. The Polymath by Waqas Ahmed
07 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When we speak about people who have achieved a lot in their lives, we usually apply a single noun to describe them. Winston Churchill - politician; Ni...
96. Rest by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
30 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
People often talk about how to work better, but it is rare to hear discussion of how to rest better. Take the famous so-called "10,000 hour rule". Thi...
95. The Reading Mind by Daniel Willingham
23 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Having looked into research on first language vocabulary development over two recent episodes, now it's time to get into literacy more generally. What...
94. The Beautiful Tree by James Tooley
16 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
James Tooley is a specialist in private education. One day, on a work trip to India, he was frustrated that his position seemed to only allow him to h...
93. Closing the Vocabulary Gap by Alex Quigley
09 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
This is the second episode in a series on vocabulary and literacy. The first was episode 91 (Vocabulary Development). Closing the Vocabulary Gap is a ...
92. The Buddha Pill by Dr Miguel Farias and Dr Catherine Wikholm
02 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mindfulness is a concept originating in Buddhism, but has in recent years spread like wildfire in the UK and elsewhere. Aside from its adoption by ent...
91. Vocabulary Development by Steven Stahl
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In 2018 and 2019 I worked for an education technology start-up in London called Mrs Wordsmith. The company produces materials for developing literacy ...
90. Discovery learning: the idea that won't die
22 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Discovery learning is an approach that I was trying out at around the time I was in the 20's of episode numbers of this podcast. I tried out the idea ...
89. The World Until Yesterday by Jared Diamond
08 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Jared Diamond is a geographer and author of many bestselling books about civilisation, including Guns, Germs, and Steel and Collapse. In The World Unt...
88. The Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-based, Experiential, and Inquiry-based Teaching
25 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier in the life of this podcast I was experimenting with discovery learning. I was even something of a fan. I tried out "Maths Circles", a form of...
87. Experiential Learning by Colin Beard and John Wilson
11 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
I'm just about to do another episode where I talk about a scientific article on this very topic, criticising the approach. I thought it only fair to s...
86. Learning as information compression
27 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The inspiration for this episode is a rather technical tome entitled Information Theory, Inference, and Learning Algorithms by David MacKay. It's basi...
85. Why Don't Students Like School? by Daniel Willingham
13 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Daniel Willingham is a cognitive scientist who specialises in the study of how people read. In this book, he brings forward nine principles of cogniti...