It’s whether you say sofa or settee, napkin or serviette. It’s whether you visit National Trust properties, go to the theatre, eat quinoa & sushi, listening to Radio 4 and shopping at Waitrose.

1. AC/DC, It’s a Long Way to the Top
2. Tkay Maidza, Shook
3. Tame impala, Less I know…
4. Flume, Never Be Like You
5. The Avalanches, Since I Left You

Thanks for this David and @trivium21c.bsky.social . It was a really helpful overview.

Well. Assume I’m not stupid :)

Ok. But I’m a proponent of the axiom that if you can’t explain an idea in 600 words you don’t really understand it.
I do accept that this is a generalisation.

:/

That’s seems a bit circular. Can you make the case more clearly?

I don’t understand how knowing about, say, myelination or synaptic connections or whatever informs classroom practice. It’s the wrong level of description

Why so?

Of course there must be a biological mechanism but I’m not really interested in what it is. I can’t see anyway in which understanding the biology makes a difference to classroom practice.
And no, obviously the mind is not wholly determined by the environment, just substantially.

No searching, no homunculus just pattern recognition. The environment supplies cues; the cognitive system responds through learned associations. Retrieval is simply the activation of those patterns in working memory.

In Cognitive Load Theory, long-term memory is not a passive archive but an active structure: knowledge is stored as schemas that directly guide perception and action. When a familiar problem appears, it automatically triggers the relevant schema.

Oh I see, you want a biological explanation. Sorry, I can’t help you :)
I’m sure you’re aware of of Sweller’s account of retrieval which dispenses with need for a homunculus?

Of course. And that is why it *does* make sense.

Ahh. It’s all down to plato :)

we should definitely impose silence on students, and I think Ben has elevated my descriptor. I use it to describe the point in "noise" at which interruptions will not disturb the room. I think using the language with students and actively teaching them what it means is genius

Retrieval becomes not a mechanical recall of stored information but a disciplined intimacy with what we know — the graceful act of holding knowledge long enough to let it sing. 11/

This turns retrieval into a kind of craftsmanship. The teacher’s job is not to fill cages with more birds, but to help students learn how to reach in calmly, recognise each one by feel, and not panic when the flock takes flight. 10/