Thinking Aloud
How people actually learn
Short, sourced notes on the science of learning — and what it changes about the way we teach. Four pillars: the science of learning, pedagogy, xAPI and AI.
Cognitive load — the limit you're designing against
Working memory holds only a few new things at once. John Sweller's cognitive load theory explains why so much training overwhelms before it teaches.
Read →Growth mindset, handled honestly
Carol Dweck's idea that ability can grow is real — and oversold. Here is the version that survives the evidence.
Read →The skills crisis is a measurement crisis
Skills England says the pipeline alone won't meet employers' needs. It's right — but more training won't fix it until we can see what our training actually builds.
Read →How we learn, not what — the case for active learning
The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget spent his life on how people come to know things, not what they are told. Active learning takes him at his word.
Read →Aim higher: Bloom's taxonomy
Six levels of thinking, from remembering a fact to creating something new. Most training stops at the bottom two — and that is exactly the problem.
Read →Bloom's two-sigma problem
One-to-one tutoring beats the classroom by two standard deviations. We have known since 1984. Delivering that to everyone is the open problem.
Read →Personalisation at scale: the open problem
One-to-one tutoring works — we've known for forty years. The unsolved challenge is giving it to everyone at once.
Read →What xAPI actually measures
Completion tells you someone reached the end. xAPI tells you what they did on the way — and whether any of it mattered.
Read →The forgetting curve is a filter, not a flaw
Your brain throws away what you don't use. That's not a bug to fight — it's a filter to work with.
Read →Knowing about it is not learning it
Learning isn't what you were shown. It's what you can do afterwards. The difference changes everything about how we teach.
Read →Pitch learners up, not down
Most training aims low on purpose — and switches people off. The science says we have it backwards.
Read →Adaptive reading path
Where are you starting from?
Pick your level and the site builds a reading route. Personal by design — because one size fits nobody.
Start with the big ideas, in plain language — no jargon, no prerequisites.
You design learning already — go straight to what changes your practice.
Here for the evidence — the science, sourced, with the open problems named.