Have you ever taught a "perfect" lesson where every student got the answer right, only to find they remembered absolutely nothing the next day? In this episode, education author David Didau joins me to reveal why what looks like learning is often just a "performance"—and how our best intentions might be fueling the illusion.

We dig into five common teaching habits you need to stop immediately, including why "Sat Nav teaching" is creating dependency rather than independence and why the popular idea of "productive struggle" might actually be setting your students up to fail. David challenges deep-seated beliefs about practice, compliance, and memory, offering a provocative look at what it really takes to make learning stick.

Resources mentioned:

Books

• David Didau – What If Everything You Knew About Education Was Wrong?
• David Didau – Intelligent Accountability

Websites & Tools

• Carousel Learning

People

• Robert Bjork
• Adam Boxer
• Carl Hendrick
• Christina Milos

You can connect with David:

Twitter/X: @DavidDidau

Linkedin

Substack: https://daviddidau.substack.com/

Website: https://learningspy.co.uk/

David Didau is an educator, author, and professional learning leader known for his evidence-informed work on teaching, writing, and curriculum. He is the author of several highly regarded books including What If Everything You Knew About Education Was Wrong? and The Secret of Literacy. David writes in his blog The Learning Spy, a widely read platform supporting educators to translate research into classroom practice.

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter/X: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Linkedin: @brendan-lee-kft

Website: learnwithlee.net

https://www.patreon.com/KnowledgeforTeachersPodcast

This is a three day online course for teachers where we focus on how learning happens and how to design maths lessons that support acquisition, build fluency and help students generalise what they know.

Register here

This is a two day online course for school and middle leaders and it is all about implementation. We look closely at curriculum and lesson design, assessment, coaching and the systems that help teachers change practice in a sustainable way.

Register here

In this episode of the Knowledge for Teachers podcast, Brendan Lee is joined by Brad Gaynor, an Australian educator, leadership coach and former principal with decades of experience across schools and systems. Brad is also the author of the new book From Burnout to Breakthrough: The Leadership Reset.

The conversation centres on burnout in education and what sustainable teaching and leadership actually look like beyond surface level wellbeing advice. Drawing on Brad’s lived experience and research informed work, this episode explores why burnout is more than just feeling tired, how hidden emotional labour shapes the work of teachers and leaders, and why framing burnout as a resilience issue can miss the real problem.

Listeners will hear a practical framework for resetting habits and expectations, learn why boundaries are essential rather than optional, and gain insight into how clarity, systems, and culture can reduce cognitive and emotional load.

This is a thoughtful and practical conversation for educators who want to keep doing this work well, without burning themselves out in the process.

You can connect with Brad:

Twitter/X: @brad_coaching

Linkedin

Website: bradgaynor.com.au

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter/X: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Linkedin: @brendan-lee-kft

Website: learnwithlee.net

This is a three day online course for teachers where we focus on how learning happens and how to design maths lessons that support acquisition, build fluency and help students generalise what they know.

Register here

This is a two day online course for school and middle leaders and it is all about implementation. We look closely at curriculum and lesson design, assessment, coaching and the systems that help teachers change practice in a sustainable way.

Register here

In this episode of Knowledge for Teachers, host Brendan Lee speaks with Natalie Wexler, education writer and author of The Knowledge Gap, The Writing Revolution, and Beyond the Science of Reading. Together they explore what truly drives reading comprehension and why knowledge rich instruction is essential for every learner. Natalie unpacks the surprising limits of treating comprehension as a set of isolated skills, explains how background knowledge shapes understanding in powerful ways, and shows why writing can be one of the most effective tools for securing learning. Listeners will also hear how cognitive load theory connects to literacy and what strong knowledge building lessons look like in real classrooms. A practical and thought provoking conversation for teachers and leaders who want to strengthen literacy through the lens of research.

Resources mentioned:

• The Knowledge Gap by Natalie Wexler
• The Writing Revolution by Judith Hochman and Natalie Wexler
• Beyond the Science of Reading by Natalie Wexler
• Why Don’t Students Like School by Daniel Willingham

You can connect with Natalie:

Twitter/X: @natwexler

Linkedin

Website: nataliewexler.com

Substack: http://nataliewexler.substack.com

You can connect with Brendan:

Twitter/X: @learnwithmrlee

Facebook: @learningwithmrlee

Linkedin: @brendan-lee-kft

Website: learnwithlee.net

https://www.patreon.com/KnowledgeforTeachersPodcast

This is a three day online course for teachers where we focus on how learning happens and how to design maths lessons that support acquisition, build fluency and help students generalise what they know.

Register here

This is a two day online course for school and middle leaders and it is all about implementation. We look closely at curriculum and lesson design, assessment, coaching and the systems that help teachers change practice in a sustainable way.

Register here