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Mr Lee Bates

@mrbates.bsky.social
234 followers 272 following 2.3K posts

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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Great discussion. I’d have liked more on the affordances provided by cognitive tools. We often automatically label their use as “cognitive offloading”, when in many cases they may be better understood as cognitive augmentation I.e. enabling forms of thinking that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
How Christian builds a single formal model that can then be used by students to test and extend their understanding of multiple concepts.
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 23/09/2026
So, I trialed recording a "how I'd teach" video: How I get students to understand the symbols of stock and flow models. I learnt: buy a mic, remove the flicker, make sure the whole page can be seen. I'll make more through the year. www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YB-...
youtube.com
How I teach students the symbols of stock and flow models (without PowerPoint)
YouTube video by Christian Moore Anderson
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Well it should be no surprise, teaching with a greater focus on meaning making makes the teaching itself more meaningful.
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 22/09/2026
My latest post: A simple reason for why classroom questions often fail. And how to fix it using the power of variety. christianmooreanderson.com/why-classroo...
christianmooreanderson.com
Why classroom questions often fail, and how to fix them – Christian Moore-Anderson
Ever experienced with silent classrooms when asking open-ended questions? This excerpt from Chapter 3 of Teaching Meaning breaks down why "guess what's in my he
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clarefeeneyuk.bsky.social @clarefeeneyuk.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
In our whole-school T&L CPD today, I included @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social's work on live-modelling (diagrams), talk-rich classrooms and teaching without PowerPoint. It generated lots of really good discussion about active learning & inclusive classrooms. Thanks Christian.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Christian always points to the practicalities of what to do in the classroom if you want pupils to be doing the doing; doing the thinking; making their meaning. Engaging with Christian’s thinking has definitely helped my thinking and my practice. trevoraleo.substack.com/p/christian-...
trevoraleo.substack.com
Christian Moore-Anderson Talks Teaching Meaning and Cognitive Science
Episode Description
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
Starting from defined polarised extremes is a good but this particular discussion has mostly got stuck in those extremes. Because of this, most moderates often think the middle ground is a mixture of the two. Christian shows the middle can have a different perspective; one of interaction.
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Mr E @theniceman.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
What is it like to start learning a new language for the first time? whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2025/08/ling...
whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com
Linguistics in Year 7
I have been meaning for a while to write a post on the idea of Linguistics in schools and its relation to language teaching. Or more precis...
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Mr E @theniceman.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
I always enjoy reading @didau.bsky.social. Not because I agree with him. But because he's honest and he thinks.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Christian eloquently describes a way of thinking about teaching that actually makes sense with the way we teach.
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 17/07/2026
Meaning can't be transmitted. Many teachers I've spoken to haven't understood why. Chapter 1 of Teaching Meaning makes it easy to understand. Read it here: christianmooreanderson.com/wp-content/u... And check out my conversation with Drew discussing its consequences ↓↓
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Jeffrey Austin @jaustinedu.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
The fundamental argument of the CogSci crowd is that students lack durable knowledge, so embodied processes won't work. Learning can only occur when students are explicitly given dots in a systemic, replicable way. The important knowledge students have from other contexts doesn't count.
The science of learning does not reduce education to rote recall. It highlights the indispensable role of long-term memory in learning, because, as Dan Willingham puts it, “thinking well requires knowing facts.” You cannot reason about what you don’t remember. You cannot connect the dots if you don’t have any dots.
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Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 20/05/2025
I woke up still upset about this diagram. No recognition of humans as agents in their environment or as active sensemakers & constructors of knowledge & understanding. Just lay down on the floor, class, and collect information like water and I'm a human sprinkler!
Flipped bottle diagram where Nick added blue lines like water
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
All cognition involves cognitive offloading. Cognition is action. Action is interaction. The thing we interact with provides constraints, affordances and tendencies. All cognition involves cognitive offloading. www.preprints.org/manuscript/2...
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Peter Steidinger @psteidinger.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Kalyuga further develops his reflections on Gal’perin’s ‘Orienting Basis of Activity’ (OBA) by demonstrating that the debate over whether we should teach ‘general schemata’ (such as critical thinking) or ‘concrete, domain-specific facts’ is asking the wrong question. 1/4 #Kalyuga #Gal'perin #CLT
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 05/07/2026
I loved this podcast episode, as always, by @rethinkingjames.bsky.social and with kindered spirit @bruceleeedu.bsky.social Extra bonus was hearing my book mentioned several times! drjamesmannion.substack.com/p/the-missin...
drjamesmannion.substack.com
The missing science of how we learn - and the “barefoot unschool” that’s already living it
This might be the most important conversation I've had on the podcast – and I don't say that lightly.
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Jeffrey Austin @jaustinedu.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
Stephen Vainker has researching and writing about the contradictions between these folks' stated positions and the pedagogies and practices at places like Alpha. stephenvainker.substack.com/p/the-scienc...
stephenvainker.substack.com
The science of education, the science of learning, and an educational establishment all at sea
There is a difference between a scientific approach to education and a scientific approach to learning.
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 20/06/2026
NEW POST: ● Understanding isn't just knowledge (and how we can teach it) → christianmooreanderson.com/understandin...
An image of a person throwing stones at a piece of paper to measure its size, influenced by Gregory Bateson.
We can only throw questions at students and see how many land.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Deeper concepts are by definition more powerful, they apply to a greater range of situations. But deeper concepts are also by definition more abstract, they are further removed from concrete experience. /1
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
I second Bernard
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Well described thoughts on the use of the term ‘lethal mutation’.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Learning is constructed. Do with that what you will, but know that learning is constructed.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Great way of seeing a useful difference between knowledge and understanding.
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Bernard Andrews @bernardandrews.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
On knowing how to play a song... open.substack.com/pub/bernarda...
open.substack.com
Knowing how to play a song
My 7 year old son recently wanted to learn how to play ‘Peaches’ (a song by Jack Black from the Super Mario Bros film).
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 28/06/2026
Knowledge is constructed 😃
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Learning is a positive feedback loop. Learning always leads to an increase in the potential to learn.
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 21/06/2026
What a fantastic review of my book Teaching Meaning! Thank you :D
This book arrived two months ago. It has taken me that long to read it…

Because this is a book not to be rushed!!!

Every page has something that leaves you imagining all the ways you could use it in your lessons.

Whether you are an ECT or a well seasoned teacher, whether you are a teacher of science, art, English, maths, etc this book presents the ways in which meaning is really made and gives evidenced insights on how you can help your students make meaning.

This book talks about how knowledge needs to acted upon by students to make meaning. They need to be able to take a new idea and explore it. Vary the ways it can be used, using the idea of “If X, then what?”, helping students see the limits in which their new knowledge can be used. We must not “confuse agreement with making meaning.”

This is a book to be savoured and I know it is one that I will be referring back to many, many times.The cover of the book Teaching Meaning: What Works When Telling Isn't Enough.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Knowledge task: doing something they have done before (no real variation) Understanding task: doing something they have not done before (variation around previous knowledge task)
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Stuart Rowntree @primarythink.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Love this. Dovetails with a post by @markmccourt.bsky.social Build curriculum so pupils do not simply meet knowledge, repeat knowledge or recall knowledge. They learn it clearly, return to it often, compare it carefully and use it in increasingly varied contexts.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
If you would like a way to think about knowledge and understanding - here you go. If you would like to see how this applies to your teaching - again Christian provides. If you would like to see what makes the difference between teaching for better understanding - 👇😀👇
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
% confidence A straight forward metacognitive thinking task that reveals to them and to you.
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 15/06/2026
On the workload front, Im actively trying to help. Im populating my website with my drawings, and if people bought into my teaching game, they'd not need to make a worksheet or slide deck again. They just need to understand the rules and moves (explained in my books). I'll soon be making videos, too
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
Every time you think you retrieve. Every time you act you retrieve. It’s always about what kind of thinking and action you want them to be doing. ‘Retrieval practice’ is intentionally placing the emphasis on the practice of retrieving during practice.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Take time to take in Christians way of teaching Biology. I started out a biology teacher and retrained to be a physics teacher because biology teaching felt fundamentally fact based. Christian shows us a different, more meaningful way to teach biology.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
And internal imaginal sense making is also an action. It causes change just like every other action.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Can understanding be known?
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 06/06/2026
New post: ● The problem with "teaching consistency" ● christianmooreanderson.com/the-problem-... #EduSky #UKEd
A graph with two axes:
X = Collectively gain capacity (discretionary capacity made available by coordinating a way of teaching).
Y = Teacher's retained autonomy (discretionary capacity still available for coordinating a way of doing a curriculum).
There are two positions with higher teacher autonomy than collectively gained capacity: Siloed teaching, and systems in which there are shared general ideas.
The other positions gain more from coordinating. Shared scripts gives the worst outcome in terms of collectively gained capacity and teacher autonomy (giving the system a low capacity). Shared curricular EdTech platforms reduce the teacher's autonomy to low levels also, but can offer greater capacity through, for example, compiling lots of data on learning. Shared lesson structures and activities across teachers retains some teacher autonomy (the teacher can still decide what to say and do in lessons), and there are some gains from collective capacity through the networked sharing of ideas and resources. Finally, the best position for preserving teacher autonomy and gaining from coordination is a system of shared teacher principles and emergent resources. All is explained in the post.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Intentionality is the most important thing when making decisions in complex situations.
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oliver caviglioli @olicav.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
This looks juicy and will, I'm sure, offer the more nuanced, finely-observed side of cognitive science, beyond the merely behavioural instantiation (that is temptingly simple to understand and convert into evaluation checklists).
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
When we focus more on the meaning the pupils are making, our teaching becomes more meaningful.
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 28/05/2026
11 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ratings already! For some time many EduBooks have covered similar concepts: cognitive load, memory, attention, and retrieval. But what does cognitive science say about sense-making and when telling isn't enough? Teaching Meaning offers something unique.
The Amazon page of Teaching Meaning showing eleven 5-star ratings.
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
Play is an iterative interaction with something. The result is we learn something about that thing. Learning is an iterative interaction with something. The result is we learn something about that thing. Where is the distinction?
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 25/05/2026
If we find an explanation or method that works well, we should try it on and see where it fits. What we shouldn’t do is assume it will work for every situation. Too often we fall into the comforting but false trap of reductionism through linear logic. What meaning are they making?
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 23/05/2026
Brilliant post Christian helps make sense of the distinction between instruction and learning. He helps clarify the reasons why an emphasis on instruction is highly beneficial but also when an emphasis on instruction is highly limiting. It helped me make meaning 😃
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Neil Cohn @neilcohn.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
It feels like there’s a lesson here for artists…
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Christian Moore-Anderson @cmooreanderson.eurosky.social · 18/05/2026
    In Teaching Meaning, Christian Moore-Anderson gets to the heart of how well-designed teaching can transform student learning. Writing with his distinctive perspective, he shows how many rules of thumb in teaching are half-truths. Greater clarity in our own thinking as teachers, along with a better understanding of what is needed in the minds of students if they are to learn, can make teaching much more effective.

Dr. Michael Reiss
Professor of Science Education, University of London
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Mr E @theniceman.bsky.social · 16/05/2026
New Post whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2026/05/coul...
whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com
Could you design a worse system for making sure people don't study languages?
If you wanted to design a system for making sure as few people as possible learn a language, our school system is perfect: "Transition" fro...
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Mr Lee Bates @mrbates.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Learning is memory because both are dependent on a change in us. But learning is more importantly the process of change itself not just the result of the change. The change is dependent on meaning.
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Mr E @theniceman.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
I once had a pupil who spent a whole weekend doing this whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com/2022/11/dual... for the whole vocab list. She got an A.
whoteacheslanguages.blogspot.com
Dual Coding works for Vocabulary Learning
I am not going to start by defining Dual Coding. I'm going to show a powerful tool in learning Vocabulary and you can see if you agree that...
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