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Steve Vainker

@stephenvainker.bsky.social
423 followers 690 following 250 posts

Primary teacher and the lowest profile 'high profile sleuth' open.substack.com/pub/stephenvainke…

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Reposted by Steve Vainker
Philippe Dessus @pdessus.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Very convincing inquiry of Hattie's scientific misconduct by @stephenvainker.bsky.social!
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Editors note: Arday in no way 'quoted & cited sources appropriately'.
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Reposted by Steve Vainker
Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
You're lying. The first instances are on pages 17 and 18 of the thesis, but Zwozdiak-Myers isn't mentioned until page 35. If you make a bad faith defence of plagiarism (even if you're motives are noble) you are committing a form of academic misconduct
until.page
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
You're lying. The first instances are on pages 17 and 18 of the thesis, but Zwozdiak-Myers isn't mentioned until page 35. If you make a bad faith defence of plagiarism (even if you're motives are noble) you are committing a form of academic misconduct
until.page
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
The debate is between a system that prepares the child for life and maximising the transmission of knowledge. We have to reject the false framing of the alternative to the status quo being discovery learning and learning styles. They are not the sensible ones.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
This does not mean being laxer or lowering standards - the early 20th century education system of Bobbitt and Bagley combined concern for the development of the whole child with real discipline and rigour. We can return.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Because of their cloistral position that schools must be preserved as the ideal transmitters of knowledge, the new ed establishment has long ignored and sidelined this problem. But they don't have the right: the education system must work for everyone.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
In so doing, the need to maximise the transmission of knowledge has increasingly elbowed out broader concerns for the personal and social (including intellectual) development of children. And there's a cost: many, many young people who are NEET feel that school has failed them.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
They fully adopted E.D. Hirsch's monomaniacal polemic on the need to transmit more knowledge to children for the sake of the economy & society. This pushed out the long-established, even conservative, position that schools exist to prepare children for public and private lives.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
The ed establishment prides itself on being evidence-based. But their position on the purpose of education - that we need a stock of common knowledge to communicate effectively as a society - is as flimsily evidenced as any learning style. open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
article: doi.org/10.1002/berj... fake reference: Ng, F. F.-Y., Poon, K. T., & Leung, A. W. S. (2023). Parental warmth buffers the effects of adolescents' self-regulation deficits on academic achievement: .... Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 60, 101281. doi.org/10.1016/j.dc...
doi.org
<em>British Educational Research Journal</em> | BERA Journal | Wiley Online Library
A growth mindset is an important psychological resource for students' academic performance. However, its benefits are not uniform and may vary with contextual conditions, among which parental support....
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Today the British Educational Research Journal published another article with a fake reference. That's the 22nd from a BERA journal, and their 3rd since they began retracting their AI-authored articles. The reference in this paragraph completely fake 👇
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
It's wonderful that Times Higher Ed are covering this (just need to sign up). The spotlight will mean that BERA can't just continue publishing articles with fake references while taking the moral high ground.
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Reposted by Steve Vainker
Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
BERA have begun retracting AI-authored articles and will need to retract many, many more. But still they publish more. They keep making the story bigger, while taking away their own room for manoeuvre. It increasingly looks like this will not end well.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
BERA have begun retracting AI-authored articles and will need to retract many, many more. But still they publish more. They keep making the story bigger, while taking away their own room for manoeuvre. It increasingly looks like this will not end well.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Less than two weeks ago BERA published a retraction notice for 19 articles. They sounded confident and rigorous. But that was a lie. Since then they've published two further articles with fake references. They are in a complete mess, with many retractions ahead. open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...
open.substack.com
BERA continues to publish articles with fake references
Within two weeks of a ludicrously triumphant retraction statement, BERA has published two further articles with fake references
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Reposted by Steve Vainker
Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
BERA's 19 retractions are generating some interest but there's a lot more to the story than people realise. There are many more retractions to come across the four journals, & more papers still will face question marks. Their response so far has merely dug a deeper hole. 🧵👇
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
It's harder to be sure with unpublished doctoral theses but the fact that the name is wrong does not inspire confidence...
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
The article is based on 'Berliner's Neo-formal model' but it cites a Berlin (not Berliner) & the reference does not, as far as I can tell, exist: Berlin, B. M. (1987). The Neo-formalist model of curriculum analysis (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Loyola University Chicago.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Article: doi.org/10.1002/curj... The following reference does not appear to exist: González, R. M., Román, A. V., & Hernández, A. (2020). GIS in higher education: A review of the literature. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 44(3), 342–359. But worse...
doi.org
The Curriculum Journal | BERA Journal | Wiley Online Library
This study presents a comparative analysis of ‘Development Governance’ and ‘Development Management’ curricula across selected elite international universities. It aims to identify structural patterns....
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Just to underline the points I make in this thread, barely a week after announcing it has tightened its policies, it has published another article containing fake references, this time in the Journal of Curriculum Studies. That takes the number of articles with fake refs to 20...
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
BERA will now need to take full responsibility for the rather ridiculous position it has found itself in (rather than blaming me). If it continues to deflect from and justify past mistakes, then it will lose credibility very, very quickly.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
it appears clear that in many cases proper peer review was not applied (e.g. one article repeated the same paragraph 3 times in a row - how is this not spotted?). BERA has targets to increase the diversity of authors; it appears this has played a role in accepting v. bad papers.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I have argued that BERA got itself into this mess because it has turned away from its substantive purpose (ultimately to improve education) in favour of secondary higher ed metrics such as increasing the diversity of its authors. The editorial process has been so lax that...
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Finally, it claimed without evidence that my methods were 'methodologically unsound and ethically problematic'. This claim is demonstrably wrong and BERA should retract well over a hundred papers: stephenvainker.substack.com/publish/post...
stephenvainker.substack.com
BERA's counter-attack is paper-thin and sanctimonious: my methods are perfectly sound
BERA is claiming that it is 'methodologically unsound and ethically problematic' to take a preponderance of post-2023 phrases is evidence of LLM-generated text. They are, again, completely wrong.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
In its communication with me, Wiley has also indicated that it will not take action on these ten completely unsupportable articles: stephenvainker.substack.com/p/if-bera-ha...
stephenvainker.substack.com
If BERA has confidence in these impossible articles, why should we have confidence in BERA?
10 ridiculous articles BERA is still supporting
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Then, it claimed falsely that according to the Committee on Publication Ethics, undisclosed AI did not itself warrant retraction: stephenvainker.substack.com/p/bera-misre...
stephenvainker.substack.com
BERA misrepresented COPE guidelines in retraction statement
AI has really hit academic institutions on their weak spot - while they have historically gained their prestige through intellectual rigour and integrity, today they are hyper-managed, hollowed out or...
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
he strangest was its attempt to claim credit that it 'uncovered independently' what I had told them about... See this post: stephenvainker.substack.com/p/beras-delu...
stephenvainker.substack.com
BERA's delusional, self-serving retraction statement
Claims to have 'uncovered independently' what I had already suggested to them
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
which state that an article should be retracted as soon as editors cannot have confidence in it. Then, it made a number of bizarre assertions in its retraction statement, which can be found here: www.bera.ac.uk/news/outcome...
bera.ac.uk
Outcomes from a recent BERA journals integrity investigation
We are aware of a series of blog posts and social media threads over the past year in which a third party raised concerns about a number of articles published across our journals. We take all...
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
BERA's response has been unfortunate in a number of ways. First, it took no public action for 9 months despite being given clear evidence that a number of its articles contained fake references. In many cases it still has not taken action. This is against COPE guidelines...
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
See this post for a endless examples across the four BERA journals: stephenvainker.substack.com/p/bera-journ... And this post defending the method: stephenvainker.substack.com/publish/post...
stephenvainker.substack.com
BERA journals publish 131 LLM-written articles
A tragedy and a scandal
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Many more read as AI-authored and contained a number of phrases that had never appeared before 2023, but had since become common. For example, the phrase 'Second, the reliance on self-reported measures may introduce' was never used before 2023 but has been used 74 times since.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Many of the articles contained fake references or had other serious problems. See this post for a summary. stephenvainker.substack.com/p/bera-pleas...
stephenvainker.substack.com
BERA, please retract these 48 indefensible articles
A true change in leadership means admitting huge mistakes
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Just under a year ago, I spotted a number of completely terrible articles. For instance, an article on a game called TargetShootingMania contained 23 fake references and had almost nothing to do with education. Since then I have reported around 170 dodgy articles to BERA/Wiley.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
BERA's 19 retractions are generating some interest but there's a lot more to the story than people realise. There are many more retractions to come across the four journals, & more papers still will face question marks. Their response so far has merely dug a deeper hole. 🧵👇
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
BERA has no idea of the danger it is in. Wiley has informed me it is still supporting these 10 articles with clear major errors. BERA needs to retract these articles or it will lose all credibility, and fast. This would be a disaster entirely of its own making. open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...
open.substack.com
If BERA has confidence in these impossible articles, why should we have confidence in BERA?
10 ridiculous articles BERA is still supporting
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
John Hattie himself has thanked me for finding a non-existent reference in his work. So why is Greg Ashman proclaiming that the case consists solely of unproven 'allegations'? Well, the demands of the attention economy win out over a genuine search for truth. open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...
open.substack.com
Greg Ashman's journey to misrepresenting Hattie case
The empty authority of the social media edu-celebrity
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
stephenvainker.substack.com/p/beras-delusional-self-serving-retraction?r=695xb6 stephenvainker.substack.com/p/bera-misre...
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Any impression BERA are giving of being on top of things is wrong. They're misrepresenting their role in the retractions (claiming to have 'independently uncovered' what I told them about) and are retracting FAR too few papers (based on a misrepresentation of COPE guidelines)👇
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Reposted by Steve Vainker
Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
BERA makes two serious, glaring errors about COPE guidelines in retraction statement. This misrepresentation of the guidelines is used to justify its failure to retract dozens more low-quality, AI-authored educational research articles. The scandal is deepening. open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...
BERA's version of COPE guidelinesActual COPE guidelines
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
COPE: 'Reasons for this loss of confidence can be, but are not limited to: ... Any form of misrepresentation, for example:... undisclosed involvement of artificial intelligence' open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...
open.substack.com
BERA misrepresented COPE guidelines in retraction statement
AI has really hit academic institutions on their weak spot - while they have historically gained their prestige through intellectual rigour and integrity, today they are hyper-managed, hollowed out or...
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Error 2.) Is undisclosed use of AI sufficient grounds for retraction. COPE says 'yes', BERA says COPE says 'no': BERA: 'retraction decisions should focus on confidence in the publication’s results and conclusions, rather than on any one signal in isolation'
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Error 1.) Is undisclosed AI fraud? COPE says 'yes' (misrepresentation), BERA says COPE says 'not necessarily': BERA: 'undisclosed AI use does not always indicate fraud or manipulation' COPE: 'undisclosed involvement of artificial intelligence' an example of 'misrepresentation'
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
BERA makes two serious, glaring errors about COPE guidelines in retraction statement. This misrepresentation of the guidelines is used to justify its failure to retract dozens more low-quality, AI-authored educational research articles. The scandal is deepening. open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...
BERA's version of COPE guidelinesActual COPE guidelines
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Reposted by Steve Vainker
Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
BERA has begun retractions - 19 from the British Educational Research Journal. Hilariously, they are trying to claim that the issues were 'uncovered independently' by them, amongst other delusionally self-serving claims. Sadly, they will learn nothing. open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...
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Reposted by Steve Vainker
Jay Patel @infotainment.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
#SciComment The state of sleuthing, in a nutshell 🥜
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
British Educational Research Association: - receive complaint from me about a dodgy special issue - investigate, agree it’s dodgy - take all credit, say the problem was ‘uncovered independently’ by them - Call me ‘ethically problematic’ Only academia can be this much of a joke.
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Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
BERA has begun retractions - 19 from the British Educational Research Journal. Hilariously, they are trying to claim that the issues were 'uncovered independently' by them, amongst other delusionally self-serving claims. Sadly, they will learn nothing. open.substack.com/pub/stephenv...
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Reposted by Steve Vainker
Steve Vainker @stephenvainker.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
John Hattie has produced fake references in four different publications where he was either sole, lead, or one of two authors. That's not remotely normal. But the University of Melbourne is refusing to investigate any of the four publications. A scandal. stephenvainker.substack.com/p/john-hatti...
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Reposted by Steve Vainker
Eko @ekoanarchist.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
John Hattie reportedly being investigated by University of Melbourne for academic misconduct. Every teacher right now 🤣🤣🤣
Reddit screenshot "He must have forgotten to write a learning invention on the board"
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