Opinion

Retrieval, feedback, spacing, interleaving, deliberate practice and transfer are usually offered as separate techniques. Put together, they describe a single process. Twelve evidence-informed principles, each with a practical teaching implication, for designing learning across a unit rather than a single lesson.

AI can produce an excellent essay, solution or set of revision notes in seconds while telling us surprisingly little about what has changed in the learner. Seven evidence-informed principles on prediction, productive struggle, scaffolding, feedback, targeted practice and choosing the right tool for the thinking you want pupils to do.

How I use guided notes, low-stakes checks and a repeatable AI workflow to make flipped learning worthwhile, keep the pedagogy in the teacher's hands and produce the supporting resources at scale. Includes a video walkthrough and two downloadable workflow packs.

Why retrieval practice still matters, why low-stakes testing and multiple-choice questions deserve more attention, and why generative AI is forcing us to think more carefully about assessment validity.

Much has been written about what AI might do to pupils. But the more pressing question may be what it does to teachers, and whether outsourcing planning, explanation and marking quietly erodes the professional expertise that makes great teaching possible.