Reclaiming Teacher Professional Knowledge in an Era of AI | The International Educator (TIE Online) If we give up on this cognitive and creative work of teaching, both a source and the outcome of our professional knowledge, our profession will suffer; it may e

#EduSky Check out my article in the April Newsletter of The International Educator (TIE Online): www.tieonline.com/article/7959...

Thank you all for the feedback. I appreciate the nuances you raised.

That’s interesting… I have found that many teachers articulate something closer to a constructivist perspective but then implement many transmissionist practices.

But maybe that was my point? Within debates about explicit versus discovery, etc. (or whatever terms are used), many educators do create this straw man, but paint all forms of teacher-directed instruction as this straw man. I thought the matrix helped reveal this characterization for what it is?

I agree with you that the matrix sets up extremes that maybe don't really exist in practice. I agree that quadrant A probably doesn't very often exist... or, if it does, there wouldn't be many serious educators who would look at that and not see it as problematic....

...I find that many educators assume that all "teacher-led" instruction equates to Quadrant A and that the only solution to the problem of Quadrant A is Quadrant C. I also think there is a misunderstanding among educators that Quadrant D is the only way to be "constructivist." I welcome feedback.

#EduSky #EruditePedagogy I have not spent a lot of time thinking about this yet, but recently put together this matrix and I'm curious what others think. As you can tell from the descriptors, I think effective teaching & learning happens in Quadrant D, but... (1/2)

I’m Iranian American. Here’s What I Want Educators to Understand About the War (Opinion) Understanding Iran requires holding multiple truths at once, writes education reformer Nina S. Rees.

#EduSky #iteachsocialstudies This is worth a read: www.edweek.org/teaching-lea...

Give a Little Whistle Podcast Episode · This American Life · March 8 · 1h

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...

No one should miss the point that these stories are being told on a program called “This American Life.”

A response to Paul Kirschner's outline of 10 reasons why discovery-based learning remains appealing. — PRAXIS Education On LinkedIn , Kirschner recently reposted a blog that he originally wrote in March 2025 called The Seductive Appeal of Discovery Learning . In other places, Kirschner has critiqued discovery-based l...

#EduSky My response to an aspect of a blog by Paul Kirschner: www.onteachingandlearning.com/blog/paulo-f...

How to Engage Productively on Social Media as a Teacher Although many platforms are designed to reward provocation and outrage, we can choose how we interact with different perspectives.

Are you a teacher who wants to share on social media without getting “devoured by the machine”? 🍽️

Educator @teachercutler.bsky.social talked to @tobiasrose.bsky.social about how to protect your mental health and intentionally engage.

#EduSky

#EduSky I'm curious... how many teachers watched "One Battle After Another" and thought... that title and the relentlessness implied by it... it feels like the job of teaching in schools?

Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction with Tom Sherrington (Ep 64) Podcast Episode · Chalk & Talk · 02/06/2026 · 1h 3m

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/c... #EduSky I thought this was a great episode. Great talk-through of Rosenshine’s principles. Tom Sherrington has a lot of great insights on teachers and teaching.

I think you're right that non-examples are limited, at least on their own. I think non-examples used alongside examples can help a student delineate the boundaries of a concept. I like the idea of metaphor triangulation, though, as well, which I suspect is what you're getting at with "variation."

“Metaphor”: An apt metaphor for teaching — PRAXIS Education A exploration of the question, "To what extent is 'metaphor' an apt metaphor for teaching. Explores representations as conceptual metaphors and argues that teachers need to select and create apt repre...

#EduSky #EruditePedagogy I couldn't give up on the question, "Is "metaphor" a good metaphor for teaching?" Thanks in part to @manymindspod.bsky.social for inspiring the question. Check out my latest blog post: www.onteachingandlearning.com/blog/a-metaphor-for-teaching-and-learning

Maybe is just liked the witty-ness of the idea of “metaphor” as a “metaphor” for teaching and learning

I like the connection with apt versus inapt metaphors… reminds me of the importance as a teacher to use apt representations, models, examples (all metaphors in the expansive sense) to guide student conception construction and limit misconceptions.

…metaphor can illuminate the thing, but it’s only ever partial and can even lead to misconceptions of the thing. We use the positional metaphor of “up” / “on top” to refer to the northern hemisphere on a map. What misconceptions are caused by that?

I think you’re right… this idea assumes an expansion definition of metaphor that is probably very similar (if not the same) as associating meaning. Maybe the help aspect of metaphor is the sense that metaphor is not the thing…

I also found it interesting that part of the impact of metaphors is that they often communicate with words by evoking mental images… not unlike models and diagrams.

The podcast episode addresses the language piece a bit… similar to debates in cog psych about the degree to which cognition is dependent on language… yes, language is very important but cognition isn’t just language… metaphor is about language but also extends to cognition beyond language.

I agree, and certainly teaching is complex and thus requires many things… provoking interest, attention, focus, motivation… but the point is that we stir new insights in students through metaphor… by providing apt comparisons, connections, associations… with what they already know.

Feels like a good metaphor for instructional strategies & representations of teachers... those that are apt work b/c for those 2 reasons; those that are inapt fail at one / both of those criteria. I'm curious what others think about "metaphor" as a metaphor for teaching / learning. 10/10

Apt metaphors work because a) they sufficiently communicate the meaning of the target domain and b) they make use of source domain that is sufficiently known / understood. Inapt metaphors are those that fail at one or both of the above criteria... 9/10

Teachers must understand the student source domain and transform the target domain into metaphors that help the students map the new onto the already established. Podcast episode differentiated between apt vs. inapt metaphors... 8/10

Lee Shulman called this the act of "transformation." The teacher must understand something of student prior knowledge / preconceptions, in order to transform new subject-matter in a way that students can grasp it... 7/10

Can we stretch this into a "metaphor" of teaching? Teaching is helping to facilitate in students this assimilation / accommodation of new information. The teaching task is to create and present metaphors that help students map new information (target domain) onto prior knowledge (source domain) 6/10

This aligns with a cognitive constructivist framework about learning... we assimilate and accommodate new information into our already established schema... we process new information in light of already formed knowledge frameworks... 5/10

Example from episode: I say "my career has been a real journey". By this I'm trying to communicate something about my career by mapping that onto something already familiar... the characteristics of a journey: uncertainty, decisions, different possible routes, obstacles, unexpected stopovers... 4/10

I'll attempt a summary... metaphor is a task of transferring something from a source domain (something already known) to a target domain (something new). In other words, metaphor involves an attempt to understand new information by mapping it onto already established knowledge... 3/10