A Mind for Numbers—Back to School Sale

Cheery Friday Greetings from Barb Oakley! 

Back to School Deal: A Steal for the Science- and Math-Shy!

Heads up! A Mind for Numbers—my classic guide to learning math and science more effectively (even if you’ve sworn those subjects hate you)—is on Kindle sale this weekend only for just $1.99. That’s less than the price of a gas station coffee. Whether you’re a student, a teacher, or someone who once broke out in hives at the mention of calculus, this book gives you the tools to tackle tough material with confidence (and maybe even enjoy it a little). The deal runs Saturday, August 9 on Amazon Kindle. Grab it while the algorithm gods are smiling!

10 Cognitive Scientists Walk into a Classroom…

Ever wish you could gather ten of the world’s most delightful cognitive scientists around a campfire and say, “Okay, tell me exactly what you do that actually works in your classroom”? That’s pretty much what Pooja K. Agarwal has pulled off with Smart Teaching Stronger Learning. From retrieval practice to spaced learning to clearing out those persistent neuromyths, every chapter is like a pocket-sized gift of wisdom from teachers who also happen to be researchers. And the best part? It’s research that’s been tested in the beautiful chaos of real classrooms — not just in sterile labs. It’s short, practical, and wonderfully human. This is a book I’ll be revisiting often — and one I wish I’d had in hand years ago. Bravo, Pooja!

Why AI Might Finally Be Ready to Help Teachers—And How You Can See It in Action

We all know that grading student writing can be one of the most time-consuming (and headache-inducing!) parts of teaching. But what if there were a way to blend human insight with AI to make that process not only faster, but also more fair and consistent?

That’s exactly what Daisy Christodoulou and the team at No More Marking are doing. Their approach is rooted in comparative judgement—a powerful, research-backed method where assessors (human or AI!) decide which of two pieces of writing is better. It turns out, both humans and AI are far more reliable when comparing than when assigning an absolute grade—and this insight is now being used to assess thousands of student essays with astonishing accuracy.

Even better? Teachers remain at the center of the process, guiding and validating the AI while reclaiming valuable time and reducing burnout.

If you’re curious about how this actually works—and how it might help you or your school—Daisy’s free upcoming webinar is the perfect place to start:

Assessing America’s Writing: Comparative Judgement + AI
📅 Tuesday, September 2nd, 2025 at 4:00 PM (ET)
🔗 Register here

This is one of the most exciting—and grounded—developments in AI and education I’ve seen. Don’t miss it!

Brains, Games, and the Windy Paths of Learning

I recently had a delightful chat with Australian podcast host Tyson Popplestone, whose warmth and curiosity made our meandering conversation one of my favorites. We covered everything from how brains get a little “rut-prone” with age, to why shoot-’em-up video games might actually be better for your cognition than crossword puzzles (really!). We also dipped a toe into deeper waters—such as a potential solution for the riskiness of saying certain things out loud, even in academic circles. Even businesses are suffering, in that no one wants to say things that need to be said, because that would take people out of their comfortable “safe” zone.  That got me reflecting on something new I’ve been quietly working on. Much more on that… soon. 😉

The Dirty Secret of ‘Conceptual Understanding’

One of my engineering students once marched up to me, waving the test he’d just flunked, and exclaimed: “How could I have flunked this test? I understood it when you said it in class!” What he didn’t realize—what so many well-meaning educators don’t seem to realize either—is that understanding something in the moment isn’t the same as being able to recall and use it later. If you can’t remember what you’ve learned, you really haven’t learned it.

Barry Garelick captured this perfectly in a recent piece shared on Rick Hess’s blog, where Barry takes aim at so-called “high-quality instructional materials” that prize “conceptual window-dressing” over procedural mastery. Students are drowning in smorgasbords of strategies before they’ve even learned anything straightforward. What was once the main course—the good old standard algorithm—has been demoted to a confusing side dish. Garelick’s point: when we delay fluency in the name of “exploration,” we’re not unlocking deeper understanding—we’re just failing to lock in anything at all.

That’s all for now. Have a happy week in learning!

Barb Oakley

• Uncommon Sense Teaching—the book and Coursera Specialization!
• Mindshift—the book and MOOC
• Learn Like a Pro—the book and MOOC
• The LHTL recommended text, A Mind for Numbers
• For kids and parents: Learning How to Learn—the book and MOOC. Pro tip—watch the videos and read the book together with your child. Learning how to learn at an early age will change their life!