Christian Moore Anderson

Does “checking for listening” help learning?

Christian Moore Anderson — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 10:00:28 +0000

I’ve attended a couple of training sessions as a teacher in which the trainer would ask “check for listening” questions. They’d tell us things and then ask a question to someone chosen at random. “Seriously!?”...

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How I teach blood glucose homeostasis

Christian Moore Anderson — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 08:00:28 +0000

Blood glucose homeostasis is a classic concept for teaching about feedback loops that drive stability. But, like all of biology, there are so many new structures and technical terms students may not see the wood...

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How I teach SA:V in biology

Christian Moore Anderson — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 07:44:12 +0000

Surface area to volume ratio is a fundamental concept that keeps appearing throughout biology. It’s best to get it right the first time. Many times, however, students end up memorising ↑SA is good and ↓SA...

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The illusion of knowing the “best” teaching techniques

Christian Moore Anderson — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 11:26:27 +0000

Recently, a claim has emerged: if leaders are frustrated with teaching outcomes, the fault isn’t the teacher, but the specific techniques (like turn and talk) they’ve been trained to use. And the proposed solution? Swap...

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The pros of teaching without PowerPoint

Christian Moore Anderson — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 18:37:36 +0000

PowerPoint was a central tool in the community of teachers I was inducted into. Almost everyone I knew used it to develop their lessons (or at least obtain a pre-made one). It was at once...

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Evidence-based educational movements are actually games

Christian Moore Anderson — Fri, 20 Feb 2026 19:39:21 +0000

Around 2012ish, a new movement rode into the UK (school) educational scene. It came with the banner of “evidence-based”, to counter the previous movement. I’m not writing to contend whether the movement was right or...

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An edu-fad’s purpose is what it does

Christian Moore Anderson — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 08:46:00 +0000

Stafford Beer, a systems theorist, regularly claimed that a system’s purpose is what it does. There was no point claiming, he thought, that its purpose was what it consistently failed to do. In this post,...

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Teaching experimental variables with diagrams

Christian Moore Anderson — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 19:49:49 +0000

Experimental design is an uncontroversial component of science curricula. It helps students learn methodology, how to spot flaws in arguments, and, partly, how scientists create knowledge. Yet, much of what we teachers see in experimental...

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Decoupling lower & upper secondary curricula

Christian Moore Anderson — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 07:02:26 +0000

All systems exist in a constant co-adaptation with their environment. The upper secondary sections (KS4) of England’s schools are continually adapting to their communities, the government’s inspection body (e.g. Ofsted), and standardised exams (e.g. GCSEs)....

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My opinion on the new (2025) IB Biology syllabus

Christian Moore Anderson — Sat, 05 Apr 2025 13:02:44 +0000

Two years ago, we began planning the new IB biology syllabus. Now that we’ve completed our first journey through it, it’s time for an update. Below, I’ll discuss the content load, the overall design and...

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Podcast episodes

Christian Moore Anderson — Sat, 08 Mar 2025 06:11:25 +0000

Sense-making and Cybernetics in Classroom Teaching (2025) Nick Covington and I explored themes on enactive cognitive science, cybernetics, and meaning making, and how they mark a difference from mind-as-computer pedagogies. Knowledge Doesn’t Equal Understanding (2025)...

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How I teach kidney ultrafiltration

Christian Moore Anderson — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 20:39:19 +0000

The nephron is a tricky concept for many students, but it doesn’t have to be. In this post, I explain how I’ve taught it recently, without any slides, to 16-year-olds. See how I introduce stock...

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