A society that uses drills and conditioning to train its machine learning models risks creating an alienated situation between human and machine in social life, as these teaching methods generate a lack of responsibility for the actions produced by such machines. Both John Dewey and Gilbert Simondon present conceptions and ideas that shed a…

The education measurement community has centered the idea of test fairness in both theory and practice. Yet, racial justice advocates in education research and practice (the racial justice community) have consistently critiqued that assessments are hardly fair and play a critical and outsized role in contributing to racial and social inequities in…

This paper explores how the twin processes of neoliberalism and neoconservatism work together on, and through, curricula and their associated pedagogies. It bridges the gap between policy and classroom practice, focusing on the particular example of the school subject of mathematics and the notion of mastery, operationalised in the English…

This paper argues for a decolonial praxis in critical peace education. Drawing on an integrative review method, the paper synthesises approaches, practices, and theories from peace and peace education literature with special attention paid to the concepts of critical peace education, cosmopolitanism, postcolonial thought, and decolonial action.…

In this piece the author provides a critical response to the new 'Looking at Our School' quality framework in Ireland and illustrates how policy overlooks critical scholarship. The author questions the claim that the updated policy reflects recent thinking and developments, and critiques the policy's stance on notions of both distributed…

In this paper, I work out a five-stringed criticism of John Hattie's theory of Visible Learning. First, I argue that the theory is a theory of evaluation that denies education as such. Second, I show that there are problems with the dependent variable, learning, i.e. the effect of a given intervention. Thirdly, I show that Hattie's theory belongs…

The commentators in this issue were chosen to ensure a broad range of response. Although the research considered in the author's original paper focused entirely on learning in higher education, the term student learning in the title could refer to students of all age groups, and so we have two distinct focuses within the commentaries; one on…

In this essay, Rachel Schachter and Donald Freeman present the familiar problem in studying and improving teaching: how to connect what teachers know and think with what they do as they teach. They outline how research on the public and private worlds of teaching has become bifurcated, with the private side of the work often disconnected from…

This paper applies Oakeshott's distinction between work and play to his philosophy of language education. The first part explores his critique of the vocational rationale for learning foreign languages and his affirmation of the intrinsic value or playful character of the activity. The second part of the article endeavours to give practical…

The late Edward Said sought to place critique and, indeed, self-critique at the heart of humanism. While the posthuman critiques surrounding the (im)possibility of humanism in postmodern times tend to focus on human autonomy, rationality, and essentialism, Stephen Chatelier here explores the idea that Said's writing on humanism could help us shift…

Critical museological perspectives have in recent years opened up new conceptual spaces for emerging forms of art museum practice. This article addresses the theme of changing ideologies and methodologies in art museums by offering an anecdote shaped by art museum practices, then theorizing potential responses from object-based, visitor-centered,…

The OECD's PISA exercise has by now been widely critiqued. Whilst we agree with most concerns, we begin with the assumption that PISA will remain an enduring and powerful feature of the global educational landscape. Even if the PISA test itself were discontinued, a similar large-scale quantitative assessment exercise would soon arise to take its…

The aim of this paper was to critically review existing literature relating to, and critically analyse current conceptualisations of, "coaching philosophy." The review reveals a bewildering approach to definitions, terms and frameworks that have limited explanation and reveal a lack of conceptual clarity. It is argued that rather than…

Inspired by seminal writings on Critique as Signature Pedagogy in the Arts and performance as Signature Pedagogy in Music, this article unifies these two concepts into a study of how critique as signature pedagogy in music-performance promotes student learning. This essay seeks to first define the notion of different mindsets as musicians perform…

In aiming to support school-based outdoor learning opportunities, this paper critiques the extent to which Deweyan and neo-Aristotelian theorising is helpful in highlighting how personal growth and practical wisdom gains can be realised. Such critique is necessary, as there are signs of an implementation gap between practice and policy, which is…