Craig Barton · Teaching · Long-form conversations about teaching and learning.
Bibi Groot, Eedi's Chief Impact Officer, returns to unpack the second Eedi and Google DeepMind AI tutor trial: 1,179 students, four arms, ten weeks. She and Craig discuss where AI tutoring matched expert human tutors, the null result on Star Maths, an unexpected gender effect, tutor wellbeing, safety data and what comes next. View the show notes here…
Sign up for your free trial at HoD Space at hodspace.com . Access the show notes here: podcast.mrbartonmaths.com/234-hod-space-ep5-ai-resource-creation-exam-marking-supporting-science-teachers In this episode of the podcast, Jo Morgan and Craig Barton discuss: 1. AI resource creation Craig leads on a topic he expects them to disagree about, with Jo describing herself as an AI sceptic who is nonetheless noticing that…
Sign up for a no-commitment free trial at hodspace.com. Access the show notes here: podcast.mrbartonmaths.com/233-hod-space-ep4-teacher-talk-finding-good-assessments-and-the-most-stressful-times-of-the-year/ In this episode of the podcast, Jo Morgan and Craig Barton discuss: 1. Teacher talk Jo brings a member's post about developing teaching and learning across a department, where a passing line about getting…
Sign up for your free trial at hodspace.com In this episode of the Mr Barton Maths podcast, Craig and Jo discuss three burning issues from the Hubspace community this week: How do you make homework work in the age of AI? How do you handle students moving sets and communicate this to parents? How do you stop students from being confused by the equal sign? View the show notes here…
Craig speaks to Manu Kapur, Professor of Learning Sciences and Higher Education at ETH Zurich and the researcher behind productive failure. They cover what the framework is and is not, the mechanisms behind it, how long students should struggle, what AI tutors mean for learning before instruction, and the strongest challenges to his work. Access the show notes here…
Sign up for your free trial at HoD Space at hodspace.com. Access the show notes here: https://podcast.mrbartonmaths.com/230-hod-space-ep2-notes-in-exercise-books-offsted-and-a-level-class-sizes/ In this episode of the podcast, Jo Morgan and Craig Barton discuss: 1. What actually goes in the exercise book Prompted by a HoD Space member's survey request, Craig puts four options to the community — I do, we do and…
Craig speaks to Joe Liemandt, principal of Alpha School and founder of Trilogy Software, about the model behind the school's two-hour academic day. They cover selection effects, what does and does not scale, the data the apps generate, the future of the teaching profession, and Alpha's plans for the UK. Access the show notes here: https://podcast.mrbartonmaths.com/229-ai-in-education-with-joe-liemandt/
Sign up for your free trial at HoD Space at hodspace.com. Access the show notes here: https://podcast.mrbartonmaths.com/228-hod-space-ep1-praise-tick-sheets-year-7-sets-first-departmental-meeting/ In this episode of the podcast, Jo Morgan and Craig Barton discuss: 1. Praise, and the problem of the "invisible pupils" Prompted by a question from HOD Space member Megan, Jo and Craig dig into Pritesh Raichura's seating…
In an unscheduled episode, Kris Boulton analyses a trainee teacher's volume-of-prisms sequence. He and Craig Barton work through key design principles — simplifying the rule, stripping out the arithmetic, starting with the general case, and building testing and expansion sequences that force genuine mathematical thinking. Access the show notes here…
Returning guest Zach Groshell, author of Just Tell Them , explains how he designs Direct Instruction maths apps for Alpha School. They cover the US school system, why most education apps fail, how atomisation and mastery work on a screen, the limits of data and motivation, and why he chose a different school for his own daughter. Access the show notes here…
In this AI in Education episode, Craig Barton welcomes back Dylan Wiliam to discuss what generative and extractive AI mean for assessment, teaching and the purpose of schooling. Wiliam argues the evidence base is thin, urges caution about education's long feedback loops, and distinguishes cognitive offloading from cognitive outsourcing. Access the show notes here…
Kris Boulton returns for the AI in Education mini-series. He shares how Claude has become fully woven into his daily work, gives a candid first-hand account of his visit to Alpha School in New York, and digs into where AI now sits for creating high-quality maths resources — and where it still falls short. Access the show notes here: podcast.mrbartonmaths.com/224-ai-in-education-with-kris-boulton
Grainne Hallahan, formerly an English teacher, now runs the questions at Teacher Tapp — the app that surveys more than 10,000 teachers a day. She came on with five AI-related findings from the archive, on cheating, lesson planning, attendance targets, and whole-school policies, plus three favourite Teacher Tapp findings to finish. Access the show notes here…
In this long-awaited sequel (eight years after her last appearance), Craig welcomes back Becky Allen — education researcher, co-founder of Teacher Tap, co-author of The Teacher Gap , and now a consultant to the US-based Alpha School chain — for a deep dive into AI in education, with a particular focus on AI as a personal tutor. Becky is a self-confessed AI optimist who uses LLMs for almost everything (with a fervent…
In this episode of the Mr Barton Maths podcast, Craig sits down with Bibi Groot, behavioural scientist at Eedi, to unpack the rigorous research behind their ed-tech work. Bibi traces her journey from the UK's Behavioural Insights Team — where she applied frameworks like EAST (Easy, Attractive, Social, Timely) to public policy — to becoming Eedi's first behavioural scientist after a stint completing a PhD at UCL and…
A decade after his first appearance on the podcast, Dan Meyer returns to discuss the intersection of AI and mathematics education. Now leading AI feature development at Amplify (which acquired Desmos), Dan brings a uniquely balanced perspective—simultaneously a critic of AI's most maximalist claims and an active builder of AI tools for the classroom. Craig and Dan dig into three core areas: AI as a personal tutor, AI…
In this episode, I welcome my friend and Eedi co-founder, Dr Simon Woodhead. We dive into the evolution of educational technology, data collection, and AI's role in personalised learning. Join us as we reflect on past innovations, current challenges, and future opportunities in edtech, data science, and AI integrations in education. View the show notes here…
Education expert Carl Hendrick discusses the transformative potential of AI in education, emphasising how AI can enhance learning science, curriculum design, and personalised instruction. He explores the differences this time around compared to past EdTech innovations and offers insights into practical applications and future implications. Access the shownotes here…
Discover the nuanced debate around AI's role in education through an in-depth conversation with science teacher and author, Adam Boxer. We explore both the exciting potentials and significant pitfalls of AI tools in teaching, assessment, and resource development. View the episode shownotes here: podcast.mrbartonmaths.com/217-ai-in-education-with-adam-boxer
A long-awaited conversation with Barbara Oakley, distinguished professor of engineering, bestselling author, and creator of the world's most popular online course "Learning How to Learn." Barbara shares her remarkable journey from hating maths in school to becoming a champion of cognitive science-based teaching, and brings her expertise in memory and learning to bear on the rapidly evolving world of AI in education.…
