Retconning the Curriculum: Why The Science of Learning Has a Serious Design Problem
Retrieval practice is a continuity feature not a classroom activity
The Learning Dispatch
Making sense of how learning happens. https://www.carlhendrick.com/
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Latest episodes
Children of the Magenta Line
Why minimally guided AI does not work. Chatbots, novices, the automation of learning and the case for Alpha School
Why You Cannot Believe Your Way Into Learning
Why growth mindset works in the laboratory, fails in the classroom, and reveals something true about both.
Is There a Science of Writing?
"the dry rudiments of the beautiful science of reading"
The Monthly Dispatch — What's New in Learning Science? — June 2026
The most-cited AI-in-education paper gets retracted, retrieval practice hits a wall under high cognitive load, and a little knowledge turns out to be worse than none at all.
Spandrels of the Mind: The Case Against Humanlike AI
AI tutoring will work when it stops pretending to be human
The Death of the University Degree
Cognitive surrender, borrowed competence and the "vast counterfeiting of knowledge"
Novels Tell Us Who We Are
Why great fiction can explain us better than we can explain ourselves
Learning in the Age of Algorithmic Video
Are children learning anything from TikTok and YouTube?
The Monthly Dispatch - What’s New in Learning Science - May 2026
New evidence on the limits of retrieval practice, phone bans that don't move test scores, ChatGPT as cognitive crutch, and why early vocabulary growth tells us surprisingly little about later reading
The Problem With Banning Social Media Is That It's Social
New evidence suggests teenagers will not log off until their friends do too
Rethinking Retrieval Practice: Remembering Is Not Knowing
Retrieval practice works best as maintenance of meaningful learning, not its creation.
The Monthly Dispatch - What’s New in Learning Science - April 2026
Retrieval practice under scrutiny, feedback's missing mechanism, AI that actually teaches, and the quiet erosion of cognitive effort
Orthographic Skeletons: Can Children Start Learning How Words Are Spelled Before They've Seen it in Print?
Why oral vocabulary predicts reading ability.
Learning at the Edge of Understanding
Correct answers are a lagging indicator of learning, not the mechanism.
AI Brain Fry, Workslop and the Ironies of Automation
The Cognitive Price of AI at Work, and the Learning Science Case for Optimism
The Monthly Dispatch - What's New in Learning Science? - March 2026
New studies on retrieval practice, seductive details, engagement myths, reading instruction, and the cognitive costs of modern technology
Reading Comprehension Is Not a Skill
The Case for Vocabulary Instruction as the Engine of Comprehension
Waiting, Not Seeking: Reading As Resistance
Attention in a World Designed Against It
The Blind Regulator: Ashby's Law and the Unavoidable Logic of Instructional Design
“Only variety can destroy variety.”