Stephen Vainker

@StephenVainker

primary teacher and the lowest profile 'high profile sleuth'.

open.substack.com/pub/stephenvai…

Joined May 2024

1.5K Following 1.1K Followers 3.7K Posts

Latest posts 5

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Stephen Vainker @StephenVainker Aug 1

I've updated this with the most important detail I left out: following an investigation, BERA cleared two articles with multiple fake references.

That's remarkably negligent, at best.

Stephen Vainker @StephenVainker Jul 31

Over the past three years, the British Educational Research Association has, in its push to increase author diversity, published over 20 articles with fake references (and many more obviously AI-written ones).

And they are failing to issue retractions. This is Arday at Scale.👇

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Stephen Vainker @StephenVainker 12h

It's known that Alpha have big pockets and pay, for ed, huge salaries.

So it jars a little bit when people say they work for them out of a sense of 'responsibility'.

Do they think we're all that naive?

Peps Verified account @PepsMccrea 1d

It’s now pretty clear that AI is going to become wildly powerful, and many orgs are starting to explore how it might improve the lives of kids and families.

(Quite rightly: it would be remiss of us not to)

Imo one of the most important responsibilities for educators right now is to BE IN ON THE ACTION, steering these developments.

For me, Alpha is the best place to be doing that work.

What exactly is Alpha?
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Stephen Vainker @StephenVainker 23h

Worth remembering that many current edu gurus started out as huge Hattie acolytes. But it was always obvious that Hattie's research was nonsense.

In education, if you have the right narrative and sound evidencey you go far. More true today than Hattie's heyday.

Ammar A. Merhbi Verified account @AmmarMerhbi 2d

John Hattie’s Visible Learning has substantially influenced curriculum choices, professional development & policy mandates globally. Now a comprehensive methodological audit examines whether the underlying evidence base supports these rankings. The findings raise serious concerns regarding the validity of the synthesis.
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Stephen Vainker @StephenVainker 23h

This is in some ways redundant. I demonstrated that Hattie frequently grabbed any old stats from meta-anayses - even if they didn't relate to achievement or the influence he was supposedly covering.

His approach was reckless to the point of misconduct.

doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.…

Ammar A. Merhbi Verified account @AmmarMerhbi 2d

John Hattie’s Visible Learning has substantially influenced curriculum choices, professional development & policy mandates globally. Now a comprehensive methodological audit examines whether the underlying evidence base supports these rankings. The findings raise serious concerns regarding the validity of the synthesis.
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Stephen Vainker @StephenVainker 2d

Claire Fox coming out in favour of a curriculum that treats figures from religious beliefs as though they were straightforwardly historical people. Odd.

bakerinstitute.org/sites/default/…

Claire Fox Verified account @Fox_Claire 5d

@C_Hendrick Spot on
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