Episode #15 Obviously

This week we deep dive researchED Melbourne and some of the highlights from the recent conference, including conversations and recurring themes from the day. This includes stories about “sailor dudes”, malt wort, terrible attempts at Australian nicknames and lethal mutations of cognitive science. Obviously.

Next, we switch to a new paper by Kean Poon and John Sweller that considers a reconceptualisation of cognitive load theory within special education, and how instructional practices and learnings from this dense body of research might have an application in special education. In particular, we unpack the distinction between biologically primary and biologically secondary knowledge, and the idea that some things we assume students will acquire naturally may function more like biologically secondary knowledge - and of course, the learnings we can take from research into instructional design if this is the case.

Finally, it wouldn’t be a topical Australian education podcast without a discussion of everyone’s favourite annual education discourse event: NAPLAN. Obviously. This time, prompted by a piece written by Pamela Snow, we discuss the pattern of persistent underperformance in NAPLAN results by around a third of Australian students, the impacts of this on students both in school and post school, and some flaws within this assessment system itself.

It’s going to be a fun one! Obviously.

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Greg Ashman

Greg is a school leader at Ballarat Clarendon College and holds a PhD in instructional design from UNSW.

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If you’re interested in working with Greg at Ballarat Clarendon College, please see here for open roles and expressions of interest.

Caiti Wade

Caiti is a leader of pedagogy at a boys’ secondary school in Brisbane, education consultant and is doing her doctorate in cognitive science.

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LinkedIn – Caiti Wade

X/Twitter – @caiti_wade

Episode resources

* Inspired by researchED Melbourne? researchED Canberra is coming up! Tickets have sold out, but access the waitlist here

* Applying cognitive load theory to special education: a reconceptualisation through evolutionary psychology | Poon & Sweller, 2026

* The Snow Report: NAPLAN – safety net or tangled net? | Pamela Snow

Acknowledgement of country

We would like to acknowledge The Traditional Custodians of the lands on which we record this podcast, the lands of the Wadawurrung People, and the lands of the Jagera and Turrbal Peoples, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.