Neither novices nor experts are overwhelmed by choice.

A true novice doesn’t understand enough to be overwhelmed by choice because they aren’t aware of the multitude of options out there. This was me when I started out in teaching. I only knew a very small number of instructional strategies, I could probably list those strategies on one hand, so I dutifully did my best to adhere to them. It was a pleasantly simple time.

The intermediate teacher, on the other hand, is prone to becoming completely overwhelmed. As they learn more and more about effective instruction, the list of things they feel they should be doing in the classroom expands at a rapid rate. As their knowledge grows, and their skills struggle to keep up, they enter a phase of more conscious incompetence and can overwhelmed by sense that there’s just too much to improve, how will they ever get there?

As the intermediate teacher moves towards greater expertise, two key things happen. Firstly, much of what’s important becomes chunked and automated for them, so they can easily perform many of the key tasks of teaching on autopilot. Secondly, of the thousands of theories and techniques that they have encountered throughout their careers, they begin to both see patterns and see which things are superfluous. The patterns help them to consolidate and categorise multiple, seemingly disparate ideas into a smaller number of groups. Knowledge of he superfluity of many strategies helps them to comfortably ignore the things that do not matter.

For the expert, the result of this automation and categorisation is the easing of choice overwhelm. What is left in its place is the knowledge that there is a small number of key things that truly matter, a sense that they are competent in many of them, and a renewed resolve to get better at the rest.

Neither novices nor experts feel overwhelmed by choice, so the intermediates are left to eat the lemon.

The silver lining? If you’re feeling overwhelmed by choice, you’ve moved beyond and you’re likely far past the novice stage! The more you teach, the more you automate. The more you read and learn, the more patterns you’ll see, and the more you’ll know what you can ignore.

And there you have it, the lemon of choice. Where are you at in the journey?

The Explicit Mathematics Program is Live!!! (Announcements and Opportunities)

The day is finally here! I’m so excited to be able to announce the official opening of orders for the Explicit Mathematics Program (EMP). Dr. Wendy Taylor, Toni Hatten-Roberts, David Morkunas, Michael Roberts, and yours truly have been working on this project for the past 2 years and finally we’re able to launch, ready for the 2025 school year!

The Explicit Mathematics Program spans Foundation to Year 2 and provides teachers and schools with everything needed to run a high quality, rigorous, and evidence informed mathematics program. From lessons to assessments, daily reviews to student workbooks, we’ve got you covered ; )

If you haven’t seen it yet, you might like to check out our webinar for Think Forward Educators, in which we outline six ingredients to high quality primary mathematics instruction, and connect these six ideas to the EMP.

Please do check out the EMP website, as well as our newly created Frequently Asked Questions page, and share the EMP with anyone you know who works in a primary school who might be interested!

Ollie.