Dylan Wiliam+

AERA's Classroom Assessment SIG has a podcast, one strand of which is a "Life an

AERA's Classroom Assessment SIG has a podcast, one strand of which is a "Life and legacy" series in which those involved in classroom assessment sit down with Michael Holden and reflect on their careers. Here's my conversation: bit.ly/4cnKqK

The historical development of the structure of the continuum part 4: Newton and Leibniz

Newton uses procedural infinitesimals, fluxions generated by motion, and limits via prime and ultimate ratios, while Leibniz uses infinitesimals as relative, fictional or potential quantities.

How do we prepare students for a world we cannot imagine?

This is the original text of a paper prepared for the 2011 Salzburg Seminar on Optimizing Talent: Closing Educational Gaps Worldwide, and published by Learning Sciences International in 2014.

The historical development of the structure of the continuum part 3: Europe in the 17th Century

Galileo’s ideas, developed by Cavalieri, Torricelli and others, spread across Europe through competing geometric and arithmetic approaches, using indivisibles, tangents and limits.

The historical development of the structure of the continuum part 2: The Middle Ages

Calculus concepts develop slowly through Indian arithmetic, quantitative theories of motion and infinitesimal geometry, culminating in Stevin, Valerio, and Kepler’s infinitesimal methods for summation

The historical development of the structure of the continuum part 1: Ancient Greece

The influence of atomism on Greek mathematics, Zeno’s paradoxes, Aristotelian continuity, indivisibles and Eudoxus’ method of exhaustion.

Is the history of mathematics useful for teaching it?

A series of posts about how understanding the history of one aspect of mathematics might help us understand the difficulties encountered by our students.

What does education need next?

A contribution to the SSAT's 'Beyond manifestos'—a collection of reflections on the priorities for the English education system in the run-up to the 2024 election

Learning from international comparisons

Introduction

Liff in Educational Research

This is the text of a presentation I gave at the "Triennial Travesties" session during the 2019 AERA conference held in April in Toronto, Canada.

Formative Assessment, Feedback, and Self-Regulated Learning: Making Learning Visible, Equitable, and Sustainable

This is ChatGPT's summary of the slide deck that I used for my presentation at St Kentigern, New Zealand on September 13th, 2025, and shared via DropBox at https://bit.ly/DylanWiliamPowerpoints

Artificial Intelligence and Education: What Will Change — and What Will Not

This is ChatGPT's summary of the slide deck that I used for my presentation for Learning Network New Zealand on September 12th, 2025, and shared via DropBox at https://bit.ly/DylanWiliamPowerpoints

Combining student scores

It turns out that aggregating student scores across different subjects is much trickier than most people imagine

Onions

What does it mean to say that you understand something?

Knowledge-rich curricula: A key driver of equity in education

Published in December 2025 in a book titled "The value of a knowledge-rich curriculum: An essay collection" edited and published by Civitas UK.

Curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment; in that order

This is a chapter I wrote for a collection of essays titled "Sixth Form Matters" edited by Noni Csogor and Bill Watkin and published by the Sixth Form Colleges Association in 2023*.

What should students be learning at school?

This is an introduction that I wrote for a Sage Handbook on The national curriculum and teachers’ standards, first published in 2018, and most recently revised in 2025.

Making room for impact—with Embedding Formative Assessment

An article published in Schools Week on 4 January 2024 that explains how schools can free up time so that teachers can work on developing their formative assessment practice

Teacher quality: why it matters, and how to get more of it

Talk at Spectator Schools Conference, London, 15 March 2011

What is the role of research in improving schools?

The story behind the development of the Embedding Formative Assessment programme

The keys to genuine educational improvement—The role of leaders

In August, I did a Q&A for The Educator Australia, who were covering my presentations at the Australian Catholic Education Conference, and I thought it might be of wider interest.

I always carry cash, and after what happened in Spain last month, I’m not going

I always carry cash, and after what happened in Spain last month, I’m not going to stop any time soon…

There’s also the Marzano framework though as far as I know only the Danielson fr

There’s also the Marzano framework though as far as I know only the Danielson framework has been shown to be associated with student progress…

I try to remember to leave cash tips when I leave a hotel room, and I keep a sup

I try to remember to leave cash tips when I leave a hotel room, and I keep a supply of $5 bills in my car to give away at stop lights…

At researchED Scandinavia on March 15th, Kennet Fröjd hosted a panel discussion

At researchED Scandinavia on March 15th, Kennet Fröjd hosted a panel discussion on #ArtificialIntelligence and education with Nidhi Sachdeva, Arnold Pears, Eva Hartell and me. You can listen to it on Spotify: lnkd.in/dg8iU6Ht and see it on YouTube: youtu.be/Iq9God1rjOs

Quantitative evidence of the impact of teacher-student relationships on achievem

Quantitative evidence of the impact of teacher-student relationships on achievement is thin on the ground, so this paper on the positive benefits of "looping" (teaching the same class for more than one year) by matthewakraft.bsky.social and colleagues is important: bit.ly/4bBiBvD

Looking forward to learning a lot at the @learningandtheb conference in New York

Looking forward to learning a lot at the @learningandtheb conference in New York City next month: bit.ly/4ixCpSP

Check out this amazing list of speakers at researchED Haninge in March: bit.ly/4

Check out this amazing list of speakers at researchED Haninge in March: bit.ly/42F6hbk

Congrats!

Congrats!

Last night I had the pleasure of participating in a roundtable discussion about

Last night I had the pleasure of participating in a roundtable discussion about biologically primary and secondary knowledge and cognitive load theory, with David Geary, katejonesteach.bsky.social, and John Sweller, organized by Kennet Fröjd. You can hear it here: spoti.fi/3Wt8kvc

A difference-in-difference analysis exploiting differences in the timing of char

A difference-in-difference analysis exploiting differences in the timing of charter school entry finds that a 10% increase in charter market share reduced the supply of traditionally-prepared teachers by 1% each year: bit.ly/3E1GPme ($)

Great to see that the scale-up of Embedding Formative Assessment seems to be mak

Great to see that the scale-up of Embedding Formative Assessment seems to be making a difference in schools in England. The Behavioural Insights Team evaluation found that close to 95% of teachers surveyed were using strategies emphasized in the programme: bit.ly/3WIdwM7. Full report: bit.ly/3CcVlqM

Full disclosure: I am on the project's Advisory Board in a voluntary capacity, a

Full disclosure: I am on the project's Advisory Board in a voluntary capacity, and have no financial interest in Aristotal. I just think it's pretty amazing.

For a while now, I have been convinced that one of the most effective uses of AI

For a while now, I have been convinced that one of the most effective uses of AI in education would be to provide personal, private, coaching for teachers. I thought it would take five years, but it seems that it is here, or at least very close, already: bit.ly/3PADiO8.

Going through my Downloads folder I found a study by Babu and Mendro from 2003's

Going through my Downloads folder I found a study by Babu and Mendro from 2003's AERA conference. They found that low achievers benefitted greatly from having more effective teachers for three years, but were less likely to get them:

About 8 years ago, @siobhanleahy50 and I prepared a Quick Reference Guide for Em

About 8 years ago, @siobhanleahy50 and I prepared a Quick Reference Guide for Embedding Formative Assessment. It's now out of print, so the copyright has reverted to us, and we are free to share it with anyone who wants it: bit.ly/EFAQRG (pdf).

More and more hotels in which I stay have refrigerators that charge you if you m

More and more hotels in which I stay have refrigerators that charge you if you move an item. They usually offer an additional refrigerator if you want to keep something cold, so I have decided to ask for a refrigerator every time. If we all do this, they may change their stupid policies...

I win. 65.

I win. 65.