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Joe Allport

Research

All the writing in one place. More research and essays will be added here as they are finished.

Corporate SeriesLearning at work: whether training worked, how adults really learn, compliance as practice, data that helps people instead of watching them, and why workplace English stalls. Close

These essays take the principles in How People Learn into training at work, and set out what measuring it properly would need. Read How People Learn →

  1. 1

    Why Most Corporate Training Can't Show That It Worked

    Key Takeaways
    • Attendance and enjoyment don't show learning.
    • Start from the work.
    • Measure the same way, without names.
  2. 2

    One Brain, Two Settings

    Key Takeaways
    • The same methods work.
    • Prior knowledge is the real difference.
    • Drop the myths.
  3. 3

    Compliance as Practice, Not a Once-a-Year Box-Tick

    Key Takeaways
    • Skills fade fast.
    • Practice beats watching.
    • Little and often.
  4. 4

    Data at Work: A Check, Not a Verdict

    Key Takeaways
    • Feedback on the task, not the person.
    • Rankings and monitoring backfire.
    • Design it in.
  5. 5

    Why Workplace English Stalls

    Key Takeaways
    • A weekly class is too little time.
    • Unpractised language fades, and progress stalls at intermediate.
    • Start from the real work.
  6. Conclusion

    One Team, One Quarter: The Cycle in Practice

    Key Takeaways
    • Start from the work, end in the work.
    • Most of the cost is the learners' time.
    • Run it with one team first.
K12 SeriesThe system around learning in schools: what gets measured, who checks the educator's judgement, what makes an educator effective, and where AI and EdTech fit. Close

It sets out how people learn only in passing, because that is covered in How People Learn. The system is built on both. A Corporate series applies the same thinking to adult and workplace learning. Read How People Learn →

  1. 1

    Who Checks the Teacher?

    Key Takeaways
    • The law asks schools to develop the whole person, but schools only check exam results.
    • Teachers' judgements of students are often right, but they can be biased, and nobody checks them.
    • When a teacher's unchecked judgement decides a student's future, poorer students lose out most.
  2. 2

    What a Report Card Cannot Say

    Key Takeaways
    • Habits like effort and self-control shape a student's life as much as grades do.
    • Schools should record what students do in class and compare each student only with their own past.
    • A record of student behaviour must never count towards a grade, or students will start gaming it.
  3. 3

    The Case for the Treasury

    Key Takeaways
    • Governments judge whether education worked by the tax people pay years after leaving school.
    • By the time that tax figure arrives, it is too late to help the student.
    • Schools already collect early warning signs, like attendance and grades, but governments never ask for them.
  4. 4

    Good Design, Not Learning Styles

    Key Takeaways
    • Learning styles have no evidence behind them, and labelling children "visual" or "hands-on" does harm.
    • A good learning tool adapts to what a student already knows about the topic.
    • A tool like that has to be built with teachers who know how students go wrong in the subject.
  5. 5

    What Makes a Great Teacher, and Why It's Important

    Key Takeaways
    • The best teachers know where their students will go wrong.
    • A teacher's fluency, intelligence or confidence tells you little about how much their students will learn.
    • Nobody tests or records a teacher's knowledge of student mistakes, before or after they are hired.
  6. 6

    The Tool Was Never the Hard Part

    Key Takeaways
    • A new classroom tool only helps when someone decides what it is for and who it will help.
    • Time saved by AI gets filled with other work unless the school removes another task.
    • AI tools work best when built on a list of common student mistakes, which exists for maths but not yet for writing.
  7. Conclusion

    When a Number Starts to Count

    Key Takeaways
    • When a number decides something important, like a grade or a job, people will bend it.
    • Measure students often with little riding on each result, and have someone outside check the marks that still count.
    • When someone outside checks a teacher's marks, the gap between poorer and richer students narrows.