Progressively Incorrect S5E22: Adam Robbins on the Challenge of Improving Teaching
Mar 23, 2026
Adam Robbins, England-based secondary science teacher and author with 22 years in classrooms, discusses why improving teaching is so hard. He explores inspection pressures, how observations can be more useful, and the role of coaching, routines, and deliberate practice. Conversation highlights competing incentives, culture work, and practical structures schools can use to support better instruction.
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Why Teacher Development Is So Difficult
- Improving teaching is hard because teachers must replace 'good' habits with 'great' ones under heavy cognitive load.
- Robbins highlights habit inertia, disputed evidence, and teachers' prior classroom-based assumptions as the three big barriers.
Green Pen Moment Changed My Practice
- Robbins resisted 'making compliance visible' with older students but found showing a green pen sped transitions and revealed missing materials instantly.
- He changed practice after seeing younger students use the visible-pen routine warmly and effectively.
Three Lenses For Useful Observations
- Use the cultural, cognitive, and fundamentals lenses during observations: classroom climate, attention management, and whether students are thinking about the right thing.
- Robbins warns against jumping to application tasks before warming up students' relevant knowledge.