Knowledge Is Back—But Only If We Teach It Well

I recently joined Dylan Wiliam and Patrice Bain on the Knowledge Matters Podcast to talk about retrieval practice, mini whiteboards, and the kinds of instructional moves that actually help students remember what they’ve learned. It was a generous conversation – one that didn’t just skim the surface of techniques, but dug into why they matter.

Ep. 2, Literacy and the Science of Learning: Dylan Wiliam on Building Student Knowledge

For too long, knowledge has been treated as optional. Swapped out for vague skills, vibes, and classroom activities that look engaging but leave students no smarter than when they arrived. The pendulum swung hard toward constructivism, discovery, and personalization – at the expense of clarity, coherence, and content.

Now, knowledge is making a comeback. Not just as a buzzword, but as a serious proposition: that what students know shapes how they think, what they can do, and who they become. Memory isn’t the enemy of understanding. Understanding is richly encoded, retrievable, usable long-term memory.

But here’s the catch: knowledge only works when it’s taught well.

That means explicit instruction. It means carefully sequenced content, clear explanations, and deliberate practice. It means retrieval routines that aren’t just thrown in, but built into the architecture of a lesson. It means tools like mini whiteboards – not because they’re trendy, but because they make thinking visible and allow for immediate feedback.

It’s tempting to celebrate the return of knowledge as a victory, but it’s not enough to put it back in our hearts. We have to put it back into the teaching and curriculum. Otherwise, it risks becoming just another label – another thing we say we value, but don’t actually deliver.

The podcast was a reminder that there are educators out there doing the hard work of making knowledge stick. Not through gimmicks, but through precision. Through care. Through instruction that respects the learner’s cognitive architecture and builds on it, step by step.

Knowledge matters. But only when it’s taught like it does.