Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect, a show sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by me, Dr. Zach Groshell.
My guest today is Richard Wheadon, author of the forthcoming book Teaching Learning Habits – How to Develop Independent and Successful Learners, to be published with Routledge. He blogs at Everything Pedagogy and writes on Substack. Richard recently made the unusual decision to step down from senior leadership and return to classroom teaching—and in this conversation, we explore what that move revealed about substitute teaching, teacher development, and what it really means to go back to the chalkface.
🚨 Registration is open! 🚨
Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer.
We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one.
🗽 NYC | July 27–31, 2026
👉 Learn more + register here: 🎟️ Explicit Teaching Institute registration
We discuss:
- Substitute teaching and what it exposes. What does the experience of being a substitute teacher—or supply teacher, for those in the UK—reveal about how schools actually function? We talk about the unique challenges of stepping into someone else’s classroom and what substitute teaching tells us about the systems, routines, and culture that either support or undermine good instruction.
- Teacher development that actually works. Richard spent years as a senior leader overseeing quality of education and professional development. We discuss what he learned about what makes PD stick, the role of coaching, and how schools can build development structures that lead to genuine improvement in teaching—not just compliance or box-ticking.
- Going back into the classroom. After 15 years in leadership, Richard made the decision to return to full-time classroom teaching. We talk about why he did it, what surprised him, and what leaders miss when they lose daily contact with instruction. What does it look like when someone who has shaped school-wide teaching and learning goes back to doing it themselves?
- Learning Habits—grounded in cognitive science, not woolly thinking. Richard’s forthcoming book, Teaching Learning Habits, isn’t another vague appeal to “growth mindset” or “learning to learn.” It’s rooted in cognitive science—memory, self-efficacy, motivation, and the habits that actually help students become more independent learners. We discuss what the book covers, how it translates research into something teachers and pupils can use, and why Richard felt the field needed a no-nonsense, evidence-informed take on learning habits.
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The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching.
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