What if some of your practices that seem great are actually holding learners back?
Join Learning Designers Community for an interview-style conversation with Dr. Carl Hendrick, co-author of Instructional Illusions, as we unpack why learning design is often counterintuitive and how to avoid practices that look effective on the surface but don’t hold up to evidence.
In this conversation, we’ll explore illusions like:
- Discovery Illusion: Why “they’ll learn better if they figure it out themselves” so often backfires and when, for experts, discovery does make sense.
– Expertise Illusion: Why experts and novices don’t just differ in how much they know, but how their knowledge is organized and why that matters for instructional design.
- Uniqueness & Learner-Centred Illusions: How to hold two truths at once: learners are unique and all share the same basic cognitive architecture—and how to be truly learner-centered without abandoning explicit instruction.
– Engagement Illusion: Why a “fun” learning environment can be a terrible proxy for learning, and how to aim for cognitive engagement, not just activity
This session is for all educators, learning professionals, facilitators and anyone interested in becoming a better learner!
