This is the last post of the year on this blog. This makes it a good moment to look back and share a bit of behind-the-scenes thinking.

You may have noticed something about this site. No, the layout did not change, but I did make a deliberate shift in content. I noticed that both this blog and my Dutch-language blog were losing readers. Largely because fewer people were arriving via search engines, but over time, I had also become dissatisfied with the quality of my own posts.

So this summer, I decided to approach things differently. To free up time to improve quality, I aligned the content of the two blogs. That had not been the case before. The time that became available went straight into writing better pieces.

At the same time, AI entered the picture. I did not use it to write the posts themselves, but for several tasks that made my work easier.

• Sometimes I use it to quickly screen research papers, as an addition to the steps I was already taking. Until recently, the usual route was: first read the title, if that looked interesting, then the short description, then the abstract, and only if that still seemed worthwhile, the full paper. I have now added an extra step after the abstract: asking AI for a summary to decide whether the article is worth reading in full. That final step remains essential, as I have noticed too often that errors can still slip in at the AI stage. AI replaces the press release in this case, which I read much less nowadays.
• After writing, I now also ask AI for feedback, though that hasn’t guaranteed against typos. And apparently AI does recognise my sense of humour, but cannot write it itself, as evidenced by some of the suggestions I received. I am pretty happy about that.
• To reappear in search engines, I use AI for everything related to SEO. Occasionally, I also use it to generate images, although I usually look for real pictures under a Creative Commons licence first. And yes, I also use technology for translation, but here too, a fair amount of manual work is often still needed afterwards.

Changes like these take time, but over the past few months, I have seen a steady increase in readers again and received some very kind responses. In the meantime, this blog remains my own daily professional development and the best writing practice I could wish for.

The most read new pieces of the past year were:

• What if we’re asking the wrong question about ChatGPT in education?
• Not exactly new, but updated: Did the effect of collective teaching efficacy just drop (or did John Hattie’s team make a mistake?) *updated*
• Explicit or social constructivist? New research on math education in disadvantaged schools
• New report on reading: what can really work and what should we pay attention to?
• Special and/or Inclusive Education: The Real Debate Isn’t Where, but How (a new paper on the topic)

Of course, 2025 was not only a year on this blog. For the fourth year in a row, it has been a particularly demanding year professionally, but especially personally. My sincere thanks to everyone who supported me, and, by extension, us, with advice and help.

At the same time, it was a year in which I learned a great deal and met many wonderful people. On to the next one, possibly with some unexpected news somewhere in the spring. News that made me genuinely happy when I received it earlier this year.

See you in 2026.