When brilliant teachers become exhausted leaders, it’s usually not because they lack ability — it’s because they’re cognitively overloaded by the basics. In this solo episode Shane explains what that overload looks like (the story of “Sarah” who dreads Monday evenings), why common leadership programmes often skip the fundamentals, and how cognitive load theory helps explain what’s going on. If you’re struggling to hold difficult conversations, run useful meetings, or make decisions without second-guessing, this episode focuses on a practical, sequenced fix rather than another strategic to-do list.

This conversation dives into what formative action is, why Valentina Devid and colleagues reframed formative assessment as an action-oriented practice, and why that reframing matters for school leaders trying to get useful classroom evidence turned into immediate, high-impact teaching moves. Valentina walks through the five-step action-oriented investigation process (orient & predict; think & generate; interpret, communicate & decide; informed follow-up; verify, reflect & predict), gives concrete classroom examples (history teachers checking the five causes of the First World War using mini whiteboards), and warns about common “mutations” — for example, when formative work is dumped into a learning management system as a grade with zero weight and loses purpose.