Below you’ll find my MA dissertation. This one has been a long time coming! The central question is: Can extrinsic rewards be used to induce intrinsic motivation for virtuous behaviour? I first wrote about this controversial question in the final essay of my PGCE in 2022, and then in the first, second, third, and fifth […]
Evaluating the lure hypothesis in the classroom Read More »
Determinism is the idea that the past entails one unique future according to the laws of nature. Free will refers to our ability to exercise control over our actions. There is a tension between these two ideas. Because if the past determines a single future, then it will also determine our actions. Conversely, if we
Why bother rescuing free will? Read More »
(Image: The Water of Life, by Stephen Broadbent) I recently visited Chester Cathedral. Entering the Cloister Garden, I was confronted by a greening sculpture of two ghostly figures, one bent over the other, both holding a bowl. The encircling inscription read: Jesus said, “the water that I shall give will be an inner spring always
Below you’ll find one of two abstracts submitted to the Jubilee Centre’s 2026 annual conference. You can find the other abstract here. Neither were accepted. In the abstract, I propose mapping the Jubilee Centre‘s three strategies of character “caught”, “taught”, and “sought” onto Self-Determination Theory’s (SDT) three basic psychologcal needs: relatedness, competence, and autonomy. Specifically,
Character education and basic psychological needs Read More »
Below you’ll find one of two abstracts submitted to the Jubilee Centre’s 2026 annual conference. You can find the other abstract here. Neither were accepted. The abstract reports on my MA dissertation study, which attempted to test the lure hypothesis in a school setting. The lure hypothesis, recall, suggests that rewards can be used to
A method for evaluating character education interventions Read More »
Below you’ll find an abstract that I submitted for presentation at the Association for Moral Education’s 2025 annual conference. It didn’t really fit with the conference theme, but it was accepted for a poster presentation. I will include the poster below once I have made it. I submitted the same abstract for the European Character
Below you’ll find one of two abstracts submitted for presentation at the Phronesis in Theory and Practice conference at the University of Gdańsk. Both were accepted. I chose to present this one, as it drew explicitly on my proposed PhD research. This abstract essentially offers a critical book review. In Phronesis: Retrieving Practical Wisdom in Psychology, Philosophy, and
Phronesis and the gappiness problem Read More »
Below you’ll find one of two abstracts submitted for presentation at the Phronesis in Theory and Practice conference at the University of Gdańsk. Both were accepted. I chose to present this one, as it drew explicitly on my proposed PhD research. You can find my presentation slides below, too. (You can read the other accepted
Phronesis and virtue internalisation Read More »
Below you’ll find one of three abstracts submitted for presentation at the Society for Educational Studies 2024 annual conference in Oxford. All three were accepted. I chose to present this one, as it aligned most closely with my current line of research. You can find the other accepted abstract here. The same abstracts were submitted for the Jubilee Centre’s 2025
Cultivating radical hope Read More »
Below you’ll find one of three abstracts submitted for presentation at the Society for Educational Studies 2024 annual conference in Oxford. All three were accepted. I chose to present this one, as it aligned most closely with my current line of research. You can find the other accepted abstract here. The same abstracts were submitted for the
The corruption claim Read More »
