About

I’m Ben Lawless. I am a dad, educator and game designer (and other things).

I have been lucky enough to win a few awards:

  • I have sold over 35,000 books
  • My textbook “Good Humanities” won best textbook from the Australian Geography Teachers’ Assocation
  • I have done some great work with the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, including training 50 of their top people in developmental learning, and written the Year 12 Performance Descriptors for History, Texts and Traditions, and Religion and Society
  • The legendary John Hunter, creator of the World Peace Game made me one of his “Elders” (there’s just 16 of us worldwide)
  • I got on the Educator Hot List in 2020
  • My game EarthCraft was in the Top 20 in Australia at the HundrED Teaching Innovation Competition
  • The fantastic folks at the HTAV gave me an ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Teaching of History’ award
  • Sustainability Victoria made me a Finalist in the ResourceSmart Teacher of the Year awards for my game Planetology
  • Hume City Council anointed me Graduate Teacher of the Year

I’ve also been lucky enough to have people say nice things about my approach to education.

I’m currently a teacher and researcher at a large K-12 school in Melbourne. I also train teachers at Melbourne University.

At school I mostly teach humanities. At university I mostly teach assessment.

I have a YouTube channel devoted to education. Some of my original playlists include assessment, learning games, and even whole courses on Year 7 Geography, Year 8 Geography, Year 9 History, Year 10 History, Year 10 Geography and Year 12 Sociology (Community, Ethnicity and Social Movements).

I worked with Patrick Griffin at the Assessment Research Centre, which ignited my love for K-12 education and developmental thinking.

I do quite a lot of conferences and presentations.

In 2017 I started “Lawless Learning”. Originally it was just to put my teaching resources online and sell a few history card games, but I now also consult with schools and education institutions across Australia. My specialist area is developmental assessment and using student evidence to inform teaching.

I love working with schools for extended periods to see real improvement in their pedagogy, teacher knowledge and student results.

I’d love to hear from you!