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
  • 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!