Search results for: solo

Need a new search?

If you didn't find what you were looking for, try a new search!

On gimmicks

2017-07-15T21:47:07+01:00October 2nd, 2016|learning|

What is a gimmick? The dictionary defines it as "a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or trade." So, putting a cartoon tiger on a packet of breakfast cereal in order to attract children's attention is a gimmick. So is repackaging ordinary Shreddies as 'Diamond Shreddies'. In the words of Rory Sutherland, these sorts of gimmicks attempt to solve problems by "tinkering with perception, rather than that tedious, hardworking and messy business of actually trying to change reality." An example of something that isn't a gimmick is a BOGOF offer where the customer gets something of practical value that they might actually [...]

School improvement: Can you buck the trend?

2016-12-31T16:26:22+00:00July 4th, 2016|Featured, leadership|

In my last post I discussed the natural volatility of GCSE results and the predictably random nature of results over the long-term. I ended by saying, "The agenda for school improvement has to move away from endlessly pouring over data looking for patterns that don’t exist. We need to find new – better – ways to hold schools to account and come up with new definitions of what school improvement means." Interestingly, two readers got in touch to cite the example of Michaela School as a potential outlier. Obviously, Michaela's first cohort are still a number of years away from sitting [...]

Telling better stories

2016-06-21T21:26:21+01:00June 21st, 2016|Featured|

None of us know what made us what we are, and when we have to say something, we make up a good story. Steven Pinker, My Genome, My Self Stories are one of the most important ways we have of trying to make sense of the world. We look  at all the coincidences, connections, curiosities and contradictions that surround us and weave them into a plausible narrative in which everything makes sense and inconsistencies are explained away. This incredibly useful skill enables us to interpret an otherwise incomprehensible world - without narrative there would be little way for us to make meaning of our [...]

Why I'm optimistic about the new Chief Inspector

2016-06-14T14:17:05+01:00June 14th, 2016|Featured|

Guardian journalist and ex-teacher, Michelle Hanson thinks education in the UK is "going down the pan". In this article she tells us the memory of working as a teacher still makes her "feel a bit queasy" whenever she so much as walks past a school. I can only imagine what kind of horrors she might have endured and I have nothing but sympathy for the many thousands of teachers who, like Michelle, have chosen to get out of the classroom and do something less injurious to their mental health. She's absolutely right to point out that the "preparation, planning, note-taking, sudden irrational initiatives, testing [...]

Reactions to #WrongBook

2015-07-04T12:23:59+01:00July 4th, 2015|writing|

In addition to the pre-publication reviews from some of the most eminent thinkers in education and psychology such as professors Dylan Wiliam, Robert Bjork, Daniel Willingham and Robert Coe, some 'real' readers have had a chance to plough their way through the 400+ pages. I realise this is a big ask but I hope the Amazon reviews below give you a sense of why it might be worth reading. Many thanks for all the kind comments and also for some of the rather blunt feedback. (I hear @HeyMiss Smith has given it a savaging in Schools Week!) Anyway, here's a taste of some [...]

A review of 2014

2014-12-31T22:26:35+00:00December 28th, 2014|Featured|

I wrote 125 posts in 2014 bringing the running total to 336 posts. Here are the ten most popular this year: Why do so many teachers leave teaching? (February 2013) The Cult of Outstanding™: the problem with ‘outstanding’ lessons (January 2014) Work scrutiny – What’s the point of marking books? (January 2013) Marking is an act of love (October 2013) Where lesson observations go wrong  (July 2013) What is good behaviour? (January 2012) Slow Writing: how slowing down can improve your writing (May 2012) Why AfL might be wrong, and what to do about it (March 2014) Building challenge: differentiation that’s quick and works (January 2013) What I learned from my visit to [...]

Where do I want my daughters to go to school?

2014-09-28T10:44:39+01:00September 27th, 2014|Featured|

My eldest daughter is in Year 6 and applications for secondary school applications need to be in by the end of October. To my shame, I've taken the route my middle-class parents take; we're moving into the catchment of the school of our choice. But why have we chosen it? Well, the results are very good; the view of parents is overwhelmingly positive; it offers about the right blend of academic and 'creative' subjects, and it has the kind of ethos that chimes with our values. I think. But I don't really know. I'm basing these judgements on league tables, Ofsted reports, [...]

Pseudo intervention and the power of placebo

2016-11-21T16:31:00+00:00June 17th, 2014|Featured|

…it is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives… Francis Bacon Today's post has been contributed by a reader who has asked to remain anonymous, but got in touch after reading my blog explaining why I'd abandoned the SOLO taxonomy. Whilst this post isn't directly related to SOLO, it does address the need to provide compelling evidence when we start getting excited about a particular style or approach to teaching. Increasingly I've become convinced that one way to increase students' attainment might be to harness some sort of permanent Hawthorne Effect by [...]

It’s not what you know… oh, hang on: it IS what you know!

2018-09-24T23:37:12+01:00November 9th, 2013|learning|

I'm fed up of people who should know better saying they're bored with the false dichotomy of skills versus knowledge. The knowledge vs skills debate is always worth having because it conceals a more fundamental disagreement (a real dichotomy, if you will) about what's most important. Let's agree that no one is actually advocating that no knowledge is taught. I'm sure this is true. But saying that knowledge is 'just a foundation for higher order thinking' isn't good enough either. This picture from Joe Kirby's blog sums it up for me: Analysis, application, evaluation and all the rest are the merely the [...]

Hats, schmats: what really matters is the quality of debate

2013-09-21T13:51:57+01:00September 21st, 2013|blogging, myths|

I feel the need to make a few things clear. A few days ago I wrote this: Six Silly Hats (When is it OK to mock stuff you think is daft?) and some of the response I got suggested that I was confused on several points. I clearly had no idea what the hats actually were (I do) I had gotten confused about the metaphorical nature of the hats and that people don't actually wear them (I wasn't and they do. Honestly.) The hats are just a tool to help pupils think laterally and if thinking laterally is a good thing then [...]

Go to Top