XFacebookYouTubeLinkedInEmail

Blog archive

Two types of learning – which one is best?

Evolutionary biologists think of learning as being either social or asocial. Social learning is essentially copying - what is everyone else doing? - whereas asocial learning is accrued by interacting with the environment through trial and error. All learning is either social or asocial; we either learn through mimicry or experimentation, innovation or observation. When thinking about how to teach, it's worth considering the role of evolution in shaping the way we have adapted to think and learn. In our distant past, learning was a costly strategy - time spent learning was time we couldn't spend looking for food and opportunities [...]

2021-12-17T19:27:03+00:00July 4th, 2017|learning|

Put down your crystal balls

Many of the schools I visit and work with feel under enormous pressure to predict what their students are likely to achieve in their next set of GCSEs. In the past, this approach sort of made sense. Of course there was always a margin for error, but most experienced teachers just knew what a C grade looked like in their subject. Also, when at least half of students' results were based on 'banked' modular results, the pressure to predict became ever more enticing. Sadly, the certainties we may have relied on have gone. Not only have Ofqual have worked hard to [...]

2017-07-04T09:32:36+01:00July 3rd, 2017|assessment, leadership|

Whatever the question is, intelligence is the answer

Here are the slides I used in the talk I gave at this year's Education Festival: Whatever the question is, intelligence is the answer from David Didau The antipathy of very many otherwise sensible people to the concept of intelligence is really quite remarkable. This aversion seems only to be increased by bringing up the subject of IQ tests. The idea that IQ tests are only useful for showing how good some people are at taking IQ tests is a deeply ignorant view based upon a breathtaking piece of intellectual dishonesty. It's difficult to believe that people like Professor Guy Claxton [...]

2017-06-26T07:55:06+01:00June 25th, 2017|Featured|

‘Understanding’ and Occam’s razor

At the beginning of the 20th century, physicists Hendrik Lorentz and Albert Einstein both concluded independently that measurements of light speed would be the same for all observers. But while both arrived at the same results from their equations, Lorentz’s explanation relied on changes that take place in ‘the ether’. Because Einstein's paper On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies made no reference to a mysterious, undetectable substance, his explanation was accepted as being the most likely. Even after Einstein's theory of special relativity had been accepted, Lorentz wasn't willing to let go of his belief in 'luminiferous aether'. In 1909 he wrote, [...]

2024-11-18T19:08:41+00:00June 24th, 2017|learning|

A Novice→Expert Model of Learning

Every artist was first an amateur. Ralph Waldo Emerson One of the best understood principles of cognitive psychology is that novices learn and think differently to experts. These labels are domain-specific, not person-specific; I can be an expert at particle physics whilst still being a novice at evolutionary biology. Or skateboarding. Similarly, you could be an expert skateboarder whilst knowing little of nothing about theatre design or ancient Tibetan languages. What this means is that we're all novices at something, and many of us will be experts in at least one domain. To demonstrate how you think differently as an expert [...]

2018-01-07T15:09:36+00:00June 21st, 2017|learning|

How helpful is Hattie & Donoghue’s model of learning? Part 2: The meta analyses

To help us better understand how we learn, John Hattie & Gregory Donoghue propose a new conceptual model of learning. I've already written about my concerns with the metaphor of depth in Part 1. In this post I want to explore what his meta analyses reveal about the best approaches to take with students at different stages in the journey from novice to expert. Inputs The first layer of Hattie & Donoghue's model is termed 'inputs' or, what children bring to the process of learning. These are grouped into three areas dubbed skill, will and thrill. The most important individual differences between students [...]

2017-06-18T12:09:33+01:00June 18th, 2017|learning|

How helpful is Hattie & Donoghue’s model of learning? Part 1: The problem with depth

I saw John Hattie speak recently at a conference on his latest re-imagining of his Visible Learning work. He was an excellent speaker and charming company. I was particularly flattered that he asked me to sign his copy of my What if... book. After he'd finished his presentation he asked me what I thought and I said I'd have to go away and have a think. This is an attempt to tease out a response. Broadly, I found myself in agreement. Hattie makes the astute point that the 400 learning strategies identified in his most recent meta analysis cannot be directly compared; [...]

2020-07-01T20:49:37+01:00June 17th, 2017|learning|

The secret of successful schools: the Anna Karenina Principle

For men are good in but one way, but bad in many. Aristotle Tolstoy's great novel, Anna Karenina, opens with the famous line, "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Tolstoy's point is that a happy marriage depends on a long lists of variables: mutual attraction, agreement about finances, parenting, religion, in-laws and many other crucial respects. You might have everything else in your favour, but if any one of these vital ingredients is missing, or out of kilter, happiness is doomed. This is the Anna Karenina Principle: A deficiency in any one of a [...]

2017-06-14T07:12:21+01:00June 14th, 2017|leadership|

Ability is the consequence not the cause of what children learn

The evidence on ability grouping appears relatively well-known. The EEF Toolkit summarise the research findings thus: Overall, setting or streaming appears to benefit higher attaining pupils and be detrimental to the learning of mid-range and lower attaining learners. On average, it does not appear to be an effective strategy for raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils, who are more likely to be assigned to lower groups. It appears that children who are deemed to be 'low ability' fall behind pupils with equivalent prior attainment at the rate of 1-2 months per year when placed in ability groups. Conversely, high attainers make, [...]

2021-05-11T23:37:59+01:00June 13th, 2017|Featured|

My idea for making science a more fundamental part of culture and society

I've been asked to contribute an idea to the British Science Association's campaign, Science: not just for scientists. Their aim is to compile "100 ideas to make science a more fundamental part of culture and society". My idea, if you're interested, is falsifiability. If you want to vote for my idea, or any other, you can do so here. The importance of being wrong What I love about science is that it’s not an attempt to prove ideas to be right; instead it’s all about testing theories to destruction in the hope of finding them to be wrong. This is a lesson [...]

2018-07-23T09:12:59+01:00June 2nd, 2017|Featured|

How not to disagree: Swearing & insults

If you don't like swearing this post's probably not for you. I'm a big fan of profanity and, much to the chagrin of my family, I swear immoderately. There are times when nothing else quite expresses the depth of one's feelings or conveys a point with suitable emphasis. I enjoy the judicious use of most swear words and, suitably combined, they can even achieve a certain caustic beauty. Back in the mists of time when I taught EFL, one of my students' favourite lessons was on the uses of 'fuck' as a phrasal verb. It really has quite remarkably varied utility. But despite [...]

2017-05-30T22:08:41+01:00May 30th, 2017|Featured|

What does the Theory of Multiple Intelligences tell us about how to teach?

As I explained here, the scientific consensus is that intelligence is general. That is, if you are good at verbal comprehension, you'll also tend to be good perceptual organisation, and if you're good at maths, you're also likely to be good at English. This is counter-intuitive. Most people believe that mental abilities trade off against each other and the doing well in one area means doing poorly in another. Of course, this might be true for some people, but just because your mate John can barely count his own fingers but happens to be a literary genius, doesn't disprove the fact that [...]

2020-05-15T13:12:01+01:00May 26th, 2017|psychology|
Toggle Sliding Bar Area
Go to Top