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A definition of learning

"For a man to attain to an eminent degree in learning costs him time, watching, hunger, nakedness, dizziness in the head, weakness in the stomach, and other inconveniences." Cervantes Learning (n) 1. the retention and transfer of knowledge 2. a change in the way the world is understood I'm often asked what I mean when I talk about 'learning' so, although I've written about it many times before, I thought it might be useful to have a post dedicated to my definition. Learning is tripartite: it involves retention, transfer and change. It must be durable (it should last), flexible (it should be applicable in [...]

2016-07-21T19:49:18+01:00January 28th, 2016|learning|

Is it a 'sin' to tell teachers how to teach?

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated use rather than total abstinence. Samuel Butler According to a recent TES article, Professor John Hattie, "one of the world’s most widely quoted education academics," has been telling teachers that it's a 'sin' to tell teachers how to teach. I'm sure the irony went unnoticed. Is he right? He apparently he said 80 per cent of what happens in the classroom remains unseen and unheard by teachers – only the pupils are aware of it. “So why would I give a damn about reflective [...]

2016-01-27T17:32:21+00:00January 27th, 2016|learning|

Is it a ‘sin’ to tell teachers how to teach?

Half the vices which the world condemns most loudly have seeds of good in them and require moderated use rather than total abstinence. Samuel Butler According to a recent TES article, Professor John Hattie, "one of the world’s most widely quoted education academics," has been telling teachers that it's a 'sin' to tell teachers how to teach. I'm sure the irony went unnoticed. Is he right? He apparently he said 80 per cent of what happens in the classroom remains unseen and unheard by teachers – only the pupils are aware of it. “So why would I give a damn about reflective [...]

2016-01-28T09:42:01+00:00January 27th, 2016|learning|

What's the difference between character and personality?

The recent Sutton Trust report on character education, A Winning Personality, concludes that extroversion correlates strongly with career success. It recommends that schools focus their efforts on improving "less advantaged students" knowledge and awareness of professional careers, using "good feedback to improve pupils’ social skills," providing "suitable training in employability skills and interview techniques" and on ensuring that attempts to improve outcomes for less advantaged students are "broad-based – focusing on wider skills as well as academic attainment". Like others, I feel appalled at the idea of extroversion being preached as a gospel of success. To the extent that career success might correlate with [...]

2016-01-25T11:24:32+00:00January 25th, 2016|Featured|

Why 'mastery learning' may prove to be a bad idea

"It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us." Disraeli What could be wrong with wanting students to master difficult content? Nothing. For the most part, the aims of mastery curricula are admirable. Ensuring all students have fully grasped conceptually difficult content is a hard but worthy aspiration. My problem is that, in practice, mastery values the here and now over the future, and in so doing may be in danger of short circuiting the outcomes it seeks to embed. The research conducted so far shows some promise. The EEF Toolkit report concludes that mastery learning [...]

2016-01-24T19:12:26+00:00January 24th, 2016|learning|

Is it what you do or the way that you do it?

Alex Quigley has just responded to my post Two Stars and a Bloody Wish! with the revelation that it works for him and others: Using a ‘Two Stars and a Wish’ model ironically meant that many teachers were writing more concise comments and spending less time on marking than before. Rather than proving a waste of time as David Didau suggests, it was saving time for many (teachers weren’t beholden to two wishes each time and there was seldom ‘lavish praise’). Well, good. If using a particular marking structure does actually save teachers time then who am I to criticise? Alex goes on to say [...]

2018-11-26T16:29:29+00:00January 23rd, 2016|research|

Big data is bad data

The cost of bad data is the illusion of knowledge. – Stephen Hawking Schools, as with almost every other organ of state, are increasingly obsessed with big data. There seem to be two main aims: prediction and control. If only we collect and analyse enough data then the secrets of the universe will be unlocked. No child will be left behind and all will have prizes. Can we learn from the past? No. Or at least, not in any way that helps. We can see trends, but these are far more likely to be noise than signal. When exam results are rising [...]

2016-01-12T09:49:42+00:00January 11th, 2016|leadership|

What every teacher needs to know about… Edtech

Here's my most recent Teach Secondary column: Technology has been transforming education for as long as either have been in existence. Language, arguably the most crucial technological advancement in human history, moved education from mere mimicry and emulation into the realms of cultural transmission; as we became able to express abstractions so we could teach our offspring about the interior world of thought beyond the concrete reality we experienced directly. This process accelerated and intensified with the invention of writing, which Socrates railed against, believing it would eat away at the marrow of society and kill off young people’s ability to [...]

2016-01-10T11:27:33+00:00January 9th, 2016|Featured|

Can anyone teach? Well, that depends on what you think education is for

In a fascinating series of posts, Nick Rose has discussed to what extent teaching is a natural ability and how far it might be described as an 'artificial' science. In The ‘artificial science’ of teaching: System vs Individual competence he explores the implications for teacher training and professional development of these different interpretations of what it is to teach. All of this harks back to the hoary old chestnut of whether teaching is an art, a craft, or a science; whether great teachers are born or made. If the act of teaching is, as Rose suggests, in part a natural ability, a module of what Geary calls [...]

2016-12-31T12:14:11+00:00January 5th, 2016|psychology, training|

Varieties of boredom

For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, Action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech, To stir men’s blood: I only speak right on; I tell you that which you yourselves do know Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene 2 Teaching is a profession with an odd, uneasy relationship with boredom. At once we are almost never bored, but seem to always run the risk of being boring. Teachers seem to find their subjects and what their students do endlessly fascinating. In fact, our enthusiasm runs the risk of boring anyone except other teachers, and even then at times. Writer and hispanophile Gerald [...]

2017-04-12T14:31:54+01:00January 2nd, 2016|blogging|

New Year's resolutions for teachers and school leaders

We have more ability than will power, and it is often an excuse to ourselves that we imagine that things are impossible. François de La Rochefoucauld It's a new year, with no mistakes. In the few days left of the Christmas break thoughts will inevitably turn to the term ahead and how we can do whatever it is we do better. Just in case you're not sure how to turn this vague sense into a reality, here's a handy list of off-the-shelf resolutions you might like to use or adapt. Teachers Follow the school rules – they are there for everyone’s [...]

2016-01-01T12:56:10+00:00January 1st, 2016|workload|

Annual report 2015

Well, 2015 has been and gone. It's been a great year for me personally and one in which the blog has continued to make waves. It seems that as more and more ordinary teachers are liberated from the tyranny of some of the daft but pervasive ideas in education, the debate has become increasingly polarised. My writing seems to irritate and encourage in roughly equal measure and I fear I've gained many new readers at the expense of alienating some old ones. For anyone who happens to be interested, here's the 2015 annual report on my blog produced by WordPress. As you [...]

2015-12-30T13:38:48+00:00December 30th, 2015|blogging|
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