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Some assumptions about scripted lessons

Jan 31, 2016 | Category: Featured

"So long as we use a certain language, all questions that we can ask will have to be formulated in it and will thereby confirm the theory of the universe which is implied in the vocabulary and struc...

#Carl Sagan #Richard Feynman #Direct Insruction #scripts

What's the difference between character and personality?

Jan 25, 2016 | Category: Featured

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 imp...

#Sutton Trust #Annie Murphy Paul #character #Judith RIch Harris #Jubilee Centre #personality

Ouroboros: a review

Jan 29, 2016 | Category: Featured

I've been following Greg Ashman's writing for some years and have always been struck by his clarity, precision, humour and single-minded sense of purpose. I haven't always agreed with everything he's...

#Greg Ashamn

What every teacher needs to know about... Edtech

Jan 09, 2016 | Category: Featured

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...

#Teach Secondary

Reading for pleasure: A reader replies to Michael Rosen Part 1

Dec 28, 2015 | Category: Featured

Back in July I wrote this post on how we might encourage children to read for pleasure to which children's author Michael Rosen left a long & detailed comment critiquing my ideas. The comment included...

My five favourite blogs of 2015

Dec 26, 2015 | Category: Featured

It's been some time since I put one of these lists together (The last time I seem to remember getting a fair bit of flak for indulging my gender bias.) and it seems high time to praise some of the bes...

Why I like 'tick n flick'

Dec 16, 2015 | Category: Featured

It is vain to do with more what can be done with less. William of Ockham Tick n flick - the practice of flicking through students' exercise books and ticking to indicate that they have been read (o...

#John Hattie #marking #workload #Greg Ashman

Outstanding is the enemy of good

Dec 13, 2015 | Category: Featured

Were it not sinful then, striving to mend, To mar the subject that before was well?Shakespeare In our efforts to be the best, are we eroding our ability to be good? Everyone tends to agree that high e...

#Pareto #Joe Kirby #Aristotle #Voltaire

When is it worth arguing about bad ideas?

Dec 07, 2015 | Category: Featured

Argue with idiots, and you become an idiot.Paul Graham Trying to identify and inoculate yourself against bad ideas is always worthwhile, but trying to set others strait is a thankless, task. And maybe...

#Tom Bennett #Jo Boaler #Paul Graham

Is school a straightjacket? A response to David Aaronovitch

Oct 23, 2015 | Category: Featured

The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution. Igor Stravinsky In yesterday's Times, David Aaron...

#Sir Ken Robinson #Sugata Mitra #David Aaronovitch