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Hang on in there: could encouragement be more useful than praise?

Sep 27, 2013 | Category: learning

Last week I expanded on some of my doubts about the concept of praise, particularly the current consensus that we should be going out of our way to praise effort. I concluded by saying, "no one would...

#Carol Dweck #John Hattie #praise #Harry Webb #Alfie Kohn #competition #deciles #encouragment #Tim Taylor

What's the point of classroom displays?

Jul 21, 2013 | Category: learning

Having broken up for the summer and feeling warm and expansive, I foolishly asked Twitter what it would like me to write about next. Michael Oxenham came back, quick as a flash with "classroom display...

#Ron Berger #Alex Quigley #desirable difficulties #classroom display

Motivation: when the going gets tough, the tough get going

Aug 26, 2013 | Category: learning

If ever you get embroiled in a discussion on Learning Styles you may well be confronted with the chestnut of motivation.Learning styles, it seems to me, are all about motivation and management, and no...

#motivation #Dylan Wiliam #Daniel Willingham #Graham Nuthall #memory

The problem with fun

Aug 22, 2013 | Category: learning

Getting students engaged so that they can be taught something seems much less effective than getting them engaged by teaching them something that engages them.Dylan Wiliam Could fun be the enemy of le...

#John Hattie #Daniel Willingham #fun #memory

Developing oracy: it's talkin' time!

Dec 29, 2012 | Category: learning

Talk is the sea upon which all else floats ~ James Britton, Language and Learning, 1970 Students spend a lot of talking, don't they? Everyone can speak, so why would we want to waste valuable time tea...

#questioning #Geoff Barton #IRE #John Sayers #oracy #Robin Alexander #Thought Stems

The effect of affect

Feb 24, 2013 | Category: learning

For those of us fortunate enough to be literate, the whole idea of Literacy in schools can seem bewilderingly over complicated. Something that comes to us as naturally as breathing can hardly require...

#Growth mindset #the Matthew Effect #cognitive psychology #Hugo Kerr #Robert MacFarlane

Outstanding teaching & learning: missed opportunities and marginal gains

Oct 14, 2012 | Category: learning

I work at an 'outstanding' school where the teaching and learning is 'good'. As such we are squarely in Wilshaw's sights and almost certainly due an inspection at some point this year. We were last in...

#Ofsted #Zoe Elder #Sir Michael Wilshaw #Dave Brailsford #marginal gains

Is there a right way to teach?

Nov 24, 2012 | Category: learning

It’s become a trite and hackneyed truism that if they’re not learning you’re just talking. We’re all clear that teaching only happens when the little tinkers manage to make some sort of progress – pre...

#Ofsted #Hattie #direct instruction #Wilshaw

Go with the flow: the 2 minute lesson plan

Nov 17, 2012 | Category: learning

NB: This post does no longer represents my latest thinking. I've updated my approach to planning here.Like all teachers, my main aim in life is to run, whooping, out of the school gates by 3 o’clock....

#Ofsted #Ross McGill #John Tomsett #Lesson planning #Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Knowledge is power

Oct 21, 2012 | Category: learning

I've been having a bit of think this week.Firstly I read Daisy Christodoulou's post on Hirsch's Core Knowledge curriculum. She points out that Hirsch, oft-condemned for being the darling of ideologues...

#Sir Ken Robinson #SOLO taxonomy #knowledge #correlation is not causation #ED Hirsch #Francis Bacon #Independent Thinking #Little Miss Sunshine #pirates #The Thick Of It