Archive

Handwriting matters

Feb 13, 2018 | Category: writing

Some years ago, during the interview for a role as Head of English in a secondary school, all the candidates were asked to speak about what we would prioritise if we were to get the job. I have no mem...

#cursive #handwriting #working memory #cognitive load #AB pen #Anti-ballistic pen #handwriting bias #tripod grip

Getting culture right Part 2: Understanding group psychology

Jan 12, 2018 | Category: behaviour

This is the second post on getting cultures right in schools. You can find Part 1, on social norms and using normative messages, here.We are essentially social animals and have evolved to thrive in...

#Judith RIch Harris #Elliot Aronson #group socialisation theory #stereotype threat #Claude Steele #Dominic Abrams #Henri Tajfel #inter-group discrimination #Muzafer Sherif #superordinate goals

Teaching to make children cleverer - Part 3

Jan 10, 2018 | Category: curriculum

As discussed in Part 1 of this series of posts, it seems probable that the best way to use education to increase children's cognitive capacities is to increase the quantity and the quality of what the...

#opportunity cost #cultural captial #Michael Young #Pierre Bourdieu #powerful knowledge

Teaching to make children cleverer - Part 2

Jan 07, 2018 | Category: psychology

In my last post I reviewed those aspects on intelligence which are likely to be most malleable by teachers. Briefly, research into individual differences suggests that intelligence is fairly stable an...

#Kirschner #Sweller & Clark #working memory #long-term memory #schema

A year in blogging

Jan 06, 2018 | Category: blogging

This was my sixth year of blogging and it was a real mixed bag. For reasons of mental well-being I more or less stopped blogging in the last four months of the year and almost completely swore off soc...

Teaching to make children cleverer: Part 1

Jan 05, 2018 | Category: Featured

I've argued previously that the aim of education ought to be to make children cleverer. If I'm right, then not only is it desirable, it's also possible to achieve this end. But before we can do so, we...

#intelligence #James Flynn

The best books I've read this year

Dec 06, 2017 | Category: Featured

Here follows a list of the books that I've most enjoyed and which have most affected my thinking this year. I've presented them in alphabetical order so as not to have to make choices about which were...

Thought Depends on Knowledge

Dec 05, 2017 | Category: blogging

Paul Kirschner, lead author of the research paper that has perhaps most influenced my thinking, is a bit of an educational hero. Imagine my nervousness when he came to see give a talk on 'the trouble...

#Paul Kirschner

What does improve children's writing?

Dec 01, 2017 | Category: writing

In my last post I discussed evidence that suggests grammar teaching does not lead to an improvement in children's writing. Although it seems implausible that grammar teaching would not be positively c...

#grammar #Slow Writing #Greg Ashman

How can we support teachers' standards of literacy?

Nov 18, 2017 | Category: Featured

Recently, I've spent some time talking to school leaders about how to implement and evaluate effective literacy policies in schools. From these conversations it's clear that one of the main stumbling...