Archive

Why parents should support schools

May 13, 2017 | Category: behaviour

Like all parents, I want the best for my children. When they're unhappy, I'm unhappy. When they suffer injustice, I'm incensed. When their school makes a decision I disagree with, my first reaction is...

#parents

Can we improve school interviews? Part 3: The interview lesson

May 11, 2017 | Category: psychology

In Part 1 of this series I reviewed some of the evidence on what makes for effective interviews, and in Part 2 I looked specifically at creating a less biased, more structured formal interview. In thi...

#lesson observation #halo effect #Interviews #familiarity effect #sunk cost #survivorship bias

Can we improve school interviews? Part 2: Intuition vs. statistical prediction

May 10, 2017 | Category: psychology

In Part 1 I reviewed some of the research around the best way to recruit and how this might apply to school recruitment. One of the suggestions I made was that schools should "design an interview form...

#Sutton Trust #Daniel Kahneman #Interviews #Paul Meehl

Can we improve school interviews? Part 1: A brief review of the research

May 09, 2017 | Category: leadership

Recruitment for most employers is straightforward: you advertise, read through applications, invite the people you like in for an interview, think about it for a bit and then enter into negotiations w...

#lesson observation #Daniel Kahneman #Interviews #IQ

Easy is easy, hard is hard

May 08, 2017 | Category: behaviour

Recently, I had the ill luck to be present for a friend's five-year-old daughter's birthday party. To add to the naturally generated mayhem of putting 30 small children in a space with fizzy drinks an...

Practice vs. talent: Five principles for effective teaching

May 06, 2017 | Category: Featured

Are we the way we are because of our natures or is talent just the product of hard work? Which matters more natural ability of practice?A few years ago my mother reminded me of my struggles with learn...

#Reading #deliberate practice #personality #heritability

Is resilience even a thing?

May 03, 2017 | Category: Featured

There is but an inch of difference between the cushioned chamber and the padded cell. G. K. Chesterton Resilience - being able to bounce back from setbacks and cope with challenges - seems an...

#Grit #Angela Duckworth #resilience #Kathryn Ecclestone #Paul Tough #Tricot & Sweller #William James

Why group socialisation theory argues against grammar schools

Apr 30, 2017 | Category: Featured

My last post was written to explain why I thought 'grammar schools for all' was probably an unworkable idea. I introduced Judith Rich Harris's group socialisation theory to support my arguments, but m...

#Katherine Birbalsingh #grammar schools #group socialisation theory

Why 'grammar schools for all' won't work

Apr 30, 2017 | Category: psychology

A better, but overlong, title for this would be "Why grammar schools don't work for all and why 'grammar schools for all' (probably) won't work".At the birth of the comprehensive school movement, prim...

#Judith RIch Harris #grammar schools #group socialisation theory #Harold Wilson #stereotype threat

Are you fooling yourself? Education and epidemiology

Apr 29, 2017 | Category: research

Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself, and you are the easiest person to fool. - Richard Feynman Epidemiology is the science of tryi...

#falsifiability #autism #correlation #epidemiology