Archive

What are 'thinking skills' and can we teach them?

Nov 09, 2016 | Category: research

...from a purely theoretical standpoint alone, it hardly seems plausible that a strategy of inquiry that must necessarily be broad enough to be applicable to a wide range of disciplines and problems c...

#EEF #Adey & Shayer #Cognitive Acceleration #Thinking Skills

Does 'brain training' increase intelligence?

Nov 08, 2016 | Category: psychology

In my last post I outlined the differences between fluid and crystallised intelligence and argued that fluid intelligence (Gf) - the ability to reason and to solve new problems independently of previo...

#Daniel Willingham #working memory #fluid intelligence #brain training #Robert Sternberg

Making kids cleverer

Nov 05, 2016 | Category: psychology

One of the real problems with improving education systems is that there tends not to be much agreement about what education is actually for. I've written about this issue before and have made clear my...

#Carol Dweck #crystallised intelligence #fluid intelligence #Raymond B Cattell

Why what you teach matters

Nov 04, 2016 | Category: learning

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that within the next two years Ofsted will stop grading the quality of teaching, learning and assessment as part of their overall judgement on schools' effect...

#knowledge #opportunity cost #21st century skills

The trouble with transfer: How can we make learning more flexible?

Oct 17, 2016 | Category: learning

I define learning as the long-term retention of knowledge and skills and the ability to transfer between contexts. The retention bit is fairly straightforward and uncontroversial: if you can't remembe...

#Daniel Willingham #transfer #Barnett and Ceci

The feedback continuum: why reducing feedback helps students learn

Oct 15, 2016 | Category: learning

The effects of feedback are more complex than we often realise. While expertise and mastery is unlikely to develop without feedback it's certainly not true to say that giving feedback results in exper...

#John Hattie #feedback #Robert Bjork

How to observe a lesson

Oct 06, 2016 | Category: Featured

Recently, I was asked by a school to give some feedback on their lesson observation pro forma. My advice was that they shouldn't use it. They were a bit flummoxed (and probably a bit annoyed) as they'...

Call and response

Oct 05, 2016 | Category: learning

Over the past few years I've spent a lot of time visiting schools to talk about literacy. One of my stock nuggets of advice is that it's worth spending lesson time scaffolding students' speech in orde...

#Academic language #call and response #Nigeria

On gimmicks

Oct 02, 2016 | Category: learning

What is a gimmick? The dictionary defines it as "a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or trade." So, putting a cartoon tiger on a packet of breakfast cereal in order to attract...

#Daniel Willingham #cultural capital #Daniel Kahneman #opportunity cost #gimmicks #Rory Sutherland

Why Ofsted inspectors shouldn't give advice

Oct 01, 2016 | Category: Featured

Unfortunately I was unable to attend the recent Learning First conference in Wolverhampton, but I did manage to follow some of the tweets. This one in particular caught my attention: Marilyn Mottram...

#Ofsted