Archive

Developing expertise #4 Acknowledge emotions

Jul 16, 2016 | Category: Featured

In previous posts I've discussed how creating the right environment, seeking better feedback and creating 'circuit breakers' could help us the develop the kind of expertise required to hone our intuit...

#confirmation bias #backfire effect #mere exposure effect #Robert Zajonc

A response to the Education Select Committee: Why Amanda Spielman should run Ofsted

Jul 07, 2016 | Category: Featured

So. The Education Select Committee has rejected Amanda Spielman as the next Chief Inspector. Andrew Old has already summarised why he feels Amanda would have been a terrific appointment here and I agr...

#Amanda Spielman #Education Select Committee

10 Misconceptions about Comparative Judgement

Jul 07, 2016 | Category: assessment

I've been writing enthusiastically about Comparative Judgement to assess children's performance for some months now. Some people though are understandably suspicious of the idea. That's pretty normal....

#comparative judgement

Proof of progress Part 3

Jul 06, 2016 | Category: assessment

Who's better at judging? PhDs or teachers?In Part 1 of this series I described how Comparative Judgement works and the process of designing an assessment to test Year 5 students' writing ability. Then...

#marking #comparative judgement

School improvement: Can you buck the trend?

Jul 04, 2016 | Category: Featured

In my last post I discussed the natural volatility of GCSE results and the predictably random nature of results over the long-term. I ended by saying, "The agenda for school improvement has to move aw...

#King Solomon Academy #Schools Week #Education Datalab #La Retraite Catholic Girls School

Where now for school improvement?

Jul 03, 2016 | Category: Featured

In the past, school improvement was easy. You could push pupils into taking BTECs or Diplomas (sometimes with 100% coursework) equivalent to multiple GCSEs; you could organise your curriculum to allow...

#Tom Sherrington #Robert Coe #Amanda Spielman #Jack Marwoood

Developing expertise #3: Circuit breakers

Jul 01, 2016 | Category: training

We've already seen how creating the right environment and seeking better feedback might help us the develop the kind of expertise required to make genuinely intuitive judgements and this post I'll dis...

#expertise

Developing expertise #2 - Seek feedback

Jun 30, 2016 | Category: training

In my previous post I suggested the first step for teachers to develop expertise was to find ways to change the environment so that the feedback we get is unbiased. In this post we will consider why m...

#Gary Klein

"There are no wrong answers!"

Jun 18, 2016 | Category: English

Along with, "It's a skills based subject," the cry that there are no wrong answers in English is, I think pretty unhelpful.Take the example of teaching Priestley's perennial, An Inspector Calls. Every...

#misconceptions #An Inspector Calls #cognitive dissonance

Why I'm optimistic about the new Chief Inspector

Jun 14, 2016 | Category: Featured

Guardian journalist and ex-teacher, Michelle Hanson thinks education in the UK is "going down the pan". In this article she tells us the memory of working as a teacher still makes her "feel a bit quea...

#Ofsted #Amanda Spielman