Archive

Revisiting Slow Writing - how slowing writing might speed up thinking

Jun 19, 2014 | Category: literacy

Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.Shakespeare It's been a while since I first wrote about Slow Writing and in that time it's rather taken on a life of its own. Today I had the interesting e...

#Slow Writing #The Secret of Literacy

Pseudo intervention and the power of placebo

Jun 17, 2014 | Category: Featured

…it is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives… Francis Bacon Today's post has been contributed by a reader who has...

#data #Hawthorne Effect

Why I changed my mind about the SOLO taxonomy

Jun 15, 2014 | Category: learning

I've been meaning to write this for quite a while. Increasingly, I've become rather embarrassed about my erstwhile advocacy for Biggs & Collis's generic taxonomy, the Structure of Observed Learning Ou...

#SOLO taxonomy #Carl Sagan #James Theobald

Differentiation: Are high expectations enough?

Jun 12, 2014 | Category: learning

High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.Charles F. Kettering Last night someone retweeted a tagline from a post I wrote earlier this year: "Teach to the top, support a...

#differentiation #glue ear #high expectations

Perverse incentives and how to counter them

Jun 09, 2014 | Category: leadership

Call it what you will, incentives are what get people to work harder.Nikita Khrushchev Back in the good old days when the great unwashed could simply be shipped off to the colonies with nary a second...

#Ofsted #Mike Cladingbowl #Chip and Dan Heath #perverse incentives #Pupil Premium #Rolf Dobrelli

5 questions to guard against availability bias and made-up data

Jun 08, 2014 | Category: myths

The cost of bad data is the illusion of knowledge - Stephen Hawking What's more likely to kill you? A shark or a hot water tap? We've all heard stories of killer sharks, but as yet Spielberg hasn't ma...

#data #lesson observation #Policy Exchange #MET Project #NC levels #Tristram Hunt

Ofsted: The end of the (lesson grading) affair

Jun 04, 2014 | Category: Featured

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.Ralph Waldo Emerson Back in 2011 I started to decide that grading lessons was wrong. I wasn't exactly sure how to justify this decisi...

#Ofsted #lesson observation #Mike Cladingbowl

How can we increase breadth and challenge?

Jun 02, 2014 | Category: English

Over the past few days as sorry tale has unfolded. The new GCSE English literature specifications have been announced in draft form, full of sound and fury, signifying... nothing.The current GCSE lack...

#GCSE English literature #Ofqual

Wanna play fantasy GCSE Literature specifications?

Jun 01, 2014 | Category: English

The exam boards have played their hands and they're relying on jokers rather than aces. GCSE English literature is a race to the bottom: with the overwhelming concern seemingly being how to retain sch...

#GCSE English literature

The curse of cursive: Are we fetishising joined up writing?

May 29, 2014 | Category: literacy

Back in 2008 I had for a Head of English position. At one point during the morning, candidates were asked what aspect of English education was most important to them. I honestly have no memory of what...

#Hugo Kerr #cursive #handwriting