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David Didau

About David Didau

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So far David Didau has created 936 blog entries.

How knowledge is being detached from skills in English

2013-07-22T06:52:56+01:00June 18th, 2013|English|

I don't normally do this. In fact, I haven't put up a post by anyone else since last August. But in this case Joe Kirby has expressed my own thoughts so articulately that there seemed little point trying to repeat the same thing myself. Not only that, Joe is somewhat of a phenomenon. His grasp of the nuances of education theory belies the fact that he is only just completing his NQT year. When I compare his expertise to my ignorance at the same stage of my career I am staggered, and not a little ashamed. As such I would very much like for you to read his [...]

Testing & assessment – have we been doing the right things for the wrong reasons?

2013-06-16T18:01:29+01:00June 16th, 2013|assessment, Featured, learning, myths|

A curious peculiarity of our memory is that things are impressed better by active than by passive repetition. I mean that in learning (by heart, for example), when we almost know the piece, it pays better to wait and recollect by an effort from within, than to look at the book again. If we recover the words in the former way, we shall probably know them the next time; if in the latter way, we shall very likely need the book once more. William James, The principles of psychology (1890)   Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving. David Ogilvy Tests are rubbish, right? Like [...]

So, what does 'gifted' mean anyway?

2013-06-14T21:27:59+01:00June 14th, 2013|Featured, myths|

As you may be aware, non-selective secondary schools are failing the 'most able'. How do we know? Because a brand new Ofsted report tells us so. The report's key findings include such revelations as the fact that "expectations of what the most able students should achieve are too low" and  that not enough has been done "to create a culture of scholastic excellence" which leads, unsurprisingly, to, "Many students become used to performing at a lower level than they are capable of." The problem is attributed to ineffective transition arrangements, poor Key Stage 3 curricula and early entry to GCSE exams. [...]

Deliberately difficult – why it's better to make learning harder

2013-06-10T20:24:17+01:00June 10th, 2013|Featured, learning, myths|

The most fundamental goals of education are long-term goals. As teachers and educators, we want targeted knowledge and skills to be acquired in a way that makes them durable and flexible. More specifically, we want a student’s educational experience to produce a mental representation of the knowledge or skill in question that fosters long-term access to that knowledge and the ability to generalize—that is, to draw on that knowledge in situations that may differ on some dimensions from the exact educational context in which that knowledge was acquired. Robert A Bjork, 2002 Who could argue with this? Certainly not Ofsted who [...]

Planning Lessons – lessons I’ve learned from lessons I've taught

2013-06-09T17:07:42+01:00June 9th, 2013|Featured, planning|

This is a summary and a drawing together of several earlier posts. I consider it a refinement of my thinking and something which is painstakingly (and grandiosely) groping its way towards a total philosophy of planning. It does also attempt to offer something new but is this enough to deserve a new post? You decide. "Failing to plan is planning to fail." Smug teachers, everywhere Planning: still a good thing to do first As a new teacher, lesson planning seemed to suck up almost all of my available time and energy. Looking back over those frenetic early years it's become [...]

Thinking like a writer

2013-07-19T10:48:34+01:00June 4th, 2013|English, Featured, writing|

How do we get better at writing? By writing. The advice I always give to students to improve their writing is to write. Often. Everyday if possible. This might be a private diary entry, an Amazon review, an essay or, even better: a public blog post which someone might actually read. For years now I've been in the habit of writing with my students; whenever they have a controlled assessment to write or a question to answer, I do the work too. Apart from the desire to build a sense of solidarity, I started doing this to model the thinking required [...]

What is meta-cognition and can we teach it?

2014-05-10T22:15:59+01:00June 1st, 2013|Featured, learning|

Meta-cognition is one of those terms that gets bandied about in educational circles as if we all know exactly what it is. And we do: it's...er...thinking about thinking, isn't it? Ever since the Education Endowment Foundation cited meta-cognition and self-regulation as the second highest impact strategy teachers can use in the class room I've felt I should be a bit clearer about what it actually is. They describe it as follows: Meta-cognitive and self-regulation strategies (sometimes known as ‘learning to learn’ strategies) are teaching approaches which make learners think about learning more explicitly. This is usually by teaching pupils specific strategies [...]

Magic glasses and the Meares-Irlen syndrome

2016-05-25T21:54:58+01:00May 27th, 2013|literacy, myths, reading|

In case you missed it, I published a post on the dubious existence of dyslexia this weekend. A few people have been in touch via Twitter to tell me about the remarkable effect of Irlen lenses and that their miraculous success is clear evidence of the existence of dyslexia. Well, despite their apparent impact on some people's ability to read, I'm not so sure it has much of a bearing of on whether we can agree that dyslexia definitely exists. I have a good friend who wears plain, very pale yellow spectacles when reading. She is dyslexic and convinced that she's unable to read any but [...]

This is how I work

2014-06-03T13:48:16+01:00May 27th, 2013|Featured|

I was very excited to hear the accusation that I am (or might be) leading a 'cult of personality', whatever that means. To that end, and just in case anyone is interested, Dai Barnes has posted this interview with me on his blog (see also below.) If you're interested in joining any cults which I may set up in the near future, do please let me know. Oh, and any suggestions on what I might do to acquire a personality will be gratefully received. _____________________________________________ I am David Didau and this is how I work @LearningSpy learningspy.co.uk Current job: Currently Director of [...]

Does dyslexia exist?

2017-05-23T19:42:21+01:00May 26th, 2013|Featured, learning, literacy, myths|

Schools are packed to the gunnels (whatever they are) with students diagnosed with dyslexia. And, of the hundreds of dyslexic students I've taught, many have languished helplessly in the doldrums of illiteracy while some seem suddenly to make rapid and remarkable progress. This year, two students who were presented to me as dyslexic have experienced very different trajectories. One, let's call him Ben, had spent Years 7 and 8 being taught English in very small groups of students identified as having 'specific learning difficulties'. In Year 9 such students are put back into mainstream classes with the expectation that the work they've [...]

Teacher talk: the missing link

2015-03-02T17:06:48+00:00May 18th, 2013|English, Featured, learning, literacy, writing|

Back in 2008 I was told by an Ofsted inspector that I talked too much. I had always prided myself on being considered an outstanding teacher, and was devastated to be told my lesson was "satisfactory to good". My attempts to probe this judgement got little further; he offered no criticism of what I'd said or how I'd said it, just that I'd spoken for too long. This came as huge blow to my self-confidence and I spent the next few years reinventing myself as a trendy, progressive teacher. Out with modelling and whole class instruction; in with group work, problem solving and PLTS. It worked. [...]

Livy living below the line

2013-04-28T19:12:22+01:00April 28th, 2013|Featured|

It's been some time since my last post and, sadly perhaps, this one has little to do with education. Instead it's a plea for support. From today Rosie and I along with our daughters (Olivia, aged 9 and Maddie, aged 7) will be living below the poverty line for 5 days to raise money for Oxfam and Action Against Hunger, and also to raise awareness of the fact that many folk just don't get enough to eat. We thought very carefully about whether we should let the girls take part, but seeing as they're so keen we wanted to let them have the chance to [...]

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