What every teacher needs to know about… classroom display
Once again the finest monthly publication for secondary teachers, Teach Secondary, have demeaned themselves by publishing another of my sloppily put together rants. This month my barrel scraping has reached a new as I quibble about such harmless trivia as teachers putting up posters. Sorry. The firmly established, yet largely unexamined, position on classroom display is that there’s nothing quite so magical as a classroom plastered in beautiful display work and nothing half so bleak [...]
Coming soon…What every teacher needs to know about psychology
Over the past few months, Nick Rose and I have been working together on a new book which sets out what, in our admittedly biased opinion, every teacher ought to know from the field of psychology. Luckily, Nick is a psychology teacher (with a background in para-psychological research. Yes, really!) so at least one of us knows what we're talking about. We think the book is important because over the past few [...]
Triple impact feedback on the EEF marking review
1.The EEF publish a review of the evidence of marking. 2. I give them some feedback. 3. The EEF respond to my criticisms. 4. Well... we could go on for ever. Feel familiar? James Richardson and Robbie Coleman, say they'd be happy "if people took the current lack of evidence on marking as the key finding of the report." So would I. Unfortunately, I don't think that will be the case. Teachers [...]
Seven tools for thinking #1: Use your mistakes
"The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them - especially not from yourself." - Daniel Dennett. I've been rereading the philosopher, Daniel Dennett's wonderfully erudite manual for making and improving on mistakes, Intuition Pumps. The first - and maybe most important - of his seven tools for thinking is that we should use our mistakes*. Now, there's a lot written in praise of mistakes and failure; some of it [...]
A marked decline? The EEF’s review of the evidence on written marking
Question: How important is it for teachers to provide written feedback on students' work? Answer: No one knows. This is essentially the substance of the Education Endowment Foundation's long-awaited review on written marking. The review begins with the following admission: ...the review found a striking disparity between the enormous amount of effort invested in marking books, and the very small number of robust studies that have been completed to date. While the evidence [...]
Testing, testing… why one test can’t do everything
The thing which most seems to rile people about testing is the fact that it puts children under stress. A certain amount of stress is probably a good thing - there's nothing as motivating as a looming deadline - but too much is obviously a bad thing. Martin Robinson writes here that ... a teacher needn’t pass undue exam stress onto her pupils, and a Headteacher needn’t pass undue stress [...]
Why study grammar?
Trying to express complex thoughts in simple English ... is demanding, challenging and takes time. Terry Leahy There's been a lot of fuss over the past week about whether it's appropriate to assess children's knowledge of grammar at the end of Key Stage 2. Various commentators even seem to take a perverse pride in their lack of knowledge boasting that ignorance hasn't held them back. But amidst all the confusion and vitriol, [...]
Improving critical reading through comparative judgement
The following is a guest blog from Dr Chris Wheadon of No More Marking. The reformed GCSEs in English present new challenges for pupils in critical reading and comprehension. Teachers across the country - and pupils - are studying mark schemes and trying to interpret what they mean and how they may relate to standards. No More Marking, working with David Didau and a group of 11 schools took a [...]
What every teacher needs to know about… students who leave secondary school unable to read
Many thanks to the good folks at Teach Secondary magazine for publishing yet another of my incoherent rants. This time I set my sights on the lamentable and inexcusable failure of secondary schools to teach students to read with adequate fluency and accuracy. If a student leaves secondary school unable to read it is the school’s fault. I’ll leave that opening sentence hanging, parked like a tank on your lawn, while [...]
What I know about whether ‘no excuses’ behaviour systems work
I read John Tomsett's account of his speech at Michaela School's Debate on 23rd April on why 'no excuses' behaviour systems don't work with great interest. As a speech it is well researched, well argued and kinda misses the point. He acknowledges this when he says, "If I’m against “no excuses” discipline, I must, logically, be in favour of “excuses” discipline" but then dismisses this as "nonsense". But is it? He says [...]
Workload Challenge: Marking
The three areas identified by teachers' responses to the Workload Challenge as particularly burdensome were marking, planning and data and a separate report has been prepared on each. On of the problems encountered in preparing these reports is the lack of a robust evidence base. Too often those involved in compiling the reports were forced to rely on professional judgement and 'common sense' interpretations of what little evidence there was. One of [...]
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