What every teacher needs to know about… rote learning
As per, here's this month's Teach Secondary column for you delight and edification. These days it is rare indeed for children to be taught much by rote, or, to use a less pejorative term, by heart. Rote remains a much maligned and neglected method of instruction. Certain ways of thinking about education are so ingrained that they become understood increasingly literally and separately from the complexity of ideas that originally gave them [...]
Why do edtech folk react badly to scepticism? Part 2: Confirmation bias
In Part 1 I explored the concept of vested interest and how it could lead us to make decisions and react in ways which might, to others, appear irrational. This post address another predictable way we make mistakes: the confirmation bias. Confirmation bias, the tendency to over value data which supports an pre-existing belief, is something to which we all routinely fall victim. We see the world as we want it to [...]
Just semantics? Subtle but important misunderstandings about learning styles, modalities, and preferences
This is a guest blog from Yana Weinstein, Assistant Professor at University of Massachusetts, Lowell, one of the masterminds behind the wonderful Learning Scientists site. Scientists get quite attached to terms that describe the constructs they are studying. This is because you can’t measure something until you’ve defined what you think it is – and for convenience - labelled it. The naming process itself is fairly arbitrary. A researcher discovers an effect or proposes [...]
Why do edtech folk react badly to scepticism? Part 1: Vested interest
"It's difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it." Upton Sinclair. I'm sceptical about the benefits of 'edtech'. This is, I think, a legitimate position to hold. It doesn't make me a Luddite: I'm enthusiastic about the advantages generally of technology, I'm just not so sure about the ways in which 'edtech' is sold to schools. Since writing this piece on my exasperation [...]
One more nail in the Learning Styles coffin…
We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it: She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice Remains in danger of her former tooth. Shakespeare, Macbeth Just when you think you've found a way to put the tortured soul of Learning Styles out of its pitiful misery, it lurches horribly back to life. For a moment I almost believed my last post, The Learning Styles myth debunked on the back of [...]
The Learning Styles myth debunked on the back of an envelope
"You don’t have to believe in learning styles theories to appreciate differences among kids, to hold an egalitarian attitude in the midst of such differences, and to try to foster such attitudes in students." Daniel Willingham, Learning Styles FAQ The Learning Styles myth, for those that aren't already clear, is that by aligning teaching to a student's preferred Learning Style, outcomes will improve. Despite lots of research into this claim [...]
Just give me one good reason to use a tablet in the classroom
I'll start with a confession: I don't really get iPads. This came as something as a surprise to me as, by and large, I'm pathetically geeky about Apple products. I use my iPhone 6plus all the time and have just bought one of the new ultra-slim Macbooks. I fully expected to dig iPads, but my problem is that I just can't really a see a use for them that can't be handled more efficiently [...]
When planning fails… what to do when behaviour breaks down
"There is in the act of preparing, the moment you start caring." Winston Churchill Lots of people who don't normally like the stuff I write seemed to approve of the post I wrote on responsibly planning for predictable behaviour to reduce exclusions, and some of those who are usually approving were less pleased. There's two things I might take from this: 1) I've occupied the centre ground and communicated a moderate [...]
Taking responsibility for predictable problems
"All stable processes we shall predict. All unstable processes we shall control." John Von Neumann Let me preface all this by saying that I think refusing to accept excuses for low standards and poor behaviour is a very good thing. Here's what 'no excuses' means to me: Making an excuse is failing to take responsibility. The students most likely to be excluded from school are the most vulnerable. This may, in some circumstances, be [...]
Who is dyslexic and why does it matter?
"Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true." Francis Bacon I've been thinking about dyslexia for a while. Here are a few of the posts I've written over the past couple of years: May 2013 Does dyslexia exist? and Magic glasses and the Meares-Irlen syndrome October 2013 Are all difficulties desirable? February 2014 The dyslexia debate – is the label ‘meaningless’? One thing I've learned is that if you're in any way critical of [...]
Learning is liminal
I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move. Tennyson, Ulysses I offered my definition of learning here, but there is, I feel, something more to be said on the subject. Learning is a messy, complicated business. Imagine yourself standing before a dark, ominous doorway. Through it [...]
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