Assessment: evolution vs. design
Optimization hinders evolution. Alan J. Perlis As we all know, the DfE decided to ditch National Curriculum levels from September 2014 without plans for a replacement. Some have reacted to this with glee, others despair. On the one hand, we have Tim Oates, an assessment expert and advocate for the removal of levels, saying We need to switch to a different conception of children’s ability. Every child needs to [...]
Is teaching a 'wicked' game?
What a wicked game you play to make me feel this way. Chris Isaak, Wicked Game Ok, I've cheated a bit. In this paper Robin M Hogarth identifies what he calls 'kind' and 'wicked' domains. A kind domain is one which provides accurate and reliable feedback, a wicked domain is one where feedback on performance is absent or biased. Hogarth cites two examples. First a kind domain: The meteorologist is [...]
Heads I’m right, tails I’m not wrong
The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs. Self-conceit often regards it as a sign of weakness to admit that a belief to which we have once committed ourselves is wrong. We get so identified with an idea that it is literally a “pet” notion and we rise to its defense and stop [...]
“Works for me!” The problem with teachers’ judgement
It is with our judgments as with our watches: no two go just alike, yet each believes his own. Alexander Pope One of the difficulties inherent in challenging teachers' judgments is that when those judgements appear to be contradicted teachers sometimes say, "Well, it works for me and my students." This is hard to challenge. Anthony Radice made a similar point in a recent blog post about the debilitating nature [...]
What every teacher needs to know about '21st-Century learning'
Here's my column in this month's Teach Secondary magazine which is packed full of stuff much better than my meagre scrawlings so you'd be well advised to subscribe. You’ve seen Shift Happens, right? Several years back this ‘inspirational’ video was on heavy rotation in school INSETs up and down the land. Although it’s fallen from favour more recently, there’s still an updated 2015 version doing the rounds (look it up on [...]
Equality is unfair
Just as modern mass production requires the standardization of commodities, so the social process requires standardization of man, and this standardization is called equality. Erich Fromm In my first post on Intelligent Accountability I suggested we shouldn't treat all teachers, or all schools, the same. This is advice that doesn't just apply to education. In the interests of egalitarianism, we might suggest mothers and fathers should be allowed to take the [...]
The melody of education: what should we be accountable for?
Not every end is a goal. The end of a melody is not its goal; but nonetheless, if the melody had not reached its end, it would not have reached its goal. A parable. Nietzsche This is the third in a series of posts about what I'm calling Intelligent Accountability. Peter Blenkinsop pointed out that a problem with holding teachers to account for their professional judgments is that we may not all [...]
#researchED comes to Swindon
London, Sydney, New York, Glasgow and now... Swindon. At long last Tom Bennett's moveable, grassroots, edu-research feast finally pitches up in the heart of Wiltshire and my new home from home, Swindon Academy. This time, the focus is specifically on how research might help secondary English teachers to be more critical, thoughtful and informed about the choices they make. We've arrayed a galaxy of some of the most stellar English [...]
What can education learn from aviation?
Certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we’re so fond of it. - George Eliot Flying is a dangerous business. All sorts of things can go wrong and any one of them could result in disaster. That said, it's become a cliché that flying is the safest way to travel. No other form of transportation is [...]
Intelligent Accountability
The history of human growth is at the same time the history of every new idea heralding the approach of a brighter dawn, and the brighter dawn has always been considered illegal, outside of the law. - Emma Goldman So many teachers I speak to are afraid to make nuanced professional judgements. When I make suggestions on how they could manage workload, organise classroom, speak to students, select curriculum content [...]
September on The Learning Spy
Last month was a bit on the patchy side. I blogged like fury, then nothing for a week. Anyway, here's my output over the month including the last, dying days of August: Can we make learning permanent? 30th August - Revisiting my experiences of speeding school and musings on how learning might be made stickier. See it, own it: how to destroy a school 31st August - My despair at some of [...]
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