What's the point of parents' evenings?
Earlier today I read this post on the purpose of parents' evenings by David James. It's an excellent exploration of some of the vagaries and oddness of being either side of the table, but ultimately it doesn't answer the question: What are parents' evenings for? This is something my wife explained a number of years ago. For some reason neither of us can remember, I was allowed to attend our [...]
Reading is a rebel act: on the role of school libraries
"My library was dukedom large enough" The Tempest, Shakespeare "The act of poetry is a rebel act." Farewell to English, Michael Harnett Some people are never happy. After writing my last post on how it might be possible to get students to read more, one commentator criticised that there was no mention of school librarians. Well, it was a blog post: the list of things which went unmentioned dwarfed what was written [...]
How do you get students to read for pleasure?
"There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book." Marcel Proust Reading seems to make us smarter. Here's Keith Stanovich explaining why: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF6VKmMVWEc&feature=youtu.be&t=45s For most people, this is uncontroversial. We talk a lot about the power of books and the need to get more children to read for pleasure. But how do you get students to read for [...]
What if I'm wrong? @HeyMissSmith savages #WrongBook
Several people have very kindly written about why they like my new book, What if everything you know about education is wrong? but refreshingly, Jane Manzone (@HeyMissSmith) has reached entirely different conclusions. To be fair, I suggested that Jane review the book for Schools Week because I thought she'd have a very different take from most of the other people who'd read and helped me shape my ideas. I knew she'd [...]
20 psychological principles for teachers #20 Interpretation
This is the 20th and final post in my series on the Top 20 Principles From Psychology for Teaching and Learning and the third of three posts examining how to assess students’ progress: "Making sense of assessment data depends on clear, appropriate, and fair interpretation." "I wish we had more assessment data!" said no sane school leader ever. We're awash with data produced by oceans of assessment. As with so much else in [...]
Reactions to #WrongBook
In addition to the pre-publication reviews from some of the most eminent thinkers in education and psychology such as professors Dylan Wiliam, Robert Bjork, Daniel Willingham and Robert Coe, some 'real' readers have had a chance to plough their way through the 400+ pages. I realise this is a big ask but I hope the Amazon reviews below give you a sense of why it might be worth reading. Many thanks for [...]
Some people on Twitter you may not currently follow but definitely should
Since writing a post 18 months ago recommending people to follow on Twitter, I've since met lots of other wonderful folk to whom I'd also like to draw your attention. To avoid petty rivalries and bruised egos they are arranged in alphabetical order: Gareth Alcott @GalcottGareth - super enthusiastic cheerleader for the College of Teaching and an all round good egg. Greg Ashman @greg_ashman - Australian based science teacher and edu-blogger. Jon Brunskill @jon_brunskill - Another boy [...]
June on The Learning Spy
June was a much quieter month on the blog than May. But despite the page views plummeting I still managed to churn out a fair few posts, summarised for your convenience below: #9 Motivation 6th June Throughout June I continued my uphill plod through the Top 20 psychological principles for teachers. This one was the first of four on what motivates students and looked at the costs and benefits of intrinsic [...]
researchED English & Literacy Conference
A few months ago I asked Tom Bennett if he'd be up for rubberstamping some sort of rEDx project (like TEDx but with brains) devoted to exploring the intersection between education research and English teaching and he came back, quick as a flash, with the suggestion that I organise an actual researchED spinoff. So, under the steadying hand and watchful eye of Helene Galdon-O'Shea, I have. When? Saturday 7th November [...]
20 psychological principles for teachers #19 Measurement
This is #19 in my series on the Top 20 Principles From Psychology for Teaching and Learning and the second of three posts examining how to assess students’ progress: "Students’ skills, knowledge, and abilities are best measured with assessment processes grounded in psychological science with well-defined standards for quality and fairness." The more I read on this subject, the more it becomes clear how widely misunderstood testing and assessment are. But does this [...]
20 psychological principles for teachers #18 Formative & summative assessment
This is #18 in my series on the Top 20 Principles From Psychology for Teaching and Learning and the first of three posts examining how to assess students' progress: "Formative and summative assessments are both important and useful but require different approaches and interpretations." As I'm sure everyone knows, summative assessments are made to establish what students have learned and to provide a quantitative measurement of achievement. Formative assessments, on the other [...]
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