Trust, accountability and why we need them both
I've been thinking a lot about trust in recent months - particularly because it seems a commodity in such short supply. If, my optimistic thinking went, teachers were trusted to do a good job, then they probably would. But, of course, there's always that nagging concern that some wouldn't. This got me thinking about why people - and specifically teachers - are trustworthy or not. Is it down to an inherent [...]
A few thoughts about character education
The idea that schools should be educating students' character has been gathering momentum in recent years. But the once distant drums have become increasingly urgent; politicians and professors, hucksters and headteachers, all kinds of apparatchiks - even the occasional edu-blogger - have all waded into the debate. Unusually for me, I've mainly stood back, listened and pondered. Last year I visited Kings Leadership Academy in Warrington and although I was hugely [...]
A review of The Beautiful Risk of Education by Harry Webb
I blundered into a discussion of Gert Biesta's The Beautiful Risk of Education yesterday and was asked to justify my view that it's 'a bit silly'. Rather than do the hard work of writing my own critique, I have chosen the more indolent route of posting our dear departed Harry Webb's review as his Webs of Substance blog is now sadly defunct. Creation Myths The Beautiful Risk of Education doesn’t start well, [...]
Slow Writing at #researchED primary literacy conference
Here are the slides I used during my researchED presentation on Slow Writing (including some we didn't get around to looking at due to my rambling incoherence.) If you want to read more about it, do please read this post. But if you'd rather watch me struggle with a monstrous hangover, Leon Cych filmed it:
Chicken or egg? Thoughts about thinking
Which comes first? The chicken of knowledge or the egg of thinking? Over the past few years I have been advocating the view that thinking is a very shallow experience without knowledge. It seems self-evident that you can't think about something you don't yet know. Give it a go... tricky, isn't it? But not only that, the more you know the better you can think about it. If I ask [...]
Whose research is it anyway?
The TES reports today that Professor Hattie, the crown prince of education research, isn't much keen on teachers conducting research in their classrooms. Apparently he thinks we should leave education research in the hands of academics. Because, I assume, they know best. Now I'm certain TES journos have rubbed this particular story vigorously on the crotch of their cricket whites, the better to produce a savage topspin in the hope [...]
Right brain/left brain bollocks
I'm frequently sent unsolicited emails from chancers and PR companies asking me to guest post this or publicise that. Some even go to the trouble of addressing their requests to me personally rather than some generic pleas for attention. My normal practice is to ignore this unwanted correspondence unless it seems to come from an actual human being who has actually engaged with the content of the blog, in which case [...]
Is education a zero-sum game?
Opportunity makes a thief. Francis Bacon A zero-sum game is one in which there is a winner and a loser; if you haven't won, you've lost. The term derives from game theory and economics and describes a situation in which one person's gain utility (the ability to satisfy his or wants) is exactly balanced by another's loss of utility. In The Uses of Pessimism, Scruton points out that much wrong-heading thinking and [...]
The best case fallacy or, why we balls things up
OPTIMIST, n. A proponent of the doctrine that black is white. A pessimist applied to God for relief. "Ah, you wish me to restore your hope and cheerfulness," said God. "No," replied the petitioner, "I wish you to create something that would justify them." "The world is all created," said God, "but you have overlooked something -- the mortality of the optimist." Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary In The Uses of [...]
What to do about literacy
Over the last couple of years I've visited over 100 schools and practically none of them have got literacy right. Now obviously I only get asked to talk to schools who feel they can improve - maybe there are loads of schools out there who have got it right and they're just keeping quiet, But I doubt it. But if schools are struggling to implement literacy policies that actually have [...]
Curiosity: the knowledge gap
Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect. Samuel Johnson We're all, to some extent, naturally curious - we long to unpick out that which is mysterious, troublesome and uncertain. That's not to say we're all equally curious about everything. We tend to be particularly incurious about what is settled, quotidian and neatly tied off. The novelist, Anatole France thought that, "The whole art of [...]
Making Meaning in English
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The Secret of Literacy
The Perfect English Lesson
