Does ADHD exist?
One of the few things I remember agreeing with when I heard Ken Robinson talking about changing educational paradigms was his observation that diagnoses of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) fall as you travel across America from West to East. Not the map Ken refers to, but something very similar. He calls this modern epidemic the "plague of ADHD" and claims it is "fictitious". He clarifies this by saying, Don't [...]
A research journal for teachers by teachers
What difference does education research make to teachers? Precious little. Thousands of papers are published every year and very little changes in classrooms. Recent attempts by the Education Endowment Foundation to synthesise and simply research so it can be easily consumed by busy teachers is laudable, but leads to problems. When someone else has does the thinking it relieves of the need to think for ourselves and all too often [...]
The Unit of Education
If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. Lord Kelvin A lot of education research is an attempt to measure the effects of teaching (or teachers) on learning (or pupils.) But is this actually possible? Let’s first think about measurement in a very practical sense. Schools limit admission based on a sometimes very strict catchment area – if you want to make sure that your children attend a particular [...]
What’s it like being a new teacher?
I've been very fortunate to spend time with a variety of new teachers over the past few years. Whether they're on PGCE placements, NQTs, RQTs or Teach First participants they are all, without exception, impressive, hardworking, compassionate, dedicated and brimming with enthusiasm about the difference they hope to make. There is however one consistently ugly blot on this bright landscape. It's not the workload - they're up for that. They're [...]
Do we really have a growth mindset?
The ladder of life is full of splinters, but they always prick the hardest when we’re sliding down. Samuel Clemens I spoke at a Growth Mindset conference with Olympian and sports journalist Matthew Syed today. Needless to say, he got star billing. I took the view that whilst we may all profess to value a growth mindset in pupils we have a very fixed mindset to teaching and education. Syed [...]
Are children better than adults?
There is no sinner like a young saint. Aphra Behn I just read this post on why Teaching is Wonderful and while teaching is wonderful (if astonishingly gruelling) I take issue with the argument presented that children are better than adults. Now obviously children are ace. (I have two of my own and they are - usually - delightful.) The only thing I really miss about not being a classroom teacher are the often hilarious [...]
Some suggested New Year's resolutions
For I am full of spirit and resolve to meet all perils very constantly. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Having read this post from Jo Facer (@readingthebooks), I am inspired. Particularly by these bits: We think we know our students, and in some ways, perhaps we do. But in other ways, we can never know them. We can never know the struggles they face, we can never know what their formative years [...]
Thinking with and about
There are mighty few people who think what they think they think. Robert Henri How we think is astonishingly complex and I don't want to pretend I have any real understanding of the processes involved, but It does seem clear that we can't think about something we don't know. If I wanted to think, say, about molecular biology, my thoughts will be strictly limited. I know molecules are very small [...]
A review of 2014
I wrote 125 posts in 2014 bringing the running total to 336 posts. Here are the ten most popular this year: Why do so many teachers leave teaching? (February 2013) The Cult of Outstanding™: the problem with ‘outstanding’ lessons (January 2014) Work scrutiny – What’s the point of marking books? (January 2013) Marking is an act of love (October 2013) Where lesson observations go wrong (July 2013) What is good behaviour? (January 2012) Slow Writing: how slowing down can [...]
New book: What if everything you know about education is wrong?
I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. - Oliver Cromwell I haven't been posting much lately but that's not to say I haven't been busy writing. I'm delighted to tell you I've now finished my new book and wanted to take the opportunity to share the contents before it's listed on Amazon the whole thing is inevitably cheapened by sales figures. In it [...]
The Secret of Numeracy (across the curriculum)
A mathematician, like a painter or a poet, is a maker of patterns… The mathematician’s patterns, like the painter’s or the poet’s must be beautiful; the ideas like the colours or the words, must fit together in a harmonious way. Beauty is the first test. GH Hardy As some readers will no doubt be aware, I'm no mathematician. It might then seem presumptuous to take a view on the teaching of [...]
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