How can we make classroom observation more effective?
If the belief that it's possible for untrained observers to pitch up in lessons and grade their effectiveness is comparable to a belief in witchcraft, (and Professor Robert Coe's research confirms that this is the case) where does that leave us as a profession? Observing lessons is the fetish du jour of almost every single school and school leader and, even if we informed and honest enough to accept that [...]
Don't trust your gut: a little bit more on the problem with grading lessons
This evening, there will be debate on the role lesson observation in England's schools with such educational luminaries as Professor Robert Coe, David Weston (the man behind the Teacher Development Trust), Lead Ofsted inspector Mary Myatt, Sam Freedman (Director of Teach First and ex-special advisor to Gove),, Dame Alison Peacock (Headteacher of The Wroxham School) and, er... me. Quite what qualifies me to participate beyond having a big gob and a stubborn [...]
Coming soon… the secret of literacy revealed
This isn't really a post, more a shameless piece of self-promotion. I would normally cringe at the idea of publicly bathing in the warm glow of congratulations but in this case it feels exciting enough to be worth making an exception for: one of my education heroes, Doug Lemov, the mastermind behind the Uncommon Schools network in the US and best selling author of the marvellous Teach Like A Champion [...]
What you may have missed on The Learning Spy in 2013
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a teacher in possession of an internet connection, must be in want of an annual review for each of the education blogs to which they're subscribed. As is traditional, the descent into the dark days of December demands that education bloggers will be preparing their annual statements. Here, not to be left out or out done, is mine. 2013 has been something of [...]
Principled curriculum design: the English curriculum
The tragedy of life is that one can only understand life backwards, but one must live it forwards Søren Kierkegaard Back in March 2013, I wrote about the principles underlying my redesign of a Keys Stage 3 English curriculum. It received a mixed response. Since then Joe Kirby and Alex Quigley have published their ideas on redesigning this area of the curriculum and have, in different ways, influenced my thinking. [...]
Can a good teacher teach anything well?
I used to work for a headteacher who was fond of saying "We're teachers of children, not teachers of subjects." This was justification for having non-specialist teachers in certain shortage subjects. Like any axiom, there's some truth in this statement: teaching children is an art unto itself. There's definitely a case to be made for the fact that I might do a better job of teaching a maths lesson than [...]
Get ahead of the curve: stop grading lessons
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead Over the past few years I’ve been articulating my objections to Ofsted in general and classroom observation specifically. Being a simple soul I was under the impression that whilst these observations may have struck a chord with some teachers, the rest of the world continued [...]
Black space: improving writing by increasing lexical density
Style ... is not—can never be—extraneous Ornament... ‘Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.’ On the Art of Writing, Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch So, what is lexical density? Basically, all texts are made up of lexical words which carry meaning (nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) and grammatical words which act as the glue which hold [...]
With great power comes great responsibility: an apology
Every now and then I'm faced with the realisation that I can be a bit of a twat. I'm sure I regularly upset people by making carelessly forthright assertions about what they should or shouldn't be doing, but this week someone chose to write a blog post about it to let me know how they felt. They accused me of a "thoughtless and unnecessary abuse of [my] status", and described [...]
Awards Season 2013 – my votes in the Edublog Awards
It's that time again. The rhythm of the year inevitably reaches a staccato climax as the Edublog Awards, or Eddies, trundle laboriously into view. And happily the voting process appears much less flawed than in past years with every individual only able to vote once for each entry. Even better you can actually see who has voted for you. So I will know! Back in 2011 I was nominated for Best [...]
Some dichotomies are real: the ‘and/or debate’
I get quite cross when I hear people who really should know better dismissing the knowledge/skills debate as a “mindless dichotomy". It’s not. The ideological opposition between proponents of these views is real, pervasive and powerful. The attempt by some educators to pretend that these differences don’t really exist is unhelpful. For the record, here is what I believe: Knowledge is transformational. You can’t think about something you don’t know. [...]
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