The problem with progress Part 2: Designing a curriculum for learning
Can progress be both rapid and sustained? We start out with the aim of making the important measurable and end up making only the measurable important. Dylan Wiliam Does slow and steady win the race? 'Rapid and sustained progress' is Ofsted's key indictor for success. Schools across the land chase this chimera like demented puppies chasing their own tails. But just when when you think you've gripped it firmly between your [...]
The problem with progress Part 1: learning vs performance
What's more important? Learning or progress? Take that progress! We want learning We've known since the publication of Ofsted's Moving English Forward in March last year that demonstrating progress is not the be all and end all of an inspector's judgments, but just in case anyone was in any doubt, Kev Bartle has forensically scoured Ofsted's Inspection Handbook and come to these damning conclusions. He unequivocally states that,"There is no such thing [...]
Icebergs, taking risks & being outstanding
How do we recognise a great teacher, a great lesson or great teaching and learning? How do we know what we're seeing is outstanding? The sad truth is that often observers don't (or can't) see the wood for the trees. They see your planning, they see your interactions with a group of students and, hopefully, they see the evidence of impact in your students' books. But most of what [...]
Houston, we have influence: The Top 100 education blogs
I started writing this blog on the 11th July 2011 with the intention of recording all the thoughts I've always had about teaching and learning. In the past I'd amaze myself with how what seemed profound at the beginning of the week would become lost in the hurly burly of planning, marking and teaching. I wanted a place to stop and stare. I wanted a sounding board for all my [...]
Live Lesson Obs: Making lesson observations formative
You can push and prod people into something better than mediocrity, but you have to encourage excellence. David Lammy We've all experienced the dread and agony of formal lesson observations, haven't we? We've sweated blood over our preparations, filled in inch thick lesson plans and obsessed over meaningless details in our presentations. Or is that just me? A while back now I read something (I forget exactly what) by Phil [...]
Work scrutiny – What’s the point of marking books?
Opportunity makes a thief. – Francis Bacon I wrote recently about the differences between marking and feedback. In brief, and contrary to popular wisdom, they are not the same thing; feedback is universally agreed to be a good bet in teachers’ efforts to improve student outcomes whereas as marking appears to be almost entirely unsupported by evidence and neglected by researchers. Marking takes time Although there are some who dislike the use [...]
Anatomy of an outstanding lesson
I'd want to make clear at the outset of this post that I no longer believe there is such a thing as an 'outstanding' lesson and would like to refer you to this post. Outstanding lessons are all alike; every unsatisfactory lesson is unsatisfactory in its own way. Leo Tolstoy (and me) It's all very well writing a book called The Perfect Ofsted English Lesson, but it does rather set you [...]
A Universal Panacea? – my homage to Twitter
The number one shift in education I wish to see in my lifetime? In an effort to participate in the Blog Sync project coordinated by @Edutronic_Net I blithely signed up to write about whatever was agreed on as the months's suggested topic. Sadly for me, the subject was not one that's been sizzling up my sleeve for an opportunity to flare into life. In fact, I've really struggled to know [...]
Building challenge: differentiation that’s quick and works
UPDATE: These two posts represent my latest think on differentiation: Is differentiation a zero-sum game? April 2015 Why do we overestimate the importance of differences? November 2014 Since having a good long think about differentiation some while back it doesn't keep me up at nights nearly as much as it used to. But this is still one of my most visited posts so clearly other folks continue to be troubled. I want [...]
Effective group work
Just another example of effective groupwork OK. I have 3 points to make: Group work does not make us more creative and it does not make us work harder. Learning is social and effective group work (apparently) doubles the speed of students' learning. Almost all teaching in schools depends on a teacher's ability to create effective groups because, wait for it, classes are just large groups. Let's deal [...]
Building anticipation… How to get kids to look forward to your lessons without dumbing down
One of the banes of every teachers' life is that endless, whining chorus of, "Can we do something fun today?" The correct answer to this pitiful plea is of course that learning is always fun and that today's lesson, along with every other lesson, will contain the gift of knowledge. What could be more fun than that? But this isn't what they mean or what they want, is it? Sometimes, [...]
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