Reading List
Am in the process of trying to digest a number of education texts at the moment. Here is my current stack of reading courtesy of the lovely people at Crown House: My thoughts so far: The Little Book of Music in the Classroom by Nina Jackson The effect of music on students isn't something I've put much thought into before. Yes, I know playing Bach is meant to be good [...]
The ultimate teaching technique
UPDATE: I no longer agree with any of the following. It remains on my blog as a warning against hubris. June, 2016 Maybe it's just me, but I seem to be encountering an awful lot of people railing against 'progressive' teaching methods of late (see this for an example.) There seems to some sort of consensus that all schools are bastions of constructivist theory in action and that seldom, if [...]
Creativity, analysis and comparison
English teachers have a tough gig. We need to constantly hone the hard-edged skill of analysis whilst simultaneously encouraging the fluffy stuff of creativity. There’s a lot said and written about creativity these days, much of it by Sir Ken Robinson. Basically, Ken's argument goes along these lines: schools should value the Arts more highly and find ways to foster creativity in those subjects where it doesn’t necessarily appear naturally. [...]
Who inspects the inspectors?
Are Ofsted fit for purpose? This week Dylan Wiliam threw a wet leather gauntlet in the face of monsieur d'Ofsted, saying, "Ofsted do not know good teaching when they see it”. If this is true (and how would we know because obviously no one ever bovvers to check up on Ofsted, do they?) it casts HMCI Sir Michael Wilshaw's assertion that teachers' pay progression should depend on them teaching 'good' lessons [...]
How effective learning hinges on good questioning
Hands up who likes asking questions? Questioning is an essential part of helping students to make progress but only if it causes thinking or elicits evidence that informs our teaching. And the thing with asking questions is that while there are some kids who know how to make the system work for them and actively participate in lessons because that they way they’ll learn more, there are those who don't. [...]
SOLO taxonomy training
UPDATE: I no longer think SOLO taxonomy is worth spending any time on. Here is why. A few weeks ago I rather rashly offered to present on SOLO taxonomy to the North Somerset Aspire network. As always with this sort of foolishness it's made me consider my understanding of the subject in a lot more depth. Before the Summer I'd never even heard of it. But since then the whole [...]
Hexagonal Learning
The mantra of all successful lesson observations these days is that students should be seen to be making progress. Perhaps the best way to show that you’re having an impact on their knowledge and understanding is to show that the learning is ‘deep’. By that I mean, knowledge that transfers from students’ working memories into their long-term memories. Students understand new ideas by relating them to existing ones. If they [...]
Doubts about Dweck? The problem with praise
Back in 2010 I was introduced to Carol Dweck's research into fixed and growth mindsets and the scales fell from my eyes. It was an epiphany. A veritable Damascene conversion. And like Saul before me, I quickly became an evangelist. The basic theory is that folk with growth mindsets will make effort for its own sake and when they encounter setbacks will see them as opportunities for learning. Your fixed [...]
Is it better to be told, or to discover a fact?
I've read a lot of blogosphere twaddle about why students don't learn effectively in groups and the only effective method for teaching is direct instruction. My view is there needs to balance in all things and using one teaching strategy to the exclusions of all others is a bad mistake. I think it's worth reproducing this fairly lengthy quote from, John Hattie in full: Various successful methods of teaching were [...]
The 'practice' of teaching
Fewer (activities); Deeper (learning); Better (student outcomes). John Tomsett, Headteacher This is not a blog post proper, just some notes on Hattie's introduction to Visible Learning for Teachers. Hattie says what we all know: there is no scientific recipe for effective teaching and learning and "no set of principles that can be applied to all students". That said, I've been engaging in some gentle elbow-digging about Learning Styles again today. [...]
How to subvert target grades
Target grades are good aren't they? They must be otherwise why would Ofsted be so damn keen on them. Consider this: how would Monsieur d'Ofsted respond when asking an unsuspecting student in your class whether they're achieving their target grade only to be told that their teacher didn't let them know what their target grade was? Doesn't bode well, does it? Here’s a somewhat contentious piece of information: if you [...]
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