Here follows my extremely partial take on some of the blog post I have most enjoyed reading this year

Heather Fearn – Reading fluency and the ‘Tragedy of the Commons’

My only continuing niggle with Heather’s blog is that she stubbornly refuses to add a ‘follow by email’ widget and, seeing as I can’t make head not tail of RSS feeds and the like, I often miss her posts much too often. That said, pretty much everything she writes is ace and I really should make more of an effort. This one, on the haphazard way reading is taught in secondary schools is a blinder. Her use of the tragedy of the commons also sparked off a fascinating (for me) debate on economic theory with the wonderful Andrew Lay.

Toby French – Be that change

I really love Toby’s blog; it’s irreverent, thought provoking and very well written. It treads just the right side of sweary and often makes me laugh out loud. This one didn’t make me laugh. But it’s still bloody good!

Dan Williams – Pyramids of DOOM!

Dan has really exploded onto the blogging scene this year. He’s posted a whole series of wonderfully researched, thoughtful and concise reviews of various very useful nuggets of research. This one was a much-needed debunking of all things pyramidal.

James Theobald – Tell all the truth; don’t tell it slant

If there was an award for the education blog with the most interesting references and anecdotes, James would win hands down. This is vintage Theobald gathering as it does from sources as diverse as Armando Iannucci, Emily Dickinson and Dale’s unkillable Cone of Experience.

Martin Robinson – The scapegoating of teachers

Martin is always worth a read and in this brief review of ED Hirsch’s latest tome he makes an excellent point, warning us of the danger of blaming teachers for poor education policy decisions.

Daisy Christodoulou – Herbert Simon and evidence-based education

To the embarrassingly long list of things I’ve learned from Daisy Christodoulou can now be added the work of Herbert Simon. Triffic.

Greg Ashman –The empathy gap

Greg seems to post a blog every single day so picking just one standout blog is an impossible task. I’m really not sure if this was my favourite – I’ve almost certainly forgotten some excellent posts – but this was certainly up there. Greg usually writes about research in very clear, sparse prose. He can fillet an academic paper as well as anyone and although he’s a firm proponent of explicit teaching methods, he does a great job of weighing the evidence ss dispassionately as possible. He also occasionally writes some excellent satire. This piece is neither and both.

Christine Counsell – Genericism’s children

This is, as far as I know, the only blog Christine has ever written. And it’s a corker.

Gary Davis Why don’t teachers engage with research?

This post from June was the first time I’d encountered Gary Davis. He doesn’t blog often but when he does, it’s a doozy.

Old Andrew – Is criticising learning styles an attack on the poor?

A review of the blogs I’ve most enjoyed this year could hardly pass without a mention from the daddy of them all. There are a number I could have chosen but this is my personal favourite. If brevity is the soul of wit you could ask for nothing wittier.

Carl Hendrick – Is effective teaching more about good relationships than anything else?

And in the same style, no.

If you’re interested (and even if you’re not) I’ll be following this up with some of best blogs I’ve actually written this year.