XFacebookYouTubeLinkedInEmail

behaviour

Is praise counter productive?

2013-09-22T22:15:13+01:00September 22nd, 2013|behaviour, learning, myths|

I had an interesting discussion with Tim Taylor this morning. He said,  "At best, praising effort has a neutral or no effect when students are successful, but is likely to be negative when students are not successful." But what could possibly be wrong with praise? Surely praise is one of the most fundamental way to motivate pupils? Teachers are, generally, keen to praise pupils, and pupils , generally, welcome and expect it. We use praise to reward or change pupils' behaviour, and to that extent it may well be effective. But could this praise also be diluting learning and effort? Various research seems [...]

A model lesson? Part 2: Marathon vs sprint

2014-03-13T09:39:37+00:00September 14th, 2013|behaviour, learning|

Last week I questioned the concept of outstanding lessons full of gimmicks that look great but ultimately may not result in much actual progress being made. Instead, I argued, embedding classroom routines and ensuring consistency are far more important in the long run. And, as classroom teachers, we're in it for the long haul. Who cares whether an individual lesson is a thing of beauty if your GCSE results are rubbish? Who cares if you're using al the latest gizmos and gimmicks if your students don't know how to improve? Who cares if progress zips along at light speed if it's [...]

Effective group work

2013-11-27T19:42:46+00:00January 12th, 2013|behaviour, Featured, learning|

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 with each of these in a bit more detail. Firstly, as I've discussed before, when we try to work together to work towards a collective goal we get, what is known [...]

Toggle Sliding Bar Area
Go to Top