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How not to disagree: Swearing & insults

2017-05-30T22:08:41+01:00May 30th, 2017|Featured|

If you don't like swearing this post's probably not for you. I'm a big fan of profanity and, much to the chagrin of my family, I swear immoderately. There are times when nothing else quite expresses the depth of one's feelings or conveys a point with suitable emphasis. I enjoy the judicious use of most swear words and, suitably combined, they can even achieve a certain caustic beauty. Back in the mists of time when I taught EFL, one of my students' favourite lessons was on the uses of 'fuck' as a phrasal verb. It really has quite remarkably varied utility. But despite [...]

Reframing the debate: It's not what you do, it's why you do it

2017-05-23T07:37:16+01:00May 23rd, 2017|Featured|

For the past few years I've regularly railed against anyone who claims that either there is no debate about the best way to teach, or that said debate isn't worth having because the vast majority of teachers either don't know there's a debate or don't care about it. While this may or may not be true, some of the people I've interacted with in this time have, like me, come to change their mind about how best to teach, and some have become ever more deeply entrenched in opposing schools of thought. Calling these schools of though 'traditional' and 'progressive' is probably [...]

Practice vs. talent: Five principles for effective teaching

2017-05-07T17:06:30+01:00May 6th, 2017|Featured|

Are we the way we are because of our natures or is talent just the product of hard work? Which matters more natural ability of practice? A few years ago my mother reminded me of my struggles with learning to read. Apparently, one of my primary teachers had written home with the bad news that I was mentally subnormal and would probably never learn to read. My mum wasn’t having any of that. She took me out of school and spent all day every day forcing me to read the entire Janet and John reading scheme. My memories of this are [...]

Is resilience even a thing?

2018-01-26T22:25:42+00:00May 3rd, 2017|Featured, psychology|

There is but an inch of difference between the cushioned chamber and the padded cell. G. K. Chesterton Resilience - being able to bounce back from setbacks and cope with challenges - seems an obviously good thing. If we can make ourselves, and our children, more resilient, then we definitely should. Trouble is, it doesn't seem we can. In 1907, William James - often dubbed the grandfather of modern psychology wrote the following in an article for the journal Science: Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake. Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of [...]

Everyone values critical thinking, don’t they?

2019-10-19T22:30:02+01:00May 2nd, 2017|Featured|

NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir! Charles Dickens, Hard Times Gradgrind was a fictional character. Dickens invented him as a caricature of what was no doubt some fairly awful teaching in [...]

Why group socialisation theory argues against grammar schools

2017-04-30T15:56:09+01:00April 30th, 2017|Featured|

My last post was written to explain why I thought 'grammar schools for all' was probably an unworkable idea. I introduced Judith Rich Harris's group socialisation theory to support my arguments, but may have done so in a way which muddied the water. Katherine Birbalsingh picked up from reading my post that I was inadvertently advancing an argument which leant support to those advocating for more academic selection at the age of 11. Reading her response has helped to clarify my thinking and, to ensure that my arguments can't be used in this way I feel I need to write a [...]

Is “our knowledge” different from theirs?

2017-04-14T14:15:34+01:00April 14th, 2017|Featured|

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive. C. S. Lewis Over on the Progressive Teacher blog, my case against 'neo-progressivism' has been critiqued. This is much to be welcomed and, as the anonymous author embraces rather than tries to deny that there is a debate, I want to do it the courtesy of a considered response. In it, my position is described as follows: "students should acquire knowledge, then use that knowledge as [...]

The Great Education Debate

2017-04-18T17:29:04+01:00April 12th, 2017|Featured|

Freedom is hammered out on the anvil of discussion, dissent, and debate. Hubert H. Humphrey With increasing frequency, someone will pop up on social media to announce to the world that debating the best way to approach the project of education is a waste of time. These are the reasons I'm typically presented with when I demur: 1. It's boringly repetitive and nothing new is ever contributed. 2. It's just a bun fight rather than an actual debate and no one ever changes their minds. 3. Real teachers in real schools don't know anything about it so it obviously can't be [...]

Neo-progressivism

2018-01-23T13:16:52+00:00April 9th, 2017|Featured|

Like most people involved in education, I believe in social justice. I want all children, no matter their backgrounds or starting points, to have the best chance of achieving well. I want young people to be creative. I want them to be skilled at collaborating with others to solve problems. I want them to be able to clearly and critically communicate their thoughts. I want them to take on challenges and persist in the face of set backs. I want them to be prepared for an uncertain future. And, of course, I want them to be tolerant, compassionate, open-minded, curious, cooperative [...]

Didau’s Taxonomy

2019-10-23T19:13:40+01:00April 4th, 2017|Featured|

Taxonomy is the science of classification. As such it’s useful for ordering items within a domain into different categories. Contrary to popular understanding, although taxonomies can be hierarchical, they don't have to be so. In education, the word ‘taxonomy’ is most closely associated with the prefix, ‘Bloom’s’. As every teacher knows, Bloom’s Taxonomy is a triangle with ‘knowledge’ at its base and ‘evaluation’ or ‘creativity’ at its apex. In fact, Bloom’s Taxonomy is not just a triangular diagram, it’s actually an attempt to classify different thinking skills. The triangle has simply come to represent the taxonomy. The educational psychologist, Benjamin Bloom, who [...]

Global warming in education: Why Schleicher is wrong

2021-06-29T16:54:11+01:00March 31st, 2017|Featured|

Without data you're just another person with an opinion. Andreas Schleicher As we all know - well, most of us - the climate is changing as a result of human behaviour. Maybe we could do something about it, but it won't be painless. It would involve those of us living in the developed world giving up some of the conveniences we take for granted. If we don't make these changes we shouldn't be too surprised if global temperatures change drastically resulting in all sort of disturbing possibilities. Similarly, human behaviour has an effect on the educational climate and the beliefs and [...]

What’s so great about making mistakes?

2017-03-16T08:06:20+00:00March 15th, 2017|Featured|

To err is human. Alexander Pope Making mistakes is an inevitable part of life. We're all wrong about something at some point. Equally obviously, contending with failure, learning to drag ourselves up by the bootstraps when we fall down and persist in the face of setbacks is part and parcel of human existence. But is making mistakes something to aim for? Should failure be celebrated?  Clearly, in some areas of human endeavour mistakes cannot be tolerated. We are much more tolerant of failure in education than in, say, aviation, because the stakes are so much lower. If we mess things up [...]

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