XFacebookYouTubeLinkedInEmail

Featured

What might be a good proxy for learning?

2015-03-22T21:21:13+00:00March 22nd, 2015|Featured|

Professor Rob Coe's speech, From Evidence to Great Teaching, at the ASCL conference last Friday seemed to generate quite a bit of energy on Twitter, as did Carl Hendrick's post on engagement. Coe has been referring to the idea that we confuse learning with various 'poor proxies' since the publication of Improving Education. These are the proxies of which he speaks: It's small wonder, perhaps, that so many get so upset by being told that the certainties on which they've based their careers may not actually be true. The cognitive dissonance produced leads us to either agree with Prof Coe and abandon [...]

Learning is invisible – my slides from #LEF15

2015-03-01T11:45:18+00:00March 1st, 2015|Featured, learning|

For all those who asked for my slides after my presentation of the London Festival of Education at the IOE, here you go: #LFE15 Learning is invisible from David Didau For all those who weren't there, here's a commentary: The idea that learning may not be visible isn't widely accepted and in order to challenge beliefs without annoying people, I began by the perceptual and cognitive illusions to which we all fall victim. Then, with everyone suitably softened up I offered some definitions of learning: The long-term retention and transfer of knowledge and skills A change in how the world is understood. We [...]

Should group work be imposed?

2025-03-07T17:10:00+00:00February 15th, 2015|Featured|

I recently posted some thoughts on what group work is and isn't good for. At no point did I say it was good for nothing (although predictably my opinion was caricatured as 'hating' group work) and I have never claimed that it cannot work. Some of the criticisms I received were as follows: - Group work is better than lecturing. I'm not sure I can even be bothered responding to this except to say that group work is also better than being punched in the face, but that's not saying much! As soon as I decide lecturing is a preferable alternative [...]

Why (the hell) should students work in groups?

2018-09-23T15:17:12+01:00February 11th, 2015|Featured|

In a recent TES article James Mannion and Neil Mercer make the following claim: In not using group work, students are denied the chance to develop skills that can not only help them perform better in schools, but which are also vital for their future employment prospects – not to mention the realisation of a more fully participatory democracy. First, let me state that I see nothing inherently wrong with pupils working collaboratively. Like any method of working, it has its time and place. But I was led to believe that unless a lesson contained an element of groupwork it could not [...]

Should we support the College of Teaching?

2015-02-02T10:33:06+00:00February 2nd, 2015|Featured|

I'd love to be able to provide my unequivocal support for the proposed College of Teaching. Obviously I'm fully in favour of professionalising teaching, but while I'm convinced of the good intentions of those spearheading the campaign, I'm sceptical about the substance of the proposals. Today sees the official launch of The profession’s new College of Teaching: A proposal for start-up by the organisations who have formed the Claim Your College coalition. The aims are lofty: The new College will be committed to improving the education of children and young people by supporting teachers’ development and recognising excellence in teaching. It will be led [...]

A research journal for teachers by teachers

2015-01-13T20:05:08+00:00January 13th, 2015|Featured|

What difference does education research make to teachers? Precious little. Thousands of papers are published every year and very little changes in classrooms. Recent attempts by the Education Endowment Foundation to synthesise and simply research so it can be easily consumed by busy teachers is laudable, but leads to problems. When someone else has does the thinking it relieves of the need to think for ourselves and all too often we end up saying, "the research shows..." without any real idea what it actually shows. So what to do? What would be great is if teachers had the time and expertise [...]

The Unit of Education

2015-01-10T21:12:36+00:00January 8th, 2015|Featured|

If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. Lord Kelvin A lot of education research is an attempt to measure the effects of teaching (or teachers) on learning (or pupils.) But is this actually possible? Let’s first think about measurement in a very practical sense. Schools limit admission based on a sometimes very strict catchment area – if you want to make sure that your children attend a particular school you need to live within the catchment. For some very oversubscribed schools this can be a radius of less than a mile. If I measure the distance between my front door and [...]

Are children better than adults?

2015-01-04T21:10:33+00:00January 4th, 2015|Featured|

There is no sinner like a young saint. Aphra Behn I just read this post on why Teaching is Wonderful and while teaching is wonderful (if astonishingly gruelling) I take issue with the argument presented that children are better than adults. Now obviously children are ace. (I have two of my own and they are - usually - delightful.) The only thing I really miss about not being a classroom teacher are the often hilarious and heart-warming daily interactions with kids. But they're no better than anyone else. Children are not naturally good. They can be as mean-spirited, spiteful and selfish as, well, anyone else. Children, like [...]

Some suggested New Year's resolutions

2015-01-01T13:59:38+00:00January 1st, 2015|Featured|

For I am full of spirit and resolve to meet all perils very constantly. Shakespeare, Julius Caesar Having read this post from Jo Facer (@readingthebooks), I am inspired. Particularly by these bits: We think we know our students, and in some ways, perhaps we do. But in other ways, we can never know them. We can never know the struggles they face, we can never know what their formative years have done to them, and we can never know their true potential. We just need to keep raising the bar. All teachers want the best for their students, but that aspiration [...]

Thinking with and about

2016-06-12T12:11:40+01:00December 30th, 2014|Featured|

There are mighty few people who think what they think they think. Robert Henri How we think is astonishingly complex and I don't want to pretend I have any real understanding of the processes involved, but It does seem clear that we can't think about something we don't know. If I wanted to think, say, about molecular biology, my thoughts will be strictly limited. I know molecules are very small particles (but I'm not sure how, or if, they differ from particles in physics) and so I assume that molecular biology must be the biology at a microscopic level. Further, I know [...]

A review of 2014

2014-12-31T22:26:35+00:00December 28th, 2014|Featured|

I wrote 125 posts in 2014 bringing the running total to 336 posts. Here are the ten most popular this year: Why do so many teachers leave teaching? (February 2013) The Cult of Outstanding™: the problem with ‘outstanding’ lessons (January 2014) Work scrutiny – What’s the point of marking books? (January 2013) Marking is an act of love (October 2013) Where lesson observations go wrong  (July 2013) What is good behaviour? (January 2012) Slow Writing: how slowing down can improve your writing (May 2012) Why AfL might be wrong, and what to do about it (March 2014) Building challenge: differentiation that’s quick and works (January 2013) What I learned from my visit to [...]

New book: What if everything you know about education is wrong?

2014-12-17T19:11:14+00:00December 17th, 2014|Featured|

I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken. - Oliver Cromwell I haven't been posting much lately but that's not to say I haven't been busy writing. I'm delighted to tell you I've now finished my new book and wanted to take the opportunity to share the contents before it's listed on Amazon the whole thing is inevitably cheapened by sales figures. In it I pose the question, What if everything you know about education is wrong? Just to be clear, I'm not saying you, or anyone else is wrong, I'm just asking you to [...]

Toggle Sliding Bar Area
Go to Top