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Are the new GCSE exams causing mental health problems?

2018-06-24T07:56:36+01:00June 24th, 2018|Featured|

Sitting an exam is, for most people, an inherently stressful situation. People have been sitting exams since at least the Sui dynasty in China (581-618 CE) when prospective entrants to the Imperial civil service took a series of examinations of their knowledge of classic Confucian texts and commentaries. Those who passed the imperial palace examinations at the highest level would go on to become some of the most important and influential bureaucrats in the Imperial palace complex. These exams were intended to be entirely meritocratic in order to ensure that the only the most talented, rather than the wealthiest rose to the top. [...]

The trouble with troublesome knowledge

2018-06-16T07:32:11+01:00June 16th, 2018|Featured|

A recent blog post made some interesting assertions about knowledge. In doing so it presented a series of opinions as facts. That is not a criticism - we all have a tendency to do this. But in order to confront the troublesome nature of knowledge we should address these claims head on and to do so I will treat them as if they were factual. Fact claim 1: we can teach children [about the world using a globe] as a set of facts to recall, but it just won’t go in like it does later on – they simply cannot place it [...]

The best books I’ve read so far this year…

2018-12-16T23:25:23+00:00June 12th, 2018|Featured|

I normally round up my favourite reads at the end of the year but I've read so many really excellent books so far this year that I decided to put them out there now. Who knows? Maybe you'll consider picking one of them up to peruse over the summer. In no particular order... Factfulness: 10 reasons we're wrong about the world - and why things are better than you think, Hans Rosling Sadly, Hans Rosling died last year. If you've never heard of him before have a look at some of his videos. The Swedish statistician and epidemiologist was an expert communicator [...]

The problem with dead white men – a reply to Mary Bousted

2018-06-09T01:08:56+01:00June 9th, 2018|Featured|

Apparently, Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union has announced that England is “hurtling forward to a rosy past” with its emphasis on knowledge. She is reported as having said the following: As an English teacher, I have no problem with Shakespeare, with Pope, with Dryden, with Shelley. ... But I knew in a school where there are 38 first languages taught other than English that I had to have Afro-Caribbean writers in that curriculum, I had to have Indian writers, I had to have Chinese writers to enable pupils to foreshadow their lives in the curriculum.” If a [...]

The illusion of leadership

2018-10-12T17:36:26+01:00June 8th, 2018|Featured|

Everyone knows what's needed to turn around a struggling school: strong leadership. In order for it to be deemed necessary for school to be consigned to 'special measures,' something has to have gone badly wrong. It's more than likely true that poor leadership will be at the heart of the problem. So, the school is taken over and a new 'strong leader' is parachuted in to turn it around. This tends to be fairly straightforward. Very bad (and very good) schools conform to the Anna Karenina principle: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” [...]

Should Ofsted observe lessons?

2019-01-24T10:51:21+00:00May 31st, 2018|Featured|

As you may have seen, Ofsted have published a report which lays the ground work on how they might start observing lessons once more: Six models of lesson observation: an international perspective. Most people will probably accept that if Ofsted are going to inspect schools then should almost certainly observe lessons as part of the inspection process. And, as someone who spends a fair bit of time visiting schools around the country, it’s clear that you can learn a lot about a school from seeing how lessons unfold. But when I observe lessons, I do so informally. I’m not attempting to make [...]

Why practising inference doesn’t work

2018-04-29T16:37:03+01:00April 29th, 2018|Featured|

In my last post I argued that thinking about English as a 'skills based' subject is counter-productive. One response to this was to say, "Hang on, what about practice. If you can practise something you become more skilled at it, so how can you say English isn't a skills-based subject?" It seems obvious that "just knowing" something is different from practising it. Pretty much anything we do can be improved through practice. But, the role of practice changes depending on whether you think English is a skills based subject or not. In the skills-based approach it makes sense to practise the [...]

Why English is not a ‘skills based’ subject

2019-06-11T17:10:41+01:00April 27th, 2018|Featured|

The idea that English is a skills based subject has become axiomatic. Most English teachers of my acquaintance accept it unquestioningly, as did I until a few years ago. How do we know English is skills based? Because it depends on the skills of reading and writing. And, in turn, reading depends on such skills as inference and analysis, while writing depends either on the skill of making points, using evidence and explaining it or on the skill of using language creatively and persuasively. From this certain things have followed. If English is skills based then it obviously makes sense to [...]

The death of my father

2018-03-23T08:59:57+00:00March 21st, 2018|Featured|

Yesterday my father died in his flat. He was a difficult man, and our relationship had been strained for years. He could be capable of great warmth, wit and wisdom, but he was also the most self-centred, childish and dogmatic person I have known. He loved solving mathematical puzzles, winning at Scrabble, studying the Bible, and being made cups of tea. He was a very bright man and, at the same time, a complete fool. He could explain relativity, but refused to accept evolution, passionately arguing for creationism. The rot in our relationship really set in about 20 years ago when [...]

The Case Against Education

2018-03-23T09:00:26+00:00March 17th, 2018|Featured|

I've been reading the economist Bryan Caplan's new book, The Case Against Education with great interest. His is very much a contrarian point of view: that most of the time and effort spent on the project of education is wasted. Cue steep intake of breath. He's not saying time and money spent on an individual's education is a waste, but that the billions of tax dollars spent on educating society is, in large part, misplaced. He compares an individual's education to standing up in a concert; if one or two people stand up then they're guaranteed a better view of the [...]

12 rules for schools: Rule 8 Tell the truth – or, at least don’t lie

2020-07-28T15:23:25+01:00February 26th, 2018|Featured|

This is part of a series of posts adapting Jordan Peterson’s book, 12 Rules of Life to the context of eduction. You can find my thoughts on the rest of his rules here.  The Truth is a commodity in short supply. The world around is objectively real and packed with immutable facts, but it is also a never-ending conveyor belt of spin, fake news, advertising, self-promotion and bullshit. It can often seem hard to distinguish between the two. In a world where so much of our information is second - or third - hand, how can we work out what's true and what's not? We [...]

12 rules for schools: Rule 7 Pursue what is meaningful (not what is expedient)

2018-02-19T19:17:00+00:00February 19th, 2018|Featured|

This is part of a series of posts adapting Jordan Peterson’s book, 12 Rules of Life to the context of eduction. You can find my thoughts on the rest of his rules here.  Doing what's easy is, well, easy. Certainly a lot easier - and usually a lot more fun - than doing what's hard, which goes a long way to explaining why so many of us spend so much time prevaricating, procrastinating and generally goofing off instead of cracking on with what we know we ought to do. The ability to delay gratification - to put off what will bring us immediate pleasure until [...]

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