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psychology

Can anyone teach? Well, that depends on what you think education is for

2016-12-31T12:14:11+00:00January 5th, 2016|psychology, training|

In a fascinating series of posts, Nick Rose has discussed to what extent teaching is a natural ability and how far it might be described as an 'artificial' science. In The ‘artificial science’ of teaching: System vs Individual competence he explores the implications for teacher training and professional development of these different interpretations of what it is to teach. All of this harks back to the hoary old chestnut of whether teaching is an art, a craft, or a science; whether great teachers are born or made. If the act of teaching is, as Rose suggests, in part a natural ability, a module of what Geary calls [...]

We don’t know what we don’t know: the uses of humility

2020-07-20T13:37:31+01:00November 5th, 2015|leadership, psychology|

Humility is the only true wisdom by which we prepare our minds for all the possible changes of life. George Arliss In my last post I challenged the widely-held belief that teachers' judgements are generally sound and suggested instead that we are routinely beset by very predictable but unconscious bias. Two criticisms emerged that I want to address. Firstly, some commenters noted that it's impossible to prevent teachers making judgments and that, in essence, a large part of the act of teaching is making judgements about pupils' learning. As such, any attempt to remove subjective bias from teaching is fundamentally flawed. [...]

Five techniques for overcoming overconfidence and improving decision-making

2020-01-21T18:39:02+00:00November 3rd, 2015|leadership, psychology|

One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision. Bertrand Russell Every successful leader will have one thing in common: they trust their judgement. And why not? Their intuitions must have proved their worth otherwise they wouldn’t be successful, right? Well, maybe not. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman suggests that “the amount of success it takes for leaders to become overconfident isn’t terribly large.” Kahneman’s paper, co-authored with Gary Klein, Conditions for Intuitive: Expertise A Failure to Disagree, argues that overconfidence is at the [...]

The closed circle: Why being wrong is so useful

2016-06-15T22:55:21+01:00October 30th, 2015|psychology|

Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others. Fyodor Dostoevsky A closed circle argument is one where there is no possibility of convincing an opponent that they might be wrong. They are right because they're right. Imagine you wake to find yourself in a psychiatric ward, deemed by all and sundry to be mad. Any attempt to argue that you are not, in point of fact, mad, is evidence that you are 'in denial'. Any evidence you cite in support of your sanity is dismissed as an elaborate attempt to buttress your denial. There is no way out of [...]

The Science of Learning

2015-09-30T19:02:36+01:00September 30th, 2015|psychology|

Loyal readers may remember my attempts to wade through the Top 20 Principles of Psychology for Teaching & Learning report from the APA. If you haven't already read it, don't bother. This remarkably concise digest, produced by Deans for Impact does the job much better. Well-informed readers probably won't learn anything new, but I've not come across another document which presents the evidence so clearly and gives such unambiguous advice to teachers. Basically, a group of American independent school heads, ably supported by Daniel Willingham and Paul Bruno, have summarised pretty much everything a busy teacher ought to know about how children learn, remember, solve [...]

The uses of disappointment

2016-03-05T16:29:40+00:00September 13th, 2015|psychology|

"Disappointment, when it involves neither shame nor loss, is as good as success; for it supplies as many images to the mind, and as many topics to the tongue." Samuel Johnson I had very low expectations of this weekend. The last few weeks have left me a bit punch drunk and I was looking forward to doing nothing much. In fact, I've been very pleasantly surprised and, all in all, I've had a great weekend: meeting friends, spending time with my youngest daughter, going out as a family for a meal, and going on a long hike this afternoon. I've heard it [...]

What I mean by 'relevance'

2015-08-31T22:05:07+01:00August 31st, 2015|psychology|

Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger, portion of truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant. Edgar Allan Poe, The Mystery of Marie Rogêt A few days ago I wrote this post about how we might make learning more durable. In it, I wrote about the importance of relevance and said of my experience of attending a speed awareness course that it "pertained to my everyday experience of driving a car as well as my experience of running the risk of a fine and a driving ban." I went on to say, Clearly, we can't create or [...]

Can we make learning permanent?

2015-08-31T21:32:07+01:00August 30th, 2015|learning, psychology|

How can we know whether a student has learned something? To answer that we need a working definition of what we mean by learning and the one I've come up with is tripartite; learning is composed of retention, transfer and change. In order to know whether something has been learned we should ask ourselves three questions: Will students still know this next week, next month, next year? Will students be able to apply what they have been learning in a new context? How will this transform a students’ understanding of the world? Of course, I can't prove that I'm right about [...]

Do gender differences make a difference?

2023-02-13T15:37:26+00:00July 18th, 2015|psychology|

It's a well-known fact that boys underachieve. Every statistic tells us so. But ever since writing this post I've been suspicious of gender as the root cause for differences in achievement. Yes, girls outperform boys but is this due to fundamental differences in gender? Or is it more to do with expectations, perception and bias? Or is it, perhaps, an illusion? Might differences in performance be due to other, less beguiling causes? There's no doubt that boys and girls are biologically different. But, as Gertrude Stein put it, “A difference to be a difference must make a difference.” Do the very obvious [...]

20 psychological principles for teachers #20 Interpretation

2015-07-05T09:56:48+01:00July 5th, 2015|assessment, psychology|

This is the 20th and final post in my series on the Top 20 Principles From Psychology for Teaching and Learning and the third of three posts examining how to assess students’ progress: "Making sense of assessment data depends on clear, appropriate, and fair interpretation." "I wish we had more assessment data!" said no sane school leader ever. We're awash with data produced by oceans of assessment. As with so much else in life, the having of a thing is not its purpose. Analysing spreadsheets and graphs becomes like gazing, dumbly, into a crystal ball. We need to know how to interpret what these data [...]

20 psychological principles for teachers #19 Measurement

2015-06-30T21:13:23+01:00June 30th, 2015|assessment, psychology|

This is #19 in my series on the Top 20 Principles From Psychology for Teaching and Learning and the second of three posts examining how to assess students’ progress: "Students’ skills, knowledge, and abilities are best measured with assessment processes grounded in psychological science with well-defined standards for quality and fairness." The more I read on this subject, the more it becomes clear how widely misunderstood testing and assessment are. But does this actually matter? Do teachers need to know about such issues as reliability, precision and validity? Isn't this just a matter for exam boards and Ofqual? Well, it's been designated as one [...]

20 psychological principles for teachers #18 Formative & summative assessment

2015-06-29T13:55:30+01:00June 29th, 2015|psychology|

This is #18 in my series on the Top 20 Principles From Psychology for Teaching and Learning and the first of three posts examining how to assess students' progress: "Formative and summative assessments are both important and useful but require different approaches and interpretations." As I'm sure everyone knows, summative assessments are made to establish what students have learned and to provide a quantitative measurement of achievement. Formative assessments, on the other hand, are intended to establish how students are progressing and provide them with the support needed to arrive at their intended destination. Summative assessment takes place after instruction while formative assessment is [...]

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