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Why do I need a teacher if I’ve got Google and a granny?

NB - Having reviewed the evidence, I am now thoroughly convinced I was wrong about all this. Instead, try reading Is it just me or is Sugata Mitra an irresponsible charlatan?  Over the summer I watched Sugata Mitra's jaw-dropping Ted Talk on Child Driven Education and was bowled over. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6wPHOorAkM This, I said to myself, could change everything. Mitra outlines the results of a series of remarkable experiments which began with embedding computers into the walls of Indian slums at child height  and then watching to see what children did with them. Unsurprisingly these computers were magnets to the street kids [...]

2016-09-04T22:03:59+01:00December 4th, 2011|learning|

What is it exactly that we are supposed to be preparing pupils for?

As with anything, the answer to the above question depends entirely on who you ask. And, also depending on who you ask the answer may well be anything from strident soundbites to mumbled confusion. I've recently finished reading Ken Robinson's Out of Our Minds and it's pretty obvious, despite the enthusiasm of his legions of fans that SKR is no clearer than anyone else. After a shockingly lengthy introduction (8 chapters) he finally arrives at some sort of conclusion in his ninth (and last) chapter. So, what does he conclude? That we, er, should er, like, be sort of creative, or [...]

2017-03-29T08:58:13+01:00December 1st, 2011|Featured|

Why aren't we supposed to teach anymore?

I read this comment on the Guardian Teacher Network recently in response to a post from Ross McGill on the wonderfully named, teacher lead questioning strategy he calls Pose Pause Pounce Bounce: This sounds great, but it also sounds rather like the kind of whole-class question-and-answer session I recently ran during an OfSTED visit, and got bollocked in the feedback because although they said they could see I'd done hands down, targeted questions, great development of ideas, vocabulary, good relationships, blah blah, my teaching was still apparently rubbish because it involved me at the front directing things for the [...]

2011-11-28T22:31:35+00:00November 28th, 2011|learning|

What makes a perfect English lesson?

Click me Is there such a thing as the perfect English lesson? Well, no, probably not. At least, not that I’m aware of. There is, you may be disappointed to discover, no single lesson that you can trot out endlessly and clap yourself on the back for being a good egg. If there were it would quickly become dry, boring and you'd quickly be exposed as a fraud. But, if we remove the definite article (whoa! Grammar!) and consider perfect English lessons, then we can probably agree that there is some mileage in having the discussion. If you're reading [...]

2011-11-27T17:02:23+00:00November 27th, 2011|English, learning|

To set or not to set?

I feel genuinely torn about this. On the one hand I am aware that there really isn't any solid research evidence that setting (or streaming) has much effect on students' attainment and some evidence which seems to suggest it might be actually detrimental. On the other I want my student to have the best possible chance of success in their GCSE exam in January and some sort of setting appears to be the best way of accomplishing this aim. Here's an overview of the different types of selection that goes on in schools: Banding - putting pupils into broad ability bands Streaming - [...]

2014-07-05T12:39:00+01:00November 26th, 2011|Featured|

Does creativity need rules?

Grammar for toast? Last week's #ukedchat was titled, How can we build children’s imaginations so that they have more to choose from for their writing? and focussed on the dark art of creativity. My contribution to the discussion was to suggest that without clear knowledge of the forms and 'rules' of writing, creativity is inevitably stifled. Ideas become a kitchen-sink soup with everything chucked into the pot with little regard for structure, audience or purpose. I was a little disappointed to see that the archive reduces this thread of the debate to "There was a discussion around grammar and [...]

2013-11-01T17:09:03+00:00November 20th, 2011|English, learning, literacy, writing|

Awards season

Being as I'm still very new to this blogging game (was it only July I made my first post?) I had no idea there were awards for it, let alone awards for educational blogging. Who knew? Well, apparently lots of people knew: the Edublogs Awards have been going on since 2004. I've only been alerted to this thanks to Kristian Stills generous nomination of the The Learning Spy. Which is lovely. But before I getting too carried away practising acceptance speeches, I thought that this would be a fine opportunity to do a bit of nominating myself. So, my nomination for [...]

2011-11-19T22:28:25+00:00November 19th, 2011|Featured|

Is grammar glamorous?

Well, no it's not is it. Grammar's that dull stuff what kids got taught in the 60s. And then enlightened educationalists decided it was unfashionable for children to know how to parse sentences and wotnot. Which leaves me part of a lost generation who trundled through our schooling without learning a blessed thing about this arcane and mysterious subject. And that neatly segues into the fact that I've recently been enjoying my favourite linguistic professor and all round eccentric, David Crystal's lovely new book, The Story of English in 100 Words. One of his chosen 100 is 'grammar'. You see, it [...]

2015-01-26T12:38:54+00:00November 16th, 2011|English, literacy|

What's deep learning & how do you do it?

So, deep learning. What's all that about then? I've just been dipping into Evidence Based Teaching by Geoff Petty and then cross referencing his advice with Why Don't Students Like School? by Daniel Willingham. How sad is that? Fairly sad for a Tuesday evening when I've got a cold and my wife's already gone to bed. Sad, but I think necessary. You see, I've come a long way in past few months. I've begun to have a healthy scepticism for whatever anyone tells me. I've also begun to re-evaluate my position that skills are more important than knowledge which, at least [...]

2011-11-09T00:08:16+00:00November 9th, 2011|learning|

But is it art? The art of teaching

No. 5 - Jackson Pollock I'm a big fan of art. I wouldn't claim to know a lot about it, but it speaks to me. Whether it's standing, enraptured in front of The Ambassadors, climbing Louise Bourgeois' towers, peering into Tracey Emin's tent, or trying to mentally piece together Cornelia Parker's exploded garden shed it grabs something inside me and compels me to be present. To pay attention. To be interested. I get heartily sick when yet another curmudgeonly professional complainer comes along, takes a cursory glance at (for instance) Jackson Pollock's No. 5 and scoffs, "That's not art! [...]

2013-07-22T11:58:58+01:00November 5th, 2011|leadership, learning|

Should we be teaching knowledge or skills?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that our education system isn’t quite up to snuff. And at that point virtually all agreement ceases. There are those on which we might loosely term the ‘right’ of the divide who point to PISA scores, claim that we’re in the middle of a crisis and suggest that a return to traditional values is the way forward. Oh, and Free Schools are good too. Then there are the proponents of the ‘left’ who think that the current emphasis of schools does not fit us for a future in which compliance will no longer be rewarded. [...]

2011-11-02T20:31:31+00:00November 2nd, 2011|learning, SOLO|
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