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Exploring Barak Rosenshine’s seminal Principles of Instruction: Why it is THE must-read for all teachers.
This post is based on a talk I gave at ResearchEd in Rugby. The paper in question is Barak Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction published in American Educator in 2012, downloadable in full as a pdf here: I first came across if after seeing Oliver Caviglioli’s superb graphic summary for How2 – available here: My admiration … Continue reading
Edugeeks and Flat-Earthers. Does engaging with research make you a better teacher? #BrewEdHackney
Today I had the immense pleasure of attending the #BrewEd event at Hackney Pirates organised by Clare Sealy. In planning for it, I’d decided to try doing a talk without slides for the first time. I’ve become a bit a slave to the clicker so this was a nice change. The title of the talk: … Continue reading
Evidence-Informed Ideas Every Teacher Should Know About.
I love the idea of ‘evidence-informed wisdom’. I honestly can’t remember where I first encountered this but, essentially, it’s the idea that, as teachers we are faced with making hundreds of decisions a day – largely about how to question, how to motivate and how to adjust explanations, feedback, and the pace and depth of … Continue reading
The Learning Rainforest: A model for great teaching and learning.
Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky Khalil Gibran It’s a few months since I published The Learning Rainforest with John Catt. So far sales have gone pretty well – I couldn’t be happier with that. I’m also getting invited to run lots of CPD events … Continue reading
Teaching Fundamentals: Checking for Recall and Understanding.
I would say that this is often one of the weakest areas of practice in teaching in relation to how important it is: checking that students know and understand what we think we have taught them. If I tell you something or explain something to you I want to be sure that you’ve understood it … Continue reading
The Learning Rainforest.
I am delighted to announce that I have finished writing my book. The manuscript is with John Catt publishers and it should be ready to buy from October 13th. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Oliver Caviglioli who has produced various illustrations and chapter summaries. He also designed the front cover. The … Continue reading
Lessons for Ed-Research from Quantum Gravity via @carlorovelli
I recently read this fabulous book by Carlo Rovelli. The book works on many levels. It is an attempt to explain the emerging theory of quantum gravity. This has numerous mind-blowing conceptual elements – such as the idea that spacetime is quantized, that time isn’t really a fundamental thing that ticks forward – it’s just … Continue reading
Towards an Assessment Paradigm Shift
Despite my reservations about some of the big data measures that are used to judge schools, I am hopeful that our discourse is shifting the debate on assessment in a very positive direction. If this continues it will represent an important paradigm shift with positive consequences for students’ learning and their overall school experience. The … Continue reading
Too Much Teaching is Wasted
Let me give you some information: (Try to imagine that you’re going to learn it.) The Earth-Sun distance is used as unit of distance called the Astronomical Unit. 1 AU. The Earth-Moon distance is 0.0026 AU to 2 significant figures. The nearest Star is Proxima Centauri (part of the Alpha Centauri system. Pronounced ‘Sen-TOR-eye’). The … Continue reading
Teaching and assessment for top-end success in new GCSEs
I’ve been looking at the specimen papers for GCSEs in English, Maths and Science to get a feel for the expectations at the top-end. Although, in theory, schools should have been engaging with these materials for a while, with Year 11s ready to go this May and Year 10s already on the road with Science, … Continue reading
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