We know a great deal about the human memory, but there is still so much more to know. Much of what we learn is counterintuitive and unveils the idiosyncratic of our mind and memory. One such quirk is that when students expect to teach new material that they remember it so much better. It is a simple trick …
What does this lovely old lady reveal positive messages about student success? Why is her story potentially so powerful? Nola Ochs is a special lady. So special she appears in the Guinness Book of Records. Back in 2007, Nola Ochs became the world’s oldest college graduate when she graduated from Fort Hays State University at the …
(Image based on the Education Endowment Foundation Toolkit findings) All the evidence tells us that great feedback works. Simple. Let’s do more of that and all of our students will gain…easy! And yet, what do we mean by feedback? What does great feedback look like in the classroom? Too often the notion of feedback is …
(Sourced from stl.illustrator.com) For teachers, April can prove the cruellest month – and May is only bloody worse. Exam time is upon us and it is the final days of deadlines, exam revision, and of schooling, for many of our students. In those final lessons the tension can prove palpable. The confident and quiet students …
I wrote this article for the November edition of Teach Secondary Magazine. In the meantime, the topic, and the debate, simply refuses to go away. My short answer on the usefulness of homework: it depends! My article explores some of the ‘home truths’ of homework. Is it a necessary evil, or a prerequisite for success? …
Mr Laing was my year 8 Maths teacher. He was a rare breed indeed. He helped me, and my fellow pimple-clad teens, find mathematics interesting. Intermittently, he would betray a deep excitement about a mathematics problem or reveal that he had woken up in the middle of the night with an answer to some mathematics …
I remember my time at school particularly fondly. I was happy to get involved; I would volunteer to read and attempt to make wise-cracks and more in the relative safety of my group of friends. Like any teenager slouching grimly into adulthood, I was uncertain of myself, frightened of being judged. For many students, this natural awkwardness …
