As Christiano Ronaldo stares lovingly at his reflection in the European Football Championship trophy, we may do well to reflect on the most interesting story of the tournament. Of course, it was …
The Problem With Professional Development
I recently had the great pleasure to read a paper called, provocatively and insightfully, ‘Professional Development: A Great Way to Avoid Change’. It was published in 2004, by an Australian educator, Peter …
Teacher Coaching & Improving ‘Continuous Professional Development’
We are in the midst of a turbulent time in education. Stringent accountability measures, an apparently ceaseless curriculum change and the seeming erosion of our professionalism threaten to attack and set teaching …
Opening The Door On Our ‘Craft Knowledge’
My last post of the school year is a resolution for the school year ahead. There is no special philosophy, research or expensive equipment required. It is a simple focus on ‘opening …
Overcoming the ‘OK Plateau’
Leap over you professional plateau. (This post is a copy of my article for the Guardian Teacher network) I’m a huge football fan and I always have been since my father took …
Coaching in Schools: Top Five Reads
There appears to be a significant rise in coaching in schools at the moment that provides hope for a more coherent approach to teacher improvement. The whole topic of Performance Development is …
Becoming a Better Teacher by ‘Deliberate Practice’
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who had practiced one kick 10,000 times.” Bruce Lee When I was a young boy I …
School Improvement – The Dave Brailsford Model
Today there is a great article on the BBC website about the inexorable progress of the Sky cycling team under the expert stewardship of Dave Brailsford – see here. The ‘aggregation of …