Teachers in England spend hours marking pupils’ work and in the final mile run up to national exams teachers are often exhausted by their efforts. A key challenge appears to be how we ensure pupils work just as hard as their teachers and taking responsibility to manage their own learning. Common issues I hear regularly […]
Supporting Exam Preparation: The Final Mile Read More »
Teaching and learning can be prone to shifting trends. Some aspects of teaching may suffer from waning popularity, but we cannot lose sight of them because they are so integral for successful learning. Formative assessment is one such aspect that demands our focus – or a refocus – on its central importance. Just before the
4 Reasons to (Re)Focus on Formative Assessment Read More »
“The main role of feedback, at least in schools, is to improve the learner, not the work. The idea is that, after feedback, students will be able to do better at some point in the future on tasks they have not yet attempted.” Dylan Wiliam Giving some pupils timely and effective feedback on their writing
Feedback: Improve the learner, not the work Read More »
There is lots to know about the brilliantly complex act of teaching and learning. Here is my list of 10 things to know in the plainest terms possible: 1. Pupils knowing stuff helps them to learn more stuff (background knowledge). 2. It is effective and efficient to explicitly teach pupils the stuff (explicit instruction). 3.
10 things to know about teaching and learning Read More »
“In education, the only way to improve is to stop people doing good things, to give them time to do even better things.” Dylan Wiliam It appears like a trite piece of advice – ‘stop doing stuff’ – but in practice it is really hard to do in any walk of life. In schools, it
The Surprising Secret of School Improvement Read More »
Since 2012, I have written numerous posts about feedback and marking. This is no surprise given our school system has been seemingly addicted to making ‘progress’ visible, with feedback becoming a quick fix for all our ills. Of course, feedback is richly complex, like most things in the classroom, so I thought it may prove
The Feedback ‘Collection’ Read More »
So, what works? It is a question teachers ask every day of the week. Whether it is ‘does this mastery stuff in maths work then?‘, or ‘what should I get my students to revise this week?‘, or ‘what literacy programme should I pick for Jane, who is struggling big time with her comprehension?‘ We are
Research evidence or Professional Judgement? Read More »
