Lots of newspaper headlines have proclaimed staunch opinions about new research evidence in education in the past fortnight. Boy’s can’t read and breakfast really matters, or so it would seem from the headlines. A common problem for busy teachers, school leaders and parents is that we seldom have the time to dig beneath these headlines. With …
If you have been following my blog for any period of time, you will know that I think it would be a very good thing if we were to better use research evidence to support the teaching profession. You see, I don’t see research evidence as something you disappear off to a university to find, …
We teach in austere times and when the budget is squeezed and changes are afoot we have a tendency to hunker down, work hard and do what we have always done. Hemmed in by the limits of our budget too little time, we treat research and development as an added extra – some sort of luxury …
Before the summer, Huntington School applied for one of the Department for Education (DfE) grants to become a pilot EEF Research School. It was no understatement to say we were, alongside our partner Teaching Schools, hugely disappointed when we received an email recently from the DfE to say that they had dropped the project altogether to …
(Image via Vanderbilt Edu) “The research says…” is something I have heard uttered many times in the last couple of years and I do so myself too. With healthy skepticism, I have been wary of the authority this statement wields and how it may be received uncritically by some. It is time to examine the …
(Comic via http://xkcd.com/552/) I have had an interesting fortnight in my role as a school leader and Research-lead. In this job, you get to share a lot of teacher training materials and the like, coupled, or most often, decoupled from the evidence. In just the last couple of weeks I have been repeatedly ‘exposed’ to popular …
As an English teacher I am surely granted the eternal power of an exaggeration fueled headline every once in a while. Ok – so perhaps highlighters aren’t the biggest problem in education, but if you know me well, you may have heard my complaint whereat these gaudy coloured pens symbolize some deep rooted issues with teaching and learning …
