Monthly Archives: August 2015

What is relevance? – David Didau: The Learning Spy

A few days ago I wrote this post about how we might make learning more durable. In it, I wrote about the importance of relevance and said of my experience of attending a speed awareness course that… Continued here http://ift.tt/1KnUVvo

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The new English Language GCSE: introducing 19th century fiction

Originally posted on Othmar's Trombone:
Despite my delight at the inclusion of unseen 19th century fiction on the new English Language GCSE, I know that it will present some challenges to pupils. This means it will also present challenges to…

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Big data, little data.

Originally posted on missdcoxblog:
I’ve been thinking about what happens in many secondary schools on the first day back in September. All the staff are sat, dreaming of the lay-ins that they’ve had for the past few weeks and up…

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Empathy for the Secret Teacher

I don’t normally pay any attention to The Guardian’s Secret Teacher. It always feels to me like it’s competitive negativity – some kind of competition to see who works in the worst school. I know why The Guardian does it … Continue reading

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Policy Exchange – Fining secondary schools to fund FE

A think tank, Policy Exchange, published a report this week arguing that secondary schools whose pupils fail to achieve required grades in GCSE maths and English should be fined, with funding for a ‘resit levy’ reallocated to Further Education colleges. … Continue reading

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The sticky problem of threshold concepts in music

I came across the idea of threshold concepts in David Didau’s book What If Everything You Knew About Education Was Wrong? In the book he refers to the work of Jan Meyer and Ray Land, who describe threshold concepts as … Continue reading

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What Remains: Remembering Kevin, a year on

A year ago, Kevin McKellar, Head of Hendon School, took his own life. I wrote about him in the aftermath of hearing the news. It wasn’t public knowledge at the time that it was suicide, though the news did gradually … Continue reading

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See it, own it: how to destroy a school – David Didau: The Learning Spy

I went for a coffee with a former colleague a few days ago and inevitably after some small talk the conversation returned to a discussion of the school we had worked in together. He started off by… Continued here http://ift.tt/1ieyJas

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To infinity… and beyond: One in, one out… That’s how it goes!

To infinity… and beyond: One in, one out… That’s how it goes!: I’ve found this year difficult. Whether that’s to do with the current climate around education as a whole or just the climate in my…

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Can we make learning permanent? – David Didau: The Learning Spy

How can we know whether a student has learned something? TheTo answer that we need a working definition of what we mean by learning and the one I’ve come up with is tripartite; learning is… Continued here http://ift.tt/1X2dMzz

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