Practice – The halfbaked.education blog

From F2F to Online Courses – models of provision

PeterT15 Jun 2020Leave a comment

For over 20 years I worked at the Open University (UK) which is a world leader in online distance education. Over the last few years I have had the privilege of spending time at a number of predominantly face-to-face universities in Australia that were at various stages of developing their online provision, including over the last few months when most courses went online due to COVID19. I have been struck by the vast range of different approaches to online course provision I have seen, and thought it would be useful to try to categorise them. ...continue reading "From F2F to Online Courses – models of provision"

Home schooling or home education? 2

Guest26 Mar 202026 Mar 20202 Comments

By Roger Broadie

Whatever other impacts the COVID-19 virus may have on education systems, there will be a big impact on parents which is likely to change attitudes.

Children going to school has allowed parents to ...continue reading "Home schooling or home education?"

Using real games

PeterT6 Jun 201912 Aug 2019Leave a comment

There is a lot of talk about gamification in education and to a lesser extent using real games to enhance learning in schools. By real games I mean ones which have been developed for the leisure market, their primary focus being on entertainment rather than learning. Findings from the NP3 research suggested that the use of real games ...continue reading "Using real games"

The DfE EdTech Strategy doesn’t ‘realise’ anything – But Teachers do 2

Fiona Aubrey-Smith16 May 201916 May 20192 Comments

On 3 April 2019, the Department for Education published a document called ‘Realising the potential of technology in education’. Now I don’t want to get hung up on the name of the document, but having read it, I ought to draw your attention to something fairly basic here. The word ‘realise’, according to most dictionaries, can be used to mean ‘become fully aware of something’ or ‘cause something to happen’. This DfE strategy document doesn’t ‘realise’ anything. ...continue reading "The DfE EdTech Strategy doesn’t ‘realise’ anything – But Teachers do"

Characteristics of effective CPD

PeterT14 May 201912 Aug 2019Leave a comment

Effective professional development (PD) - professional learning if you prefer - is critical to maintaining and enhancing practice (and thus learning) in schools. However, the most common forms of PD for teachers tend not to be effective - in the sense of leading to positive changes in practice which lead to improvements in young people's learning. This begs the question - what does effective PD look like? ...continue reading "Characteristics of effective CPD"

PoLEY Pilot Report

PeterT13 May 201912 Aug 2019Leave a comment

Whilst PoL in theory is a powerful tool to support professional learning and collect data about practice (e.g. assessment) we needed evidence about its efficacy in practice. This post provides an overview of the PoL in Early Years Pilot, explores its impact and draws out lessons for PoL's implementation in other settings. ...continue reading "PoLEY Pilot Report"

Your kids being digital

PeterT7 May 20197 May 2019Leave a comment

Your kids being digital is a guide for parent on supporting your children in using digital technology effectively to support their learning outside school. ...continue reading "Your kids being digital"

Teachers have more power than they think 1

PeterT18 Apr 201914 Aug 20191 Comment

Schools and teachers are constrained by accountability and assessment regimes. However, in my experience schools and teachers have a great deal of agency - they can and do respond very differently to similar external pressures. For example ...continue reading "Teachers have more power than they think"

Characteristics of effective summative assessment

PeterT7 Mar 201915 Aug 2019Leave a comment

We know that summative assessment drives practice in schools. We also know that current forms of summative assessment inhibit both curriculum and pedagogical innovation because of their focus on 'knowledge' (as viewed in a knowledge based curriculum). The challenge is to find new forms of summative assessment which satisfy the criteria against which they will be judged. Those criteria should include: ...continue reading "Characteristics of effective summative assessment"

Helping students to ask questions 1

PeterT23 Oct 201826 Oct 20181 Comment

This post attempts to summarise a Twitter thread about how to encourage student questions which went viral in August 2018. @MrsSasser ’s initial post explained how apparently small changes in the way she asked students if they had any questions had a massive impact on the number of questions that they asked. ...continue reading "Helping students to ask questions"