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"
Category: Practice
Characteristics of effective summative assessment
NOTE - This post has been superseded by a 2nd draft that adds in a criterion about avoiding using the same assessment for multiple purposes.
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
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"
Educational alignment (and sociocultural theory)
We know that alignment matters in education (Butler et al 2018), particularly between purpose, policy, practice and your educational vision, as represented in the diagram above. However, ...continue reading "Educational alignment (and sociocultural theory)"
Supporting your child’s digital practices – some pointers for parents
A version of this article was originally published on the OU News Website on the 25th July 2018
It is clear from talking with parents that they are often torn between a recognition of digital technology’s importance in their children’s lives and concerns about excessive screen time, Internet safety, online bullying and ...continue reading "Supporting your child’s digital practices – some pointers for parents"
Bring or buy: would you let your child take their tablet to school?
This article was originally published in The Conversation on the 21st Feb 2014
As schools struggle with shortfalls in their digital technology budgets and as teachers see how much parents spend on laptops and tablets at home, many teachers are considering ...continue reading "Bring or buy: would you let your child take their tablet to school?"
Stand up learning
Some call this vertical learning (not to be confused with virtual grouping/mixed age teaching)
Stand up learning has 6 key elements: ...continue reading "Stand up learning"
Talkfactory – a simple ‘real time’ data logging tool
Talkfactory was designed to help enhance the quality of debates in classrooms. It is a simple, free, web based app that ...continue reading "Talkfactory – a simple ‘real time’ data logging tool"