All the SLOP you need

I have finally finished updating my booklets. The page where I used to keep them got a bit messy so I'm starting a new one here. In terms of changes, I have fiddled the sequencing on a bunch of them,...

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Useful bits and pieces for evidence informed teaching

Below is a list of things I have read and found interesting and have helped me develop as a teacher. I've been collecting them over the last year or so and tried desperately to keep them in order. This is...

A teacher sets an assignment

https://youtu.be/Xb5rxuIeF6o     I took a bit of a punt with this one, so please go easy. Loosely based on a thought experiment from SlateStarCodex here. Also I made a mistake at one point and said "fanart" instead of "fanfiction"...

What’s the Big Idea?

In 2010, the ASE published the Principles and Big Ideas of Science, the product of a conference involving a number of prominent figures within the academia of science education and edited by Wynne Harlen (1). Other than Millar and Abrahams'...

Observing expert teaching

A little while back, I wrote this observation form based on Rosenshine's principles of instruction. I think it was a good start, but it had some limitations. First, I don't think that the principles are particularly well organised or sequenced,...

Tes Education Resources: An Open Expression of Concern

This post has been agreed by several teachers and is shared across several blog sites. In the last couple of years, we have openly expressed concern at the approaches taken by Tes Education Resources to plagiarism and copyright violation, theft...

Planning smarter: rethinking the short, medium and long term

A lot has changed recently. The new emphasis on curriculum and knowledge have led many to think about their teaching in completely different ways. For me, one of the big shifts has been the move from my teaching being resource-...

What to do after a mock? Assessment, sampling, inferences and more

A common question in the #CogSciSci email group is what to do after students have done an assessment or a mock. Most commonly, people spend a lesson "going over" the paper, where the teacher goes through each question and students make...

Managing management: a couple of tips and tricks for better behaviour

I used to really struggle with behaviour. There would be routine periods of my lessons where I just didn't have control. Majority of students not working. Kids wandering around to have a chat. Paper airplanes. You know the drill. It's...

Thinking, Pairing and Sharing – good use of time?

I was recently discussing the use of a Think, Pair, Share (TPS) with a colleague. It does what it says on the tin: you pose a question or a text and have students first think about it, then pair up...