Below is a list of things I have read and found interesting and have helped me develop as a teacher.
What makes great teaching?
*The best introduction to the research as it stands as of 2014. A really important read that covers a lot of material and can lead in many different directions. Also explains what things dont work (e.g. discovery based learning)
http://www.suttontrust.com/
/What-makes-great-teaching-FINA
The above was written partly by Professor Rob Coe. He has done a lot of really important work and one of the main themes of the above is whether or not you can even tell what great teaching looks like. See his further piece here. http://54.72.152.175/blog/414/
Ive tried to categorise my links below so that the aspects of great teaching are easier to find.
Cognitive Science
*Daniel Willingham incredibly important piece on how the brain actually works: http://www.aft.org/
/files/periodicals/WILLINGHAM%282%29.pdf. This is based on his book Why dont students like school which is blooming brilliant.
*Deans for Impact: http://deansforimpact.org/pdfs/The_Science_of_Learning.pdf
*The legendary Rosenshine (2012) paper which is very clear on how to teach effectively https://www.aft.org/
/defa
/files/periodicals/Rosenshine.pdf
Basically anything by The Learning Scientists. Most notably their stuff on effective study strategies http://www.learningscientists.org/
Learning about Learning: http://www.nctq.org/dmsStage/Learning_About_Learning_Report
The limits on working memory:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2864034/
Learning versus performance what actually is learning?: http://bjorklab.psych.ucla.edu/
/Soderstrom_Bjork_Learning_
(http://pps.sagepub.com/content/10/2/176.abstract) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMixjUDJVlw) If the above link doesnt work try this https://teaching.yale-nus.edu.sg/
/Making-Things-Hard-on-Yo
Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Learning http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/practiceguide.aspx?sid=1
Daniel Willingham on teaching to how most students learn instead of differentiating: http://www.ascd.org/
/Teaching-to-What-Students-Have-in-Com
The testing effect: http://psych.wustl.edu/
/Roediger%20&%20Butler%20Encycloped
Dual coding/Multimedia instruction: the Rosenshine piece above is great at summarising how to make all of these findings relevant in your classroom. Another very important piece on the use of both auditory and visual processing in instruction is here http://homepages.gac.edu/~dmo
/edtech/introtomultitheory.pdf
Direct Instruction/Discovery based Learning
*One of the most heavily cited pieces available on Instruction models vs. discovery models. This is a classic and a must read http://cogtech.usc.edu/publicat
/kirschner_Sweller_Clark.pdf
One of the authors of that piece has a lengthy interview here where he also references the genesis of the 2006 piece https://www.researchgate.net/
/284019119_An_Interview_with_
They followed up with an article in this journal http://www.aft.org/
/de
/files/periodicals/ae_spring2012.pdf (this journal edition also contains the Rosenshine piece linked above and a long piece by Pasi Sahlberg on the Finnish system. It also has another piece by Willingham about educational disadvantage.)
A lot of the evidence for direct instruction comes from Project Follow Through which looked at a number of teaching methods. Not only did it help students learn the material better but their affective scores (enthusiasm/motivation etc) were also increased. So anyone who says it is boring is in contradiction with the evidence. See here https://pragmaticreform.wordpress.com/
/02/direct-instruct
/ and here https://fhss2.athabascau.ca/
/OpenMo
/Engelmann/theory.shtml
PISA 2015 report on science shows a negative correlation between science performance and enquiry based instruction. The strongest negative correlation is associated with increased practical and hands on work. My theory for this is that teachers assume that by having done a practical students have learned something, when in fact this is highly unlikely. See Pg 63 and on from the link. http://www.keepeek.com/
/pisa-2015-results-volume-ii_978926
Most of the above was influenced by Greg Ashman, and his work on Pisa has been fantastic https://gregashman.wordpress.com/?s=pisa
Knowledge and skills
Knowledge is important. Without facts your brain doesnt work as well at digesting new information and solving problems. There are those who would have you believe that in the age of Google and Wikipedia you dont need expansive and deep knowledge. They are wrong.
ED Hirsch: http://www.aft.org/
/fil
/periodicals/LookItUpSpring2000.pdf
*Dan Willingham: http://www.aft.org/
/americ
/spring-2006/how-knowledge-helps
*This is a really great piece tracing the history of how domain specific knowledge and domain general knowledge (i.e. skills) have been approached within psychology. It also discusses the difference between biologically primary and biologically secondary knowledge. Long, but excellent. http://andre.tricot.pagesperso-orange.fr/TricotSweller_revi
On critical thinking:
http://www.aft.org/
/de
/files/periodicals/Crit_Thinking.pdf
Content is King Tom Bennett: https://www.tes.com/article.aspx?storyCode=6389557
Greg Ashman with links: https://gregashman.wordpress.com/
/new-south-wales-governm
/ Ashman is a warrior against Dewey-inspired progressive education and all of his pieces are well-researched and feature extensive links. See also https://gregashman.wordpress.com/
/teachers-of-australia-t
/ and https://gregashman.wordpress.com/
/
/faq-direct-instruction/ for more links
Thinking Skills are clearly not a thing: http://chronicle.com/
/yes-colleges-do-teach-critica
/105930
Daisy Christodoulou on the history aptitude test: https://thewingtoheaven.wordpress.com/
More findings which show the importance of domain specific knowledge, here regarding digital literacy http://www.sciencedirect.com/sci
/article/
/S016028961630129
David Didau on Sugata Mitra and core knowledge with lots of important links http://www.learningspy.co.uk/
/is-it-just-me-or-is-sugata-
/ (see also http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/
/mitras-sole-10-rea
for specific takedown of Mitra)
AfL
Dylan Williams wrote an incredibly influential document on assessment which led to the AfL movement: https://weaeducation.typepad.co.uk/files/blackbox-1.pdf
*I have never been convinced by AfL due to the performance vs. learning conundrum: http://www.learningspy.co.uk/myths/afl-might-wrong/
See Williams response here http://www.learningspy.co.uk/
/dylan-wiliams-defence-forma
/
Here is a blog I recently found and really like with his take on it https://furtheredagogy.wordpress.com/
/formative-assessmen
/
This is a good review of the evidence on feedback which, despite what people say, is highly mixed. http://www.learningspy.co.uk/assessment/why-feedback-fails/
Marking:
The tide is slowly turning against marking. Ofsted have made their position pretty clear: https://www.gov.uk/
/Ofsted_inspections_clarification_for_s
Sean Harford, director of Ofsted: https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/
/marking-and-othe
/
Government working party on marking: https://www.gov.uk/
/Eliminating-unnecessary-workload-aroun
EEF marking review tl;dr mark less but mark better. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/
/evidence-on-
/ along with detailed takedown of their conclusions https://farrowmr.wordpress.com/2016/
/29/eef-marking-review/
David Didau: http://www.learningspy.co.uk/featu
/why-i-like-tick-n-flick/ and associated click throughs
Michaela school use whole-class feedback approaches which are discussed in a great many places including here https://pragmaticreform.wordpress.com/
/marking-is-a-hornet/. These are becoming more popular due to MCSs massive online presence.
Dylan Williams on feedback here and in other places http://www.dylanwiliamcenter.com/is-the-feedback-you-are-g
/
Yellow box method a la teacher toolkit: http://www.teachertoolkit.me/2016/03/20/marking/
Greg Ashman on Book Looks with links https://gregashman.wordpress.com/
/
/is-book-sampling-valid/
Meta-syntheses and policy
Education policy is more often than not driven by ideology rather than facts. Politicians who have no experience of teaching go off to some other country and come back proposing a new magic bullet. Its easy pickings because you can never expect to see impact until a lot further down the line and if there is no impact then you can ignore it and if anything at all improves then you can act as though it was your change that affected it. This is why people like Hattie are so important so that we can have an evidence-informed discussion about how to actually improve our systems.
*Have schools in the UK improved? No. This is a really great paper where he discusses how politicians and other stakeholders have insisted that our schools are improving when in reality they arent.
One of my favourite pieces ever. http://www.cem.org/
/publications/ImprovingEducation2013.pdf
Know thy impact Hattie: https://www.routledge.com/education/posts/8508
Hattie is generally considered top dog when it comes to this kind of thing, but Ive seen a couple of things recently which have made me question that. See here for a really intelligent critique http://evidencebasededucationalleadership.blogspot.co.uk/
/
Hattie on academies, performance related pay and the politics of distraction https://www.pearson.com/hattie/distractions.html
Ashmans piece on PISA https://gregashman.wordpress.com/
/
/three-myths-about-pisa/
Sutton Trusts toolkit very heavily used but not without its critics https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/
/teaching-lear
The London Effect: https://www.tes.com/
/row-breaks-out-over-cause-londons-sta
Tom Bennett on Sir Ken Robinson and other junk policies: https://www.tes.com/
/tom-bennett-reviews-%E2%80%98creative
Should systems set up to look at learning styles? No. http://www.montana.edu/facultyexc
/
/mar7_Pashlerarticle.pdf
Student/Teacher Led Education Policy
Newish section here which focuses more on the policy aspect. Nick Gibb hates student led or centred education: https://www.gov.uk/
/nick-gibb-the-evidence-in-favour-of-te
A recent piece by Anthony Radice points to the disaster that is French education here https://thetraditionalteacher.wordpress.com/
/how-much-mor
/
Pupil premium and closing the gap
Headline figures: https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/
/o
/key-areas-education and http://www.suttontrust.com/
/20
/10/1NCEE_interim_report.pdf
Lots of important statistics from Mary Bousted https://www.tes.com/
/teachers-their-own-cannot-compensate-
See also below regarding Grit and Duckworth. Duckworth and others are classic magic bullet people. If only students had this one trait then everything would be fantastic
http://www.newyorker.com/cu
/culture-desk/the-limits-of-grit
A recent study shows that poor American students who start college after a basic lay-theory session where they are taught about not giving up and how the setbacks they face are normal and temporary have an increased chance of completing their course http://www.pnas.org/content/113/24/E3341
This post by the Learning Scientists highlights the need to be aware of educational disadvantage and the fact that student awareness of such disadvantage can reduce their performance http://www.learningscientists.org/blog/2017/1/5-1
Student Welfare
School health and education survey: http://sheu.org.uk/content/page/young-people-2015
Mental health and exam stress is making it big in the news at the moment. Lots of people in the blogosphere have been writing about this (see here for summary https://teachingbattleground.wordpress.com/
/the-child-men
/) and the NHS has written about it and specifically how it is covered in the press here http://www.nhs.uk/
/Pages/Exam-stress-linked-to-teen-suicid
More data on how young people nowadays are smoking less drinking less etc. http://www.content.digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB22610
Mindset and genetics
Carol Dwecks seminal work Mindset is a whole book but she summarises her key findings here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/
/the-secret-to-raising-
/
One noted problem with the theory has been termed false growth mindset and has been acknowledged by Dweck and discussed here: http://www.learningspy.co.uk/
/why-the-false-growth-mindse
/
Robert Plomin is the leading advocate of a more genetics based approach due to his work on TEDS (Twins Early Development Study) and a discussion of his findings is here: https://www.tes.com/
/growth-mindset-theory-overplayed-and-
(Meanwhile some schools have clearly taken it too far https://www.google.co.uk/search
)
Recent publication on genes in education:
http://www.nature.com/articles/nature17671.epdf
There is also Duckworths theory of Grit which is highly influential and Nicky Morgan is a big fan of. Its also highly open to critique http://www.newstatesman.com/
/talent-trap-why-try-try-and-t
See also three star learnings take on grit full of references. https://3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com/
/to-grit-o
/
*ED Hirsch and other traditionalists argue that the only way to actually close the gap is through the systematic accumulation of facts by the less well off https://atlantaclassical.org/
/Reading-Comprehension-E.D.-H
Jan 2017 following an article in Buzzfeed there has been a renewed focus on Growth Mindset. Andrew Old wrote a good summary here https://teachingbattleground.wordpress.com/
/is-growth-min
/
Another good piece here on the role of deliberate practice and nature in acquiring expertise (see also the Willingham review of Peak) https://3starlearningexperiences.wordpress.com/
/expertise
/
Behaviour
An overview of behaviour as it stands https://www.gov.uk/
/Below_20the_20radar_20-_20low-level_20
*Obviously as per Andrew Old good lesson planning isnt the final thing but it is a variable you can control. See other lies about behaviour here: https://teachingbattleground.wordpress.com/
/the-top-five-
/ Andrew has a lot of pieces about the importance of a solid behaviour policy.
*Good stuff on behaviour is quite hard to come by. I imagine this is because research on behaviour is difficult. This is Tom Bennetts recommendation to government for ITT on behaviour https://www.gov.uk/
/Behaviour_Management_report_final__11_
. He is also here https://www.tes.com/
/tes-pub
/how-we-solve-behaviour-crisis . Basically anything written by Bennett on behaviour is worth a read.
This digest from a working paper shows that being exposed to disruptive peers in schools can actually have a significant effect on future earnings especially amongst disadvantaged students http://www.nber.org/digest/may16/w22042.html
This ridiculously interesting article about police interrogation techniques isnt directly about teaching. However, we spend quite a bit of time trying to get to the bottom of the story. Perhaps as per the article a non-confrontational approach would be most effective? http://www.wired.com/2016/05/how-to-interrogate-suspects/
Joe Kirby teaches at Michaela where they have a very traditio
