Effective Papers For learning

It was interesting to witness John Hattie's blunt dismissal of the notion of time being a significant barrier to teacher improvement at the London Festival of Education. Faced with a question along the lines of 'how can we improve when we don't have any time to do so?' (it wasn't this exactly but something like it), his response was a combative 'high impact teachers have the same amount of time as the rest'. There was an equally interesting audience response to this – a combination of semi-outraged mini-gasping, along with some tentative applause, illustrating the divisions and depth of feeling that the issue of time creates amongst teachers. Personally, I think it would be bonkers not to recognise the fact that teaching is highly time-pressured and that it's a real challenge to get everything done. That's not to say, however, that we couldn't make significant gains in our teaching by focusing on how we use time: here are some thoughts on two bi...

Well – after not blogging for a while I've been inspired (or more accurately, depressed ) into writing by the release of the latest OFQUAL report on the English GCSE fiasco/debacle/super-storm/apocalypse or whatever we now call it. Reading the report in full gives a distinctly different impression to the semi-hysterical response it received in the media, particularly related to the issue of who, or what, is to blame. Repeatedly, the report places blame on a combination of two key factors: poor exam design, and a system of accountability which is narrow and excessively focused on grades at one borderline of one subject. This combination means that the system fails, mainly because it generates too much pressure on schools and teachers to achieve certain numbers with certain kids, leading to the sort of distortions and mayhem we've seen this summer. So is it really such a poor exam design? I'm with Ofqual on this. As they have rightly identified, these English courses are a b...