Super excited about T1 this week. It's a list of things that are a waste of time and we should stop doing in schools. EVERY school leader should read this post!

T2 is an insightful exploration of threshold concepts and balancing the power of inquiry-based methods of instruction with their inherent limitations.

T3 contains a key point, which is that giving kids tests when they don't yet know the content has limited learning effects (though I'll add that it can often help them to realise what they do and don't know, as well as their teachers)

T4 an interesting tidbit

T5, you should really check this out if you're a maths teacher who is trying to help students understand what maths really is.

T6, Based on the title I thought it'd be pretty predictable, but I was actually really surprised at how great the ideas were that Doug Lemov came up with for teaching his kids to drive, based on CLT!

T7 follows on from last weeks post on GEMS (which was about order of operations), to using SMEGS with algebra.

The titles of T10 to T12 can speak to themselves. And T13 was a post by a maths blogger that's pretty unrelated to maths, but that I really enjoyed this week.

Thought Shrapnel this week is me sharing a mistake I recently made…

 

Enjoy : )

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10 low impact activities to do less of, or stop alltogether, via @teacherhead

'10 low impact activities to do less of or or stop alltogether'. To improve, we need to stop teachers doing good things to make time for even better things (quoting @dylanwiliam here). But we can also straight up stop doing bad things too! Via @teacherhead

Caveat, not totally sold on these two points. Purpose of both of them is to stimulate a very valuable process (reflection and detailed planning respectively), in a way that makes the thinking of the reflector/planner visible. That said, reflections much better scaffolded…
And enabled though conversation and shifting of culture, but I think that written reflections by students have a place in classrooms when there isn't time to chat 1 on 1 with all students (e.g., an exit ticket can be a short reflection). Also…
A clarification. I'm only suggesting detailed plans for teachers in training as they force in-depth thinking and make this visible to a mentor. Congrats on 4 million hits @teacherhead!

Creating lightbulb moments for teachers in teacher education, via @HFletcherWood

“Lightbulb moments for teachers: threshold concepts in teacher education”. @HFletcherWood has done it again! Making connections between diff research areas and the offering invaluable insights. This first snippet reminds me of @dylanwiliam‘s EFA PD pack.

This snippet brings together a creative idea to incorporate into a PD session to help the penny drop for teachers that ‘memory is the residue of thought' (if you're US based, you could actually use a penny! Might make it more memorable, just ensure it's memorable in right way).
True to form were thoughtfully offered a list of limitations to an insights based approach and reminded that, just because teaching this way is hit and miss, with learning hard to measure and less than concrete outcomes, it's still powerful enough to make time for.

Limitations of the testing effect: Re-studying can be better if knowledge is insecure

Combining dual coding and elaboration: How drawing can enhance retention, via @EmmaELYoung

A homework task ‘what is mathematics', based upon @mrbartonmaths and @FryRsquared podcast, via @lukepearce85

Cognitive ‘road' theory. Using CLT to teach driving! via @Doug_Lemov

SMEG: A reliable approach to teaching algebra, via @danicquinn

Major Teaching myth: “Always ask before you tell”, via @teacherhead

Many social psychologists are impeded by their ideological aversion to evolutionary psychology (this applies to ed too!)

“Many social psychologists are impeded by their ideological aversion to evolutionary psychology”. Super interesting article.

via @Psych_Writer. Parallels with ideological debates in education…

Stimulating quote from Pinker too. Super important we don't let our beliefs about what it would be nice to be true get in the way of what is. BTW, I'm not educated in this field and am not taking sides, but find the patterns in this debate relevant and illuminating.

Telling yourself that you're multi-tasking when you're not can improve performance

Maths teachers: Over 100 maths games. Amazing resource!

Website: Five books, the best books on everything, ht @adamboxer1

On the power of engaging with strangers, via @EmathsUK

>>>THOUGHT SHRAPNEL: MAKING A MISTAKE IN CLASS<<<

‘Gotcha’, making a mistake in class discussion

This week I was running a bit of a class discussion, trying to get students to build on each others’ ideas in maths and explore some concepts together.

At one point I noticed one student wasn’t paying any attention, I put it to him ‘Harry (pseudonym), what do you think?’,

Harry stared at me blankly… After a while he said something like ‘I lost concentration sir’, to which I replied ‘Yeah, I know. Please make sure that you are listening to your classmates whilst they’re speaking so that we can learn from each other’.

Perhaps it was just me, but I felt like the mood shifted in the room. I immediately felt like I’d made a mistake.

Afterwards I reflected up what I’d done, and what message it had sent to students.

What I’d done is essentially send them a message which said ‘When I ask for your ideas in class, it might be because I’m genuinely interested, or… it might be a trap. So watch out!’

Bad move!!!

As I move further through my teaching career, my practices become more and more ingrained. I didn’t make this talk move after careful deliberation, it was more of a reaction. This makes it even more insidious. I need to be really careful about the kinds of habits that I’m developing in the classroom, and whether they add to, or detract from, the kind of culture of learning that I’m trying to build.

Related

2 Replies to “TOT071: What schools should stop doing, creating lightbulb moments, limitations of the testing effect, + more Twitter Takeaways”

    • Hey Timi, great question! I think it’d be ideal for me to just say something like ‘Harry, if you could tune back in that would be great.’ or ‘Harry, by listening to (the speaker) you can show them that you value what they’re saying’. Happy for other suggestions though 🙂 O.

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