A bit on interpreting research and data this week (T2 and T3). There's also a great exploration of what makes expert teaching (T1) and much more. Hope you enjoy this week’s takeaways!

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What makes expert teaching? Via @PepsMcCrea (ht @MrStoneEnglish)

Continuing on a recent theme of helping teachers to get better (see my recent podcast with Sam Sims), this is a concise and insightful paper from Peps McCrea on what makes expert teachers expert teachers.

Here are two of the insights from the paper:

  • Expert teaching is defined as teaching that leads to rapid and robust pupil learning. However, this definition is limited because it failures to capture the mechanisms leading to pupil learning, because teaching isn’t the only thing that influences pupil learning, and because measuring teacher impact is hard (pg. 4)
  • Expert teachers possess better perception, are better able to anticipate the results of their actions (simulation), select and take action in more effective ways (execution), and carry out much more of their teaching on auto-pilot (conservation) than novices. (pg. 5)

If you’re looking to gain clarity around what makes expert teaching, look no further! (great ‘further reading’ section too!)

YouCubed is more than just sloppy about research, via @mpershan

I have a lot of respect for the rigor of Michael Pershan (our podcast discussion together here). He thinks deeply and has a lot of integrity in the way he approaches education research. This is a great piece.

Important mathematical considerations for reporting and interpreting Covid data, via @LeslieBienen (ht @brynhumberstone)

Great piece. Some takeaways: Don't frame risk in terms of a generic person, place risk assessment in the context of other risks, report raw numbers instead of percentages, and break down data by age category to avoid confounding variables.

Two great threads on the recent EEF report on what makes effective PD, via @PepsMccrea and @profbeckyallen (cc: @DrSamSims and @HFletcherWood)

This week I released an exciting new podcast with Sam Sims on his co-authored work on what makes effective professional development. It’s an absolutely fantastic report and here Becky Allen and Peps McCrea give their takes!

A concise introduction to Document Cameras in the classroom, via @brad_teacher

Document cameras are awesome! If you're unfamiliar, and would like a brief intro, this is a great short article by Brad Nguyen!

A great scaffold (what title would you give this paragraph, summarise in 2-3 bullet points) for reading an expository text, via @MissAVECarter

Do you have any pet peeves about reading? Here are my top ten (Pt. 1), via @ReadingShanahan (ht @margaretmckeow2)

Why explaining what NOT to do is a valuable form of PD (and 7 things teachers shouldn’t do!), via @teacherhead (ht @sally_jellett)

An introduction to Linnea Ehri, perhaps the most important reading research scientist in the past 40 years, via @ParkerPhonics

The Shanghai Maths Project Book Year 10, well worth a look, via @DSGhataura

Here’s the book: https://collins.co.uk/products/9780008144715

Just for fun: How to keep your lunch bag off the ground at recess, via @MrSilverman116

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