EdBlogs

What is it?  ​It depends who you speak to. For some, homework is a way to develop students' independent learning skills and ensure they have understood – and then consolidate – work from the classroom. Others, meanwhile, contend that it's a largely pointless tradition that brings stress to young people and their families, robbing them of much-...

What is it? The process of putting students into classes that have a mix of abilities, rather than streaming them into sets alongside others of a similar attainment level. The practice is still quite rare in England's schools (both primary and secondary), with most leaders opting for the more traditional approach of setting by ability, particularly...

What is it?  The belief that smaller class sizes mean better results for pupils. It's an idea that has huge support among parents, who (understandably) follow the logic that if there are fewer pupils in class, their child will get more attention and be more likely to succeed. The public are quick to jump on the bandwagon too. In his book, Davi...

​Confession time: when I was a new teacher, I got my year 11 form group to do a learning styles test to help with their revision. While they answered the questionnaire, I did it too and discovered that I am, apparently, an auditory learner. Yes, I thought, that makes sense; I like listening to people talk, and I have the radio on a lot. But, my (au...

What is it? Growth mindset is Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck's theory that learners need to move away from the belief that skills are innate and unchanging – a "fixed mindset". Instead, the thinking goes, students must move towards a "growth mindset", where they believe their capabilities and skills can be developed through effort and...