EdBlogs

 For any school dipping their toe into evidence-based practice, journal clubs may seem like an obvious activity to try. It gives teachers chance to engage with research and discuss their ideas, and how they might implement the findings, with colleagues in a supportive, environment. But what does the research say about how journal clubs work be...

Natasha Devon, until recently the government's mental health champion for schools, said before departing from her post: Time and time again young people – and the people who teach them – have spoken out about how a rigorous culture of testing and academic pressure is detrimental to their mental health. At one end of the scale we've got four year ol...

The short answer is, of course, that they don't. Not unless they get effective, structured feedback from their students. This is where 'formative assessment' comes in. Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, in their seminal work, 'Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment' define formative assessment as encompassing: "all those act...

Teacher Katherine Birbalsingh received a standing ovation at the 2010 Conservative Party Conference, when she said: "The [education] system is broken because it keeps poor children poor." She went on to condemn a "culture of excuses, of low standards"; "the chaos of our classrooms"; and a "sea of bureaucracy". Birbalsingh has since regretted her co...

The central assertion of Doug Lemov's philosophy is that 'good teachers can be made'. Lemov is author of Teach Like a Champion, a book which has rapidly earned the status of 'teaching bible' among new teachers.  Lemov is also managing director of Uncommon Schools, a chain of 42 charter schools in the United States. His influence is spreading a...