EdBlogs

David Didau is one of a small but growing band of practising teachers who promote the importance of research informed practice. His popular blog The Learning Spy seeks to identify the most interesting and practically oriented research on teaching and learning that can support classroom practice. Didau is never afraid to challenge wel...

Intuitively, it seems obvious that reducing the number of pupils in a class will improve the quality of teaching and learning, for example, by increasing the amount of high quality feedback or one-to-one attention learners receive. There is no doubt that parents like small class sizes. However, Professor John Hattie in his book, Visible Learning: a...

Tom Bennett (the Behaviour Tsar) recently stated that, "behaviour problems crush learning." Few would disagree. Yet many teachers see managing and controlling behaviour in the classroom as their greatest challenge - and fear. Just one disruptive child in a class can have a negative impact on a teacher's ability to teach and on other students' abili...

As far back as 1999, Professor Robert Coe, in his Manifesto for Good Education, argued that too many policies have been imposed on schools without adequate evidence about their likely effects and costs. This approach was as much a waste of public money and professionals' time then, as it is now.  While education may not be an exact science, Co...

Every year at BETT I play a little game: I go up to stalls and ask how they know whether their product makes a difference to what or how well children learn. In the past, I have been met with blank stares or told that "children just love it". This year was different, though: I was impressed by the number of companies that could talk about how resea...