EdBlogs

Where does she work? Jo Boaler is currently a professor of mathematics education at Stanford University, and faculty director of YouCubed, a provider of new and innovative techniques and resources for the teaching of maths. She completed her PhD in mathematics education at King's College London. Quick facts: Born: 1964 Nationality: Britis...

When you have a leadership position within a school, at any level, there are two aspects of wellbeing that need your attention: your own, and that of those you lead. The two are related: if you do not safeguard your own wellbeing, you are less likely to be fully professionally effective, and you are not modelling the approach to wellbeing you want ...

When it comes to introducing competition into your classroom, opinion is both fierce and divided. Is a little healthy rivalry useful for motivation? Or should students focus solely on their own achievements? Psychologist Bradley Busch and teacher Dave Marsham discuss the science and practicality of this controversial topic. "It can motivate and ins...

I recently taught a PSHE lesson to a year 8 group on the assumptions we make about people. I started with the word "Australian" – students said common judgements were that they would say "g'day", wear cork hats, like beer, wear shorts, have barbecues all the time and be good at rugby. Then we moved on to "American" – apparently they like burgers, a...

Optimism: it's all about whether the glass half full or half empty, right? Wrong. It turns out that most people have the wrong idea of optimism. So what exactly is it? How important is it? And, most crucially, can you learn to be optimistic? Let's start with a quick test. You can choose only one answer per question. 1) You get lost driving to a fri...