EdBlogs

Angela Duckworth is currently professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. Before becoming an academic, she was a maths teacher and founded a non-profit summer school for poor students. The school won the Better Government Award for the state of Massachusetts. She gained her PhD in psychology from the University of Penn...

It's well-known that there's a timebomb in teaching right now – the sector is struggling with both recruitment and retention, while the population of pupils keeps increasing. And yet, many experienced older teachers, particularly women, feel that they are being performance managed out of their jobs, to be replaced by younger, cheaper staff. Those w...

Common sense suggests, scientific research tells you, and Pisa proves it; what makes the biggest difference to student outcomes is the teacher in front of the class. That means if you really want to improve the school system, you need to focus on teacher training and professional development. Teachers need the core knowledge to plan, deve...

"Can we make these reports a bit shorter? I didn't read it."  Carol, a recent addition to our governing board, peered expectantly at the chair while the rest of us looked something between aghast and infuriated. The chair faltered in surprise while Mr Frank, the careers advice lead – who had spent hours of his own time writing the report, on e...

"Let down your buckets!" Mr Wilkes shouts at window-shaking volume. It's 1993 or 1994 and I am in my earth science class, a subject I think would be called geography today. Mr Wilkes paces the front of the room, red-faced and miming semaphore. "The becalmed ship flagged back its reply. We need fresh water! We need to drink!" We all lean forward, th...