EdBlogs

Any discussion among teachers about good practice will get around, at some point, to learning outcomes. Conversation will often turn to Bloom's Taxonomy and the attendant verbs connected to the "lower" and "higher" order "thinking skills". And then someone will raise the idea of SMART targets, which, in conjunction with Bloom's, enable us to develo...

When it was announced earlier this month that sex and relationships education (SRE) was to be made compulsory in England's schools, it was met with relief from many teachers, parents and other groups who have long campaigned for the move. Young people have also been crying out for a more coherent approach to SRE; a recent survey from Barnados found...

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...

While the summer holidays are much-needed respite for weary students, research suggests that the long break can do more harm than good to their brains. This seems to be especially true for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, who often return to school after the summer holidays having fallen behind compared with their wealthier peers. This need...

Where does he work? Stephen Machin is currently a professor of Economics at University College London. He also works at the London School of Economics, where he serves as the director of the Centre for Economic Performance. He gained a PhD from the University of Warwick for his thesis on the impact of trade unions on economic performance. Quick fac...