EdBlogs

When I started in teaching, I wanted to copy everything I loved about the teachers who had made a difference to me. By the time I started in the classroom I was very much in favour of being tough on kids and demanding superb output from them. I was anti-liberal and, looking back, too much so. Teaching English was a huge amount of fun, but in my ear...

One of the challenges faced by school research leads is the need to engage with colleagues who have different views about the role of evidence in bringing about improvement. In fact, it's not just the role of evidence that's likely to be debated – you might even face differing views about the evidence itself. In 2010, two researchers – Brendan Nyha...

Conference season has come to an end for another year, with politicians stepping down from their podiums and getting back to the business of running the country. There were bold statements from both Labour and the Conservatives – including rent control and an energy price cap, respectively – but what did we learn about the parties' plans for the fu...

A data analysis of the effect of coaching on teachers' practice and students' outcomes caused a bit of a stir recently. The meta-analysis of 37 studies found that coaching was an effective method of professional development for teachers. It is worth noting that coaching was most effective in small groups, however. In fact, it was half as effective ...

What is it? Lesson Study is a continuous professional development (CPD) programme, based on an approach widely used in Japan. Teachers work together in small groups – usually threes – to investigate, plan and then teach 'research lessons' that meet a shared learning goal. Colleagues observe each other in these lessons and give feedback on...