EdBlogs

Homework has taken a lot of flack lately. Unduly so, I believe. There is a push – and even a hashtag, #ditchHW – to end the practice of teacher-prescribed homework for students. Most of those who oppose it cite either a lack of evidence for its effectiveness or a more pressing need for quality family time. I totally sympathise with the argument for...

Professor Simon Burgess of the University of Bristol says: "Having a good teacher as opposed to a mediocre or poor teacher makes a big difference. Teacher effectiveness matters enormously. A pupil being taught for eight GCSEs by all effective teachers (those at the 75th percentile of the teacher effectiveness distribution) will achieve an overall G...

Progress in neuroscience is rapidly influencing the way we think about teaching and learning. Cognitive scientists and behavioural psychologists now claim to have a better understanding – based on new empirical evidence – of how our minds and memories work, how and why we make decisions and how we learn. Cognitive science is an interdisciplinary fi...

If there is a holy grail in education, then it is probably to improve the education outcomes of our most disadvantaged pupils and narrow the performance gap between them and their peers. It has certainly been a key objective of successive governments. To tackle the long tail of under-achievement, the Coalition government introduced the Pupil Premiu...

It was finally happening. It took me a while (two years) to get there, but I now had the bit between my teeth and I was determined to get to the bottom of why disadvantaged pupils weren't making as much progress as their more advantaged peers. I also had some say for once – as a new chair of committee, I could finally make sure issues were properly...