EdBlogs

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...

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...

Whilst relatively few in the education world are aware of it, the impact of the American educator and academic Professor Eric Donald Hirsch Jr on the UK government's education reforms since 2010, has been profound. Reformers have claimed that 'progressive' child-centred education from the 1960s has been 'curriculum-lite' and damaging to children's ...

Best known for: Sir Ken had the distinction of being the most-watched speaker on TED.com. To date, his four TED talks have been viewed over 66 million times, with his 2006 talk being the most viewed in TED's history. He is one of the world's leading advocates for the development of creativity and innovation in education. He argues th...

Too many teachers don't like technology. As a teacher who trains other primary teachers how to use technology, I find this frustrating because, with the right approach, it can completely transform teaching and learning. I have seen first-hand the distant relationships that can exist between teachers and technology, and can see that – in some cases,...