EdBlogs

Have you heard of academic buoyancy? While it isn't widely known about, it may be one of the most important areas of psychology for education professionals. It sounds similar to resilience but there are subtle differences between the two. Academic resilience often focuses on groups of students who face specific challenges – those with special educa...

When I took my A-levels and GCSEs, I imagined them being marked by wise, Einstein lookalikes with great tufts of white hair, locked away in ivory towers. I pictured these sages ruminating over the points I had carefully laid out, raising an interested eyebrow from time to time, and often pausing to reflect on my argument. The idea of doubting ...

We've all heard that it's the most important meal of the day, but research has made it official: breakfast is linked to better performance in the classroom. According to a study from Cardiff University in 2015, the odds of an 11-year-old student achieving above average in a test were twice as high for those who ate breakfast compared with those who...

The short answer is, of course, that they don't. Not unless they get effective, structured feedback from their students. This is where 'formative assessment' comes in. Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam, in their seminal work, 'Inside the black box: raising standards through classroom assessment' define formative assessment as encompassing: "all those act...

Where does she work? In early 2018 Allen took up a new role as director of the Centre for Education Improvement Science (CEIS) at the Institute of Education (IoE). The Centre focuses on leading path-breaking research about educational system improvement. This encompasses the science of learning and teaching For three years previously (2015 - 2...