EdBlogs

In the latest international Pisa tests, carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 22% of 15-year-olds in the UK performed at the lowest level of mathematics proficiency. In practice, this means they may be unable to carry out simple tasks, such as recognising that travelling four kilometres in 10 minutes means going...

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...

Good governance is vital to a school's success, which means that appointing the right people to your board is essential. Governors need to be willing to take on this demanding role around their day jobs, and have the necessary skills and commitment to make it work – all for free. It's not an easy ask, so we spoke to the experts at The Key for Schoo...

David Didau is one of a small but growing band of practising teachers who promote the importance of research informed practice. His popular blog The Learning Spy seeks to identify the most interesting and practically oriented research on teaching and learning that can support classroom practice. Didau is never afraid to challenge wel...

Not all revision techniques are equal: one of the most effective methods is retrieval practice, also known as the testing effect. Retrieval practice refers to any activity that forces you to generate an answer to a question. It has consistently been proven to help students improve retention and recall (and subsequently exam performance). So, h...