A recurring theme in a lot of my CPD work is to explore what it means to be ‘evidence informed’ in teaching. I’ve reached the conclusion that it’s problematic if too much emphasis is placed on teachers needing to read numerous studies and research papers or seeking evidence for the efficacy of specific techniques. In practice, given that so many variables come into play from one teacher-class-subject context to another, it’s better to focus on some fundamental ideas that then inform a wide range of possible techniques. Jade Pearce has explored this area recently too and so has Andrew Whitworth with some excellent summaries.
Of course, plenty of people have made stabs at this before. There is the Great Teaching Toolkit, the Making Every Lesson Count model, the mighty MARGE from Shimamura and, of course, Rosenshine’s principles of instruction.
Underpinning all of these summaries is a model of the cognitive processes that constitute learning. Drawing on the work of Sweller, Willingham and others, the model I promote in my work does a good job of explaining most issues that arise.
