Blog
Maths facts other than times tables
Posted on February 1, 2015
Nicky Morgan’s comments today have started a debate over whether pupils really do need to have to learn their times tables by the end of primary. I think they should and I’m not going to rehearse the…
Prosperity or democracy – why does education matter?
Posted on January 28, 2015
In modern discussions of education, the value of education is quite often defined in economic terms. We saw this very recently with Nicky Morgan’s comment that we could link subjects to later earnings…
New report by the Sutton Trust: What Makes Great Teaching
Posted on October 31, 2014
Today the Sutton Trust and the University of Durham have published a fascinating new report called What Makes Great Teaching? It sets out to answer that title question, as well as looking at ways we c…
Daily Politics soapbox – facts are vital
Posted on May 7, 2014
Today I was on the Daily Politics soapbox talking about why facts are vital for learning. Click on the image below to see the video on the BBC website. For more information about the research I refer…
In defence of norm-referencing
Posted on April 27, 2014
A couple of weeks ago Ofqual published their consultation on new GCSE grades. A lot of the media debate has focussed on the new 1-9 grading structure, but tucked away in the consultation document ther…
Why national curriculum levels need replacing
Posted on April 3, 2014
One of the main reasons why people say we need to keep national curriculum levels is because they provide a common language. I am all in favour of a common language, but levels did not provide this, a…
Replacing national curriculum levels
Posted on March 17, 2014
Life beyond levels? Life after levels? Life without levels? Lots of teachers, senior leaders and academics have come up with some interesting ideas for what should replace national curriculum levels….
Seven Myths about Education – out now
Posted on March 9, 2014
My book, Seven Myths about Education, was published this week by Routledge. It was actually first published as an ebook by The Curriculum Centre in June 2013. There are a couple of new additions to t…
Teaching knowledge is not indoctrination
Posted on March 2, 2014
Myth 7 of my book is ‘Teaching knowledge is indoctrination’. I found lots of influential educationalists who believed this, but I did also feel that it was not the most pervasive of the myths I identi…