Author Archives: evidenceintopractice

The ‘artificial science’ of teaching: System vs Individual competence

Posted on 04/01/2016 by evidenceintopractice

Over the last two posts, I’ve been exploring the extent to which teaching is a natural ability and whether there is a formal or ‘professional’ body of knowledge or set of skills required for effective teaching. In summary: The ability … Continue reading →

Posted in Education policy | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

The ‘artificiality’ of teaching

Posted on 03/01/2016 by evidenceintopractice

In my last post, I argued that the universality and the spontaneous development of teaching leads to the conclusion that teaching is a natural ability. The post generated some really interesting responses, but one from @informed_edu made a direct attempt … Continue reading →

Posted in Education policy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Is teaching a ‘natural ability’?

Posted on 30/12/2015 by evidenceintopractice

What characteristics does a teacher need to be effective? The answer appears to be elusive as various reviews find that most teacher characteristics appear to have only marginal impact on student attainment. For example, looking at maths teaching Rockoff et al (2004) … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology for teachers | Tagged , , , | 21 Comments

Perpetual motion machines do not exist

Posted on 28/11/2015 by evidenceintopractice

Robert Fludd’s description of a perpetual motion machine from the 17th Century. The idea involved water held in a tank above the apparatus driving a water wheel which, through a complex set of gears, rotate an Archimedes screw which draws … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology for teachers | Tagged , , , | 13 Comments

How Should Students Revise? by @Nick_J_Rose

Posted on 10/11/2015 by evidenceintopractice

Originally posted on Starter for Five:
Name: Nick Rose Twitter name: @Nick_J_Rose Sector: Secondary Subject taught (if applicable): Psychology Position: Leading practitioner for psychology and research What is your advice about? How should students revise? 1: Practice testing: Use low-stakes…

Posted in General teaching | Tagged , | Leave a comment

What do UK teachers think of some common arguments about pedagogy?

Posted on 26/10/2015 by evidenceintopractice

An informal survey about what UK teachers think about some of the more contentious arguments surrounding pedagogy. If you’d like to take the survey you can click the link below. The responses to this second survey will be analysed at … Continue reading →

Posted in General teaching | 4 Comments

The science of learning

Posted on 02/10/2015 by evidenceintopractice

Here’s a really clear, short and applicable summary of the key areas of cognitive science which can be applied to the classroom: The Science of Learning The summary looks at six questions about learning, giving a quick summary of the science … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology for teachers | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments

How do we develop teaching? A journey from summative to formative feedback

Posted on 22/04/2015 by evidenceintopractice

researchED: Research leads network day, Brighton. April 18th 2015 The beginning of the new term means it’s taken a little while to get around to blogging about the great event on Saturday. This tardiness is additionally poor given that I … Continue reading →

Posted in Research Lead | Tagged , , , , , | 7 Comments

Research tools for teacher inquiry

Posted on 18/04/2015 by evidenceintopractice

Excellent day out in Brighton for the ResearchED: Research Leads network day. I’ll blog about the day properly later in the week, but the presentation is here: Developing research tools for teacher inquiry v1.3

Posted in Research Lead | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Ethical issues in teacher-led research

Posted on 05/04/2015 by evidenceintopractice

At the last research leads event at Cambridge, I raised the issue of ethical considerations where teachers engage in research. Here are some thoughts: First of all, it’s important not to over-state the seriousness of ethical issues in teacher-led research … Continue reading →

Posted in Research Lead | Tagged , | 5 Comments