Tag Archives: Misconceptions

What’s important about subject knowledge?

Posted on 05/07/2014 by evidenceintopractice

I had the great pleasure to spend the day finding out about University Learning in Schools (ULiS); a two-year project investigating whether partnering up teachers and PhD research students could enhance KS3 teacher’s subject knowledge and raise pupil achievement in … Continue reading →

Posted in General teaching | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Conflicted about cognitive conflict

Posted on 20/06/2014 by evidenceintopractice

I’ve written before about the importance of challenging children’s misconceptions when it comes to teaching. “Psychologists from Piaget to Sweller couch learning in terms of the acquisition and refinement of schema. One of the limitations, I hypothesise, of direct instruction … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology for teachers | Tagged , , , , , | 14 Comments

Can teachers stop believing in nonsense?

Posted on 17/05/2014 by evidenceintopractice

I’ve written before regarding the prevalence of pseudoscientific ideas within education. Whenever I start to become a little optimistic that our profession can move out of the dark ages, something pops up to prove my hopes are premature. Just such a … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology for teachers | Tagged , , | 15 Comments

The Working Memory Model – a brief guide for teachers (and A’ level students)

Posted on 07/05/2014 by evidenceintopractice

It’s interesting to see how cognitive science has recently become interesting to teachers. The field has some useful models and findings when it comes to understanding memory and motivational processes; some of which are quite applicable to teaching. It’s worth … Continue reading →

Posted in Psychology for teachers | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Does teaching style really matter?

Posted on 05/05/2014 by evidenceintopractice

In the debate between more traditional and progressive approaches to teaching, one of the factors that serves to polarise positions are the unfair stereotypes of teaching style. Those favouring direct instruction are frequently painted as promoting ‘Gradgrind’ style rote-learning – … Continue reading →

Posted in General teaching | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Knowledge vs Understanding

Posted on 01/05/2014 by evidenceintopractice

Subject knowledge has enjoyed a recent rehabilitation within education. Whilst there are groups ideologically opposed to teaching content (either on the grounds that it ‘stifles creativity’ or amounts to ‘indoctrination’), the simple fact that children and schools are typically assessed … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy of education | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Teaching science using analogies: A worked example

Posted on 04/04/2014 by evidenceintopractice

Many aspects of science are difficult for students to learn because they relate to objects or processes we cannot (easily) see or compete with ‘common-sense’ theories (misconceptions) that children already possess. A recent study suggests that using analogies can help … Continue reading →

Posted in General teaching | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Assessment for learning: Misconceptions in Maths and Science

Posted on 10/01/2014 by evidenceintopractice

Misconceptions of scientific and mathematical concepts frequently prevent children from successfully learning some of the key ideas we teach in lessons. Whilst the student may ‘parrot’ back the correct answer at the end of the lesson, their ideas may not … Continue reading →

Posted in General teaching | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments