I listened to the Freakonomics podcast last week titled: Bad Medicine, Part 1: The Story of 98.6. The podcast is worth a listen just to learn about how we came to use 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit as the basis for a healthy body temperature. However, what struck me was the discussion of how medicine has moved from […]

In the 16th June edition of The Economist last year the cover and lead story focuses on what matters in schools, i.e. teachers.  The article reiterates prior studies that found that the top 10% of teachers impart three times as much learning as the bottom 10%. The magazine has an interesting briefing paper on Education reform which […]

Teachers ranked highly in pupil surveys have consistently been those who achieve the best grades from their pupils. This is the conclusion of an MET (2012) study using Cambridge Education’s Tripod Project survey questions referred to as the 7Cs.  Caring about students – “The teacher in this class encourages me to do my best.”  Captivating students […]

It appears that teachers in the US share similar frustrations to teachers over here.  The CEP surveyed school teachers to learn their views on the current state of the profession.  The report entitled “Listen to Us; Teacher Views and Voices” summarises these findings and concludes that teachers are concerned and frustrated with shifting policies, over emphasis […]

Useful summary from Rhode Island Department of Education on giving effective feedback and clarifying what is effective feedback. Their five qualities of effective feedback: prioritised, specific, actionable, supportive and timely. Interesting to compare to SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely.  Their toolkit is used to train appraisers and provides practical examples.