To describe, to explain, to justify: a satirical farce
PLEASE NOTE: the events set out below are fictional. Any similarity to a discussion at a meeting of GCSE examiners is purely coincidental. Teacher 1: Now are we all clear [...]
Philosophy of education
Within the philosophy of education I am primarily concerned with the relationship between academic disciplines and school subjects.
Vague verbs: a curricular problem
This is slightly complex post on an issue on which I have not fully reached my own conclusions. I do however think that it outlines a deep problem in curriculum theory, and [...]
Against genericism: a response to Steve Turnbull
This post needs to be read after reading Steve Turnbull’s critique of this blogpost. It is addressed directly to Steve. ______________ I should like to begin by [...]
Do you respect your pupils?
I had a brief Twitter exchange yesterday in which I tried to explain that traditionally-minded teachers are not child-hating sadists who see children as ‘sub-human’. In [...]
Sailing on a rising tide of knowledge
Imagine for a moment a cannon positioned on the south coast of England, pointing at France. The artillery officers identify a target on the French coast and calculate exactly [...]
Speaking truth to power
I awoke this morning to see that Cambridge Professor Mary Beard had been in an argument on Twitter with UKIP donor Arron Banks. Banks had claimed that immigration into [...]
How can supporters of grammar schools win the debate?
This might seem an odd blog title to be written by someone who disagrees with grammar schools. But, if the explosion of edu-blogging has done anything, then it has been to [...]
Genericism and the crisis of curriculum
What follows below is a talk I gave to the British Curriculum Forum event on Saturday 18th June 2016. Generally the talk was well-received, even amongst those who disagreed [...]
Pupil-led enquiry: the reading problem
It is widely known (and I think accepted?) that a person’s ability to comprehend something they read is closely tied to their prior knowledge of that subject. This creates [...]
Is ‘learning’ a noun or a verb?
This is in some ways a pointless question as it is of course both: the OED allows us both. I do however have significant concerns over how ‘learning’ gets used as [...]
Teaching facts
There are some words that bring people out in a rash in the contemporary world of education. ‘Memorisation’ is one of them. ‘Facts’ is another. There is something [...]
The problem with the grammar school debate
Grammar schools, those schools in England that select pupils on ability at the age of 11, are once again in the news due to the government allowing an existing grammar school [...]
Are all classrooms unique?
The following two statements have become something of an orthodoxy in education in recent years. (View 1) Pupils are unique and classroom contexts are unique – this means [...]
An apology from a traditional teacher
This is a rather unusual post from me, but it follows on the back of a nagging feeling that, too frequently, it is implied that if you advocate a traditional education for [...]
Is ‘understanding’ a thing?
We hear a lot about ‘understanding’ in education: it is a common curriculum and assessment term, particularly in ‘generic’ models such as Bloom’s Taxonomy. It is [...]
Why does truth matter in teaching?
Consider the following propositions, all of which are ones that pupils in school are likely to encounter in their futures: (1) Homeopathy is an effective treatment for a [...]
“I’m a teacher, not a…”: the problem of mission creep in schools
It is a well-known problem that schools suffer from ‘mission-creep’. It is common these days for just about every problem in society to be placed at the door of [...]
