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Geoff Petty

Hexagonal Learning

2012-01-28T14:52:41+00:00January 28th, 2012|English, learning, SOLO|

The mantra of all successful lesson observations these days is that students should be seen to be making progress. Perhaps the best way to show that you’re having an impact on their knowledge and understanding is to show that the learning is ‘deep’. By that I mean, knowledge that transfers from students’ working memories into their long-term memories. Students understand new ideas by relating them to existing ones. If they don't know enough about a subject they won’t have a solid base from which to make connections to prior knowledge. Students are more likely to remember learning if they "make their [...]

What's deep learning & how do you do it?

2011-11-09T00:08:16+00:00November 9th, 2011|learning|

So, deep learning. What's all that about then? I've just been dipping into Evidence Based Teaching by Geoff Petty and then cross referencing his advice with Why Don't Students Like School? by Daniel Willingham. How sad is that? Fairly sad for a Tuesday evening when I've got a cold and my wife's already gone to bed. Sad, but I think necessary. You see, I've come a long way in past few months. I've begun to have a healthy scepticism for whatever anyone tells me. I've also begun to re-evaluate my position that skills are more important than knowledge which, at least [...]

Learning Journeys

2011-09-21T22:00:27+01:00September 21st, 2011|learning|

Last month I wrote a post asking whether there was a point to starters. Luckily for me, Darren Mead got in touch to tell me about what he has termed Learning Journeys. Ever since I've been absolutely smitten. The idea is incredibly simple: at the beginning of the lesson, provide students with a visual representation of the learning which will take place during the lesson. That's it. A visual learning objective. Geoff Petty in his book Evidence Based Teaching shows that using this strategy along with a traditional learning objective plus an activity which links to students' prior learning has an effect [...]

Is the starter finished?

2011-09-03T22:15:56+01:00September 3rd, 2011|Featured|

For as long as I've been teaching (12 years) the received wisdom on the 'right' way to teach is to deliver a three, then four (or even five) part lesson: starter, guided bit where teacher is allowed to talk, main course and pudding. Sorry, too juvenile to resist. Last of the four, but in no way the least, is of course the plenary. There's lots I could say about the efficacy of this structure, but broadly speaking I'm not too concerned: yes it may have been a shot across the bows of the professionalism of teachers, but it's certainly helped to [...]

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