Tag Archives: Robert Coe
Further problems with the ‘thinking hard’ proxy for learning
Because learning is invisible, we can only hope to measure whether students are making progress by observing proxies. Most people now seem to agree that certain activities which routinely take place in
Robert Coe’s foreword for #PsychBook
Right. It’s done. What Every Teacher Needs to Know About Psychology is off to the printers tomorrow and should be available in the next few weeks. It’s always a tense time when what you’ve
Where now for school improvement?
In the past, school improvement was easy. You could push pupils into taking BTECs or Diplomas (sometimes with 100% coursework) equivalent to multiple GCSEs; you could organise your curriculum to allow for early entry
The rise of the unscrupulous optimist
“Optimism, n.: The doctrine or belief that everything is beautiful, including what is ugly.” Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary Education is a project filled with hope. We stand, framed heroically against the setting
Tests don’t kill people
Tests Gun don’t kill people, rappers do Goldie Lookin Chain I spent the day yesterday at the Department for Education thinking about how best to cut down on the “unnecessary workload” associated with
Robert Coe on #WrongBook
Robert Coe, Director of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring at Durham University burst into my consciousness two years ago with his vigorous critique of the lack of evidence underpinning lesson observation. I’m
How do we know if a teacher’s any good?
Obviously enough, not all teachers are equal. But how do we know which ones are any cop? Well, we just do, don’t we? Everyone in a school community tends to know who’s doing
What might be a good proxy for learning?
Professor Rob Coe’s speech, From Evidence to Great Teaching, at the ASCL conference last Friday seemed to generate quite a bit of energy on Twitter, as did Carl Hendrick’s post on engagement. Coe
The Unit of Education
If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it. Lord Kelvin A lot of education research is an attempt to measure the effects of teaching (or teachers) on learning (or pupils.) But
Do you need a research champion in your school?
If you haven’t read this great article by Carl Hendricks, Director of Research at Wellington College, on the need for ‘research champions in schools, you should. In it Hendricks persuasively sets out the
Teaching for independence: thinking, memory & mastery
Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do
Squaring the circle: can learning be easy and hard?
Regular readers will know I’ve been ploughing a furrow on this question for quite a while now. Last June I synthesised my thinking in this post: Deliberately difficult – why it’s better to make
