Will Thalheimer

The problem with progress Part 2: Designing a curriculum for learning

2021-11-19T09:27:05+00:00February 14th, 2013|Featured, leadership, learning, myths, planning|

Can progress be both rapid and sustained? We start out with the aim of making the important measurable and end up making only the measurable important. Dylan Wiliam Does slow and steady win the race? 'Rapid and sustained progress' is Ofsted's key indictor for success. Schools across the land chase this chimera like demented puppies chasing their own tails. But just when when you think you've gripped it firmly between your slavering jaws, the damn thing changes and slips away. You see, the more I look into it, the more I'm convinced that progress cannot be both rapid and sustained. You cannot [...]

The Learning Pyramid

2021-12-11T15:14:55+00:00October 8th, 2011|myths|

Consider this little gem that periodically does the rounds in education circles: (This is just one of the very many variations on the Learning Pyramid doing the rounds on the internet. For more examples visit The Corrupted Cone of Experience.) Seductive, isn’t it? The false sense of security comes from the fact that it bears out and validates our experience as teachers: we get to know our subjects so much better because we teach them, so it follows that the best way to retain new information is to teach it to someone else. And look: there are some numbers [...]

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