We Are The People We’ve Been Waiting For
I recently received the following email: “Hi Andrew, Sorry for the direct email. I just came across your blog http://teachingbattleground.wordpress.com/ and I wondered if I could run something past you that might interest you. I’m working on a landmark independent documentary film that is coming out on education and I wondered might it be of interest for your blog. You can watch/download the trailer here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUODHGy60no The film, titled ‘We Are The People We’v

Health Versus Education
Now we do talk first about the disease in cases of bodily breakdown; and that for an excellent reason. Because, though there may be doubt about the way in which the body broke down, there is no doubt at all about the shape in which it should be built up again. No doctor proposes to produce a new kind of man, with a new arrangement of eyes or limbs. The hospital, by necessity, may send a man home with one leg less: but it will not (in a creative rapture) send him home with one leg extra. Medical science is content with the normal human body, and only seeks to restore it… …in bodily ills there is [no] difference about the ultimate ideal. The patient may or

Negative Correlations in Teaching

OFSTED Must Die
I used to wonder why teachers had it in for OFSTED, the school inspection agency. The inspections were a hassle, and very stressful, but they weren’t that often. If every five years somebody wanted to pop in and tell me my lessons were good then it wasn’t the worst thing in the world for me as a teacher. My experience was also that the judgements given by OFSTED inspectors seemed much better than those given by managers. They seemed more focused on learning and behaviour, and less on playing games and inclusions. As somebody who was concerned about poor schools then it seemed to make sense that this form of accountability existed and the schools which most failed their pup

Hard Work
“Contrary to popular belief, the brain is not designed for thinking. It’s designed to save you from having to think, because the brain is actually not very good at thinking… Compared to your ability to see and move, thinking is slow, effortful and uncertain.” Dan Willingham (2009) “Enjoyment of learning and attitudes … Are pupils happy with their work? Are they proud of it? Are pupils interested in their work and in what they are learning? Or are they easily distracted?” OFSTED (2009) “Kids, you tried your best, and you failed miserably.  The lesson is, never try.”