LeadingLearner

Powerful Dialogue in the Classroom #Nudge

Whether you are a parent or a teacher the suggestion that conversation can change “the brain and boosts its response to language, spurring lasting literacy skills” is worth taking note of. The research completed in early years needs to be viewed through the usual caveats about causation, single study, transferability … it’s interesting rather than definitive.

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Time to Head for the Bright Lights?

Whilst Dr Ben Laker is currently sunning himself in Hollywood, California before walking the red carpet and bright lights of the Oscars, his latest piece of work authored with Alex Hill, Liz Mellon and Jules Goddard has been published in Forbes and Dialogue Review. Continue reading →

What Impact Your Half Year of Teaching?

We’ve reached the mid-point of the academic year; the mornings are getting lighter and the days longer.  It’s worth reflecting on what impact your teaching has had in term of pupils’ progress during the first half of the year.

It’s important to understand that this is a question to reflect on not a means for holding teachers to account.  Since the days of pupils allegedly making three sub-levels progress a year we’ve used unreliable data to make invalid conclusions.  There is a lack of precision in the question, as well as any answer, which makes high stakes or even low stakes accountability nonsensical.  Continue reading →