40 of most fascinating edu-threads from the last 4 months:

↓ 1/ @C_Hendrick on the history and evidence around open-plan classrooms

https://x.com/C_Hendrick/status/1815721436029309298

A quick thread on 'retrieval resistance':

(co-authored with ace memory psychologist William Wadsworth @examstudyexpert)

↓ @examstudyexpert Retrieval practice has the potential to be powerful for revision.

However, despite our efforts to educate students on this approach, it isn't always embraced wholeheartedly.

And so, we must also put in place steps to overcome what Wadsworth calls 'retrieval resistance'.

(I tried to post this thread a couple of weeks ago but I didn't get to finish it smh)

For the last 8 years, over at @Steplab_co, we've been working on a project to codify HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEACHING.

A long-ish summary of what we've learned:

↓ @Steplab_co One of the essential ingredients of effective professional development is the provision of concrete & granular teaching 'strategies'.

These can be used as examples of 'what good looks like', which teachers can translate for their context, and practise in a productive way.

CONTINGENCY BLINDNESS

(aka why graded lesson observations don't work)

A mega-geeky thread I've been sitting on for 5 years:

↓ Imagine we wanted to create a system for evaluating doctors' effectiveness.

Suppose we designed a rubric outlining all the actions effective doctors typically perform:

→ Prescribe painkillers
→ Refer to specialists
→ Order blood tests
→ Conduct physical exams
→ etc.

Q. How does time spent in direction instruction vs peer interaction vs practice/assessment impact learning? And does the answer differ by subject?

Burgess et al analysed the performance and data from 250+ teachers to answer these Qs.

Here's what they found:

↓ We know that teacher choices affect student learning and lives.

But we know less about exactly *how* the 'macro' moves of the classroom predict learning.

When multiple teachers within a school all use the same routines, special things happen.

A short thread on collective acceleration:

↓ First up, routines have the potential to be powerful tools for student learning, feelings of belonging, and responsive teaching.

However, their power is only unleashed once they become automated.

For the last 8 years, over at @Steplab_co, we've been working on a project to codify HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TEACHING.

A long and geeky thread on what we've learned:

↓ @Steplab_co One of the essential ingredients of effective professional development is the provision of concrete & granular teaching 'strategies'.

These can be used as examples of 'what good looks like', which teachers can translate for their context, and practise in a productive way.

Routines are valuable, but only once they have become automated.

Until then, we must treat them as an investment:

↓ Routines are sequences of action which are prompted by a cue, all of which happens with minimal thought.

They have the potential to enhance student learning, confidence, and belonging.

And free up teacher cognitive capacity to monitor learning and be more responsive.

Routines are deceptively powerful.

A homage (& 6 benefits):

↓ A routine is a sequence of actions that gets triggered by a 'cue' (aka prompt), all of which happens largely unconsciously and with minimal cognitive effort.

Alongside modelling, 'rehearsal' is one of the most essential ingredients of effective professional development (PD).

3 ways to do it well:

↓ First up, rehearsal is when we practise a future change to our teaching outside the classroom, either on our own or (even better) with the support of a colleague or coach.

(it's not role play—that's only when we practice something NOT rooted in a real future scenario)

One of the most potent ingredients of effective professional development (PD) is 'modelling'.

What modelling is and 3 ways to do it well:

↓ Basically, a model is an example of an aspect of teaching that is:

A) Effective, and
B) Can be replicated by others

16 of the most interesting education research papers from the last 16 weeks:

(all open source 🔓)

↓ 1/ Study exploring the use of retrieval practice by teachers in England

→ finds they use various formats, including quizzes and short answer questions, to enhance learning and are motivated by benefits beyond just the testing effect​.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mb…

Q: Is instructional coaching any good?

A: It depends on what it looks like.

A quick breakdown of the Steplab model:

↓ One of the most powerful and reliable ways to improve teaching is through instructional coaching.

This involves one teacher working with another teacher, to help them take small, personalised steps to improve their practice.

Want to think smarter about teacher development?

Imagine it like a burger:

↓ Getting better as a teacher (or helping others to get better) is not an easy task.

This is due to things like the paradox of expertise (the best teachers make it *look* easy), the knowing-doing gap, and habit inertia.

'Means-ends conflation' is responsible for some of the biggest misconceptions (and rifts) in education.

Let's unpack it:

↓ One of the main aims of school is to create professionals who can further our understanding of the world...

who can critically analyse and solve a diverse range of problems within a specialist domain.

RoUgH'nReAdY summary of my presentation at ResearchEd National Conference #rED24

↓ So. Effective teaching is important.

But not all aspects of effective teaching are intuitive, largely due to the fuzzy feedback loop between teaching and learning.

(teaching is a bit like playing darts blind)

🚨 EXCITING NEWS 🚨

Steplab is teaming up with TLAC, to offer (for those schools who want it) an extra-powerful suite of PD tools & resources...

Deets + invite to free clip analysis webinar with Big Dawg @Doug_Lemov below ⤵️ @Doug_Lemov BACKROUND

1500+ schools use Steplab to power their PD.

A bunch of these also use Teach Like A Champion (TLAC), as part of a codified approach to effective teaching.

But, these two frameworks weren't integrated, creating frustration and friction...

UNTIL NOW 💥

Directing student attention (with gesture and more)...

↓ What our students attend to is what they learn.

Removing distractions, promoting participation, and optimising thinking time can help orchestrate attention…

30 of most interesting edu-threads from the last 3 months:

↓ 1/ @xpateducator with his fav evidence-informed teaching papers

https://twitter.com/xpateducator/status/1782977003047764205

On thinking time:

↓ What our students attend to (and when) is ultimately what they end up learning about.

One way we can orchestrate this is by maximising the proportion of pupils who participate.

On the (playing-field-levelling) power of high participation teaching:

↓ Attention is the gatekeeper of learning—what our students attend to is ultimately what they learn.

However, the things we teach in school are not always inherently interesting for students, and so we must pro-actively orchestrate student attention.