Been reading the @RoySocChem's very interesting Science Teaching Survey report and thought I'd snip a few bits out



> rsc.org/policy-evidenc…




If you thought behaviour was a problem in England, wait till you see Scotland and Wales...

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I need to stop tweeting about Inquiry and research papers about it.

I *know* it doesn't work. I've been in ~500 lessons over the last ~18 months, and in any case when the teacher was not explicit about something, a good number of students then didn't understand that thing. Two quick notes

1. It's worth asking yourself "hm, I wonder what type of student was most likely to not understand that thing"

If you aren't sure, the answer is "probably the one that needed to understand it the most."

Lots of people are now talking about attention and strategies for ensuring students are listening. I think that's a Good Thing, so here are some things that might help 👇👇

First - Ratio. I wrote this based on Lemov almost 4 years ago! Still useful imo!
achemicalorthodoxy.co.uk/2020/02/09/rat… The longer you spend questioning one student, the more likely it is that others in the room will switch off. Questioning the one student is important though, so you need to use techniques that keep everyone else involved.

achemicalorthodoxy.co.uk/2022/05/25/kee…

At TTA for the bulk of our verbal questioning we use a form of Cold Call that involves a) putting the name at the end of the question, and b) targeting specific students. So NOT hands up, NOT calling out, and NOT at random.

How do we target? Based on what?

> This will vary. Bread and butter check for understanding questions* would be targeted to students who tend to take a bit longer to grasp the concepts than others. So, if they get the answer right, we can make an "ok" inference that other students might also have grasped it.

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My position is that "getting students into a room and working as quickly as possible" is desirable, and mucking about with fancy and unpredictable teacher led activities is inefficient and undesirable.

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https://twitter.com/adamboxer1/status/1733550410957201586

By all means, do those activities if you think they are great for learning or motivation, just don't do them *then*. If you think that they will be effective when kids are wandering in, getting stuff out their bags, coming late, asking you for a pen, explaining why they don't >

Who are the Jews? Where did they come from? Why do ostensible "Europeans" or "white people" want to live in the Middle East?



A short (hopefully) thread with a historical overview.

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https://x.com/adamboxer1/status/1721298547914526966?s=20

Just over 3000 years ago, there was a region called Canaan. Lots of tribes lived there. They didn't much like each other. It's (roughly) the northern orange spike here:

Tonight's thread is in response to the number of people who have asked me variations on:

"I have a Jewish friend/colleague. Should I say something to them?"

The short answer is YES ABSOLUTELY

"I'm so sorry for what's going on, are you ok?" is 100% welcome. But please read on: I think it's a fascinating question, because it gets to the heart of some really important cultural understandings. To explore, we start with:

why would a person *not* ask the question, or *not think* to ask the question?

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Here are a few thoughts on what has happened, and what I think will happen. They are my opinion, and I make no claim to expertise beyond that available to any other layperson.

As ever, honest and open discussion is welcomed, racism, stereotyping and straw-manning is not.

> It is important to distinguish between three (admittedly related) concepts:

Justly going to war
Justly behaving within war
Justly exiting a war

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Absolutely glorious day today observing three teachers who are in their 4th year of teaching and trained with us and are absolutely SMASHING IT

What things did I really like? First, their confidence and control. They knew exactly what they wanted to do in the lesson and in what order. They were in total command of the subject and how they were going to allow it to flow, and were entirely unflappable and adaptable whatever cropped up.

Pete's asked a great question. How do you balance the need for spaced retrieval, which may not be related to the lesson content, with the need to activate and retrieve information that is related or necessary for the lesson?

READ ON

https://twitter.com/adamboxer1/status/1686812986936016898

I start every lesson with a Do Now based on prior content. Students complete in back of book. Purposes:

Settler
Spaced retrieval
Triangulating with homework

carousel-learn.medium.com/starting-your-…

A couple of months ago I had some thoughts about Ofsted changes that I wrote down. They aren't comprehensive or fully formed, but maybe they will help the discussion, and I checked them with some Smart People who said they weren't entirely stupid. > I also want to frame this by saying that I don't think Ofsted is an evil entity. I think that accountability is a good thing, I think that Ofsted inspectors and workers want to do a good job and are good people. I refuse to make this personal.

Anyway, here goes.

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i saw something really interesting in a lesson today, so thought i would share - one for all the diehard T&L nerds out there!

So, the teacher is going over a retrieval starter. one of the questions has multiple answers.

> they ask student A, who gives answer X. Teacher goes yup, great, and prepares to bounce it to someone else in a bid to get answer Y as well. He asks student B, who says "sorry sir, but that's what I wrote too", so he asks student C instead who says Y. All good, right?

WRONG

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THREAD about resources, tech, and getting better as a teacher:

I know it sounds weird, but I'm going to try and make a super important and profound point, by reference to something a bit flippant and silly:

THE DEBATE ABOUT CHISEL TIPS VS BULLET TIPS

Read on > So basically, the debate is about which one writes better. Historically, it's used as a bit of a joke, but it's a serious point tbh, if you write more clearly with one rather than the other, that's the one you should use.

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Been working with a bunch of senior leaders over the last few weeks who have asked me to help develop their "CPD Curriculum Maps" for next year.

My advice in most cases has been: don't do this.

> First, what do I mean by "CPD Curriculum Map": essentially, they write down all the things they want teachers to work on next year, and then spread it over time. E.g. Cold Call in first half term, then metacognition in the next etc. Build in accountability and QA cycles.

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A short thread on hypocrisy, partisanship, and why the #bekind crew aren't, and maybe have never been, all that kind.

E.g.
The #bekind crew HATE it when you talk about ability/intelligence. In the vid, Phil tells Tom he isn't clever enough to interview him.

https://twitter.com/adamboxer1/status/1653442669463445505

I mean, how can you believe in inclusion, equity or any kind of progressive political or ethical values and be totally fine with that kind of argument? If he'd said "I don't think you know enough about the issues" that would be one thing (still rude) but HE DIDN'T HE SAID CLEVER

🌍 HUGE NEWS FOR GEOGRAPHY TEACHERS 🌍

With the help of superstars @ThatBenRanson and @kate_stockings, we are mad excited to launch *Carousel For Geography*, a staggeringly expansive resource for all your KS4 geography needs.

READ ON AND SHARE GEOG BODS We've written two gigantic question banks to cover paper 1 and paper 2, complete with high quality diagrams, short answer questions and longer response. As ever, fully compatible with the Whiteboard, Quizzing and Feedback functions

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Absolutely fantastic to come back from a holiday and have half a dozen amazing edu-blogs to read. Here are the ones I've noticed, please do add more in the thread, and share so you can spread the bloggy love!

👇👇 If your lesson start is strong, the odds are the rest of the lesson will also be strong. Great tips here from @MrAWGordon_

https://twitter.com/MrAWGordon_/status/1646222386617024512?t=3dY8f5z0jlKCdgq0bGYG1w&s=08

I go to a lot of schools, and everyone is focusing on metacognition or dual coding or disciplinary this or curriculum intent that. Then I go into lessons, and teachers are asking questions and students are calling out answers or tchrs are picking ones with hands up. Fix that.

> If students know that they will never be asked to talk or share their opinions or give an answer, they'll switch off. They become passengers in lessons. They aren't pushed, their understanding isn't checked.

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Ok, time for a bit of nuance on the whole behaviour thing, and it starts with the fact that

Yes, I think discipline is important
Yes, I think rules are important
Yes, I think consequences are important

BUT

Yes, I also absolutely *hate* all of the above.

> The foundation of a free, liberal and democratic society is that people have agency and autonomy to live lives the way they want. We try to only take that freedom away from people when they might cause harm to others or themselves. But it's a *concession* to reality.

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The spectacle of left and right wingers arguing over the Nazis political positions is extraordinarily unedifying.

As if we can a priori infer anything about left or right wingers today from what the Nazis did. Toxic discourse.

https://twitter.com/OwenJones84/status/1635973633179889666

There's only one response to this discourse:

"I am willing to discuss what the Nazis did. I am willing to discuss if contemporary events or discourse are similar or different to what the Nazis did. I am not willing to discuss whether they were right or left wing. >

Here's a fun thing to think about in your lesson tomorrow: it's called the "repeated instruction game"

It goes a bit like this

👇👇 In pretty much every lesson I observe, I see a teacher on at least one occasion having to repeat an instruction.

**Most instructions that I hear delivered are repeated at least three times - trust me, I keep count**

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