Competitive Control in The Classroom Back in April 2008, I left a well-managed, highly successful secondary school in East London.…
Visible Physics – My ASE Presentation
Many thanks to everyone who came. I really enjoyed it and am grateful to colleagues who chose to come. I…
Using Multiple Choice Questions to Assess High-Level Thinking in Science
We are very good at assessing retrieval through multiple choice questions (MCQs): they are easy to write and quick to…
It’s Hand-Wavy, But in a Good Way
In class, I’m mostly watching hands. There’s a problem I like to set which gets people’s hands waving like windmills.…
ResearchEd Ipswich Presentation
I’m really excited to be presenting at ResearchEd Ipswich next weekend. I’m talking about the power of visuals in science…
Developing better diagrams for problem solving
This post about an approach to developing better diagrams for problem solving from Barbara Tversky’s book: Minds in Motion. I’ve…
Why Gestures are Important
This post summarises the findings of a paper by Barbara Tversky: Gestures for Thinking and Explaining (2005). The author demonstrates…
Cartoons and Abstract Visuals
Barbara Tversky (Minds in Motion) discusses the cognitive power of cartoons to explain abstract concepts. In these three images, I…
Using Visual Explanations Leads to Better Performance
I have been listening to Barbara Tversky’s wonderful new book: Mind in Motion, about the roots of thinking in the…
Up and Down the Ladder of Abstraction
Yesterday I wrote about the importance of physical, experiential knowlegde of physics: a sense of forces and flow; of motion…
Reading for Learning 