This post is part of a series – a symposium – on AfL. The previous posts are well referenced and the result of much thought. My contribution is more anecdotal and speculative.

Part one of the series is by by Adam Boxer here. In it he sets the context of the following posts.

Part two is by Rosalind Walker here. She discusses the nature of school science and implications for the classroom.

Part three is by Niki Kaiser here. This post explores concepts, threshold concepts, misconceptions, knowledge and understanding.

Part four is by Deep Ghataura here. It is about the validity of formative assessment.

My post is about writing in science, how assessment often distorts writing and how we might be able to improve both scientific writing in school and its assessment.

Measuring and Improving The Quality of Science Writing in Schools

After 18 years of secondary science teaching, I left secondary school to become a primary school teacher. I had a suspicion that I would learn a lot. For three of my four primary years, I taught in year 6: SATs year. I had to learn quickly about teaching reading, writing and mathematics. But I have an issue with writing.

My experience is limited to a small group of primary schools in socially disadvantaged areas where literacy and numeracy is (rightly) prioritised. On one principal’s wall was an optician’s chart reading:

As soon as they are able to, the pupils write extended texts every week. Continue reading “Measuring and Improving The Quality of Science Writing in Schools” →

Nine months ago I posted a blog which was the translation of a page of a Japanese text book (here and here). Mary Whitehouse saw it and introduced me to Shinjiro Ogawa – a Japanese science teacher on secondment to Italy. We met at the ASE conference. Shinjiro introduced me to several Japanese colleagues, all of who are working on fascinating projects.

Shinjiro has been very generous sharing Japanese resources – here is a year 6 activity on electromagnets (from: http://happylilac.net ‘Chibi-Musu-Drill’)

You could use Google Translate and a bit of editing to read this, but I’ve done the first page for you (see below)

I hope you enjoy it!

@benrogersedu

Continue reading “A Japanese Year 6 Electromagnet Worksheet” →

Two weeks ago I wrote a short blog about how I wanted to structure my trust’s initial teacher programme (here).

I asked for feedback and advice and I got it (thank you). The principal advice was that we’d focussed heavily on skills and strategies without looking at the theory. I think teaching strategies are very important – the cognitive load of the classroom is enormous: if a novice teacher can focus on practising specific proven strategies, she will be able to process more information in the classroom and learn to be a better teacher faster (I’ve written about this here).

But understanding learning is important too – and I don’t think we’ve neglected it. In fact, I’m proud of what we’ve done.

So I thought I’d share what we’ve learnt (through worked examples, completion problems, goal free activities, retrieval practice, spaced practice, interleaving, concrete examples, etc.).

The title of this post reflects the view that ITE in England is like the Wild West. There are great opportunities, but also great risks. I am sharing, because I like transparency; I’m looking for feedback and perhaps, if you like what we do, you’l recommend someone to train with us.

Continue reading “Teacher Training: “The Dodge City of the Education World” (Levine)” →

We teach Key Stage 2 children (7-11 year olds) how to solve interesting and sophisticated maths problems (see here). Many children are comfortable using the Singapore style bar-model methods to support mathematical problem solving.

But the only physics problems we set pupils at primary are data-handling types (typically bar charts).

I have written previously about cognitive load theory and problem solving (here and here). But to teach problem solving, you need problems. Continue reading “Physics Problems for Primary Pupils” →

In July last year, the principals of Paradigm Trust gave me a task: redesign Initial Teacher Training from the ground up.

The brief was to develop skillful, knowledgeable, thoughtful  teachers for our pupils. I could use the knowledge and skills within the Trust and bring in expertise where we have gaps.

We are lucky to have a partnership with the University of East London, who support us by evaluating our programme and moderating our judgements so that we know we are fulfilling our legal obligations and not, in our enthusiasm, missing anything important.

So what does the programme look like?

Continue reading “What if you could develop Initial Teacher Training (ITT) in any way you wanted?” →

My maths trainees have been teaching problem solving. These are the rules we have developed:

Rule #1: Don’t give your students problems that you haven’t taught them how to solve.

The pupils who solve the problem won’t have learnt much from it (see here). The pupils who don’t solve it have learnt nothing. Continue reading “Seven Rules for Teaching Problem Solving in Maths.” →

My trainee maths teachers love setting students challenging, interesting problems. I see students scribbling away trying to be first to solve it, or staring at the table, or scribbling away pretending not to stare at the table.

The feeling that the trainees (and I) get when the first couple of students solve it is great. That’s the seduction, but it’s important to take a wider view.

First, the students who solve it may benefit. I am uncertain. Cognitive Load Theory shows that working with a high cognitive load inhibits learning. Continue reading “Seductive Problems” →