The Language of Science One my favourite factoids (which I cannot recall the source of and therefore substantiate) is that pupils learning GCSE science encounter more new words than when they study a foreign language. Usually directed at MFL teachers. Usually they don't believe me! It is quintessentially captured in the following quote from Via, … Continue reading TSFL: Teaching Science as a Foreign Language
Venue: Wig and Mitre in Lincoln on 21st Spetember 2019 The event was superbly organised for @EducatingLincs by Helena Brothwell and Mark Wilkinson and after being asked to present on worked examples following a moan (from me about a lack of exciting edugatherings in the north) on Twitter I got signed up! So pleased I did as it … Continue reading Worked Examples at #BrewEdLincs
This snippet will work well in the majority of subjects and has taken inspiration from several sources. The examples given are from my science lessons. The Worked Example Effect It first peaked my interest when I saw a maths example where problems were shown to pupils "in parallel" to help manage cognitive load by really … Continue reading Science Snippet 3: Worked Example Effect
Earlier this year I wrote a piece for TES explaining a new routine which the T&L team at my academy had introduced the previous summer (follow this link for the TES article). I could have blathered on for thousands of words about tracking the speaker but with a guideline from Jon Severs of about 1500 words there … Continue reading Tracking the Speaker 2: Reasons from Research
Since reading Adam Boxer's excellent blog on the Slow Practical, in which he explores the cognitive demands placed on pupils by practical work, I have been carefully guiding pupils through experiments. As Adam points out, one of the disadvantages is that it takes more time and while practical work does need to be guided for … Continue reading Science Snippet 2: Integrated Instructions
Question trees can be really useful aids for pupils to work logically through a process and build up both declarative and procedural knowledge while being supported in their thinking. They provide an opportunity for pupils to deepen their understanding independently as they progress through a task. This week my Year 10 class were having a … Continue reading Science Snippet 1: Growing a Question Tree
This is my new thing. Teaching by contrast. My department know this is my new thing because I keep going on about it. A couple of them have tried it out too. They put up with a lot. Bless them! Teaching by contrast works well when you have underlying procedural knowledge to teach across a … Continue reading Teaching by Contrast
Disclaimer: While this post is probably most useful for science teachers, it does follow and include the key principles of using dual coding and also concrete examples. Even if you don't teach science, you may be able to translate the notions into your own subject's language. So do not be discouraged and read on! Plus, … Continue reading Dual Coding – A Concrete Example
The Misconception Interleaving has been under significant scrutiny recently on Edutwitter. A blog post from Jonathan Firth and a TES article from Mark Enser in particular have sent my mind spinning away on this topic. Too many diagrams (like the one below), showing interleaving, create the misconception that you should teach different topics each consecutive lesson. This … Continue reading This is Interleaving: a Concrete Example
Inspired By a Maths(?) Story Some of the buzzy terms flying around education at the moment are things like 'spaced practice' and 'interleaving'; having read some articles about how people have reordered their whole curriculum programmes to be both 'spaced' and 'interleaved' it put these concepts on a pedestal for me. I saw them as … Continue reading Thinking Differently with Extra Thoughts
Mr T's Blog: Keeping it simple! 