A Remote Possibility: Using multiple-choice questions to build conceptual understanding at a distance

I have become slightly obsessed with multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in recent months. I first considered them properly when I read Daisy Christodolou’s book Making Good Progress (2017) a couple of years ago, and have learned more about them through the Assessment Lead Programme from Evidence Based Education (both the book and the programme come strongly …

An Open Letter to the Rt Hon. the Lord Adonis

Dear Lord Adonis I am writing to ask questions arising from your recent calls for schools to provide 'adequate online learning' on Twitter and criticism of those which are not doing so. I have posed my questions to you on Twitter on five occasions now (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), but you have not yet …

Can coronavirus make you lose your voice?

‘A high temperature and a persistent cough.’ It’s a short phrase which has embedded itself in our consciousness in recent weeks. We all know the tell-tale symptoms of COVID-19 and our minds flit to them at the merest hint of feeling under the weather. A lost voice does not feature on the list as far …

Leading Questions

Few of us would dispute the importance of questioning in the classroom, but it is less well explored as a leadership tool. I would argue that a well-chosen question is of great value when posed by a senior leader to a head of department, and that improving our questioning for leadership is a very worthwhile …

The Elmers of Edu-Twitter

Yesterday evening I had a happy but humbling Edu-Twitter experience which made me feel like the kangaroo in Elmer and the Stranger (McKee 2009). For those of you who do not have young children, I will briefly summarise the (less than complex) plot. Elmer, the patchwork elephant, meets a kangaroo who thinks he cannot jump, …

Are pupil progress meetings worthwhile?

I was struck by the recent Teacher Tapp results on pupil progress meetings, which indicated that three quarters of respondents have experience of them and that over half consider them useful. I have sat through many of these meetings, often as the senior leader in charge. I was always uncertain of their value and these …

Wagging the Dog: A Tale

In a faraway realm there lived a princess. She was almost old enough to take part in the annual Great Ordeal, which all young people from noble houses were required to enter. Expectations of this event were always raised when a child of royal blood was involved, and the turn of the princess was anticipated …

A Deeper Dive

Order beneath the chaos One day I dried the dishes for my mum. I would have been 16 or 17 and, believe it or not, this wasn’t as rare an occurrence as you might think. The reason the occasion stands out in my memory is not because of my act of drying the dishes, but …

Complicated Problems with a Curricular Solution

I was extremely impressed when I read the transcript of the ResearchED Kent talk from Becky Allen and Ben White (2019). As I commented in response, I think it is a sign of a good piece when it has the reader nodding along in pious agreement at certain points and feeling challenged to the core …

From Fear to Hope

(Hargreaves, 1976) ResearchED Northampton was the first event of its kind that I have attended. I shouldn’t have left it so long, but I have always been much more inclined to immerse myself in books, articles and blogs than to attend conferences and encounter actual people. I need not have worried; the day was superb, …