By Dom Shibli FCCT Dom is a Senior Lecturer in Secondary Science at the University of Hertfordshire. He is a proud founding fellow of the Chartered College of Teaching and contributes to the CogSciSci website. He applauds the use of cognitive science within the teaching profession but hopes that it doesn’t become the next fad […]
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Anhydrous, exothermic, fullerene, isomerase, medulla, monomers, ribosomes, titration, xylem… How many of these words do you know? For a scientist – or even a knowledgeable GCSE science student, no less – this list of complex words will trigger a wealth of background knowledge. For many pupils, however, the same list of words would likely provoke […]
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It might seem obvious, but language is all around us. In fact, I’ve bored my classes to tears for years by reminding them of this fact. It’s in the conversations we have, the things we watch and listen to on our phones and in the messages we send each other. “Yes, we know it’s there,” […]
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Reading the works of professional historians is one of the most rewarding ways of broadening students’ thinking about History. However, this can be a problematic undertaking! Historians will often present differing views on the same topic, leaving the reader bewildered as to what to believe. Nevertheless, thinking about seemingly differing arguments can be an enriching […]
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Rebecca Geoghegan responds to the launch of the Education Inspection Framework and considers I think the word that most resonates with me is ‘connect’. The new EIF outlines that inspections will focus on looking at the connections between all elements of education – the curriculum, the lessons, the books, the student’ outcomes – and consider […]
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As September approaches, many prospective and experienced teachers will be thinking about the new school year – thinking about how to ensure they enjoy the last of the holidays whilst getting organised and prepared for the year. With that in mind, I thought I’d share my top tips for anybody getting ready to start a […]
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By Sam Holyman As I settle down to my morning cuppa, one of the 100 million cups of tea that are likely to be drunk in the UK today [1], I wonder about how sustainable I am being, after I sling my used teabag straight into the black bin. Many of my friends collect their […]
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A personal view by Michael Maddison Biography: Michael Maddison served as Ofsted’s National Lead for history at Ofsted from 2008 to 2015. He now works as a leading educational consultant but still undertakes inspection work for Ofsted. He is Associate Vice President of the Historical Association, a director and judge for the Heritage EducationTrust and […]
Read moreI was surprised to hear that in the pre-2013 Key Stage 3 national curriculum there was only one statement about ratio, whereas in the current version there are ten statements. I was surprised because I did not remember, from my work on the development of the current curriculum, that there were so many, so I […]
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First impressions from Geography teachers of the new Education Inspection Framework (EIF) published by Ofsted in May 2019 are overwhelmingly positive. Let’s start with the fact that the new framework puts the focus of inspection on the school curriculum and specifically what is being taught in the classroom i.e. subjects – and in our case, […]
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