A few weeks ago I wrote about the need for school leaders to be appropriately critical of educational and management gurus. One such guru is John Kotter, whose name is often found on lists of the world's leading management thinkers. But Kotter's influence is not just limited to business – last month, leading educationalist Andy ...
EdBlogs
I have previously drawn attention to differences in expert opinion over the usefulness of statistical significance testing, particularly in regard to randomised controlled trials (RCTs). Now it's time to look at what can go wrong with RCTs, and the questions you need to ask when judging the trustworthiness of the associated research findings. What ...
One of the challenges faced by school research leads is the need to engage with colleagues who have different views about the role of evidence in bringing about improvement. In fact, it's not just the role of evidence that's likely to be debated – you might even face differing views about the evidence itself. In 2010, two researchers – Brendan Nyha...
With the new year underway, you might find your resolutions being put to the test. You're tired and the gym is busy; the weather is awful and a huge bowl of pasta would cheer you up; you can't even think about retiring so why bother with savings? People love to set goals, but there can be such a big gap between intention and action that resolutions...
We were delivering a CPD session for teachers recently, and a storm started as we were leaving. While we were waiting for the rain to pass, one of the teachers commented that her students had a curious relationship with umbrellas. She noted that Year 7 students used them, as did sixth-form students, but those in the inbetween years often refused. W...