As Ben Goldacre’s Guardian Bad Science column debunks popular scientific myths, this book aims to do the same for education myths and unjustified claims.
If you feel a bit cross at the presumption of some oik daring to suggest everything you know about education might be wrong, please take it with a pinch of salt. What if everything you knew about education was wrong? is just a title. Of course, you probably think a great many things that aren't wrong. The aim of the book is to help you 'murder your darlings'. David Didau will question your most deeply held assumptions about teaching and learning, expose them to the fiery eye of reason and see if they can still walk in a straight line after the experience. It seems reasonable to suggest that only if a theory or approach can withstand the fiercest scrutiny should it be encouraged in classrooms. David makes no apologies for this; why wouldn't you be sceptical of what you're told and what you think you know? As educated professionals, we ought to strive to assemble a more accurate, informed or at least considered understanding of the world around us. Here, David shares with you some tools to help you question your assumptions and assist you in picking through what you believe. He will stew findings from the shiny white laboratories of cognitive psychology, stir in a generous dash of classroom research and serve up a side order of experience and observation. Whether you spit it out or lap it up matters not. If you come out the other end having vigorously and violently disagreed with him, you'll at least have had to think hard about what you believe. The book draws on research from the field of cognitive science to expertly analyse some of the unexamined meta-beliefs in education. In Part 1; 'Why we're wrong', David dismantles what we think we know; examining cognitive traps and biases, assumptions, gut feelings and the problem of evidence. Part 2 delves deeper - 'Through the threshold' - looking at progress, liminality and threshold concepts, the science of learning, and the difference between novices and experts. In Part 3, David asks us the question 'What could we do differently?' and offers some considered insights into spacing and interleaving, the testing effect, the generation effect, reducing feedback and why difficult is desirable. While Part 4 challenges us to consider 'What else might we be getting wrong?'; cogitating formative assessment, lesson observation, grit and growth, differentiation, praise, motivation and creativity.
“It is not the role of schools to solve the climate crisis or any of the other multiple crises now facing humankind. But it is powerfully their role, if they so choose, to equip young people as well as possible to deal with the consequences of the serious problems they will be inheriting from their elders, not betters.” Could it be our collective failure to respond effectively to the threat of the climate emergency or the challenges of the pandemic has been shaped to a small but significant degree by the nature of the learning that happens in our schools and a failure to enable young people to learn appropriately there? That question lies at the heart of this thought-provoking new book as it unpicks the concept of deep learning for future sustainability. This combines deep understanding with action, and links both to moral purpose. It is not enough just to be concerned about climate change - awareness must lead to action. The book draws on an eclectic range of sources, case studies of actual practice, critical perspectives and opportunities for reflection. The authors argue that first and foremost it is for educators and leaders to get on as best they can in their own school context to do what is both necessary and right to secure learning fit for a just and sustainable future irrespective of governmental lead in these matters. In doing so the authors set out some clear evidence-informed principles for school development and leadership that are central to the success of that mission.
Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Meet the Authors -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- 1 Multitasking -- The Myths -- The Research -- Myth 1: Multitasking allows your brain to work on several projects at once -- Myth 2: Multitasking is a useful skill that allows people to accomplish several tasks simultaneously in an efficient way, saving time and increasing productivity -- Myth 3: Multitasking helps you deal with distractions (prevents procrastination) -- Myth 4: Through practice, children, adolescents, and adults get better at multitasking -- The Tools -- 2 Examples -- The Myths -- The Research -- Myth 1: Using an example helps students generalize -- Myth 2: Examples make the topic interesting -- Myth 3: Making the material relatable or interesting automatically leads to learning -- The Tools -- 3 Focus -- The Myths -- The Research -- Myth 1: The ability to focus is inborn: some people have it, some people don't -- Myth 2: The best way to improve focus on real-world tasks is to avoid distractions by finding a quiet area with nothing to distract you -- Myth 3: I can still focus, even with my cell phone -- Myth 4: Getting distracted and letting your mind wander isn't a big deal -- The Tools -- 4 Testing -- The Myths -- The Research -- Myth 1: Testing only rewards test-taking skills and doesn't actually help students learn -- Myth 2: Testing promotes teaching to the test -- Myth 3: Testing doesn't measure learning -- Myth 4: There are two types of students: bad test takers and good test takers -- Myth 5: Testing causes undue anxiety and distress that is harmful to students -- The Tools -- 5 Learning Styles -- The Myths -- The Research -- Myth 1: Every person has their own learning style, some are visual learners, some are kinesthetic, some linguistic, etc
"A superb, crucial, blistering expose of all the myths about our education system that are all too often used to attack it. Melissa Benn again proves why she is one of country's most formidable education campaigners - and why the powerful should fear her. Owen Jones, Guardian columnist and best-selling author Never has it been more urgent to publicise the truth about what works and doesn't work in our education system. Debunking the ideology of marketisation, and exposing the half-truths that pass for objective reporting, Benn and Downs meticulously lay out the evidence: that a national system of comprehensive schools delivers the best outcomes. This hugely important book should be required reading for each new Education Secretary. Caroline Lucas, MP Opinions about comprehensive education are often made into easy-to-swallow sound-bites by media and politicians alike and whilst the benefits of a genuinely comprehensive education for all pupils are obvious, untruths have unwittingly evolved into hard facts. Based on Melissa Benn and Janet Downs’ work as part of the pioneering Local Schools Network, The Truth About Our Schools calls for us to urgently and articulately challenge unquestioned myths about state education. Benn and Downs have meticulously built an argument for its still enormously vital role, and rigorously challenge assumptions that: Comprehensive education has failed Local authorities control and hold back schools Choice, competition and markets are the route to educational success Choice will improve education in England: the free school model. Academies raise standards Teachers don’t need qualifications Private schools have the magic DNA Progressive education lowers standards Anyone who thinks that comprehensive education cannot deliver, that local authorities are the chief block to improving our school system, that competition and markets are the route to educational success and that private schools hold the magic DNA that can simply be transferred to other state schools will have their beliefs shaken by this blisteringly incisive book. .
This dissertation examines mainstream online discourses about school reform in the English-speaking world. Based on mythological theories of Barthes, Li vi-Strauss, and V. Propp as well as W. L. Bennett's theory of news, I develop a method for reading mythic structures in news articles: how authors construct crises and lost objects. My findings reveal discourses centered around 1. the mythic figure of the ineffective teacher and its eradication, and 2. the school that can satisfy a student's educational needs (including their need to enter the 21st century job market) and "learning style." In these discourses, the lost objects generate infinite activity for actors through their perpetual failure to achieve these objects. I show how a deliberately crafted myth can offer an alternative to the "bad infinite" dynamics of school choice and Standards and Accountability. My example for this is Sugata Mitra's project, School in the Cloud, a low-cost network of Internet stations in which children around the world teach themselves through the online encouragement of educated volunteers. While Mitra and his commentators partake liberally of prevailing discourses of "digital education," the School in the Cloud cannot be reduced to just another form of it. The underexplored human facilitator ("granny") reveals novel pedagogical possibilities and challenges, both in the Third World and universally. In dealing with myths of school choice, ineffective teachers, and the School in the Cloud, my goal is not to debunk the myths or engage with them on the level of their "factuality." Debunking discourses will merely strengthen the frame of the myth. The point is to make the frame visible, so that we, a collective subject, may select a new frame. I end by outlining how an "endemic" myth can provide a pedagogic project for a new American education.
How parents and educators can teach kids to love reading in the digital age Everyone agrees that reading is important, but kids today tend to lose interest in reading before adolescence. In Raising Kids Who Read, bestselling author and psychology professor Daniel T. Willingham explains this phenomenon and provides practical solutions for engendering a love of reading that lasts into adulthood. Like Willingham's much-lauded previous work, Why Don't Students Like School?, this new book combines evidence-based analysis with engaging, insightful recommendations for the future. Intellectually rich argumentation is woven seamlessly with entertaining current cultural references, examples, and steps for taking action to encourage reading. The three key elements for reading enthusiasm—decoding, comprehension, and motivation—are explained in depth in Raising Kids Who Read. Teachers and parents alike will appreciate the practical orientation toward supporting these three elements from birth through adolescence. Most books on the topic focus on early childhood, but Willingham understands that kids' needs change as they grow older, and the science-based approach in Raising Kids Who Read applies to kids of all ages. A practical perspective on teaching reading from bestselling author and K-12 education expert Daniel T. Willingham Research-based, concrete suggestions to aid teachers and parents in promoting reading as a hobby Age-specific tips for developing decoding ability, comprehension, and motivation in kids from birth through adolescence Information on helping kids with dyslexia and encouraging reading in the digital age Debunking the myths about reading education, Raising Kids Who Read will empower you to share the joy of reading with kids from preschool through high school.
