Search Results for: Motivation and emotion

As school leaders, what are the problems that we can best focus our thinking and action on? What are the most useful questions to ask together? ***   School strategy problems: how can we make our school improvement efforts cohere?  … Continue reading →

My school improvement plans lacked imagination. I was struggling. There was no emotion, no adventure, no excitement. They seemed cold, clinical, rational, bureaucratic, bloodless. Sure, there were flaws a-plenty, but obstacles, adversities and conflict were avoided.  I wondered – what … Continue reading →

*** How can we improve our schools and our leadership? http://<div style=”background-color: #000001; color: white; padding: 20px; border: 1px solid #bedbe5; text-align: center; border-radius: 10px;”> <h3 style=”font-size: 84px;”>✉</h3> <h3></h3> </div> Here are the 100+ essays I’ve written and shared online. … Continue reading →

What makes kids motivated? And how can teachers and senior leaders get all kids working hard? In a five-post series, I’m exploring a few different ways of thinking about these questions. Last week, I borrowed from game theory and behavioural … Continue reading →

I’m a Deputy Headteacher. I write about teaching, research, curriculum and assessment, teacher training, leadership and the education system. A knowledge-led school Which knowledge? Knowledge transmission Knowledge organisers A 5-year revision plan Workload Marking Renewable Resources Drill and Thrill Mnemonics Pupil … Continue reading →

“Everybody has won, and all must have prizes.” Lewis Carroll’s Dodo, Alice in Wonderland Reward systems hold the promise of digital tracking of students’ effort and decisions in lessons. But sometimes they backfire, as this teacher points out: “When the … Continue reading →

It felt like the blogosphere increased in ‘noise’ in 2014. The Echo Chamber went from under 2,000 blogposts in 2013 to over 6,000 in 2014. Teacher voice online is proliferating, spurred on by the astonishing energy of the edubloggers’ commander-in-chief, … Continue reading →

Why do some kids arrive at secondary school already motivated to work hard, while some arrive demotivated to exert much effort at all in lessons? Picture two students you’ve taught: one who works incredibly hard, and one who seems incredibly lacklustre … Continue reading →