I'm pretty excited about this week's TOT. It's got heaps in it. T1 is an indispensable guide for anyone working teacher training or development. I've been closely following the work of the Institute for Teaching over the past year or so and they're doing some really exciting stuff. I think it's fair to say this is potentially the best starting point for teacher development that I've seen to date.

T2 is, to my mind, a summary of a very important and timely article. Prompting us to all re-consider our relationships with issues such as Grit, and Growth Mindset, which are currently buzzing around in education.

T3: If you want to read one article on critical thinking, make it this one.

T4 will be a godsend for many maths teachers. It's an excellent maths website with at whole Y7 curriculum planned out.

T5, fun games to use for bonding or brain beaks in the classroom.

And I'll let the rest of the headings speak for themselves.

Enjoy : )

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The Learning Curriculum: Indispensable (free) resource for teacher development, via @ifteaching

If you’ve got anything to do with supporting teachers through coaching, professional development, mentoring, or any other avenue, I highly recommend checking out the ‘Learning Curriculum’, created by the @ifteaching. It aims to answer the following three key questions.

Each of the 8 chapters of this concise document follows a well set out structure (sections) that’s easy to understand and digest. Concepts are organised under various lesson planning stages. For example, section 1 outlines what teachers should consider when planning for a lesson.

Each chapter then goes on to share a research summary that relates to this portion of the planning process. This one is from chapter 6. How can I help students to gain fluency?'

Next comes a very concise summary of a key study. This one is from chapter 3, ‘How can I help students to attend to learning?'

After which a principle related to that particular chapter is presented. This principle relates to chapter 2. ‘What can I teach students in this time period?' (I like how they haven’t said ‘in this lesson’ here, clearly the lesson is often a sub-optimal planning unit).

I particularly like the next section of each chapter, which contains a series of analogies, which I assume are there to help boost transfer of the concepts. I found this analogy – from chapter 3 ‘How can I help students to attend to learning?' – to be particularly ‘illuminating’.

Practical applications are then dot pointed, which could be to prompt discussions about how to apply this in ‘our’ classroom. These applications link to chapter 4. ‘How can I help students to think hard about key ideas?'

And finally, there’s an assessment to check for understanding! Each chapter contains at least one hinge question, with some containing several. Which of the following responses is correct? (Again, from chapter 3 on helping students attend to learning).

All in all a highly valuable resource for anyone looking to facilitate some professional development for themselves or others. It’s wonderful to have these principles brought together concisely in one place. Nice one @hfletcherwood, @mccreaemma and team! Ps: A question for @hfletcherwood. I wonder if it could be more effective to present only one analogy for each chapter and prompt readers to create their own at the end of the chapter? (as part of the check for understanding). The additional analogies could be… included later on after learners have had the opportunity to play with creating their own. Ricardo Minervino has shown that creating one’s own analogies can boost transfer in some cases. 
(But, the effect could be from having, not creating the analogies) (danielwillingham.com/daniel-willing…)

Just an idea… Anyway, readers and leaders can (and should) check out The Learning Curriculum here! (drive.google.com/file/d/1zj3bJe…)

How much can we really develop Grit and Growth mindset in our students? via @dividwmoreau

Brain training, Growth Mindset, Grit, Deliberate Practice, and the Bilingual Advantage. Each of these has gained prominence in recent years as holding promise for developing ‘21st century learners’ and better students/humans more generally. But what evidence is there of this? A new (and very concise) paper by @davidwmoreau , Brooke Macnamara, and Zach Hambrich, entitled ‘Overstating the Role of Environmental Factors in Success: A Cautionary Note’, warns of the dangers of taking many of these claims at face value. It reviews the literature and argues that, for each of these ideas, the evidence is increasingly clear that initial claims about the efficacy (/existence) of Growth Mindset, Grit, Delib Pract, Bilingual Advantage are misplaced. Here’s a summary of their points. Brain Training:

Mindset:

Grit:

Deliberate Practice:

The Bilingual Advantage: (This one surprised me most. I thought this was totally a thing)

But so what? Who cares if the claims of the proponents of these approaches are a little overstated. What’s the harm in that? Moreau and colleagues argue that there are two main costs. The first is to do with how the time/resources could be better spent.

The second, and to my mind most important, impact is the ‘blame game’ that can occur if we falsely assume a disproportionate role of effort in ‘success’ (in any domain). The beliefs that this paper argues against are widely held (who hasn’t heard of the 10,000 hour rule?).

These beliefs, if held widely, can shape public opinion and policy decisions. E.g., If the public believes that individuals have more agency over their own success than they do, politicians are justified in blaming the poor and reducing social welfare (Think:'The American Dream')

In the classroom, this prompts teachers to re-consider how fair it is to expect our students to do better through getting ‘Grittier' or developing ‘Growth Mindsets'. Fave GM quote: ‘It's kind of hard to have a growth mindset when I keep doing shit on tests, sir' – @mrbartonmaths

This article has further made me think about the books/advice on developing Grit, Growth Mindset, etc, as well as the genre of self-help books more generally. If these traits are more fixed, would we be better to emphasise more Stoic approaches, or ‘Radical Acceptance’? And finally, for a fascinating exploration of the role of luck in success (and how MASSIVE it is!), I highly recommend @sbkaufman ’s article in Scientific American: (blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-mind…)

You can find the paper that this thread was based on here: (psyarxiv.com/sv9pz)

Daniel Willingham on Critical Thinking, via @DTWillingham

Mathsquad.org, a free and fully planned Y7 maths curriculum with spaced repetition, interleaving, and heaps of practice!

MASSIVE list of ice breakers and games, very happy I found this one

Findings from a recent meta-analysis on teacher coaching, via @MatthewAKraft

If you make or use video in the classroom, you should read this article, via @DonaldClark

The Good Behaviour Game, how to get the rowdy ones into line in a fun way, via @EducEndowFoundn

P-hacking explained (via a comic), xkcd

#inspiringquote, via @DTWillingham

If you teach about the life cycle of bugs you need this (gross) video

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