Glossary of Terms
This page contains definitions of some key educational terms and acronyms. When you’re browsing an article, words in the glossary will be highlighted and you can hover over them for a definition.
Audience: All-through
How multimedia can improve learning and instruction
This article is based on an extract from a chapter in Dunlosky J and Rawson K (eds) The Cambridge Handbook on Cognition and Education. New York: Cambridge University Press. Over the past 30 years, educational and cognitive psychology have amassed encouraging evidence that human understanding can be improved substantially when we add appropriate graphics to […]
Banning mobile phones in schools: Reflecting on the debate
While there is no shortage of polarised (and polarising) debates in education, the question of whether or not schools should ban mobile phones has received particular interest in recent months. With a new law banning pupils from having mobile phones in France’s schools coming into force in September, and Damian Hinds and Amanda Spielman both […]
Is the use of mobile devices in schools really innovative? What does the evidence say?
This article reports the initial findings undertaken by a transnational team of academics and teachers funded from an Erasmus+ project entitled ‘Designing and Evaluating Innovative Mobile Pedagogies’ (DEIMP). We recognise that mobile technologies have been used inappropriately by students and do not deny that smartphones have generated problems and challenges for teachers, leading to concerns […]
Using technology for learning effectively to support key school priorities
Denbigh High School’s vision statement is “high achievement for all is our shared responsibility.” Part of the Chiltern Learning Trust and located in Luton, the school serves one of the most socio-economically deprived areas and communities in the region, yet the pupils make outstanding progress and reach exceptionally high levels of attainment in relation to […]
Video-enhanced observation: a new window on lesson feedback in a PGCE school placement
What if lesson observations were no longer isolated ‘snapshot’ activities carried out behind closed doors? What if feedback was no longer ‘given’ to a trainee, but developed ‘with’ a trainee, acknowledging good practice and agreeing developmental priorities based on video evidence and shared reflection? These were some of the questions driving a recent video-enhanced lesson […]
Anyone, anytime, anywhere: Using MOOCs to support teacher education
MOOCs (massive open online courses) allow anyone, anywhere, to access high-quality learning materials via online platforms. With a rise in online learning, and a growing recognition of how this can support continuing professional development (CPD) in the education sector, in 2016, the Girls’ Day School Trust (GDST) ran its first online course with social learning […]
Could picture books improve your students’ language and literacy skills?
Title: Using authentic picture books and illustrated books to improve L2 writing among 11-year-olds Published in: The Language Learning Journal, 45:1, 100-116, 2018. Authors: Anna Birketveit Hege Emma Rimmereide Both from Bergen University College, Norway. What did the research explore? The research explored how pupils’ writing skills were affected by reading picture and illustrated books, […]
A healthy dose of feedback: How I built a staff survey to improve wellbeing in my school
Just 74% of teachers who qualified in 2013 were still in the profession three years later, according to analysis of government data. While attracting, developing and retaining great teachers is a national issue, in the 2017-18 academic year, we made it a key focus for our school and appointed a Director of Staff and Pupil […]
Does using edtech in maths help students’ attitude to learning and achievement?
Title: Using mobile technologies for mathematics: effects on student attitudes and achievement. Published in: Education Tech Research Dev, 66:5, 1119 – 1139 (2018). Authors and affiliations: Khristin Fabian Keith J. Topping Ian G. Barron All from the University of Dundee, Scotland. What did the research explore? The study investigated the effects of using Android tablet […]
Lost in translation? A look at how Lesson Study has been interpreted outside Japan
Many research projects about Lesson Study outside Japan miss its core components. Translated from the Japanese words jugyou (instruction or lesson) and kenkyuu (research or study), Fernandez (2002, p. 394) describes Japanese lesson study as ‘a systematic enquiry into teaching practice…, which happens to be carried out by examining lessons’. In its simplest form, we […]
Learning styles versus dual coding: which is better for retention?
Title: A test of two alternative cognitive processing models: learning styles and dual coding. Published in: Theory and Research in Education, 2018, Vol. 16(1), pp. 40– 64. Authors: Joshua Cuevas and Bryan L. Dawson, University of North Georgia, USA What did the research explore? This research explored two cognitive models – learning styles and dual coding. […]
How can we reduce teacher workload without affecting the quality of marking?
In 2016, a Department for Education (DfE) working group found that the obsessive nature, depth and frequency of marking was having a negative effect on teachers’ wellbeing and their ability to plan, prepare and deliver outstanding lessons. Marking was monopolising our working hours outside of the classroom to the detriment of our health and, ironically, […]
How technology can help you with feedback and questioning in the classroom
What does it mean? There’s a wide range of technology designed to assist feedback and questioning in the classroom. Used well, these devices and apps can give teachers access to the thinking (and mistakes) of a whole class at once, allowing them to swiftly intervene and adjust the direction of the lesson. They are many […]
Pose-Pause-Pounce-Bounce: a deep-thinking questioning technique
A simple technique designed to maximise the impact of questioning. What does it mean? Dylan Wiliam, a leading expert in formative assessment, criticises the typical questioning model, Initiation-Response-Evaluation, where a teacher asks a question, gets an answer and then responds themselves. Pose-Pause-Pounce-Bounce is a questioning sequence which is much more suited to elicit deep thinking. […]
How probing questions can help students to develop their understanding and ideas
Asking questions which encourage thoughtful, deep and more exploratory responses. What does it mean? Teachers can steer the thinking of students so that their responses go beyond the surface-level and into a deeper, more exploratory mode of understanding by asking well-planned, probing questions. Probing is effective as a strategy for one-to-one interventions, as well as […]
Think, Pair, Share: a three-step collaborative learning strategy that helps pupils consider questions in more depth
Giving students the opportunity to discuss questions with a partner before answering improves their engagement and learning. What does it mean? Think-Pair-Share is a simple, collaborative learning strategy with three steps: Think. Students consider a question individually Pair. Students discuss their ideas with a partner to refine their thinking and seek peer support Share. Selected […]
Dialogic Questioning: Benefits of putting students in the hot seat
Dialogic questioning is about focusing closely on one student during questioning to explore a particular concept or set of ideas in depth. What does it mean? While question-spreading is useful to encourage participation, sometimes it is valuable to spend some time engaged in extended teacher-student dialogue with one student. This exchange can be significant for […]
Cold calling: holding collective attention by putting pupils on the spot
Cold calling is a technique that creates an expectation that all students are ready to answer every question. This promotes attention, engagement and participation. What does it mean? Developed by Doug Lemov in Teach Like A Champion, ‘Cold Calling’ is designed to promote active thinking during whole-class questioning. Rather than asking for a volunteer, the […]
Say It Again, Better: setting high expectations by asking students to re-frame their initial answers
Teachers ask students to reframe answers using well-constructed sentences, technical vocabulary and more developed responses. This promotes deeper learning and high expectations for verbal answers. What does it mean? It’s normal for first responses to be half-formed as students think aloud and formulate ideas. It’s important to encourage students to give strong answers, but not […]
