In our most recent meeting, we read a paper about nutrient deposition in the Atlantic Ocean, and one of the authors came along to the session. I thought it might be helpful if I shared the paper we read, along with some background information, and the questions I wrote to go with it. Please feel free to use any of the resources linked to here.
I distinctly remember my first meeting (about atmospheric chemistry research) and having no idea what was being discussed around me. Up until this point I had no knowledge of CFCs and felt completely out of my depth around those who had read and understood the paper.
After being surrounded by specialist language for an hour, I still couldn’t blag my way through questioning so decided to learn to read a paper in a way I would find easy.
I came to the conclusion that Hattie’s research should be seen for what it is – taken from a huge database of studies, with no control group, with many variants, and many loopholes in the overall analysis of the studies
A couple of years ago, I started a Science Journal Club for students. The idea is that students read a recent scientific paper in advance of the meeting, and we get together to discuss it. The idea was to help students find out about “real” research, and to teach them how to read scientific papers.
Picture quiz Here’s a picture quiz for you. I used it with my year 11s the other week. What’s the connection? The connection is a man called Jack Maitland. He has coached the Brownlee brothers since they were teenagers, and helped them to win their 4 Olympic medals. He also coached Leeds Triathlon Club (now…
We have been trying to develop ways of giving feedback to students that is timely, and which aids students’ progression, but (perhaps most importantly) is sustainable in the longterm for a fulltime teacher.
I gave my triple science group two mocks in the summer. I didn’t think they took their first one seriously enough, and I wanted to give them the chance to take the “actual paper” that their friends took (on the non-linear course) almost in parallel with them.
However, this meant I had set myself up for a great deal of extra marking and feedback. This is the method I used to help them learn from their mocks, and progress. It’s based on the style of feedback I have been using in KS5 tests.
This year, our Journal Club has been integrated into the new CPD programme, so we have fomed a Reading Group. People can come along and talk about something they’ve read, or listen to others talking about things they’ve found interesting, and it gives us the chance to discuss them. After a slight biscuit-related hitch (I’d forgotten to buy…
I’ve only been teaching for 10 years, but even within this relatively short period of time, ideas and received wisdom have changed greatly (rapid progress, brain gym, learning styles, (limited) teacher talk, triple marking are just a few of the approaches that I’ve been told I should include in “outstanding” lessons, some of which have since been debunked).
Experienced teachers talk about ideas coming round full circle. For me, the main reason for using evidence to inform teaching is to help us question what we’re doing and why, and to use expertise and evidence to help us decide on the best approach.
This post is written by VBA. Metacognition and “thinking about thinking” became a real focus of mine with my Year 10 GCSE class after reading about the low cost – high impact that it can have on a student’s performance in this report from the Educational Endowment Foundation. I followed this up by reading blog articles about teachers who…
Post written by: NKA This post summarises ideas that were tried by teachers from the Science department following our initial Journal Club meeting. We had read about how effective metacognition and self-regulation can be in helping students to progress. We wanted to encourage them to self-assess their work, taking time to think through what they’d done and why. We also wanted them to think about…
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