What's new and what's to come?

What's new?

Approaches to teaching and learning: With near half a million words on this website it is not always easy to pick out what has been recently added. This update signposts pages that have been added during the past month.  Most of these pages have arisen out of requests of InThiniing readers. Many share a common theme around embedding the IB approaches to teaching and learning into all classrooms.

Magpie Corner:

I believe that all good teachers and schools leaders are like magpies – they spot little things that attract their attention and steal them for their own practice.  In this section of the website I have collected some of the ideas I have been attracted to. In each case I have said where I get the idea from. This area of the website will grow over time as I have the pricilege of magpieing more ideas from the places I visit. If you have a great idea in your school I would be most grateful for you to share it. We can all learn from each other.

What's to come?

Middle Leadership Professional Development. InThinking subscribers have highlighted a need for professional development training for their middle pedagogical leaders, primarily heads of department. Therefore over the next two months I will be posting pages to help heads of department to lead and manage their teams.

If you have any requests or suggestions please be in contact using the messages facility at the top of each page.

In addition, as ever, I have been improving and adding to existing pages.

Approaches to Teaching and Learning

This appears to be the one area of the Diploma Programme that is exercising leaders' minds. It is certainly where I am being asked to facilitate more and more workshops. Specific areas will interest individual schools based on their development needs. The website now contains pages on each of the approaches to teaching and learning and their sub-categories. During the last few weeks I have added the following pages, based on specific requests:

• Evidence informed teaching and learning - do you base your pedagogy on best practice? This page provides a summary of cognitive research into how learning happens. A useful page to help you populate your teaching and learning toolkit.
• Useful videos on pedagogy - supports the evidence informed approach to teaching and learning. A series of videos on key aspects of the learning process. They can be used in a jogsaw activity during a staff workshop.
• What's worth reading? - signposting great sources of articles on teaching and learning on (a) effective teaching and learning, (b) the science of learning, (c) professional development, and (d) school improvement and leadersgip
• Evidence based teaching teaching and learning - a summary of what research tells us about what makes effective teaching in order to nurture effective learning
• ATL Toolkit - guidance of what it could contain
• Metacognition - how to help student learn how to learn
• Informed by assessment - how to give students effective feedback
• How do we differentiate? - strategies
• Creativity IS key - a blog reacting to the possibility that 'creativity' is likely to be included in PISA assessments. What is it? How do you teach it?

Magpie Corner

I believe that all good teachers and schools leaders are like magpies – they spot little things that attract their attention and steal them for their own practice.  In this section of the website I have collected some of the ideas I have been attracted to. In each case I have said where I get the idea from. This area of the website will grow over time as I have the pricilege of magpieing more ideas from the places I visit. If you have a great idea in your school I would be most grateful for you to share it. We can all learn from each other.

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June in the UK