David Didau

Is Rob Coe’s idea of ‘poor proxies for learning’ “one of the most damaging ideas in education”? Or is it an essential language to help us avoid being seduced by nonsense? Find out below… open.substack.com/pub/daviddidau…

@PontcannaC Interesting choice. An example of nominative determinism?

@DavidDidau 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Contrary is my middle name tbf

Middle leadership is where schools outsource impossible contradictions. You’re responsible, but not always authorised. Empowered to write plans but not to change conditions. Asked to raise standards, while being encouraged to lower them for adults who’d rather avoid a difficult conversation. A young HoD needs a certain kind of contrariness: courteous, exact, unsentimental. Focus on what matters. What are students learning? What are teachers being asked to do? Are you acting for the benefit of children or the convenience of adults? NEW: A letter to a young head of department open.substack.com/pub/daviddidau…

I wish I'd read this 10 years ago. To any and all Middle Leaders:

“Beware the tyranny of proxies……Learning, inconsiderately, hides in memory, judgment, fluency, discrimination, taste and attention. It’s rarely available for inspection on demand.” Every paragraph is quote-able! Fantastic.

@kennyped I’m sure

@DavidDidau Very well put. I'd venture that a similar dynamic exists between principals and education bureaucrats.

"motivation is 90% of learning" "teaching a class of 30 is an impossible task" "traditional education is cooked" "learning is a sub-domain of engineering" "Great educational tools like this will change how our kids see the world. My bet is with a host of tools like this you could half the current educational systems protracted curriculum" "the answer is [for AI] to mimic what a really good teacher does: warm/strict supervision" This is the kind of stuff that AI and Alpha boosters are churning out. NONE OF IT holds up to scrutiny, and it genuinely blows my mind that people are taking it seriously.

@MistypeaTam Better late than never :)

A bit late reading this but what an excellent book by Nick Rose and @DavidDidau - a great way to kick off the summer reading list!

@ericsburner Just imagine if the rest of the world took your sports as seriously as you do

It’s the final chapter, baby! If I could leave this spirit high and dry that’s all I need to know open.substack.com/pub/secondsumm… The Second Summer of Love is officially done

@marcusstanforth @Team_English1 It’s excellent although there are 2 F bombs. Not used Troy

@Team_English1 Has anyone done Armitage's stage adaptation of Homer's Odyssey? @DavidDidau, I saw you planned this in as part of the curriculum at OAT. Any comments? Did you do The Last Days of Troy as well?

Planning for the year ahead, does anyone in @Team_English1 that could suggest any Greek plays that work well for Year 8? It's a bonus if it links to one of the myths. #TeamEnglish

Former RE teacher here. This is completely untrue.

@ChristallaJ Handwriting, organisation, sure. But ‘well kept books’? Seems arbitrary.

@DavidDidau 2. are largely distractions. In primary Ed, handwriting fluency, organisation, ownership & well-kept books are often legitimate developmental goals rather than mere bureaucratic artefacts. The challenge is not to abandon beautiful books, but to ensure that beautiful books

Exercise books are so temptingly inspectable. You can flick through then and feel you’ve seen learning. But full pages, neat titles, coloured pens and polished paragraphs are, at best, just proxies. The more beautiful a book is often the less evidence of learning it provides. More often, it’s evidence we’re looking in the wrong place. open.substack.com/pub/daviddidau…

@HeatherBellaF Yep.

@DavidDidau I'd say it really does depend what you are trying to find out from them - and often you're right - its the wrong things.

@StuartLock To the extent that’s true, I’d imagine the causality is down to higher prior attaining children have more bandwidth for neatness because they find the work easier.

@DavidDidau I think there is some correlation, but not causation. Those that keep books neat are more likely to be diligent over studying, homework, etc I probably should read the post.