Graeme Ritchie

@JonHaidt @ahc Great essay. “ Once you start looking for the technology-magic connection, you’ll find it nearly everywhere”. As a teacher, the AI assistant we have been encouraged to use is - groan - “Magic School”. Among its benefits, it means that we can send parents AI generated reports.

Technology is like magic: it can give you "instant, effortless power." But when you give such power to kids, it undermines the effort needed to learn and grow into a "morally formed" adult. Andy Crouch @ahc lays out the problem, at AfterBabel.com afterbabel.com/p/where-the-ma…

Major new survey from National Education Association gives very strong support for phone-free schools. Any policy that lets kids have phones BETWEEN classes disrupts what happens IN class. Give teachers a chance. Go phone-free. nea.org/resource-libra…

Really enjoyed spending time with @ESOldfield and seeing how she and her family lives for this weekend’s @TimesMagazine. Paywall down for the weekend! thetimes.com/life-style/par…

@dylanwiliam @siobhanleahy50 @SolutionTree We used it in a PLC on formative assessment in my school in Chiang Mai, Thailand this year. It worked very well.

Delighted that "Embedding formative assessment"—which I wrote with @siobhanleahy50—is now available from @SolutionTree in both paperback and e-book format: bit.ly/3KeJp8c

@LogicallyMystic Here in Thailand tree sparrows occupy the house sparrow niche, although house sparrows seem to be slowly muscling in. So the relative unusualness of house sparrows makes them very eye-catching. Makes you appreciate those fine bibs and slaty-blue caps.

New study from Norway: Banning smartphones in schools significantly decreases the proportion of girls presenting with mental health issues and bullying drops dramatically. Benefits most strongly felt by disadvantaged girls. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Is spring quieter these days? theguardian.com/environment/20…

I think one of the problems with the current debate is that it suggests we need reasons and evidence to ban phones in schools when actually we need reasons and evidence to let them in. The burden of proof is all the wrong way round. substack.nomoremarking.com/p/is-there-eno…

My cartoon for this weekend’s @GuardianBooks / @GdnSaturday

Good to see bi-partisan support for banning phones in schools from @RoryStewartUK and @campbellclaret youtu.be/-paCMm111Co?si…

The Curriculum for Excellence is an appalling mess. Children and teachers deserve better. It’ll be painful, but the whole curriculum needs to snap back from vague aspirations of skills and ‘competencies’ and back to content.

There's currently a heated debate about whether smartphones & social media cause teen mental health problems. It's a fascinating debate with a lot of interesting data. But when it comes to deciding whether to ban phones in school or not, it's a bit beside the point.

@DougGay I thought that this interview with her was very interesting. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the…

Imagine righteousness…

What a first line (and paragraph) from MR’s ‘Reading Genesis’

“I had the pleasure of spending a very full day at Michaela last year during a trip to England. It was, without question, the most impressive and invigorating school observation I’ve taken in more than two decades in education.” By ⁦@rpondiscio⁩ fordhaminstitute.org/national/comme…

“The big mistake we have made in the United States is to assume that if we want students to be able to think, then our curriculum should give our students lots of practice thinking. This is a mistake because what our students need is more to think with.” --@dylanwiliam

How self-aware are you? (Be the fly on your classroom wall...) teacherhead.com/2019/04/06/how…

The best teachers and leaders tend to think 'upstream'. What do I mean by that? Here's what you need to know: ↓

In their article, De Bruyckere, Kirschner, and Hulshof examine the concept of transfer of learning. This refers to applying knowledge, skills or attitudes learned in one situation to a new, different situation. Near transfer means applying learning to a similar context, while far transfer means applying learning in a very different way. The authors investigate several popular assertions that certain skills produce dramatic far transfer benefits. For example, claims that learning programming boosts math skills or music improves overall academic achievement. However, after reviewing multiple research studies, they find limited evidence to support most far transfer claims. For instance, high-quality studies show learning Latin does not necessarily make acquiring other languages much easier, contrary to popular belief. Analyzing the research, the authors argue an old theory from over 100 years ago still rings true. This theory states that transfer is easiest when the new situation has identical elements to the previously learned context. While some far transfer of learning does occur, the idea it can greatly enhance performance across very different disciplines is not strongly supported by the highest quality research. The best studies suggest near transfer to similar situations is more likely than dramatic far transfer effects. The authors conclude that far transfer is not a magic remedy for cross-disciplinary learning, though it can occasionally happen. aft.org/ae/spring2020/…

Why did Scotland do so poorly compared to England on key education tests? And on what the SNP & the Conservatives in Westminster have in common. Scottish schools have tumbled from top of the class. This is what went wrong | Sonia Sodha theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Here is a 14th explanation for the teen mental health crisis which does not work: parents are increasingly abusive since 2010 (they are not). Nobody has yet proposed an explanation for the crisis that works--especially internationally-- other than the rapid teen transition from flip phones to smart phones around 2012. This also explains why academic achievement stopped rising around 2012 and started declining, as shown in both NAEP and PISA scores. Students with smartphones pay less attention to teachers, and to fellow students. @jean_twenge laid out 13 failed explanations here: afterbabel.com/p/13-explanati… Here is her rebuttal of the 14th explanation: tinyurl.com/3rbtsemy Note that teen "satisfaction with life" used to track satisfaction with relationship with parents. Until they moved onto smart phones. Can't we at least get phones out of the school day?