Pseudo-science of teaching.

Teaching is full of myths and misconceptions. Why is that so? I suppose that teachers are desperate to explore new strategies that might work for their students and improve their learning. Any good-sounding ideas seem to get adopted by schools. There also does not seem to be the same sort of rigour with evidence as it happens in medicine for example.

And thus the myths proliferated and multiply as the time goes. Some might think that these are wholly innocent. But what effectively happens is that precious time is taken away from learners. Spending your energy on chasing the newest fad in education instead of concentrating on teaching is never productive. This is why it is so crucial why it is so important to distinguish science from pseudo-science in teaching. The demand on teachers' time makes is really hard to reconcile with doing proper research into what techniques have a proper scientific grounding. This is why blogs such as Evidence into Practice are so helpful. There are also many books and articles which are freely available that can extend your knowledge. I believe it is absolutely necessary to dedicate some time to become a more informed practitioner.

Here are a few common myths:

1. Learning styles: visual, auditory, kinaesthetic (VAK), we all heard it. This is simply not  thing. There is no scientific basis for this theory. Daniel Willingham explains this really well in the video below. So instead of adjusting the way of delivery to the supposed "style" of the pupil, present the material in the most appropriate mode.

2. We remember only 5% of a lecture, 10% of what we read, 20% of what we see and hear and 75% of what we do: which supposedly means that the most effective way of teaching is experiential. This is often presented as a pyramid like the one below:

source: washingtonpost.com

Lots of nonsense. As Lalley and Miller (2007) point out in The Learning Pyramid: Does it point teachers in the right direction?:

The research reviewed here demonstrates that use of each of the methods identified by the pyramid resulted in retention, with none being consistently superior to the others and all being effective in certain contexts. A paramount concern, given conventional wisdom and the research cited, is the effectiveness and importance of reading and direct instruction, which in many ways are undermined by their positions on the pyramid. Reading is not only an effective teaching/learning method, it is also the main foundation for becoming a “life-long learner”.”

 Very good article debunking this myth can be found here.

3. Brain gym: I'm not sure where to start with this one, really. If you haven't heard of this one yet, brain gym is  a set of movement activities such as "crawling, drawing, tracing symbols in the air, yawning, and drinking water" (Hyatt, 2007)One of the organisations providing brain gym training claims that it can influence and improve:

• Concentration and Focus
• Memory
• Academics: reading, writing, math, test taking
• Physical coordination
• Relationships
• Self-responsibility
• Organization skills
• Attitude

Miracle cure to all the problems, isn't it? We should be surprised that we are not all going around rubbing our stomachs and patting our heads. Yet there is no scientific evidence of any of the claimed benefits. Of course, physical exercise is a healthy habit and we should encourage children to get active, but making them do ridiculous manoeuvers with their body is not a good idea. A little bit of exercises in the middle of a Wednesday afternoon lesson to wake everyone up- yes; brain gym - absolutely not.

Wanting to improve your practice is absolutely crucial both for your professional development and, more importantly, for the improvement of pupil progress. But we need to be weary of fancy fads. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best. And whatever you try, always think: does it make any sense? Is there any evidence behind it?

The science of swearing.

You know what happens when you leave Kat to her own devices for a day, without any looming deadlines? She starts research about why people swear. This is particularly interesting for me, because swearing is prevalent among people I know, but I personally swear extremely rarely. I consider swearing to be a rather nasty habit and  simply don't feel the need to extend my vocabulary in this way. It happens though, I ain't a saint (just a work in progress). But it's a really interesting issue from two angles in particular. Firstly, why some words are consider to constitute bad language? And secondly, why do people use these words?

George Carlin in his 7 Dirty Words skit says that nobody gives you a list of why certain words are considered swearing. There is nothing innately bad about them: but the society somehow decided that they have a certain connatation. It's fascinating. Carlin makes a good point: we don't actually have a list of swear words! It would be so much more convenient to have one from the start, to know which words to avoid.
However, it appears that you don't need special words as such: "In Bikol (a language of the Philippines), there’s a special anger vocabulary – many words have alternative words that refer to just the same thing but also mean you’re angry. In Luganda (an African language), you can make a word insulting just by changing its noun class prefix – from a class for persons to a class for certain kinds of objects, for instance. In Japanese, you can insult someone badly just by using an inappropriate form of ‘you’." (BBC)

Interestingly, in the Middle Ages body parts and bodily functions were not treated as obscene. They might not have been particularly polite, but they would not offend. Instead, profanity was a sort of use of language that was considered inappropriate since it constituted an affront to God: it was thought that swearing tore Christ's body apart. On a different note, one of the funniest things I found in my research was a Benedictine monk you cursed a cat which urinated on his manuscript (http://io9.gizmodo.com/this-medieval-manuscript-curses-the-cat-who-peed-on-it-1502884468). In Shakespearean times, due to the influence of the reformation, religious profanity has decreased in importance. If you're curious about the Elizabethan insults, visit this website. Today, swear words are largely connected to private spheres, probably because we have a luxury of privacy.

In this video, Melissa Mohr talks about her book titled Holy Sh*t. Really worth watching.

There are many functions of swearing.There is an expletive or cathartic function of swearing. You can swear to let the steam off.

"Recent work by Stephens et al. even shows that swearing is associated with enhanced pain tolerance. This finding suggests swearing has a cathartic effect, which many of us may have personally experienced in frustration or in response to pain. " The Science of Swearing

This is interesting. My neurologist said that my headaches might be a result of stress, so I need to release it somehow. He suggested  swearing (or, alternatively, throwing plates) to let my steam off. I chose exercising instead, so if you see me running, I'm almost certainly crossed with something or someone. Swearing does not do the job for me, it just multiplies negative emotions.

You can have abusive swearing which is used for just that: abuse, intimidation and insulting others. This is a type of swearing that I find hardest to accept. You can so easily hurt someone with nasty words.

There is also the emphasis function. I call it treating curses as a comma. Sometimes a swear word just flows into the structure of the sentence. Or so they say. I find it hard to comment on that, it's just rather inconceivable to me.

Another interesting passage:

"Swearing is positively correlated with extraversion and is a defining feature of a Type A personality. It is negatively correlated with conscientiousness, agreeableness, sexual anxiety, and religiosity." The Science of Swearing 

This would be about right. Apparently I'm a very agreeable person, quite religious, potentially conscientious, so maybe this somehow explains my aversion to swearing... Swearing makes me highly uncomfortable. It doesn't fit into who I want to be. Or who I am. It's really strange not being able to understand other people's use of language. I need to get my head round it, especially that I'm about to start working with teenagers.

--------

Sources:
BBC, How to Swear Around the World
The Science of Swearing
Stephens, R., Atkins, J., & Kingston, A. (2009). Swearing as a response to pain. NeuroReport, 20, 1956-160
Swearing: It's a Cultural Thing

--------

One more week of SI left! I'm happy, exhausted, excited, exhausted and getting really impatient for September all at the same time. I've got my timetable now, top sets Y10 and Y7, middle sets Y8&9. Such a great challenge.

Crazy stuff and long days.

Training to become a teacher involves a lot of fun activities. Such as researching squeaky puppets. And fun facts about pi. Making posters for my classroom. Planning classroom layout. Role playing a naughty child (this I'm doing all too well). Lying on the floor and humming. Presenting crazy lesson plan to the group. Making flamingos out of multilink cubes. Watching ridiculous videos on youtube (I highly recommend the one below, it's hilarious). Making paper tutus. Drawing gigantic circles on the pavement.

There are also not so much fun parts of my life now. Like waking up at 6am. Or having classes and workshops starting at 9am and going on until 7pm (or even 9pm). The paperwork which never ends. And piles and piles of important pieces of paper scattered around. Long post-lunch lectures. Wearing business clothing every day. 68 pages of Maths exercises.

The former definitely outweigh the latter. I'm having a fantastic time, this time in Leeds and I simply cannot wait for when I go into the classroom in September. I've learnt so much in the past weeks, it's incredible how much you can absorb. I now have a folder full of resources, tips, practical ideas and suggestions. I'm pretty sure that my first lessons will be disastrous, because you only gain confidence with experience, but at least I have an armoury of things to try out. I'm actually becoming progressively less worried about teaching. And I'm finally getting on the top of things I need to do (slowly, yet steadily).

There's only one more week left now and then a well-deserved break! Though planning will inevitably happen as well: I need to organise myself, create all my posters and such, but it will be a fun part. In the meantime, there's TF Impact Conference on Monday and Tuesday! There are a lot of interesting sessions, I'm in the process of compiling a stack of post-it notes with all the talks I want to go to, it's almost impossible to make a choice. I definitely want to hear about engaging parents- it's something really close to my heart since I've written an essay on it. There are also some sessions on motivation and leadership that I will try to get into. I really hope these will be useful and set me up for September.

-------------------

On a different note, Leeds is absolutely boiling this week. It's barely impossible to cope with the heat. Thankfully most of our lecture theatres and classrooms have air conditioning, so at least during working hours it's a little bit more bearable. I suppose it's nice that after two months of temperatures in the region of 10 degrees and rain it's nice to have some proper summer, but, gosh, I'm glad I live in a country well such weather is not that common.

I did it!

Today at 13:03 I've received a long awaited email with my examination results.

I'm super proud of myself, especially that I struggled so much during the revision period. But I did it! By hard work and thanks to an overflow of support from Mr Magic and all my friends. I wouldn't have done it without them. They've encouraged me, believed in me all the way through, even when I saw no hope for tomorrow, when I sobbed miserably in the library and refused to get out of bed. They were there for me all this time, even when I was super annoying and didn't want them around. I'm so blessed having such wonderful people around me.

A lesson from this? Never give up. It might sound like a cliche, but it's true. You might need people to carry you through (or push you through) certain parts of the journey, as it happened with me, but you can do more than you think. I'm probably nowhere near my limits yet. It is scary to explore them, yes. It might seem like you can never progress. But you can! With a little faith.

Another lesson from my exam struggle is that you need to be brave enough to ask for help. Ask around, ask as many people as you think is necessary until you get the support you need. Sadly people cannot read your mind and from personal experience I can say that hiding the emotional turmoil going on inside of you is relatively easy, so you need to reach out to people who care about you. Otherwise you will be left all alone. And it's really not the happiest place to be.

And so the university chapter of my life is nearly complete. Only graduation left now, that's at the end of the month, and it will be it. Can't believe how quickly the time flown by. It's absolutely incredible. But I'm ready to move on to another challenge.

I think I deserve a star sticker now.

Oh dear.

Teach First is a little bit like a hit and run, isn't it?

This comments has left us utterly perplexed. Are we driving the car and hitting our pupils? Or is Teach First driving the car and we are being hit?

Either option seems completely unsatisfactory.

If we are the one hitting pupils, then the data goes completely against this idea. TF teachers raise aspirations and improve achievement in their school. They are a source of positive energy and are not afraid of experimenting in order to push their pupils a bit harder. Yes, the programme lasts only for 2 years, but lives are changed for ever. And, statistically, 56% of us will stay in the teaching career. The rest will go on to do something else, but keeping in mind the vision to bridge the education inequality in the UK. You do not necessarily need to do it from the front of the classroom. Actually, we really need people in business and politics and other walks of life to address the issue in whatever way they can.

If it's TF driving the car, I don't feel like I'm being left without any help by the end of these six weeks (and we are 3 weeks in already!). There is so much support that I get. I'm really lucky that my school is really keen on having us and my professional and subject mentors are absolutely fantastic: always ready to help, share their experience or point me in a right direction. TF itself provides a number of people whose role is dedicated to ensuring that we are happy. I definitely won't be left alone.

--------------------

Across the last few days I've also heard a lot of comments about working on the Isle of Wight. I'm not sure what all these people are on about. I don't have any illusions as to the state of education on the island. It is pretty bad. But I think pupils there have a huge potential and are perfectly capable of achieving what pupils from the mainland are. It is just a matter of unlocking it. Of course it won't be easy, but not many worthwhile things in life are. Besides, it's such a beautiful place to live with so much to see and experience.

---------------------

Yes, last few days had a lot of challenging assumptions elements. I somewhat wish I didn't have this experience: it is distracting me from my main focus, which is learn as much as I can before September, start letting all those techniques sink in and practice using behaviour management. But it seems that the flow of challenges regarding my chosen teaching route will not come to an end any time soon, I just need to learn to live with that. At least this will make me constantly think about why I'm doing it and what I want to get out of it. It's definitely worth it, even if not everyone can see it.