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Free Radical
What digital tools are worth the effort?
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
13:58 | 24 January 2012
These are some interesting patterns from an ASE Twitter chat, in which 50 tweachers participated.
They want Technology that delivers more engagement and exploration, more independent and...
Judge rules spontaneous human combustion (seriously)
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
14:12 | 23 September 2011
I could not detect a hint of irony in this BBC news story, the first official confirmation of S.H.C in Ireland.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15032614
Students reading a story like this,...
Are games the future of learning?
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
19:16 | 21 September 2011
Marc Prensky, its most well known proponent, thinks so. He coined the phrase 'digital natives', and if you believe his books, we should stop interrupting kids playing computer games because...
What kind of curriculum is yours?
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
22:45 | 01 August 2011
You've probably played the game: if you're an animal what would you be? But I bet you've never tried it with your science curriculum. Yet metaphors, with their ability to reduce the unfamiliar and...
Beat the evil examiners
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
16:18 | 12 July 2011
6 mark, free response questions like this one could be the undoing of many C/D students. It draws at least 4 different skills, that have to be integrated and applied.
• realise there are two...
To see the future of science, you have to cross the Atlantic.
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
0:27 | 15 March 2011
I just did, to attend the National Science Teachers Association Conference 2011. What a contrast. While UK science education seems to lost the plot, as a blinkered Government takes over the reins,...
National Curricula: mired in the past, or ready for the future?
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
14:33 | 24 January 2011
These days Governments use their National Curricula as a weapon to fight their economic wars. Their thinking is that higher positions in international achievement comparisons will pay dividends in...
As a teacher, are you a specialist or expert?
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
11:38 | 18 December 2010
You probably think of yourself as a specialist (physics, or chemistry or biology) teacher.
But actually what you really want to be is an expert teacher. The difference is commonly ignored, but...
No approved GCSE specifications
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
16:21 | 17 December 2010
As of December, the 3rd draft of the new specifications is with OFQUAL. They are going to limit the number of times students can resit exams - perhaps the same rule should apply to examiners? I've...
Lastminutesyllabus.com
Posted by: Andy Smart
17:00 | 17 September 2010
How lucky we are that the excitement of last minute decision making has spread to education. You remember in 2008 the lastminute KS3 curriculum, now it's been extended to GCSE.
It's less than a...
Teaching and curriculum development - two different professions
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
10:45 | 16 July 2010
Many schools take the view: we're the people to develop our own science courses. After all, we understand learning, and we know our students best. Resource-sharing websites often reflect this...
The decline and fall of the National Curriculum
Posted by: Tony Sherborne
14:21 | 08 July 2010
The signs are all around us. First the demise of the 11-14 SAT's as an enforcement mechanism. Then the iGCSE becoming an alternative summative assessment. And ultimately, the sack of QCA at the...
Join us in Hollywood
Posted by: Pam Large
18:10 | 03 July 2010
Let us take your students to movie land. They'll learn Y9/GCSE science by creating stunts and film scripts, and avoiding earthquakes. If you've signed up for the Segue programme already, you can...
The last 25 years of reform
Posted by: Pam Large
21:58 | 02 July 2010
Happy Birthday to the Centre for Science Education - one half of upd8 - who celebrated 25 years yesterday. At the event, a distinguished panel, led by Professor the Lord Winston, highlighted the...
Goal-line technology coming to upd8
Posted by: Pam Large
23:16 | 01 July 2010
Once the emotion of England's disallowed equalizer had worn off, a more positive feeling took over: what a great context for teach decision making.
This is a key How Science Works strand in the...
The Y7 upgrade - it's free
Posted by: Pam Large
20:29 | 30 June 2010
If you're a Wikid school, you will be soon be getting a free upgrade to the Year 7 teaching material. We were persuaded by the argument that every Wikid school deserves it. It includes corrections...
