David Didau
@didau.bsky.social
Same old same old Substack: daviddidau.substack.com/
Schools are normally thought of as machines to optimise but it might be more helpful to imagine them as ecosystems to cultivate. Healthy schools renew the conditions that make future success possible. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The ecology of schools
An ecological perspective explains why relationships, feedback and adaptation matter more than isolated interventions
open.substack.com
Schools are normally thought of as machines to optimise but it might be more helpful to imagine them as ecosystems to cultivate. Healthy schools renew the conditions that make future success possible. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The ecology of schools
An ecological perspective explains why relationships, feedback and adaptation matter more than isolated interventions
open.substack.com
LAST CHANCE TO ORDER BEFORE SUMMWR CLOSURE. A Year in Willerby. 12 stories and other ephemera from a haunted village. Discounted to £15. Limited edition, locally printed. beautifully illustrated. 150 copies sold. Last 50 remaining. Well reviewed everywhere so far. www.etsy.com/uk/listing/4...
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/daviddid...
The Proxy Trap: how poor are 'poor proxies for learning'?
Why schools can't live with proxies or without them
open.substack.com
Exercise books are so temptingly inspectable. You can flick through & feel you’ve seen learning. But full pages, neat titles, coloured pens and polished paragraphs are, at best, proxies. The more beautiful a book is often the less evidence of learning it provides. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Why I hate 'beautiful books'
Why students' exercise books make for dangerously unstable proxies for learning and poor revision resources
open.substack.com
Exercise books are so temptingly inspectable. You can flick through & feel you’ve seen learning. But full pages, neat titles, coloured pens and polished paragraphs are, at best, proxies. The more beautiful a book is often the less evidence of learning it provides. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Why I hate 'beautiful books'
Why students' exercise books make for dangerously unstable proxies for learning and poor revision resources
open.substack.com
Later this month we have a webinar for teachers in Australia & New Zealand. We will share how our new AI marking system works & explain how schools in Aus & NZ can take part. We will also give you some free credits so you can try it out yourself! Register now. www.nomoremarking.com/events
Retrieval practice is everywhere but is it working? Wax on, wax off only works because Miyagi knows what the movements are for. Retrieval is no different: ritual needs meaning. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Wax On, Wax Off: Three new studies on retrieval practice
Three recent studies show why retrieval practice needs better questions, better timing and better support.
open.substack.com
Retrieval practice is everywhere but is it working? Wax on, wax off only works because Miyagi knows what the movements are for. Retrieval is no different: ritual needs meaning. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Wax On, Wax Off: Three new studies on retrieval practice
Three recent studies show why retrieval practice needs better questions, better timing and better support.
open.substack.com
"Like many ideas in education, retrieval practice has suffered the peculiar fate of being simultaneously overused and underthought" 👇
Mark McCourt@markmccourt.bsky.social · 2mo agoNEW BLOG: Retrieval Is Not a Starter Activity www.emaths.co.uk/blog/general...
Systems should be judged by what they do, not what they say they’re for. If inspection rewards performance, compliance and fear, schools will learn to perform, comply and fear. The alternative isn’t less accountability, it’s intelligent accountability: open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The purpose of school inspection is what it does
Systems designed to raise standards too often teach schools to look good rather than get better
open.substack.com
Systems should be judged by what they do, not what they say they’re for. If inspection rewards performance, compliance and fear, schools will learn to perform, comply and fear. The alternative isn’t less accountability, it’s intelligent accountability: open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The purpose of school inspection is what it does
Systems designed to raise standards too often teach schools to look good rather than get better
open.substack.com
Schools don’t just communicate intentions; they shape behaviour. Like a badly designed door or a desire path across grass, environments make some actions feel obvious. Environmental psychology helps us ask better questions open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Why we pull when we should push
How schools make some actions easier than others, and why great leadership begins with redesigning the environment
open.substack.com
Schools don’t just communicate intentions; they shape behaviour. Like a badly designed door or a desire path across grass, environments make some actions feel obvious. Environmental psychology helps us ask better questions open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Why we pull when we should push
How schools make some actions easier than others, and why great leadership begins with redesigning the environment
open.substack.com
One of the advantages of our assessment model is that it uses AI to reduce workload BUT it also ensures every script is seen twice by a human. We can reduce the time it takes to assess a class set of essays down to about 15 minutes. It's all explained here. help.nomoremarking.com/en/article/h...
Exclusive: An experienced headteacher reduced to tears during a 'harrowing' Ofsted inspection has sounded alarm over the watchdog’s wellbeing protocols and new inspection framework schoolsweek.co.uk/an-inspectio...
'Ofsted reduced me to tears. Its response was inadequate'
Headteacher John Hayes describes January visit as 'the worst experience of my career'
schoolsweek.co.uk
We know teachers vary in quality but teacher effectiveness isn’t an unvarying trait that can be plugged into to another school changed. Great teaching needs schools to nurture it. Importing expertise may create a possibility but it isn’t sustainable open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The myth of the portable teacher
What happens when effective teachers transfer into tougher schools
open.substack.com
Ready or not, here’s another chapter of The Second Summer of Love? Chapter 67: Luke finally tells Nina about Fiona... secondsummeroflove.substack.com/p/i-dont-wan...
I don’t want a lover I just need a friend
Chapter 67 of The Second Summer of Love
secondsummeroflove.substack.com
I'm in @theobserveruk.bsky.social today on why a lot of the AI/jobpocalypse debate misses the point. observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
Schools haven’t changed all that much in 4000 years. In this post I argue that’s a good thing. I discuss evolution, evolutionary psychology, culture and make the claim that schools are the first — and most important — educational technology. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Why schools exist
How evolution and culture explain how school have been shaped over time
open.substack.com
Schools haven’t changed all that much in 4000 years. In this post I argue that’s a good thing. I discuss evolution, evolutionary psychology, culture and make the claim that schools are the first — and most important — educational technology. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Why schools exist
How evolution and culture explain how school have been shaped over time
open.substack.com
We've just launched an exciting new post-16 writing assessment! We're going to use our AI-enhanced Comparative Judgement system to assess Year 12 writing at the start of next academic year. Read more and find out how to take part here. help.nomoremarking.com/en/article/a...
AI-enhanced post-16 writing assessment
Over the last ten years, we've assessed almost 3 million pieces of writing as part of our national writing assessments for students aged 5 - 16. We've also worked with a lot of post-16 institutions…
help.nomoremarking.com
This is excellent, although as an aside I worry a bit about people in power looking at principal coaching as the silver bullet to fix the lack of headship candidates in the system. I think it’s a good idea (if coaches are good enough, as @didau.bsky.social makes clear), but not enough to do that.
David Didau@didau.bsky.social · 3mo agoCoaching only takes you so far While good schools can multiplies coaching; a bad school absorbs it. If behaviour, curriculum, assessment and leadership are weak, coaching just tries to compensate for the system. Instead, we should coach principals. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
Coaching only takes you so far While good schools can multiplies coaching; a bad school absorbs it. If behaviour, curriculum, assessment and leadership are weak, coaching just tries to compensate for the system. Instead, we should coach principals. open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...
The Coaching Trap: Why Better Teaching Depends on Better Schools
Why coaching needs to focus primarily on leaders rather than teachers
open.substack.com