I was having a conversation today about this very thing - time is precious. If you don't have darn good evidence that an initiative is worth the time it will take, and superior to what it will take away from, tread very carefully.
1 If you are a teacher getting average results, or better, you are already a highly skilled practitioner and should not change things dramatically.
2 if SLT tells you to do something, ask for evidence that it works.
3 The best way to improve your students' learning is to STOP doing things that take a lot of time and are not supported by evidence.
4 If SLT tells you to do something which takes time, ask which things you are currently doing they suggest you stop doing to make time. (If the new idea is evidence-free and the thing you stop doing is evidence-based, then learning will decline.)
My book, Fundamentals of Teaching, is a collection of those methods for which there is a lot of evidence both from classroom experiments, educational psychology and educational neuroscience.
“Some interventions seem too good to be true. They’re low-cost, straightforward, seemingly minimal engagement, but produce potentially outsized results. Take mindfulness to support wellbeing and growth mindset to improve outcomes as examples. There’s just one little problem: they often don’t work.”
The chasm between theory and practice seems so big sometimes. In my limited experience, I’ve found that the time and effort put in by teachers, the intelligence of the feedback loop and the readiness of the staff involved to get onboard are defining factors in the effectiveness of an intervention of any size. Smart implementation is vital.
I was having a conversation today about this very thing - time is precious. If you don't have darn good evidence that an initiative is worth the time it will take, and superior to what it will take away from, tread very carefully.
In my training sessions I would always point out:
1 If you are a teacher getting average results, or better, you are already a highly skilled practitioner and should not change things dramatically.
2 if SLT tells you to do something, ask for evidence that it works.
3 The best way to improve your students' learning is to STOP doing things that take a lot of time and are not supported by evidence.
4 If SLT tells you to do something which takes time, ask which things you are currently doing they suggest you stop doing to make time. (If the new idea is evidence-free and the thing you stop doing is evidence-based, then learning will decline.)
My book, Fundamentals of Teaching, is a collection of those methods for which there is a lot of evidence both from classroom experiments, educational psychology and educational neuroscience.
https://www.routledge.com/The-Fundamentals-of-Teaching-A-Five-Step-Model-to-Put-the-Research-Evidence-into-Practice/Bell/p/book/9780367358655
“Some interventions seem too good to be true. They’re low-cost, straightforward, seemingly minimal engagement, but produce potentially outsized results. Take mindfulness to support wellbeing and growth mindset to improve outcomes as examples. There’s just one little problem: they often don’t work.”
The chasm between theory and practice seems so big sometimes. In my limited experience, I’ve found that the time and effort put in by teachers, the intelligence of the feedback loop and the readiness of the staff involved to get onboard are defining factors in the effectiveness of an intervention of any size. Smart implementation is vital.