Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist who died in 1938 but his work lives on in classrooms across the world. Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory has been hugely influential since the 60s and breaks down into three main areas: The importance of social interaction in development The “More Knowledgeable Other” The Zone of Proximal Development The…
Category Archives: News
With an epidemic of testing in our schools there is a movement against all the tests and in favour of less assessment. It is assessment that these tests are for – to keep check of pupils’ progress. But so much time is devoted to passing the tests that it takes away from actual teaching time….
“Docendo discimus” said the Roman philosopher Seneca: by teaching we learn. This old wisdom has been proved true in more modern times and the phenomenon is known as the Protégé Effect. Some of the first indications came from studies that looked at links between birth order and intelligence. Two separate studies showed that first borns…
A lot of the time the terms “teaching” and “learning” are used interchangeably as if they mean the same thing. But that isn’t completely true. There are little differences between the words that are important. The differences are even greater when it comes to our SEN children. “Teaching” is about instruction, transmitting information. It has…
We all learn more when we are interested, having fun and repeating information. How many songs do you remember the lyrics to years after you first heard them? The ‘forgetting curve’ has been featured on the blog before because it is so essential to understanding how children retain information. Also called the learning curve or…
The forgetting curve has been featured on the blog before because it is so essential to understanding how children retain information. Also called the learning curve or Ebbinghaus’ theory, after its creator Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist living in the late 19th century, the forgetting curve shows how quickly memories are lost – but also,…
As well as learning styles, which we talk a lot about on the blog, there are learning stages. These different frameworks try to explain how we learn and how we can make the most of the process for the best results. In children it is especially important so that we can create the best teaching…
There’s a new buzzword in teaching and learning: metacognition. It means understanding your own thought processes – thinking about thinking. Now being taught in schools all over the UK it is expected to spread to many more. Introducing metacognition to the classroom improves results and gives children a valuable insight into their own learning, improving…
Benefits of reading and how to encourage your child to love it – Carey Ann Dodah, Director of Curriculum Strategy at Explore Learning New research by tuition provider, Explore Learning has revealed that the UK’s love of reading is very much alive. One in three Brits read every day for pleasure, whilst 39% read once…
Henry Fagg, founder of Thetutorpages.com, a specialist directory and resource website for private tuition, takes a look at the benefits of one to one tuition. One-to-one learning has traditionally been called private tuition, although its uptake in state schools as a remedial measure has meant that it is sometimes called just one-to-one, or personal, tuition….
