books


Probing how memory works and the best ways to develop learning


Making Kids Cleverer. A manifesto for closing the advantage gap By David Didau Crown House Publishing: paperback, 352 pages


David Didau’s new book does a great job of collecting a number of currently well-regarded ideas about how learning happens and explains what these ideas mean for teaching. Take the discussion of how memory works. Didau first stakes out the differences between working memory and long-term memory. Working memory puts limits on our ability to pay attention. Long-term memory has an unimaginably vast storage capacity.


He then selects the teaching methods that fit best with the kind of memory to be developed. Explicit instruction is best suited to getting new ideas through the bottleneck of working memory, while problem-solving activities are best suited to exploiting the potential of long-term memory by building connections between already stored ideas. For vocational tutors, Chapter 9 (Practice makes permanent), will be of particular interest. Didau reminds us of the different ways in which the novice and expert go about tackling the same task. These differences are illustrated with a thought-provoking comparative table. Again, the way memory works is used to


explore how teaching can help the novice move to competence and then towards mastery. Explicit instruction and detailed accounts of worked


OTHER NEW PUBLICATIONS


The Monkey-Proof Box By Jonathan Lear Independent Thinking Press (an imprint of Crown House Publishing): paperback, 184 pages Rarely is a book on teaching likely to make you laugh out loud, and for that reason alone Jonathan Lear’s book is appealing.


Lear is deputy head of a primary school in Sheffield. And, even if most of the lessons he describes


36 ISSUE 36 • SUMMER 2019 inTUITION


are clearly aimed at primary age children, the book is still a worthwhile read thanks to the creative approaches he applies to teaching and learning. He covers topics like didactic teaching (nuts on a plate) and more self-directed approaches to learning (nuts scattered in a clearing), classroom organisation, mastery approaches to teaching, spacing and interleaving. Look out for the bits on


slippers, turtles and a forged letter purporting to be from former Prime Minister David Cameron.


MEMBER OFFER See the Crown House offer for Making Kids Cleverer above.


The Unexpected Leader By Iesha Small


Independent Thinking Press (an imprint of Crown House Publishing): paperback, 200 pages


A striking aspect of the book is the author’s openness in recounting her sudden breakdown – she was an assistant head teacher at the time – and the subsequent restructuring and reprioritising of her life. The book’s premise is that leadership is a quintessentially human process with everything that entails. The core comprises interviews with nine school leaders, exploring their experiences and


examples suit the novice because they best support the assimilation of new ideas and skills. Didau’s big claim is that recognising the different ways in which memory functions will allow teachers to deploy pedagogical technique in effective ways over a planned programme of study. The renewed interest in curriculum signalled by


the proposed new Education Inspection Framework is well anticipated by Didau’s focus on these longer cycles of learning.


Ideas in this book could help tutors and leaders


to better articulate what curriculum intent and implementation look like in their classrooms or workshops. For student teachers, Didau’s account could inform a broader discussion about how we justify why we teach as we do. Powerful metaphors from the discipline of


psychology shape his account of remembering. But if we pause to think back to our own days at college, we might recall moments of profound insight that are not easy to square with these pictures. Moments, for example, when we managed to


express our critical thoughts in our own words for the first time, or moments of care, given or received, that helped us to get through. This book encourages us to talk together about the role of memory in learning over time, but such conversations also need to consider what makes learning part of broader education.


Review by Dr Lawrence Nixon is programme leader for Post-Compulsory Education and Training at the University of Sunderland.


MEMBER OFFER To claim your 20 per cent discount on this title, and the two Crown House titles below, order direct from www.crownhouse.co.uk using discount code SET20. This offer is valid until 31 July, 2019.


Book reviewers Want to review a book or have a book to review? Contact us at membership.


communications@ etfoundation.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40