Cognitive Dissonance: A primer for educators | NWMaths

“For if we are uncritical, we shall always find what we want“- Karl Popper

Chapters 4 and 5 of Matthew Syed’s excellent book Black Box Thinking explore the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance and its associated ‘intellectual contortions’. A working knowledge of this, potentially damaging but very human, tendency would be beneficial for anyone involved in education.

‘Cognitive dissonance’ is described in the book as the “inner tension we feel when, among other things, our beliefs are challenged by evidence”. When a view that we believe is challenged by new data, we have two options, to…

Continue reading here:

https://ift.tt/2T4oVXP

Cognitive Dissonance- A primer for educators | NWMaths

“For if we are uncritical, we shall always find what we want“- Karl Popper

Chapters 4 and 5 of Matthew Syed’s excellent book Black Box Thinking explore the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance and its associated ‘intellectual contortions’. A working knowledge of this, potentially damaging but very human, tendency would be beneficial for anyone involved in education.

‘Cognitive dissonance’ is described in the book as the “inner tension we feel when, among other things, our beliefs are challenged by evidence”. When a view that we believe is challenged by new data, we have two options, to…

Continue reading here:

https://ift.tt/2T4oVXP

Make more of your mornings | NWMaths

Think about the first five to ten minutes of an average weekday. What does it look like? I imagine most days it is fairly similar. Generally speaking, most people are on autopilot early in the day. They have to be. Time is precious in the morning and we cannot afford to waste it deciding what we are going to do. Almost all teachers have a morning routine without even realising it. The automaticity of a morning routine is powerful with just a few small tweaks, it has the potential to improve your wellbeing.

One of my passions is health and fitness and this idea is becoming increasingly…

Continue reading here:

https://ift.tt/2zzIOtH

Make more of your mornings | NWMaths

Think about the first five to ten minutes of an average weekday. What does it look like? I imagine most days it is fairly similar. Generally speaking, most people are on autopilot early in the day. They have to be. Time is precious in the morning and we cannot afford to waste it deciding what we are going to do. Almost all teachers have a morning routine without even realising it. The automaticity of a morning routine is powerful with just a few small tweaks, it has the potential to improve your wellbeing.

One of my passions is health and fitness and this idea is becoming increasingly…

Continue reading here:

https://ift.tt/2zzIOtH

Teaching “Word-level” literacy in Maths | NWMaths

I recently gave a brief presentation to my Faculty on what I have called “word-level literacy” in Maths. By ‘word level’ I mean teaching specifically about individual word stems, suffixes, prefixes and the etymology of technical Maths terms rather than decoding entire sentences. Perhaps there is a more appropriate term out there- if you are aware of it, please let me know.

I suggested that introducing or revisiting a technical maths term is an opportunity to examine the word itself, usually for just a minute or two. Doing this can may lead to a few things:
Enhanced understanding and memory…

Continue reading here:

https://ift.tt/2D1tjxm

Teaching “Word-level” literacy in Maths | NWMaths

I recently gave a brief presentation to my Faculty on what I have called “word-level literacy” in Maths. By ‘word level’ I mean teaching specifically about individual word stems, suffixes, prefixes and the etymology of technical Maths terms rather than decoding entire sentences. Perhaps there is a more appropriate term out there- if you are aware of it, please let me know.

I suggested that introducing or revisiting a technical maths term is an opportunity to examine the word itself, usually for just a minute or two. Doing this can may lead to a few things:
Enhanced understanding and memory…

Continue reading here:

https://ift.tt/2D1tjxm

The Ethics of “Teaching to Exams” | NWMaths

A recent article in the wonderful Bagehot column of The Economist discussed the so called ‘open v. closed’ divide that some say has come to replace traditional left-right cleavages in politics that has apparently enhanced political polarisation within society. The piece was, as is almost invariably the case with Bagehot, interesting and touched on ideas related to identity politics that are quite intellectually a la mode at the moment given the work of controversial popular intellectuals such as Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson whose work is currently causing quite a stir.

However, what…

Continue reading here:

https://ift.tt/2IrPq3Z

The Ethics of “Teaching to Exams” | NWMaths

A recent article in the wonderful Bagehot column of The Economist discussed the so called ‘open v. closed’ divide that some say has come to replace traditional left-right cleavages in politics that has apparently enhanced political polarisation within society. The piece was, as is almost invariably the case with Bagehot, interesting and touched on ideas related to identity politics that are quite intellectually a la mode at the moment given the work of controversial popular intellectuals such as Sam Harris and Jordan Peterson who are causing quite a stir amongst certain groups of the…

Continue reading here:

https://ift.tt/2IrPq3Z

Oxbridge tips for teachers you can implement right now | NWMaths

Oxbridge application season is upon us. Over the weekend there was some controversy over recent BME statistics released by Oxbridge. I’m not going to comment on that here other than to say irrespective of the role that universities should or should not play in redressing the imbalances these statistics suggest, some schools are significantly better than others at preparing their students for Oxbridge. This is due to a huge range of factors which obviously includes school intake but also encompasses long term decisions about curriculum, stretch and challenge for students and high expectations…

Continue reading here:

http://ift.tt/2gxwccS

Oxbridge tips for teachers you can implement right now | NWMaths

Oxbridge application season is upon us. Over the weekend there was some controversy over recent BME statistics released by Oxbridge. I’m not going to comment on that here other than to say irrespective of the role that universities should or should not play in redressing the imbalances these statistics suggest, some schools are significantly better than others at preparing their students for Oxbridge. This is due to a huge range of factors which obviously includes school intake but also encompasses long term decisions about curriculum, stretch and challenge for students and high expectations…

Continue reading here:

http://ift.tt/2gxwccS