Creating a culture of speech in your classroom means having everyone doing it, not simply those that are willing – do not let students ‘hide’. Andrew Fitch, from the book: Trivium in Practice In a piece for the TES, Jonathan Simons, head of Education for Policy Exchange, wrote about the importance of debating: To debate, participants … More The Importance of Debate in Schools
The trivium is an excellent way to ensure progress in learning. We can see progress through the trivium in three stages: new knowledge followed by critique, ending in communication. In teaching terms this means firstly ensuring a body of knowledge is taught to students and that they understand the knowledge. Secondly the students build on that knowledge through … More Measuring Progress With The Trivium
An occasional look at how aspects of the trivium* may have contributed to the education of various people in various walks of life. What follows is highly selective, the material on which it is based will be open to a wide variety of interpretations and mine might be highly ‘trivial’. *I am using the trivium 21c interpretation of … More Schooling via the Trivium? Jony Ive
Here is the text of a talk I delivered at the ‘NTEN-ResearchED-York Conference’ on Saturday 4th May 2014. The beginning of the talk draws heavily on the wonderful Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. The Arts are subjective and difficult to measure accurately; do they belong in our data age? If you … More Engaging With a Humane Education
Last year I ventured into the Agora, clutching a newly minted book and some ideas to share. I was terrified that I would be laughed at, ridiculed, dismissed or ignored. Extraordinarily, this did not occur and for that I am extremely grateful as I don’t know how I would have coped with an avalanche of … More Into The Agora With Trivium 21c
Instead of ‘teaching’ students to be creative, teachers should look to the ultimate creative act for inspiration. The film is my first foray into the video form and is thanks to Leon Cych and his online Teacher TV project L4LTV I hope to be a regular contributer.
I use the words you taught me. If they don’t mean anything any more, teach me others. Or let me be silent… Samuel Beckett, Endgame. I like students to learn about things that are outside of their everyday experience. Once I arranged a trip for my class to see Samuel Beckett’s Endgame. After this bleak, … More Why Educate? To Expand The Self, Rather Than Narrow The Self.
In the early middle ages “instruction came from didactic grammarians who taught in repetitive and boring ways… the one way catechism (literally ‘to sound into ears’) by which the master instructed his pupil.” Trivium 21c p45. When I was at school (not quite back as far as the middle ages) we had a history teacher … More Teacher Talk: Sounding Into Ears
Michael Gove has deblobbed in Austria. Now, with evangelical zeal, and the rhetoric of social justice, he wants to irrigate the flabby educational colon of its sticky blob. This blob values Marxism, fights excellence and tries to prevent the poorest children from getting the education they need. In the same way as the Athenian State, which came to see … More The Battle of the Blob
In ‘The Importance of Teaching‘ Michael Gove says: “All too often, we’ve seen an over-emphasis on group work – in practice, children chatting to each other – in the belief that is a more productive way to acquire knowledge than attending to an expert.” Of course he is right, group-work done badly is bad. I … More From the Me to the We: Making Group-Work Work!
Trivium 21c 