@TeacherToolkit In 2010, Ross Morrison McGill founded @TeacherToolkit from a simple Twitter account through which he rapidly became the 'most followed teacher on social media in the UK'. In 2015, he was nominated as one of the '500 Most Influential People in Britain' by The Sunday...

Read more about @TeacherToolkit In 2010, Ross Morrison McGill founded @TeacherToolkit from a simple Twitter account through which he rapidly became the 'most followed teacher on social media in the UK'. In 2015, he was nominated as one of the '500 Most Influential People in Britain' by The Sunday...

Over the past three decades, what fads do you think teachers have wasted their time doing the most?



Teachers don’t need fads. What teachers need are pragmatic strategies for the classroom; ideas that work for their pupils.

This post was written in 2016 after being inundated with replies; updating it for 2019 following another flurry of opinions. For the purposes of the post, I have defined the following:

Myth: Lacking in any rigorous educational research Hearsay: Latest buzzwords and/or policy promoted by the government. Fad: Hearsay ideas rolled out as a by-product of school inspection that has no correlation to research.

1. Learning styles:

Research from both ends of the spectrum state that there is no such thing as ‘learning styles’ (Riener and Willingham 2010). This report (Coffield – ‎2004) examines 13 models of learning style and concludes that it matters fundamentally which model is chosen. There is a helpful summary by Harry Fletcher-Wood and questions taken from Bill Cerbin (2010), Five Ill-Conceived Ideas about Student Learning, as well as Learning styles from Dan Willingham.

The result? It’s a myth; although there is much research, the contention here is that there is no correlation to learning.

2. Lesson objectives:

The framing or copying of lesson objectives in still commonplace today; “All, most, some students will …” results in teachers recording two or three variations of their lesson aims onto lesson plans or whiteboards to meet the needs of observers. This approach produced varied results which have little or no academic research. Debra Kidd renounced this as a waste of time.

The result? It’s a myth. Lacking any rigorous educational research.

3. Progress in a lesson

… stipulated by Ofsted (around 2011) that students must show ‘rapid progress’, school leaders were interpreting the inspection handbook and teachers were expected to show ‘students making rapid progress’ in lesson observations. This soon translated into a requirement by school leaders to show progress of some kind in a 20-minute observation!

The result? Hearsay; rolled out as a by-product of school inspection.

4. Learning outcomes:

… once the lesson was taught, students were required to recap on what their learning outcome was. This was further proof for the observer and for inspectors that teaching and learning were synchronised in perfect harmony.

The result? It’s a myth.

5. APP (Assessing Pupil Progress):

When I first came across APP in 2008, an enthusiastic teacher demonstrated how the assessment was measured using a fancy piece of software. I looked on in horror at the countless sub-levels of data, entered into a database to record the knowledge and skills demonstrated by a single child. (APP) was developed for use in schools to enable them to apply Assessment for Learning (AfL) consistently across schools. No wonder Dylan Wiliam is frustrated!

The result? This is definitley another myth.

6. Chinese teaching:

The television series ‘Are Our Kids Tough Enough?‘ was entertainment and was never going to provide us with a true perspective. Despite the research, high-profile celebrities and politicians proclaiming the wonderful work of our Shanghai counterparts, at no point did anyone proclaim that in order to achieve these high-standards, teachers only teach two lessons a day. The promise of ‘maths teachers and Shanghai teaching methods showcased to UK teachers in [a school near you].’ I kid you not, they all appeared in my work ‘inbox’ on several occasions throughout 2014.

The result? Hearsay!

7. PLTS (Personal, Learning, Thinking Skills):

Consigned to the National Archives – that says it all really – PLTS provided a framework for describing the qualities and skills needed for success in learning and life. If only we knew the secret for adulthood, teaching and successful relationships too? Nice idea, but impossible to put a framework in place to determine the skills a child needs to become successful. Maybe now replaced by ‘character education’? In fact, one day we’ll just call it ‘teaching’!

The result? One more hearsay to add to the list!

8. Textbooks:

Nick Gibb is obsessed with textbooks being used more widely by teachers in the classroom, but it was advocated long-before the not-missed-at-all Elizabeth Truss was given her marching orders. She made a number of speeches in 2014 in which she advocated a return to the regular use of the textbook. The problem is, the knowledge-base of most subjects has now become so extensive, that it has become increasingly difficult for teachers to cram everything into the limited number of periods a week they have with each class, let alone from a textbook! You only need to take a closer look at the publishers and their relationships with those that promote them to find this ideology is all a little incestuous.

The result? This is political hearsay.

9. iPads:

I’ve yet to find myself working in a school that uses iPads extensively in all subjects with all students, but that’s not to say I don’t advocate technology in the classroom. It has a place, but it certainly should not replace the role of the teacher. Using iPads in the classroom is expensive and I have seen it work well, but I’ve also seen it lead students down the ‘garden-path’ and have seen teachers get frustrated with the technology and students to turn to ‘Google’ for the answers all-too-often. Show me the research from a challenging state school, please.

The result? The jury is still out …

10. Seating plans:

I have seen teachers sit students in rows or groups of tables (for collaboration) in all sorts of subjects. Maths, technology, art and English. Some are great, some not-so-much. Either way, whatever works for those teachers and their students is what’s best. It is the duty of colleagues observing/coaching to intervene if they believe the techniques a teacher is using in their classroom – even the seating plan – is detrimental to the teaching and learning of the class.

The result? Where is the evidence? A myth (for now)…

11. Zero-tolerance:

If a school promotes a ‘zero tolerance’ approach, how confident are these institutions in helping young people to learn from their mistakes? How do their permanent exclusion figures read? Every school should have a behaviour policy which promotes learning and aims to cull disruption or defiance. To promote that a school is tough on discipline and better than any other is in-line with ideologies promoted by those that look to commercialise education via the academies and free school movement. Every school wants good behaviour. The most reputable research organisations in England published research in June 2019: “There are no high-quality studies of ‘zero tolerance’ completed in English schools.”

The result? Political hearsay! Don’t fall for it…

12. Brain Gym:

The program has been criticised as pseudoscience, designed by Paul Dennison who worked as a public school teacher in the 1960s, researching more effective ways to help children and adults with learning difficulties. The studies themselves have received polemic feedback from supporters and critics. The consensus is Brain Gym activities are poorly designed and that the work is not supported by peer-reviewed research. When questioned, Dennison said that he “leaves the explanations to the experts.”

The result? Myth! It’s simply bad science…

13. Four-Part Lessons:

Including 3 and 7 parts or whatever number of parts you’ve been told! There is little or no evidence to suggest any suitable model works other than quality first teaching from the outset.

The result? Another fad which blights teacher autonomy in return for whole-school compliance.

14. Lollypop-stick questioning:

It is absolutely essential that you ask the correct question in the first place, and then use a mechanism to find a student to answer. Used by many teachers in their fast-track induction, lolly-sticks are a neat little trick to ensure that every child takes part in the lesson to appease observers. But, what are they learning and what is the teacher assessing by doing so? Overall, whatever mechanism you use to ask questions, it’s the quality of your question – who it is targeted to and why – and the quality of feedback that counts.

The result? It’s a myth – show me the research?

15. Teacher talk:

I once blogged about teacher-talk; traditional versus progressive methods, false dichotomies or otherwise, might make for an interesting debate when it’s underpinned by evidence, but in most classrooms, teachers do a bit of both. Put another way, children need facts but also need to develop the skills (procedural knowledge) to use those facts. We know that it is the quality of direct-instruction and teacher-clarity that has a significant effect on student progress. Provide instructions poorly, whether for a long or short period of time and you’ll leave your students with no clarity or direction. Over time, this is likely to have a detrimental effect on learning and long-term memory.

The result? Hearsay. Talk for as long as you want, as long as teachers check that students have made a change in their long-term memory…

16. Lesson planning:

Yes, believe it or not, teachers are still required to write detailed lesson plans (2-3 A4 pages) for every lesson and submit them to their line manager for lesson observations. Although the myth of writing detailed lesson plans is largely debunked, there are strong rumours that many primary schools still ask their teachers to submit weekly lesson plans to their headteachers. The result, teachers spend their entire Sundays writing weekly planning sheets to submit on a Monday morning for people who won’t be in the lesson!

The result? This could be a myth, hearsay and a fad all in one. Yet to find any research to suggest lesson planning leads to better outcomes. I’m going with school inspection and teacher-training-driven-science; it’s a fad.

17. Verbal feedback stamps:

Stamping or recording ‘VF’ in a student’s book to indicate that verbal feedback has taken place adds no value to learning. If the stamp is merely to serve as an indication to an observer when looking through students books, then those teachers have lost their way in the classroom and is undermining the value of a teacher’s work.

The result? One of the worst myths to appear in classrooms over the last decade.

18. Triple marking:

This idea was originally designed to reduce marking and make more of key assessments and may have stemmed from some senior leaders interpretation of the School Inspection Handbook. After posting this blog, the origins of the idea have come to light and have been clarified by the person who claims to have promoted the original idea which has been lost in translation. Thankfully, OfSTED has started to publish their own misconceptions and they could not be clearer.

The result? Started off as conference hearsay, and slowly has become a fad due to inspection preferences. Ten years later, we are still unpicking the damage.

19. Starters, Middles, Plenaries:

We’ve all created them, acted them out for observations and inspections when in reality we’d rather just get on with teaching! The research is now clear, a quick review of learning that has gone before (retrieval practice) is the perfect medicine for long-term memory.

The result? Myth. Show me the research please … but consider a retrieval practice quiz or lesson review.

The following will be added shortly:

The purple pen of progress

Mocksteds

Work scrutinies

Mindfulness

Praise

Classroom displays

A ‘knowledge-rich’ curriculum

Growth mindset

Knowledge organisers

One-to-one devices

Lollipop sticks

Phonics

Performance-related pay

Inspections grading

Lesson observation grading

Genius hour

We may discover in the next few years, the lesson gradings, book looks and even performance related-pay are the next set of fads and gimmicks.

What’s missing? Write your answers in the comments below…