MEC seminar - 10 March 2021

40 mins Presentation + 20 mins Q&A:Prof. Robert Coe “The development of the Great Teaching Toolkit: ongoing work in progress” (Loughborough University)

Abstract: In June 2020 we published the Great Teaching Toolkit: Evidence Review (www.greatteaching.com), which is the first part in a programme to support large-scale improvement of classroom quality and student attainment. Our intention is to apply the best available evidence about what we can do to raise attainment (a focus on teacher knowledge, goals, skills and habits) and the conditions, enablers and barriers that exist in schools to leverage the required professional learning. A key insight is that complex interventions in complex environments need to follow a rapid 'try-evaluate-improve' cycle in order to achieve their intended impact, and the consequent need for rich, local, real-time data for feedback and evaluation. Developing the structure and instrumentation for creating these feedback processes is the next phase of the project.

Although we are at an early stage of this development (and delayed somewhat by COVID), I will describe the vision, rationale and plans, update on progress and perhaps share some preliminary data.

15 mins: Break

40 mins Presentation + 20 mins Q&A:Prof. Manu Kapur “Productive Failure” (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

Abstract: There is now a substantive body of research that demonstrates the effectiveness of Productive Failure (PF) for learning novel concepts. I will start by describing what PF is, and situate the case for PF both theoretically and empirically. I will then report findings from a recent meta-analysis to delineate boundary conditions for how, when and why PF succeeds, ending with thoughts on when productive failure fails.