"Rarely have I been so convinced by the power of a new theoretical underpinning for a pedagogical technique such as the one presented...

This is because a principal end-goal of KS4 is a grade. But in KS3, the principal goal should be an invitation into the reality constructed by a subject's members.

Questioning often leads to confused students who don't participate. To counter this confusion we need to establish, what Tsui calls, common ground (2004). And there is an elegant method that solves this problem.

In this post, I explain how I've taught enzyme kinetics without slides or worksheets to 14-year-olds. This lesson followed another on...

When teachers step into the classroom, we never act alone. There is no “I do”. Each of our actions is a response, a small arc, in a continual loop consisting of ourselves, our tools, and our students. 

Problems arise in lessons due to transient information, which occurs when information appears and then disappears (Wong et al. 2012). This is common with the presentation of slide decks. A crucial image is shown but vanishes when the teacher moves to the next slide. This puts pressure on the student to retain all the aspects in mind while connecting them to the information on the next slide.

Not long ago a drive emerged against "fun" lessons. The push was to rid the focus on fun and return it to subject knowledge itself. Soon followed the argument that students had to accept boring lessons. Now I hear ever more reports of widespread boring lessons. Often, it seems, following a script of teacher does, students do. With an ontology of controllability comes the urge to pin systems down like an insect to a cork board. While learning through entertainment didn't wor

Two years ago, we began planning the new IB biology syllabus and I shared my initial perspective. Now that we've completed our first...

Podcast: Sense-making in Classroom Teaching

The nephron is a tricky concept for many students but it doesn't have to be. In this post, I explain how I've taught it recently, without...

Podcast: Knowledge Doesn't Equal Understanding

Including metacontent in your teaching will ensure students learn for the long-term.

Oxygen dissociation curves are difficult for students. I often find that difficulty comes from trying to visualise the mechanism through...

Does knowledge = understanding? This simple equation suggests that the extent of a person's understanding is purely equal to the extent...

Teaching about natural selection gives a mechanism for how species change but it doesn't directly address how one species can diverge...

The role of individual organisms is vital to understanding ecosystem functions. Often, the organism—and how it goes about its life—is...

The nervous system is a great topic for exploring who we are and what we can do. It's also great for explaining experience. But to do...

Here's how I taught about enzymes recently with students 14–16 using just diagrams and dialogue . You can read about the benefits of...

The lac operon is a classic of genetics and is common in biology curricula. Yet, students can sometimes find it difficult. I want to show...

If you're teaching Mendelian genetics, monogenic disorders are on the cards. But which ones are good examples? The IB has once again...

The relationship between photosynthesis and respiration—within an individual plant—isn't easy for students. Often I find, they've been...

The peppered moth of industrial England—and the Galapagos finches on Daphne Major during the 1976 drought—are common examples used for...

Often, people discuss schools as centres for optimising students' learning and teachers' teaching. However, I want to share a distinction...

The nitrogen cycle is one of my favourite lessons. There's so much to connect to: history and everyday life. But, students need a clear...

Recently the idea of "rehearsal" has appeared in UK-based educational blogs. But there appears to be confusion. What's it for? Here are...

Around 2012ish, a new movement rode into the UK (school) educational scene. It came with the banner of "evidence-based", to counter the...

To understand p-values, you must discern a critical aspect: how confident you can interpret data. You must see how the relationship...

Advising students how to study is complex. Learning is messy, with ups and downs. Sudden insights may punctuate periods of seemingly...

How to teach mammalian thermoregulation with a system dynamics model.

How to help students understand osmosis by building a stock and flow diagram with them.

The variation theory of learning is a theory about how we learn and, therefore, how to teach. It isn't a theory of how memories are...

After reading about stock and flow diagrams in my book, many people have asked for more details about how I actually go about building...

During my training year I had to teach a Year 8 class (12 year-olds) the physics topic of heat. I began with a common question for the...

Summer is ending and the new syllabus is rolling out. I just spent a few months developing my resources for the entire course and I want...

For years I've toiled with quiz questions in my biology courses (AKA core questions). I've used quiz questions as starter quizzes, to...

Reading great books is the only one short cut to improving subject knowledge. Here, I compile a selection that have helped me develop as...

I co-construct meaning with students through diagrams and dialogue, so I don't have any slide decks to share. Learn how to teach this way...

The fundamental insight to the digestive system is how it functions to meet the needs of the whole organism. To address this, we must...

"This outstanding book... deserves to be very widely read. I hope it makes a major contribution to how school biology is taught."  —Dr...

After coming across two interesting journal papers I thought they would make excellent case studies for my students. Let me introduce,...

What is the cause of osmosis? Typically, with my students of 14-16 years old (GCSE courses), I don't delve into the mechanism. It's the...

What are the most important factors for teacher sustainability? I'm sure there are many. Student behaviour, planning time, teaching...

Short answer questions are currently ubiquitous in UK secondary biology education. They work well for providing objectivity. This gives...

The Powerpoint years Creating presentations were great for organising my thinking while I planned, I could include: Exactly the right...

This preprint was vastly improved and made into Chapter 5 of my book . This is a brief summary of my new (preprint) paper in which: I...

Glucose homeostasis—What will happen? On the surface we have the learning of the component parts of the human body that function as a...

A thought experiment: Scenario 1: Two pedagogy-passionate colleagues (of the same subject) are being observed by a non-specialist. The...

They say that feedback is not about improving the work, but about improving the learner. Yet, what aspect of the learner? Their knowledge...

Whilst reading through a rather old book called Life Cycles by Peter Calow (1978), I came across a diagram that instantly struck me as...

This is a summary of my paper here in the Journal of Biological Education , whose ideas have been vastly advanced and presented in my...