Efficiency is an educational vice How ‘efficiency’ derailed education

Fantastic read for a Saturday morning:
by @bernardandrews.bsky.social

substack.com/inbox/post/1...

Knowledge that is extensive and exact, thinking that is scrupulous and critical: these are the scholastic tools with which we equip our young people to face the world.
Schools can do more than this - e.g. keeping children safe and giving them confidence - but teaching kids things is surely key.

...the family tree of religions from September, key Abrahamic beliefs about God's omnipotence from November, and debates about the design argument we had in December. Every lesson we learn something new - but we are also building a way of thinking about, understanding and debating religion.

I love this approach to teaching and it resonates with what I do in RS. Today Y7 learned about literal and metaphorical interpretations of the Biblical creation story - but that built upon ways of thinking about religions and worldviews that we began in lesson 1 , an understanding of...

I think this stems from conflating comprehension with performance. Getting students to say the right words is easy; getting them to understand why those are the right words to say is difficult.

And we got going on polytheism because they knew what polygon meant from Maths!

I love using etymology in Religious Studies - doing this a lot with year 7 at the moment. Having broken down monotheism and polytheism together - and then watching a brief clip of Morph - they could all work out what "polymorphic monotheism" meant. #edusky

#TeamRE

Ella Al-Shamahi's Human documentary is exceptional - a detailed yet engaging look at our common ancestors. Its real success is closing the gap of millennia to make prehistoric Homo sapiens seem just like us - which of course they were!

Thank you for dedicating the last 5 years to making it!

Keeping It 101: A Killjoy's introduction to Religion Podcast

Any current/prospective RE teachers looking for an introduction/subject knowledge development which goes beyond just teaching the "Big Five", this is an excellent resource. keepingit101.com #TeamRE

Bittersweet to listen to the last episode of Keeping it 101, which has for the last 5 years been so entertaining and educational, and shaped how I teach and understand religion. Kudos to @profirmf.bsky.social and @mpgphd.bsky.social for showing what exceptional public scholarship can look like.

Radical with Amol Rajan - AI and Sexism: The Fight Against Misogyny Online - BBC Sounds Laura Bates on how algorithms are fuelling misogyny and radicalising young men.

Laura Bates is so articulate here in outlining how everyday sexism *still* exists and has transformed in the online & AI world, posing new risks for young girls and boys. She explains clearly how the recent crisis of masculinity remains a fundamentally feminist issue.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

how much more focused teacher training is on how people learn and how teachers can design lessons with that in mind.

Obviously many caveats to this and school teaching involves many other elements around engagement, long-term retention, scaffolding and deliberate practise. But having both taken a course for teaching undergrads during my PhD and recently completed a PGCE, I was struck by...

Moving from academia to school teaching has confirmed this for me. Ultimately, the most efficient way to deliver information to someone is to tell them. Methods that rely on students working it out for themselves underestimate the importance of prior knowledge.

S15 E6: The One About The Scopes Trial The RE Podcast · Episode

Just discovered The RE Podcast and loved the recent episode on the Scopes trial. I think maybe the most important insight for understanding fundamentalism is that it's not "medieval" or "old-fashioned" but thoroughly modern. #TeamRE

open.spotify.com/episode/3MCB...

I had a really good time teaching a one off lesson on "Who was Jesus?" with year 7 today. We enjoyed learning about life in first century Palestine and exploring the world Jesus lived in.

ChatGPT can plan lessons but it can’t think for you How generative AI is transforming lesson planning and why teaching still depends on what happens inside teachers' heads

"Cognitive effort is not a barrier to learning, it’s what makes learning happen."

This is probably the most important thing I learnt this year. 'How can I make sure all students are thinking hard throughout every lesson?' has become a key principle for me.

open.substack.com/pub/daviddid...

In our brief interaction, I found Helen to be kind, thoughtful, generous, and an excellent philosopher and intellectual. Their passing is a great loss

This is especially relevant for trainees. By design you spend a lot of time looking at what you're still not getting right but it's also important to regularly look back to see how far you've come.

Food for thought as I prepare to teach Peace & Conflict to year 9. "Pacifism couldn't stop the Nazis" is a common argument I hear the classroom but it's worth noting that militarism didn't stop Hitler's rise to power, nor create a safe world or lasting peace.

Some simple but good advice for teachers here. In particular, I've found thinking about the order in which I give instructions has made a big difference this half term.

Judge halts attempt to retrieve £600m bitcoin wallet from Welsh dump James Howells, 39, took council to court to try to force it to let him search site for hard drive thrown away by accident

Spent this morning teaching year 9 about Dukkha caused by dissatisfaction. Perhaps a lesson to be learned there for this individual. #TeamRE

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Started with some basic context about Guru Nanak & Sikhi (when, where, etc). Then introduced the story of Guru Nanak and the River - watched video then read as a class. Next lesson we're going to be story detectives looking for any secret meanings in the text and they're all very excited!

Started this today - using a hermeneutic approach to stories about Guru Nanak to introduce Sikhi to Y7. Was apprehensive but they loved it and were really engaged with the story. I'm starting to like the idea of teaching religion through storytelling. #TeamRE

2024 was the year I became an RE teacher, which I think will turn out to be one of the best decisions I ever made. #TeamRE

Starting with Guru Nanak (including some context) and the story of the river. Reason for hermeneutics is I find a lot of my pupils still think religious stories are worthless because they're obviously false. Hoping to help them see meaning beyond the literal - a transferable skill for RE & beyond

Do you have any to recommend? I'm quite new to Sikhi so working it out as I go along!

First term as a teacher complete and it's been a wonderful, wild ride. 16 weeks ago I was given a list of 300 names which meant nothing to me; these were the kids in my classes who I have loved getting to know this term, who have made consistently me smile, and who have surprised me every day.