Beyond Good

Today’s episode is prompted by a recent post on X which posed the following question:  “What do you do with your mathematics teachers while you do your whole school professional learning on literacy, reading or writing?”Femi and Matt discuss the two main failure modes for students on ‘worded’ maths questions – noting that the more common and critical failure mode is one that won’t be addressed in a whole-school context.  They talk about the rarely considered element of ‘opportunity cost’, optimum ways of developing student ability on worded maths questions, what the maths department could actually be doing on literacy PD, the role of subject leaders in setting the tone to make this PD a success, and the implications for taking ‘literacy is everyone’s responsibility’ forward seriously.Also discussed are the EEF guide to improving literacy in secondary schools, how we have to view the use of training time through the lens of impact, alternative and possibly more effective approaches to professional learning, the importance of identifying needs within a department and prioritising training to address those needs, and leaders having the strength and courage to take a differentiated and subject-specific approach to professional development.Finally the conversation moves on to the importance of airing conflict, different ways of handling conflict, learning from our mistakes, getting feedback on how well our approaches have worked, the importance carefully of defining success criteria and afterwards evaluating the impact of training.Please do join in and further the conversation - @beyondgoodpod on X 

In today’s episode, Femi and Matt discuss differentiation!  They talk about adaptive learning, differentiation as an advanced teaching skill that relies on solid foundations of strong learning behaviour and pedagogical subject knowledge and the botheredness to actually go and do it (especially when classes are compliant.)They talk about prioritising differentiating to support weaker students first, priority learners, and really knowing who needs your help. The amount of one to one interactions in lessons as a marker of teacher skill.  Some of the mistakes we can make when trying to ‘extend’ more able students, share some examples of approaches to differentiation that are not especially effective. 

In this episode Matt and Femi discuss culture - particularly from the perspective of heads of department trying to shape the culture of teaching staff in their corner of the school.  This one is not maths-specific –  the discussion is relevent to colleagues from any subject area or team.They consider the fact that culture exists – whether you actively seek to shape it, or not, the characteristics of good culture, shaping and maintaining culture, so called toxic environments: and how incongruence, unfairness and wilful blindness from leaders can play a role there.They talk about failing to listen for fear of endorsing the other person’s view, some challenges of open lines of communication, establishing and reinforcing norms, Tuckman’s stages of group development, being visible, engineering and celebrating success, and delegating and giving responsibility (while guiding and supporting appropriately), amongst other things. 

Today Femi and Matt are speaking about lesson observations and related activities such as lesson visits, coaching and feedback.  They talk about being clear on why the observation is happening; good and less good reasons for doing lesson observations and some of the issues around lesson observations as part of the performance management process.On lesson visits i.e. ‘walking the shop floor’, they discuss culture, feedback and follow up and then get into coaching observations and feedback:  3 common mistakes, models for structuring feedback, initial identification of the big ticket items and subsequent follow up staying with that focus. Jim Knight’s ‘Impact cycle’, teaching strategies, modelling and feedback.The attitude of the person being observed.  Trust.  How potential typically outweighs competence and the implications for ‘attitude’ when recruiting teachers.What makes for effective teams.What Matt has been working on to be trust-worthy on his end of the relationship, and how one’s behaviour can reveal underlying motivations and insecurities. What is a necessary professional conversation, and what isn’t, and what can be learnt from those encounters, and lesson observation etiquette, among other things! 

Today's episode is about mistakes, disappointment and failure – with the discussion ranging from 'recognising that my last lesson didn’t go as well as I wanted', through to acknowledging and responding to under-performance at the level of the whole school.Matt and Femi discuss the importance of recognising and admitting when things aren’t good enough and taking responsibility for the outcomes, how to identify when outcomes haven’t been good enough, and also reflecting on when and why things went well.The pair share examples from their own experiences of failure; what it means to be able to hold your head up high, look the kids in the eye at the end of the year and say “Hand on heart, I did my best”; Using evidence to identify what it is that you need to work on to improve outcomes – and trying to focus in on a small number of things that will have the biggest impact; and the common trap of focussing on 'what I should have done in that situation' rather than 'how to avoid getting into the situation in the first place'. They debate some of the problems with having performance management linked to class results;  A developmental paradigm vs judgemental paradigm; focussing on outcomes vs focussing on culture; and the value of having the space to make mistakes.  

Today’s episode is about 'hit and run' CPD, which Femi and Matt approach with an attitude of constructive criticism and attempting to offer a vision of positive alternatives.  'Hit and run' CPD is really just any so called ‘training’ which is a singular, stand-alone event, with no follow up.  All too often these sessions will involve all staff in the hall, with no attempt to evaluate prior knowledge, and no differentiation for the widely varying contexts and levels of expertise.The duo discuss what is meant by the term; what the problems are with singular standalone training sessions; what would constitute valid goals for the inset presentation and what does it look like when it’s being done well.They talk about the importance of follow-up to any training , get into the challenges for heads and SLTs around narrowing priorities enough to give them the time through the year to achieve and sustain real change and the importance of approaching inset and training strategically and with long and medium term plans.They also discuss cultivating a developmental culture vs a judgemental one, and how the behaviour of leaders is crucial to shape that; The challenges of utilising expertise within school; The proper way to reflect on training sessions and the importance of reflecting and evaluating the impact of training and inset; How energising it can be to be involved in the long term project of improvement – especially with a skilled facilitator and a clear path forward; and The economics of professional development and false economy of the hit and run CPD, amongst other things.This episode should be of interest to teachers of all subjects, and as always we'd love to hear your thoughts - @BeyondGoodPod on X.

Today's episode starts with Matt and Femi chatting about Femi’s observations of coaches at his 6 year old's summer tennis camp, which turns out to be a fascinating lens through which to discuss the characteristics of great teachers as it is all about the ‘how’ of what is being done, and not the ‘what’ – which is so often the focus of discussions in teaching.They discuss the critical importance of enthusiasm and passion; Steven Kotler’s model of motivation for flow; the ability to differentiate; flexibility to deviate from the plan; use of names, and subject knowledge.The conversation gets into teachers identifying other experts, learning from them and actively seeking coaching and feedback; Coaching and the inner game of tennis; and the ways in which motivation and engagement are a precursor to skill development. They discuss the power of the word ‘differently’ in coaching; how achieving mastery in teaching makes the job a pleasure and not a drag; How much 1:1 interaction each child gets with the teacher during the session or lesson, and the power and beauty of curiosity, among other topics.Lots to enjoy today and truly none of it is maths-specific, so we hope this is of interest once again to all colleagues.

In this episode of the podcast Femi and Matt share their thoughts on four different topics selected from X (formerly twitter): 'textbooks', 'locking the toilets', 'group work' and 'moving schools'.They discuss what the ideal textbook looks like, mixed revision, and workbooks.  The pros and cons of locking the toilets during lesson time, mobile phones, and managing students asking to go to the toilet during your lessons.  Group work, independent practise, collaboration, variety in activities around the school, and noise levels in the classroom, and finally some thoughts both for colleagues starting in a new school in September, and for leaders in schools receiving new colleagues in September.If you like this format for the podcast please do let us know @BeyondGoodPod on X. 

In this episode Femi and Matt discuss Line management!  The duo get into what good practise might look like; things line managers should do and should avoid, regularity of meetings, line management as a partnership – so a collaborative process, and approaching line management outside of your specialism with genuine humility and curiosity.They discuss the importance of looking at material in advance of the meeting (when applicable), minimising admin, getting to know the subject and department that you line manage, putting aside your own comfort zone and seeking to understand what is effective in this subject, line managers going to department meetings, centring line management around a vision for the department, setting and reviewing goals and providing support.Finally, the importance of finding out the career aspirations of the people you line management, and looking for opportunities to dovetail their progression with the needs of the school.As always Beyond Good welcome and invite opposing views and questions: @beyondgoodpod on X / twitter.   

In this episode of the podcast Femi and Matt discuss the ideas of Mastery and 'Conceptual Understanding' in teaching and learning.  The conversation covers:-          Mastery-          Layers of understanding-          A pragmatic definition of understanding-          Common issues in the classroom-          ‘rich’ activities vs repetition-          Chunking and isolating skills-          aha moments-          Knowledge is power-          Mastery takes time-          Traps for enthusiastic teachers-          Split classes-          Extending top end students in the classroom-          The optics of maths lessons (and skill acquisition in general) – which can look ‘boring’ from the outside-          Progression over time vs observing one-off lessons-          And Student voice, amongst other topicsWe hope you enjoy the discussion, and find it useful!