Dr James Shea's Avatar

Dr James Shea

@englishspecial

Principal Lecturer Teacher Education | ITE UG & PG Portfolio Leader | Trustee The Pyramid Schools Trust | Author | Editor http://peerreviewededucationblog.com

1,873
Followers
1,887
Following
147
Posts
03.01.2024
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Dr James Shea @englishspecial

Post image Post image

Fascinating to hear lessons learned by a headteacher from the new Ofsted inspection system.

19.12.2025 08:50 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

It would be interesting to see the original version before tracked changes were accepted

10.09.2025 13:05 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Petition: Issue new guidance on teachers’ early retirement rights The state pension age will change to 67 in 2028 and therefore minimum early retirement age will change to 57. Teachers with final salary pensions who started teaching before the pension changed to car...

Please repost πŸ™

Older teachers are at the bottom of the list when waiting to find out their pension details. Please sign this petition to help raise awareness!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/72...

26.06.2025 15:56 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Lower or upper sixth in key stage 5?

19.06.2025 07:11 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The big idea that’s affected how nearly all schools in England are led and run In 1996, Roger Shouse sat down to pen an article for the journal, The Social Psychology of Education. He wanted to examine tensions between two visions of schooling. One stresses social cohesion (i…

Have you ever heard of academic press?

New blog!

peerreviewededucationblog.com/2025/06/14/t...

15.06.2025 21:21 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

How great to see it said that there is no β€˜right’ answer for all schools, teachers and pupils but - to quote- β€œAs always, the right answer is not in tribalism, in all of one idea and none of another, but a sophisticated blend of both worlds.”

16.06.2025 06:35 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
The big idea that’s affected how nearly all schools in England are led and run In 1996, Roger Shouse sat down to pen an article for the journal, The Social Psychology of Education. He wanted to examine tensions between two visions of schooling. One stresses social cohesion (i…

Have you ever heard of academic press?

New blog!

peerreviewededucationblog.com/2025/06/14/t...

15.06.2025 21:21 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

No evidence - subjective observations

13.06.2025 06:40 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Interesting to read Ofsted inspectors clearly favouring purchased schemes of work over those developed by a school.

11.06.2025 09:45 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Predictions yes. But also pupils viewing β€˜how to do questions’ videos where they’d be better revising content, revising using generic sites like Seneca which don’t cover our exact syllabus but sound plausible, study skills YouTubers… surprised this year how much kids want to rely on online not me

29.05.2025 08:01 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I suppose some of my issues are around the nature of endless exam question practice and 'prediction' of questions. The purpose of the assessment is to test transfer - both near transfer and far. Treating it like a horse race means the focus isn't on life long transfer but more like gambling.

28.05.2025 09:27 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I suppose some of my issues are around the nature of endless exam question practice and 'prediction' of questions. The purpose of the assessment is to test transfer - both near transfer and far. Treating it like a horse race means the focus isn't on life long transfer but more like gambling.

28.05.2025 09:26 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

TikTokTipsters profiteering on the high stakes gambling nature of GCSE exams is where we are now in 2025.
Read my comments in The Observer.

28.05.2025 07:16 πŸ‘ 22 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 5

An extra push for our fascinating survey into how Year 11s have revised for their exams. Early results are truly astounding. If you could share, we would most appreciate it. πŸ™

10.05.2025 06:54 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Microsoft Forms

πŸ‘€We have an ethically approved survey for Year 11s who are revising for GCSEs doing the rounds.πŸ‘€

If you have a Year 11 or would like to share with your revision class please pass the link on. The early results are already quite staggering.

Retweets πŸ™

forms.office.com/pages/respon...

14.04.2025 06:59 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2

Some very good points. It made me reflect on the National Curriculum documents and just how much we’ve moved away from them in search of positivist metrical outcomes.

18.04.2025 16:59 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
An (edu) fad's purpose is what it does 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 lesson...

New post‡️

β–ΈThe fad's purpose is what it doesβ—‚
...and not what its authors thought it would do

Educational fads seen through systems theory (AKA cybernetics).

Please share (tough for bloggers recently)
#UKEd #EduSky #EruditePedagogy #Cybernetics

cmooreanderson.wixsite.com/teachingbiol...

18.04.2025 06:35 πŸ‘ 47 πŸ” 30 πŸ’¬ 18 πŸ“Œ 14

For my secondary school crew…

14.04.2025 07:47 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Microsoft Forms

πŸ‘€We have an ethically approved survey for Year 11s who are revising for GCSEs doing the rounds.πŸ‘€

If you have a Year 11 or would like to share with your revision class please pass the link on. The early results are already quite staggering.

Retweets πŸ™

forms.office.com/pages/respon...

14.04.2025 06:59 πŸ‘ 9 πŸ” 13 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2

If you are trying to elicit the testing effect but then spend extra time every lesson reteaching then you wipe out the gained time. AFL is very good teaching but it’s not RP.

04.04.2025 17:52 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

πŸ”₯80% of teachers reteach content if pupils don't know the answers during a cycle of retrieval practice.πŸ”₯

Why bother using retrieval practice to elicit the testing effect if you then waste the gained time reteaching the answers?

Read more here
πŸ‘‡

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

04.04.2025 07:14 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Bridget Phillipson speech to set out need for more male teachers in school.

Will she announce sweeping reform of the bursary system & allow primary, & subjects like drama, to access funds that enable more deprived/career changers to become teachers?

www.tes.com/magazine/new...

03.04.2025 05:42 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Primary tests in the future will be replaced by AI, NHS-style, 'screening' which checks for dyslexia, discalcula & other difficulties as part of evaluation of their reading & maths.

Will we still over prep for these screening checks?

Check lexplore.com/en-gb/ for starters.

29.03.2025 07:26 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

I’ve taken my children through 16 different GCSE specs so far and every one of them needs a slightly different interpretation and focus. And my experience suggests that how well you understand each one can be a bigger factor in grading than subject understanding.

04.03.2025 14:34 πŸ‘ 5 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I have a colleague who teaches 4 subjects across GCSE and A-Level, and told me recently how the word 'evaluate' means something slightly different in each of those contexts...

04.03.2025 15:01 πŸ‘ 10 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0
Let's be brutally honest: each GCSE subject has evolved its own distinct assessment culture. It's not a unified system of assessment; it's a collection of individual ecosystems, each with its own set of rules, expectations, and unspoken 'secrets'. The way examiners interpret mark schemes, weightings, the very language of the questions themselves; all varies significantly between subjects. We're asking students to navigate ten different cultural landscapes, to decipher ten different codes, and then we're surprised when they struggle to do this without specialist teachers and tutors to teach them these codes.

Let's be brutally honest: each GCSE subject has evolved its own distinct assessment culture. It's not a unified system of assessment; it's a collection of individual ecosystems, each with its own set of rules, expectations, and unspoken 'secrets'. The way examiners interpret mark schemes, weightings, the very language of the questions themselves; all varies significantly between subjects. We're asking students to navigate ten different cultural landscapes, to decipher ten different codes, and then we're surprised when they struggle to do this without specialist teachers and tutors to teach them these codes.

Having to learning ten GCSE exam cultures is inefficient use of curriculum time. Homogenize the individual exam systems and drive more learning of new content.

04.03.2025 11:26 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 2 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2
Post image Post image

Whether you are for or against institutions spending money on preparing senior leaders for the risk of Ofsted, there's no escaping it's big business.

01.03.2025 11:41 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

πŸ”₯πŸ”₯ Hot take: are we wrong about revision? This time of year we see the focus shift for Y11 towards revision and there is lots out there talking about effective strategies based on cognitive psychology. However, things may not be as they seem..... 🧡 #UKEd

01.03.2025 08:02 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Join us for an AWP offsite reading with @blackoceanbooks.bsky.social and Saturnalia Books on Thursday 3/27 @barhenryla in Echo Park! πŸ“–πŸŽ€πŸ—£οΈ

➑️ News | Burnside Review

#awp #awp2025 #losangeles #awpoffsitereading

26.02.2025 15:57 πŸ‘ 11 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 2

I really enjoyed doing this podcast talking about my research on retrieval practice in schools. I outline some top tips but also my concerns. When it comes to retrieval practice, we need to remember it is ultimately an outcome of a highly controlled experiment, which has implications 🧡 #UKEd

23.02.2025 07:20 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0