David Didau – författare

Psykologisk forskning har traditionellt sett inte haft en naturlig plats inom utbildningsvetenskapen. Klassrumspsykologi vill ändra på det. Tvärtom har lärare stor hjälp av psykologi vid just undervisning. Med avstamp i forskning och praktisk klassrumserfarenhet går David Didau och Nick Rose igenom ett antal rubriker som alla resonerar kring för läraren välkända begrepp, till exempel arbetsminne, feedback, bedömning, förväntningar och målsättning – utifrån psykologiskateorier och strategier. Psykologisk kunskap görs därmed konkret och tillgänglig, och boken blir ett handfast undervisningsstöd.

”Den här boken är ett måste för alla nyblivna lärare. Men även den mer erfarna läraren får flera nya insikter och perspektiv. Det fick jag.”

Dylan William

What is English as a school subject for? What does knowledge look like in English and what should be taught? Making Meaning in English examines the broader purpose and reasons for teaching English and explores what knowledge looks like in a subject concerned with judgement, interpretation and value. David Didau argues that the content of English is best explored through distinct disciplinary lenses – metaphor, story, argument, pattern, grammar and context – and considers the knowledge that needs to be explicitly taught so students can recognise, transfer, build and extend their knowledge of English. He discusses the principles and tools we can use to make decisions about what to teach and offers a curriculum framework that draws these strands together to allow students to make sense of the knowledge they encounter.If students are going to enjoy English as a subject and do well in it, they not only need to be knowledgeable, but understand how to use their knowledge to create meaning. This insightful text offers a practical way for teachers to construct a curriculum in which the mastery of English can be planned, taught and assessed.

What is English as a school subject for? What does knowledge look like in English and what should be taught? Making Meaning in English examines the broader purpose and reasons for teaching English and explores what knowledge looks like in a subject concerned with judgement, interpretation and value. David Didau argues that the content of English is best explored through distinct disciplinary lenses – metaphor, story, argument, pattern, grammar and context – and considers the knowledge that needs to be explicitly taught so students can recognise, transfer, build and extend their knowledge of English. He discusses the principles and tools we can use to make decisions about what to teach and offers a curriculum framework that draws these strands together to allow students to make sense of the knowledge they encounter.If students are going to enjoy English as a subject and do well in it, they not only need to be knowledgeable, but understand how to use their knowledge to create meaning. This insightful text offers a practical way for teachers to construct a curriculum in which the mastery of English can be planned, taught and assessed.

Bringing the English Curriculum to Life builds on David Didau’s groundbreaking book Making Meaning in English by showing how the principles of the original book can be applied in schools and classrooms. Drawing together experiences of designing, teaching, supporting and assessing English across the schools within Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), this book demonstrates what an ambitious, coherently sequenced, broad and balanced English curriculum with successful adaption for students with SEND can look like in practice.Designed around the explicit teaching of the powerful conceptual knowledge students need to master the discipline, the book offers a fully resourced English curriculum packed with teaching suggestions and examples of high-quality practice. Covering intent, implementation and assessment, and outlining in detail what is included in each module for KS3 and 4, the curriculum can be adopted in its entirety, but is also flexible enough for departments to take modules and slot them into their own curriculum.Providing an inspiring model for teaching English that enables all students to succeed, this is an essential resource for all English teachers and school leaders responsible for curriculum development.

Bringing the English Curriculum to Life builds on David Didau’s groundbreaking book Making Meaning in English by showing how the principles of the original book can be applied in schools and classrooms. Drawing together experiences of designing, teaching, supporting and assessing English across the schools within Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), this book demonstrates what an ambitious, coherently sequenced, broad and balanced English curriculum with successful adaption for students with SEND can look like in practice.Designed around the explicit teaching of the powerful conceptual knowledge students need to master the discipline, the book offers a fully resourced English curriculum packed with teaching suggestions and examples of high-quality practice. Covering intent, implementation and assessment, and outlining in detail what is included in each module for KS3 and 4, the curriculum can be adopted in its entirety, but is also flexible enough for departments to take modules and slot them into their own curriculum.Providing an inspiring model for teaching English that enables all students to succeed, this is an essential resource for all English teachers and school leaders responsible for curriculum development.

Writing is one of the most cognitively demanding tasks students face yet too often they’re expected to produce extended essays before they’ve got the hang of writing sentences. Inspired by the Couch to 5k running app, Writing Fitness rethinks the way we develop students’ writing, offering a structured, cumulative model to build fluency, precision, and confidence over time.Dismantling the flawed assumption that writing is a generic skill that students can simply "pick up" through exposure or repetition, this book proposes a model of explicit instruction, deliberate practice, and curriculum alignment, offering a tightly structured approach to writing instruction that breaks down complex skills into teachable steps. Grounded in cognitive science, grammar instruction, and classroom-tested routines, chapters include:Exploring the principles of gapless instruction, cognitive load, and schema buildingExplaining how to break essays down into teachable, repeatable sentence typesPractical guidance on everything from teaching thesis statements to embedding evidence and analysing structureSentence-level drills and the Deconstructed EssayCreative writing, addressed through constraint-based Slow Writing exercises that develop style through structureA reframing of assessment as an opportunity for feedback, planning, and consolidation, rather than merely performanceIdeal for English teachers at Key Stage 3 and beyond, this book offers a practical roadmap for improving writing outcomes – especially for disadvantaged students. With its blend of theory and detailed exemplification, Writing Fitness equips teachers to deliver writing instruction that is rigorous, inclusive, and sustainable across the curriculum.

Writing is one of the most cognitively demanding tasks students face yet too often they’re expected to produce extended essays before they’ve got the hang of writing sentences. Inspired by the Couch to 5k running app, Writing Fitness rethinks the way we develop students’ writing, offering a structured, cumulative model to build fluency, precision, and confidence over time.Dismantling the flawed assumption that writing is a generic skill that students can simply "pick up" through exposure or repetition, this book proposes a model of explicit instruction, deliberate practice, and curriculum alignment, offering a tightly structured approach to writing instruction that breaks down complex skills into teachable steps. Grounded in cognitive science, grammar instruction, and classroom-tested routines, chapters include:Exploring the principles of gapless instruction, cognitive load, and schema buildingExplaining how to break essays down into teachable, repeatable sentence typesPractical guidance on everything from teaching thesis statements to embedding evidence and analysing structureSentence-level drills and the Deconstructed EssayCreative writing, addressed through constraint-based Slow Writing exercises that develop style through structureA reframing of assessment as an opportunity for feedback, planning, and consolidation, rather than merely performanceIdeal for English teachers at Key Stage 3 and beyond, this book offers a practical roadmap for improving writing outcomes – especially for disadvantaged students. With its blend of theory and detailed exemplification, Writing Fitness equips teachers to deliver writing instruction that is rigorous, inclusive, and sustainable across the curriculum.

It states in the Teachers' Standards that all teachers must 'demonstrate an understanding of and take responsibility for promoting high standards of literacy, articulacy, and the correct use of standard English, whatever the teacher's specialist subject'. In The Secret of Literacy David Didau inspires teachers to embrace the challenge of improving students' life chances through improving their literacy. Topics include: Why is literacy important? Oracy - improving classroom talk How should we teach reading? How to get students to value writing How written feedback and marking can support literacy

This is a book about teaching, but it is not a manual on how to teach. It is a book about ideas, but not ideological. It is a book about thinking and questioning and challenging, but it also attempts some possible answers. The hope is that you will consider the implications of being wrong and consider what you would do differently if your most cherished beliefs about education turned out not to be true.

Foreword by Paul A. Kirschner.Given the choice, who wouldn’t want to be cleverer? What teacher wouldn’t want this for their students, and what parent wouldn’t wish it for their children?When David started researching this book, he thought the answers to the above were obvious. But it turns out that the very idea of measuring and increasing children’s intelligence makes many people extremely uncomfortable: “If some people were more intelligent, where would that leave those of us who weren’t?”The question of whether or not we can get cleverer is a crucial one. If you believe that intelligence is hereditary and environmental effects are trivial, you may be sceptical. But environment does matter, and it matters most for children from the most socially disadvantaged backgrounds – those who not only have the most to gain, but who are also the ones most likely to gain from our efforts to make all kids cleverer. And one thing we can be fairly sure will raise children’s intelligence is sending them to school.In this wide-ranging enquiry into psychology, sociology, philosophy and cognitive science, David argues that with greater access to culturally accumulated information – taught explicitly within a knowledge-rich curriculum – children are more likely to become cleverer, to think more critically and, subsequently, to live happier, healthier and more secure lives.Furthermore, by sharing valuable insights into what children truly need to learn during their formative school years, he sets out the numerous practical ways in which policy makers and school leaders can make better choices about organising schools, and how teachers can communicate the knowledge that will make the most difference to young people as effectively and efficiently as possible.David underpins his discussion with an exploration of the evolutionary basis for learning – and also untangles the forms of practice teachers should be engaging their students in to ensure that they are acquiring expertise, not just consolidating mistakes and misconceptions. There are so many competing suggestions as to how we should improve education that knowing how to act can seem an impossible challenge. Once you have absorbed the arguments in this book, however, David hopes you will find the simple question that he asks himself whenever he encounters new ideas and initiatives – “Will this make children cleverer?” – as useful as he does.Suitable for teachers, school leaders, policy makers and anyone involved in education.

If you feel a bit cross at the presumption of some oik daring to suggest everything you know about education might be wrong, please take it with a pinch of salt. What if everything you knew about education was wrong? is just a title. Of course, you probably think a great many things that aren't wrong. The aim of the book is to help you 'murder your darlings'. David Didau will question your most deeply held assumptions about teaching and learning, expose them to the fiery eye of reason and see if they can still walk in a straight line after the experience. It seems reasonable to suggest that only if a theory or approach can withstand the fiercest scrutiny should it be encouraged in classrooms. David makes no apologies for this; why wouldn't you be sceptical of what you're told and what you think you know? As educated professionals, we ought to strive to assemble a more accurate, informed or at least considered understanding of the world around us. Here, David shares with you some tools to help you question your assumptions and assist you in picking through what you believe.He will stew findings from the shiny white laboratories of cognitive psychology, stir in a generous dash of classroom research and serve up a side order of experience and observation.Whether you spit it out or lap it up matters not. If you come out the other end having vigorously and violently disagreed with him, you'll at least have had to think hard about what you believe. The book draws on research from the field of cognitive science to expertly analyse some of the unexamined meta-beliefs in education. In Part 1; 'Why we're wrong', David dismantles what we think we know; examining cognitive traps and biases, assumptions, gut feelings and the problem of evidence. Part 2 delves deeper - 'Through the threshold' - looking at progress, liminality and threshold concepts, the science of learning, and the difference between novices and experts. In Part 3, David asks us the question 'What could we do differently?' and offers some considered insights into spacing and interleaving, the testing effect, the generation effect, reducing feedback and why difficult is desirable. While Part 4 challenges us to consider 'What else might we be getting wrong?'; cogitating formative assessment, lesson observation, grit and growth, differentiation, praise, motivation and creativity.