3-Read Friday #57

Performance versus learning, cognitive endurance, and a lovely maths task

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Here are three blog posts that I found interesting this week.

1. What’s Good for Performance Often Isn’t Good for Learning by Paul Kirschner

Many readers will be familiar with the distinction between performance and learning. Paul summarises the differences, explains why they matter, and suggests concrete things teachers can do to avoid putting all our eggs in the performance basket.

2. On Attention, ‘cognitive endurance’ and reading by Doug Lemov

Long-time readers will know about my obsession with students’ attention (or, more accurately, students’ lack of attention). Here, Doug shares his work on reading and a fascinating study about how cognitive endurance - the ability to remain focussed for long periods - can be built up through practice. You can read the original study here.

3. Differences by Sam Blatherwick

One for the maths geeks! Sam shares a lovely activity to help students gain curiosity in numbers, patterns and relationships. How would you explain what is going on without resorting to algebra?

If you found this edition of 3-Read Friday useful, you might like to check out my new 90-minute online CPD workshops. But, most important of all, have a great weekend.

Craig