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As a teacher, you are a magician. You conjure understanding where there was none.
Drawing on years of experience teaching in a diverse range of schools and powered by a nuanced understanding of educational research, Greg Ashman presents the most vital ideas that you need to know in order to succeed in teaching. Find out how to avoid common mistakes and challenge some of the myths about what good teaching really is.
Evidence-informed, the book explores major issues you will encounter in schools, including the science of learning, classroom management, explicit forms of teaching, why the use of phonics has been such a controversial issue and smart ways to evaluate the potential of technology in the classroom.
If you are training to teach in primary or secondary education, or in the early stages of your teacher career, this book is for you.
Chapter 1: A short history of education
Chapter 2: Classroom management
Chapter 3: The science of learning
Chapter 4: Motivating students
Chapter 5: Explicit teaching
Chapter 6: Alternatives to explicit teaching
Chapter 7: Planning lessons
Chapter 8: Assessment and feedback
Chapter 9: Using technology
Chapter 10: The phonics debate
Chapter 11: To be a teacher
"Greg Ashman has written something about behaviour management that is rare in education: useful and evidence-informed. So many commentators write about children as we would like them to be rather than the ones we find on classrooms. His focus on prevention and cure as simultaneous strategies of core importance, is one of the most overlooked manifestos in the craft of running a room. There's more sense in this one chapter than in half the teacher training courses I have seen on the matter, and I wish that every new teacher had a chance to read, absorb and reflect on its clear and simple wisdom."
- Tom Bennett
"This is a highly readable, practical and thought-provoking account of the evidence about how we learn and how to teach. Anyone interested in improving education should read it."
- Daisy Christodoulou
"Greg Ashman changed my life. I was introduced to his blog via Dylan Wiliam, and Greg's subsequent interview on my Mr Barton Maths Podcast in 2017 left me and thousands of listeners questioning everything in teaching that we had previous taken for granted. It took me 12 years to think deeper about the the way I planned lessons, the things I did in the classroom, how I marked books, and many other things. The Truth about Teaching is the book I wished I'd had all those years ago."
- Craig Barton
"...Ashman admits that "teaching cannot claim to be evidence-based ... Instead, we can hope to be evidence-informed." It's a welcome admission that cognitive models and large scale meta-analyses might not tell us everything about what goes on in the classroom, and sets the tone for the rest of this detailed and absorbing book."
- George Duoblys, Schools Week
"New and aspiring teachers will find this book gives valuable insights. The author's extensive background in teaching means he writes from an informed and empathetic viewpoint, giving his readers confidence. An understanding of educational research is demonstrated, along with the most vital ideas necessary to succeed in teaching... It's a practical book, firmly rooted in actual classroom experience with real children - it's just what teachers will encounter and therefore reassuring and positive to use and apply."
- Sarah Brew, Parents in Touch
