Tips for Teachers by Craig Barton

Blog posts

The blog · free, and always will be

What I learned from my school visits

I have written up all the things I learned from my school visits into a series of themed blog posts.

These posts include images, audio recordings and research links. They are available for free, and always will be. They also became the basis of my 16 books and 25 workshops.

Start here: how to prioritise ideas Browse the 40 posts The books
New here? Start with this How to prioritise ideas Education is not short of ideas to try. How to decide which ones are worth your time. 5 min read.

3 postsHabits and routines

Go deeper: Book 16 (£8) · Workshops 1, 2 (£99 +VAT each)

Supporting teacher change: How I observe a lesson and give feedback My lesson observation template and the structured coaching conversation that follows it. 24 min read · audio clips Book 16 · £8Workshop 1 · £99
The power of an imaginary coach Three questions every teacher should ask themselves at regular points in a lesson. 2 min read
Supporting student change: Embedding habits and routines A change in our practice needs a change in our students’ habits. A framework for making new routines stick. 11 min read Workshop 2 · £99

6 postsMeans of participation

Go deeper: Books 1–4 (£8 each) · Workshops 3–7 (£99 +VAT each)

Participation ratio What ratio is, and why it is such a useful lens for looking at your own or a colleague’s lessons. 5 min read
Front-load the means of participation Tell students how they will answer before you ask the question, and why it matters. 4 min read · audio clips
Cold Call The pitfalls of Cold Call, and the techniques that get more students thinking hard. 17 min read · audio clips Book 1 · £8Workshop 3 · £99
Mini-whiteboards Slick mini-whiteboard routines, and how to get reliable data from every student. 28 min read · video Book 2 · £8Workshop 4 · £99Workshop 5 · £99
Call and Respond Why the teacher-says-half, class-says-the-rest technique belongs in every toolkit, and how to make it work. 13 min read · audio clips Book 3 · £8Workshop 7 · £99
Turn and Talk How to make paired discussion productive: when to use it, and what to do afterwards. 13 min read Book 4 · £8Workshop 6 · £99

7 postsChecking for understanding and responsive teaching

Go deeper: Books 5–8 (£8 each) · Workshops 8–12 (£99 +VAT each)

Checking for listening Most students are not listening as much as we hope. Practical checks for listening and incentives to listen. 19 min read · audio clips Book 5 · £8Workshop 8 · £99
Checking for understanding Ten principles for checks for understanding that are as reliable and valid as possible. 21 min read · audio clips Book 6 · £8Workshop 9 · £99
A model for responsive teaching What to do with the data once you have it: most get it, some get it, very few get it. 19 min read · audio clips Book 7 · £8Workshop 10 · £99
Plan follow-up questions in advance Why a planned follow-up question is a key part of responsive teaching. 4 min read
Don’t round up Three classroom examples of a small habit that quietly undermines checking for understanding. 5 min read
Diagnostic questions What makes a good diagnostic question, and how to use them beyond finding the right answer. 16 min read Book 8 · £8Workshop 11 · £99
Learner-Generated Examples Asking students to create their own examples within constraints, and what it reveals. 17 min read Workshop 12 · £99

10 postsPhases of a Learning Episode

Go deeper: Books 9–14 (£8 each) · Workshops 13–21 (£99 +VAT each)

Planning a Learning Episode Why I plan by Learning Episode rather than by lesson, and three structures to use. 20 min read Workshop 13 · £99
Do Now The first few minutes of a lesson: the content, structure and checking of an effective Do Now. 40 min read · video Book 9 · £8Workshop 14 · £99
Purpose Where explicit instruction can go wrong: giving students a reason to care before the I Do. 6 min read
Atomisation Breaking a concept into its smallest parts, and teaching each part so every student understands. 36 min read Book 10 · £8Workshop 15 · £99Workshop 16 · £99
I Do How to deliver a clear, concise teacher explanation that students can follow. 22 min read · audio clips Book 11 · £8Workshop 17 · £99
We Do Getting reliable evidence that the explanation made sense, and bridging to independent practice. 12 min read · audio clips Book 12 · £8Workshop 18 · £99
Maximising the participation ratio during independent practice Stopping students taking a cognitive break the moment independent practice begins. 28 min read Book 13 · £8Workshop 19 · £99
Consolidation Practising the skills just modelled, so students build competence and confidence. 11 min read
Purposeful Practice Activity structures that bridge the gap between consolidation and problem-solving. 15 min read Book 14 · £8Workshop 20 · £99
Problem-solving Helping all students choose methods, cope with worded problems and build problem-solving tactics. 26 min read Book 14 · £8Workshop 21 · £99

7 postsMemory and retrieval

Go deeper: Book 15 (£8) · Workshops 22–25 (£99 +VAT each)

Desirable difficulties and four key retrieval opportunities Learning happens across time, not in the moment. Four retrieval opportunities and the research behind them. 21 min read Workshop 22 · £99
Getting students on board with retrieval Retrieval feels hard. How to get students to put in the effort it needs. 10 min read
The role of confidence in learning Why I ask students for a confidence score before they find out if they are right. 8 min read
Low-Stakes Quiz The content, format and marking of a weekly Low-Stakes Quiz, and how students use their corrections. 25 min read Book 15 · £8Workshop 23 · £99
Homework Homework does not cost lesson time, so how do we design it well and get more students to do it? 14 min read Workshop 24 · £99
Whole-class feedback What the research says about written feedback, and a workable model of whole-class feedback. 9 min read Workshop 25 · £99
Walking-Talking mock exams The usual walking-talking mock, what goes wrong with it, and what to do instead. 9 min read

5 postsThings for heads of department and senior leaders

How prescriptive should a Head of Department be? Three things I saw on school visits, and what they say about consistency in a department. 12 min read
Lesson planning An ECT spending hours every night planning, and how we cut that down. 9 min read
Premortem: The key to ensuring change sticks? The premortem I run at the end of departmental CPD so that changes actually stick. 4 min read
The myth of copying things down A book scrutiny story, and why neat copied-down notes are not evidence of learning. 10 min read
Correcting in green pen does not work Students correct in green pen and everyone is happy. Why it does not work, and what to try. 7 min read

I’d also recommend listening to this conversation with two experienced Heads of Maths, and this conversation with Jo Morgan.

1 postMessing about with AI

NotebookLM: My favourite AI tool My favourite AI tool, and how I use it to extract data from documents and dig into research. 6 min read · audio clips
Neil Almond’s free teacher-focussed AI newsletter ↗ I heartily recommend it. Each week Neil compiles the latest AI developments and shares a prompt you can use right away. Free newsletter
Go deeper

The books and workshops

The blog posts became my 16 Tips for Teachers guide to… books (£8 each, designed as workbooks) and my 25 90-minute on-demand workshops (£99 +VAT, share with all your staff for a year).

The booksThe workshops
Newsletter

A research paper a week

My Tips for Teachers newsletter is a weekly deep dive into an educational research paper.