Thou shalt not praise: the seven deadly sins of teaching

Telling students they have done a good job may seem like a sensible form of encouragement, but dishing out excessive praise has been named as one of the seven deadly teaching sins.

“Lavishing” approval on pupils, grouping by ability and ensuring students are always “active learners” are among the teaching don’ts that appear in research released today.

Whereas having a deep knowledge of the subject they teach and enforcing good classroom management are among the six teaching dos for educators.

The list was compiled by Professor Robert Coe, director of the Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring at Durham University, who analysed which teaching methods showed clear evidence for boosting students’ attainment and which had little proven benefit.

Read the full article here.