Blog
Writing on teaching, learning, and assessment: how people grow, how we describe quality, and the ideas worth stealing along the way. These posts turn thinking into practical moves you can use in your own work.
Latest Posts
Constructs and Consequences
If assessment is about evidence of learning, the big question is: what are we learning? What are...
Self-Assessment: Helping Learners Help Themselves
Self-assessment can sometimes be seen as a nice extra, like, do this exciting thing if you've got...
The Hot or Not of Feedback
There's so much written about the power of feedback, including John Hattie's very famous article...
The Effectiveness of Developmental Thinking
Rubrics written according to developmental principles can be seen as just another random...
2025 Spring Making Assessment Matter
Hey there! My first ever seasonal newsletter, with learning games, rubrics and plenty of ideas for learning.
2026 Autumn The Art of Breaking Down Skills
Signals, research and ideas from the world of teaching and learning, with plenty to make you think.
2026 Summer Pattern Recognition
Hello summer! It’s been ridiculously hot, but there’s plenty to explore, learn and think about.
Norm vs Standards vs Criterion Referencing
There’s considerable confusion around types of referencing... they’re very different and have very...
The ‘Standard’ vs ‘Developmental’ Mindsets
There are two very different models of learning we can think of... when we teach we probably...
Strengths of the Developmental Mindset
One of the big strengths of the developmental model is that it makes assessment more useful. The...
Some of Patrick Griffin’s (Developmental Assessment O.G.) Mantras
Assessment has a strange habit of drifting away from teaching. The machinery hums along nicely....
The Standard vs Developmental Model
People talk about assessment like it’s mainly a fairness problem… it is all about what a student...
Pattern Re:Cognition
Occasional notes on assessment, learning design, and patterns worth paying attention to.