Introduction

This article is reprinted from the Digital Education Supplement. This is a free resource for subscribers to my free newsletter, Digital Education. Please see the end of the article for details.

While narrowing down the list to ten titles is somewhat artificial, a device, I also wanted to be pretty strict about what I included. I didn’t want this to be just a collation of the beginnings of all the reviews I wrote over the course of the year. Therefore the ones that have made the list are the best, in my opinion. As a cursory glance will inform you, I’ve listed them in alphabetical order, rather than order of merit.

20 Things to do with a computer (forward 50)

This is easily the most interesting and inspiring book I received in 2021. Read more

Atlas of AI

One of the purposes of learning computing is to ensure pupils can evaluate IT by delving below the surface. This ‘Atlas’ takes students deep into the field of artificial intelligence which, according to Crawford, is actually neither artificial, nor intelligent. Read more

Computing Outdoors

I think this is a great resource, not only because of the content but also its timeliness. It’s very generous of Lau to make it available free of charge. Read more

Science Fictions

The magic phrase these days is “evidence-based education”. But the questions which needs to be asked is: how good is the quality of the evidence? This book does not have very much to say about education specifically, apart from shedding quite a bit of doubt on Dweck’s “growth mindset”. Nevertheless, it contains enough information to make us all sceptical of the kind of bold claims that are often made about some new “discovery” in fields such as psychology and neuroscience. Read more

Teach like a champion

This book starts from the premise that while teaching is an art, it also relies on the mastery and application of skills. Thus there is an emphasis on techniques. Read more

Teaching Computing in secondary school

Divided into three parts covering planning, delivery and leadership and management, this book offers useful and very detailed advice on all aspects of teaching Computing.

While the author is an experienced teacher and subject leader, what is striking about the book is the extent to which his suggestions are grounded in academic research. Read more

Teaching in the online classroom

Over the last year or so we’ve all had to learn to adapt to a completely different way of teaching. By stating from the outset that he and his colleagues were as unsure as everyone else, Lemov paradoxically enhances the book’s authority. Read more

Teaching Machines

Here is a very strange paradox. On the one hand, everyone agrees that one of key ingredients for success in life is having great teachers. On the other hand, there seems to be no end of attempts to improve education by people who have either never worked in it, or not understood what they were looking at. Read more

The Turning Point

When the term “teaching profession” arises, my reaction is more often than not to borrow from Gandhi and opine that such a thing would be a good idea. Read more

Understanding and using educational theories

Some years ago I was quite horrified when, in response to my mentioning Bruner, the teacher I was speaking to said “Who?" Now, one might argue that Bruner was writing over 80 years ago. Since then, our understanding of how the brain works, and how children learn, have undergone dramatic changes.-Therefore, what can the writings of a long-dead theorist tell today's teachers? Read more