I’ve read and reviewed this book for Teach Secondary magazine. My review will be appearing shortly, and I will also be publishing it here.

The book is the collected “wisdom” from host of educators who featured in Lovell’s podcast, Education Research Reading Room. I’ve placed “wisdom” in quotation marks because I think some of the advice some guests have offered isn’t all that wise. I’ve been working on an article about this.

Surprisingly, as I read a lot of newsletters and keep my ear to the educational ground, I hadn’t heard of this podcast until I was asked to review the book. It looks interesting, and kudos to Lovell for being able to have so many esteemed guests on the show. I’ve just subscribed so I don’t miss any good episodes.

I don’t want to quote too much from my review, obviously, but one thing I will say is that there are some apposite observations on school culture, motivation and curriculum. So overall the book is a good investment.

I did have some quibbles with it though, which I wrote about here:

Your first lesson with a new class

Here’s how Lovell reacted to my article:

How refreshing to receive a measured response and a “thank you” when I fail to recommend a book for the Pullitzer Prize. Sigh.