7 days of social science research: free films

Although they’re now a few years old (made around 2012) these short (5 – 6 minute) films from the Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) are loosely based around an interesting conceit – a children’s nursery rhyme – that’s used as brief introductions to a range of topics: Monday’s child is fair of face: […]

Socratic Smackdown: structured discussions

Although I’ve written a few posts on the topic of how to structure classroom discussions – from software through strategies to Thinking Hats – I’ve frequently been drawn to something called the Socratic Method. This, in a very small nutshell, involves the ability to generate ideas and information by asking intelligent questions. In one form […]

Broken Windows

It’s not often A-level students get the chance to read original source documents, but Wilson and Kelling’s Atlantic Magazine article – the one that kicked-off “Broken Windows” – is on-line, relatively short and surprisingly accessible. If you want to dig deeper into the notion of Social Disorder and Crime, Keizer’s simple, but evocative, empirical study […]