Education Research Reading Room · Ollie Lovell: Teacher, author, podcaster, blogger, PhD candidate. @ollie_lovell

ERRR #073. Harry Fletcher-Wood on Responsive Teaching (Formative Assessment)

·1 hr 36 min·5 clips

Harry Fletcher-Wood reveals the two endemic problems every teacher faces and how responsive teaching tackles them.

Olly Lovell, host of the Education Research Reading Room, speaks with Harry Fletcher-Wood, educator and author of Responsive Teaching, Ticked Off, and Habits of Success. Fletcher-Wood frames responsive teaching through Mary Kennedy's four endemic teaching problems: portraying curriculum to naive minds, finding out what students have understood, managing behaviour, and motivating students. Responsive teaching targets the first two. On the curriculum portrayal side, cognitive science principles are central: limiting working memory load, using chunked instructions, and applying desirable difficulties such as distributed practice even when it initially demotivates students. Fletcher-Wood notes much cognitive science research is domain-specific, concentrated in maths and science, requiring interpretation for subject areas like history where he has a background. On formative assessment, Rob Coe's observation is cited: nearly every teacher in England claims to practice assessment for learning, yet national standards have flatlined despite strong evidence that formative assessment improves outcomes. The book's chapter structure deliberately mirrors the four conditions for effective professional development identified in a subsequent review of over 100 randomised controlled trials: promoting insight, motivating goal-directed behaviour, teaching techniques, and embedding practice. Each chapter includes sections on problem, evidence, principle, practice, experience, and checklists. Fletcher-Wood argues that if teachers get the first two Kennedy problems right, behaviour and motivation often improve as a downstream effect because students experiencing success are more engaged. The episode also touches on working with Teach First, the Ambition Institute, Steplab and TeacherTap. His book Habits of Success, which was the second most downloaded ERRR episode, is referenced as a companion volume.

As heard by us

A serious case for formative assessment and responsive teaching as planning tools, not classroom accessories.

This ERRR episode treats responsive teaching as a working method, not a slogan. It stays close to formative assessment, planning, and the judgment calls that follow when students have not yet learned what the lesson needs.

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Why you'd press play

When you want formative assessment and responsive teaching treated as a planning decision, not a buzzword.

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