Seven Myths About Education

Seven Myths about Education is an exploration of some widely held ideas about education, and how they are not true. Daisy Christodoulou expresses her annoyance that she was told these ideas as facts as a young teacher, and explains in detail why she now believes them to be untrue.

For each of the seven myths, Daisy first sets out to show that these ideas are very much at the centre of educational theory and practice, with examples given from both a theoretical perspective and from the classroom practice as informed by the National Curriculum and Ofsted reports. Both of these are UK based, but many of the ideas expressed can be seen elsewhere in the world. She then goes on to explain why they are not true, referring to cognitive psychology and what we know about how the brain works.

The seven myths that Daisy addresses are:

1. Facts prevent understanding

2. Teacher-led instruction is passive

3. The 21st Century changes everything

4. You can always just look it up

5. We should teach transferable skills

6. Projects and activities are the best way to learn

7. Teaching knowledge is indoctrination

Below you will find images of the summary notes I took for each of the chapters. You can find a PDF version here.

Whether you are convinced by the arguments Daisy puts forward against each of these ideas or not is not why this book is an important read for all teachers. The value of this book is that it opens our eyes to a debate that has been happening in education for over 100 years, that has often been hidden. For certain, some of the myths that Daisy puts forward are controversial, but it is often through these controversial discussions that we are able to truly decide what we believe in, rather than blindly following what we are told. This is exactly what we want our students to be able to do when we talk about critical thinking, so we should engage in this dialogue about our own beliefs as well.