Mind the Gap: Making Education Work Across the Globe Inside Craig Barton’s 16-Book Teaching Project, Mind the Gap, Ep.117 (S6,E15)
On this episode of Mind the Gap, Tom Sherrington and Emma Turner are joined by Craig Barton - maths teacher, podcaster, and co-founder of Eedi - to discuss his ambitious new project: a series of 16 short books, each exploring a single, highly specific element of classroom practice. Drawing on three to four years spent visiting schools and observing hundreds of lessons, Craig explains the thinking behind the project and the principle that every idea included had to be seen working successfully in multiple classrooms. The conversation dives deep into practical teaching techniques, from mini whiteboards and checking for understanding to do-nows and the importance of gathering reliable data about what pupils actually know. Along the way, Craig shares the small but crucial routines that make these strategies effective in practice and reflects on why seemingly simple classroom tools often require careful thought, structure, and purpose to work well. Towards the end of the episode, Craig also delves into the research project his company Eedi did with Google and AI, and its implications for that technology in teaching and learning.
Craig Barton has been teaching maths since 2004, and in 2009, he became the Secondary Mathematics adviser for the Times Educational Supplement (TES). He is the creator of the popular mrbartonmaths.com website and blog, which provides free resources to teachers and students all around the world. Craig also hosts the Mr Barton Maths Podcast. He is the co-creator of Diagnostic Questions, a formative assessment website hosting the world's largest collection of high-quality maths diagnostic multiple choice questions, which aims to help students and teachers from all around the world to identify, understand and resolve key misconceptions. More recently he has created the websites variationtheory.com, ssddproblems.com, and mathsvenns.com, with millions of teachers from across the globe sharing high-quality resources based on ideas from Craig's books. Those books include the recently released Tips for Teachers guides, which you can find at https://tipsforteachers.co.uk/books/
Tom Sherrington has worked in schools as a teacher and leader for 30 years and is now a consultant specialising in teacher development and curriculum & assessment planning. He regularly contributes to conferences and CPD sessions locally and nationally and is busy working in schools and colleges across the UK and around the world. Follow Tom on X @teacherhead
Emma Turner FCCT is a school improvement advisor, education consultant, trainer and author. She has almost three decades of primary teaching, headship and leadership experience across the sector, working and leading in both MATs and LAs. She works nationally and internationally on school improvement including at single school level and at scale. She has a particular interest in research informed practice in the primary phase, early career development, and CPD design. Follow Emma on X @emma_turner75
This podcast is sponsored by Teaching WalkThrus and produced in association with Haringey Education Partnership. Find out more at https://walkthrus.co.uk/ and https://haringeyeducationpartnership.co.uk/