Kitchen Pedagogy

Student Talk: It matters – not only to deepen learning but because it also just does. by Tom Sherrington
Teacher Head Blog, April 2, 2026

Tom Sherrington’s writings and videos offer teachers clear guidance and actionable practices with a mix of deeper philosophical claims, as well. His April 2026 blog post, provocatively titled “Student Talk: It matters – not only to deepen learning but because it also just does,” should give readers new to Sherrington’s work a taste both of his deeply-held beliefs about the classroom as well as his blunt, clear-eyed style, all with the goal of creating classroom environments where learning happens by design. This particular piece is built around an installment of Sherrington’s “Kitchen Pedagogy” video series focused on “oracy” and the importance of student participation in the classroom. It also aims to push back against those who doubt the value of pair talk, cold-calling, and other Sherrington-endorsed tools for promoting student talk – and thinking – in the classroom. Indeed, Sherrington is aware that his radical commitment to constant student voice in the classroom faces opposition, often from teachers “constructing a faux cogsci case or opportunity cost argument to mask their personal discomfort with running a room where every student is talking,” and he spends much of this post dismantling the arguments against an oracy-oriented classroom. Sherrington sees a middle path in which teachers “should all be working to develop routines around pair talk such that every student has the opportunity to express their ideas verbally multiple times in a lesson – whenever the teacher decides, but with a high frequency – alongside cold calling and using show-me boards.” A witty mix of pedagogical praxis and philosophy, Sherrington’s approaches – typified by this blog – belong in more departmental and divisional conversations about how best to design the classroom for deep, meaningful learning.