Best Practice

Pop pedagogy: Ideas and advice for your lessons

Teachers should not try to be ‘down with the kids’, but the use of popular culture as lesson hooks in the classroom can be more effective than other approaches. Andrew Jones offers some ideas


Defending his decision to join I’m A Celebrity Get Me Outta Here, Matt Hancock, the former health secretary, said that: “Although some may think I’ve lost my marbles (politicians) must wake up and embrace popular culture.”

Writing in The Sun, he argued: "We should see it for what it is: a powerful tool to get our message heard by younger generations."

Although I might not agree with everything Hancock has said and done, in a previous SecEd article on using short five to 10 minute “hook” activities to grab pupils' attention, I suggested that the use of music, video clips and references to popular culture can be an effective tool in stimulating excitement around the content to be taught.

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