Educational Readings- privatisation of education

By Allan Alach

A personal note:

Last week I wrote an article for http://thedailyblog.co.nz about the privatisation of New Zealand education. Things are moving rapidly, generally below the radar. This link takes you to a repost on Bruce Hammonds’ Leading andLearning blog.

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.

This week’s homework!

Amplify – it’s powerful, it’s also dangerous.

I introduced Amplify in the introduction to last week’s readings. Here’s another opinion piece by Pat Buoncristiani discussing this in more depth.

‘So here is my first fear – that learning becomes mediated through the tablet rather than through the teacher, that learning ceases being a shared human activity and becomes an interaction between a screen and a student.’

http://bit.ly/Yi0rkP

6 Common Misunderstandings About Assessment Of Learning

“Educated’ educators will know all about these. Sadly too many principals and teachers are ignorant. This article will help you educate them, as well as non-educators.

http://bit.ly/12DX5RL

Free school head without any teaching qualifications plans to ignore curriculum

‘Profession is being 'deskilled' say unions as figures show 10% of teachers in new sector are unqualified.’

Welcome to charter schooling. What was that about ‘raising achievement’?

http://bit.ly/12E2qIL

Standardized tests are killing our students' creativity, desire to learn

An excellent article from the Denver Post:

“Students' abilities can be evaluated in many, creative ways. The idea that every student take the same test at the same time is nothing more than the warmed-over factory model of education used in the 1950s, now laughingly called "education reform."

As Oscar Wilde has observed, "Conformity is the last refuge of the unimaginative.’ “

http://bit.ly/WfALbT

Should school children be treated as battery hens or free range chickens?

A podcast that explores this issue.

http://bit.ly/WjBKIj

Where are We Going and Why?



Pasi  Sahlberg

By Andy Hargreaves and Pasi Sahlberg.



Good stuff, as you’d expect. Sadly GERM minded politicians are congenitally unable to read this kind of material.

http://bit.ly/ZLIAVH

Getting rich off schoolchildren

‘Stop pretending wealthy CEOs pushing for charter schools are altruistic "reformers." They're raking in billions.’

And..

‘Education results, however, don’t matter to the moneyed interests behind the “reform” movement. Profits do — and the potential profits are enormous.’

http://bit.ly/W44WnJ