By Allan Alach
If you think things are bad in your own locale, read the article
about Ohio - suggest you aren’t holding a hot drink at the time. Looking further, the issue of ‘big data’ is
raising concern, not just limited to education. Big brother is getting closer
every year.
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!
Accountability
for Mr. Gates: The Billionaire Philanthropist Evaluation
 |
| So what with all the testing! |
Following on from last week’s readings,
here’s Anthony Cody’s evaluation of Bill Gates. Do you think he will earn
performance pay?
Wrecking
physical ed: Ohio’s P.E. assessment for kids
Just when you thought things couldn’t get
any madder, here’s the physical education assessment tool that Ohio physical
education teachers must use to evaluate their students. Warning - reading this
may be injurious to your health.
In Michael Gove's world who needs teachers?
‘The
education secretary's obsession with 'spellings, facts and rules' ignores the
professional consensus on child development.’
As bad as things look in Australia and New
Zealand, we can be thankful that we don’t have
ministers of education like Michael Gove in the UK. Mind you things may
change in Australia later this year, and I wouldn’t rule out a Hekia brain
storm in New Zealand...
National
Standards and Neanderthals – “They will know what is required …” – Part I
This is a long article. However don’t let
that stop you from reading it. This is one of the best overviews of education
in general and the destructive nature of national standards that you will find
anywhere.
Why we should never return to the three Rs
‘Ongoing calls for a rejection of “intellectual fads” and
a return to “more traditional teaching methods” seem to be ramping up in the
education debate.
But if these advocates were talking about rejecting
advances over the past sixty years in medicine, no one would take them seriously.
So why then is it acceptable to champion simplistic and archaic methods when it
comes to education?’
The
Importance of Failing Well
•
‘A study of intellectually gifted students at a New Zealand high
school has revealed one significant factor that distinguishes the highest
achievers from the lowest achievers.
•
This factor was 100% significant – present in all the highest
achievers and absent in all the lowest achievers.
•
This factor was their ability to fail well.’
Passion-Based
Learning (via Bruce Hammonds)
‘We
need to bring passion back into learning, in teaching and all around. Passion
motivates. It makes a way out of no way. It allows students to overcome
hardships to achieve a goal that is meaningful to them.’
Those, like Bill Gates, who promote a future
of online instruction, are totally ignorant of the human factor, instead seeing
children as machines to be programmed.
More U.S. Children Being Diagnosed With Youthful Tendency
Disorder
Now for something even
more completely different.
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