By Allan Alach
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!
In
Praise of CREATIVITY Parts 1 & 2 (via Tony Gurr)
 |
| Tony Gurr |
‘Today,
we have guest posts from Chaz Pugliese, a teacher-trainer and musician
(he plays a mean blues tune or two) based in Paris. Chaz and I met in
Istanbul a few months ago and when I learned his “passion”
was allthingsCREATIVITY – I just had to ask how he felt about
allthingsBLOGGING! I’m glad I did. Take a read – feel free to contact
him at chazpugliese@gmail.com.’
What
is Education For? Looking for Answers in the Montessori Movement
‘Montessori was a vehicle for seeing what is possible. It
showed me that children can learn what they most need by following their own
passions. It taught me that the role of adults should be a supportive one that
allows children to develop what is already beginning within themselves.’
Nah, let’s have top
down standardised education to prepare children to participate in the
workforce.
Why
are we teaching like it’s 1992?
‘The
schools we have inherited were designed for standardisation and
industrialisation. Their aim was to turn farmers into factory workers and, on a
different social level, to show shopkeepers how to be corporate employees. We
have inherited this Industrial Age system of specialised, field-driven,
silo-ed, top-down, standardised education. We measure achievement in “bubble
tests” where you find the best answer from five possible ones. How does that
kind of thinking prepare our students for a world where they can upload or
download any thoughts or pictures or movies or music they want?’
What We Know Now and An Alternative
to Accountability-Based Education Reform
‘Well
into the second decade of the twenty-first century, then, education reform
continues a failed tradition of honoring messaging over evidence. Neither the
claims made about educational failures, nor the solutions for education reform
policy today are supported by large bodies of compelling research.’
Deck Chairs on the Titanic Failure of American Education
‘Actual
children, as opposed to the abstraction of children as seen in policy debate,
are not "standard." Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of child
development knows that children learn in different ways and different times.’
.JPG) |
| Learners are not like sardines! |
While this
article is about the USA, it’s very relevant to any GERM infected country.
Start
funding college [university] like
high school
‘Yet,
even though the 21st century economy is clearly telling us that “the college
degree is becoming the new high school diploma,” we do not have the same
funding model or outlook for college. Instead, we still predicate access to
higher education on a student’s wealth and/or their willingness to go into
crushing debt.’
Why
All Students Should Write: A Neurological Explanation For Literacy
‘Writing promotes the brain’s attentive focus to class
work and homework, promotes long-term memory, illuminates patterns (possibly
even “aha” moment insight!), includes all students as participants, gives the
brain time for reflection, and when well-guided, is a source of conceptual
development and stimulus of the brain’s highest cognition.’
Bruce Hammonds is an
enthusiast for inquiry learning.
Here’s a selection of links from Bruce that
expand on this process:
How to Trigger Students’ Inquiry Through Projects
 |
| Research on paper making |
‘When students engage in quality projects, they develop
knowledge, skills, and dispositions that serve them in the moment and in the
long term. Unfortunately, not all projects live up to their potential.
Sometimes the problem lies in the design process. It’s easy to jump directly
into planning the activities students will engage in without addressing
important elements that will affect the overall quality of the project.’
Creating Classrooms We Need: 8 Ways Into Inquiry Learning
‘If kids can access information from sources other than
school, and if school is no longer the only place where information lives,
what, then happens to the role of this institution?’
.JPG) |
| Exhibition of study of Ernest Shakelton |
Basing
education around student inquiry.
‘PBL
is a far more evolved method of instruction. Well-executed PBL begins with the
recognition that, as in the real world, it’s often difficult to distinguish
between acquiring information and using it. Students learn knowledge and
elements of the core curriculum, but also apply what they know to solve
authentic problems and produce results that matter. Students focus on a problem
or challenge, work in teams to find a solution to the problem, and often
exhibit their work to an adult audience at the end of the project.’
No comments:
Post a Comment