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!
Do
Green Classrooms Lead to Artistic Teaching?
This is a superb antidote to GERM.
‘Cord
Ivanyi’s idea about a fabric of connections moves us to consider the whole
of teaching and not trying to break teaching and learning down into components,
especially components that can measured.’
Bloom’s Taxonomy
This has been used for
over half a century, in spite of some very valid criticisms made by many
educational experts. The present emphasis on standardised learning, sequential
achievement objectives, etc, is a descendant of Bloom. While Bloom has been
adapted to guide thinking and questioning processes, this wasn’t his original
intention.
‘If Bloom’s taxonomy were used
just as a taxonomy—in other words a description of different types of thinking,
I can see them as interesting and possibly useful. But generally they are used
in the former way as developmental steps to be gone through, as Bloom designed
them to be used.’
Put
the Awe Back in "Awesome" -- Helping Students Develop Purpose (via
Tony Gurr)
 |
| Awe inspiring |
‘Here's
how awe works: when we experience an inspiring work of art or a grand vista in
nature, or when we learn a new mind-expanding theory, we often feel a sense of
vastness that gives us a new perspective on the world and our place in it.
These two steps make up the emotion of awe.’
This is the real job facing teachers -
creating a sense of awe, or as another has put it, creating learning
experiences of children that enable ‘mini-love affairs’ with something they
have learned. You’ll all know the story - a child whose learning experiences
develops into a life long passion and career. All in all, a long way from any
notion of standardised learning.
What Are the Risks in Using Data to Predict Student
Outcome?
A thoughtful post by
Annie Murphy Paul:
‘“Is it good to tell a first-grader, ‘You might be a
dropout?’”
The obvious answer would seem to be: Uh, no. But when
Thomas C. West posed this question recently to Education Week reporter Sarah D. Sparks, he
had a genuine dilemma in mind. West, who is an evaluation specialist at
Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, has devised a tracking formula
that can predict, with startling accuracy, which students will drop out of high
school—as early as their second semester of first grade.’
Schools that Practice
Learning-Literacy
David Warlick is yet another ‘must follow’ educator.
‘Teachers, who teach solely from their university
experience do a disservice to their learners. Teachers should model
themselves as habitual and resourceful learners, and skilled artisans of what
they’ve learned. We must walk into our classrooms out of today, not from
the day that they graduated.’
Book
Review: Visible Learning
A much needed critique of John Hattie.
He’s not necessarily wrong, but if we cannot trust the
average effect sizes he gives as evidence, and cannot sensibly compare them, we
cannot make that conclusion from this data’
Can we trust educational research? ("Visible
Learning": Problems with the evidence)
Staying with the
‘Hattie’ theme, here’s another critique. Convinced yet?
‘John Hattie seems to be a leading figure in the
field, and while he seems to be a decent fellow, and while most of his
recommendations seem somewhat reasonable, his magnum opus, Visible Learning, has such
significant issues that my one friend who's a professional statistician
believes, after reading my copy of the book, that Hattie is incompetent.’
And:
‘He essentially blames teachers for the fact that
teaching is not more evidence-based, implying that if we hidebound
practitioners would only do what the data-gurus like him suggest, then schools
could educate all students to a very high standard.’
Music to GERMer’s
ears!
Bruce
Hammonds is an indefatigable reader of educational articles. Here’s a couple of links from Bruce.
The
Differences Between Projects And Project-Based Learning
‘There’s
a big difference between using projects in the classroom versus project-based
learning in the classroom. What are those differences, you ask?’
This article includes a very comprehensive
table.
Project-Based
Learning Research: Evidence-Based Components of Success
‘What
boosts PBL from a fun and engaging exercise to a rigorous and powerful
real-world learning experience? Researchers have identified four key components
that are critical to teaching successfully with PBL.’
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