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!
Return of the Math Wars
Great blog on constructivist mathematics by
Canadian teacher Joe Bower: ‘If
I had to distill the math wars down to a simple idea, I would probably say that
constructivist math calls for an increase emphasis on understanding while
simultaneously calling
for a decrease emphasis on direct instruction of facts
and algorithms. The math wars get heated when critics
come to see these changes to mean an elimination of basic skills and precise
answers.’
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| Maths project |
18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently. Don’t
expect school reform to foster these! "Inspiration and ideas often arise seemingly out of nowhere and
then fail to show up when we most need them, and creative thinking requires
complex cognition yet is completely distinct from the thinking process.”
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| Leaning tower of PISA |
How Does PISA Put the World at Risk (Part 2): Glorifying Educational
Authoritarianism. Part 2 of Zong Zhao’s series on PISA.“Because some
authoritarian education systems seem to generate better PISA rankings, it has
been concluded that educational authoritarianism, the systemic arrangements
designed to enforce government-prescribed, uniform standards upon all children,
should be emulated by the rest
And:
“First, national
standards and national curriculum—enforced by high stakes testing—can at best teach students what is prescribed by the curriculum and
expected by the standards. This system fails to expose students to content and
skills in other areas. As a result, students talented in other areas never have
the opportunity to discover those talents. Students with broader interests are
discouraged, not rewarded. The system results in a population with similar
skills in a narrow spectrum of talents.”
50 Crazy Ideas To Change Education
What do you think of these? Which ones do you
agree/disagree
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| Value creativity |
with? What changes would you make?
“Below
are 50 ideas for a new education. Note, most of these are about education as a
system rather than learning itself, but that’s okay. It’s often the
infrastructure of learning that obscures anyway. Few of them may work; even
fewer would work together, and that’s okay too. As long as we’re dreaming anyway, let’s get a little crazy.”
Teachers: life inside the exam factory
A story from England that will start to ring
true in New Zealand and probably elsewhere if present GERM based policies are
fully implemented.“As
a lot of teachers see it, they are the focus of bitter hostility from ministers
and educational high-ups, and the victims of an increasingly oppressive
machine. Schools are swamping their pupils and staff in data and targets,
leaving no room for the kind of human values that were once at the centre of
what teachers did. These aspects of education, teachers say, also distort their
priorities, so filling in spreadsheets sometimes takes precedence over actually
teaching kids.”
The Long Death of Creative Teaching
An article for USA readers but as usual
applicable all over.
‘Imagine
your brain surgeon having to "follow the book" while operating on you
or lose his job. While you are on the table, he discovers an unforeseen problem
that, because of his experience and practical wisdom, calls for a spontaneous
change of plan, yet he can't do what he knows will work. You die on the table.
So have students. He retires early, frustrated with conditions. So have the
best teachers.’
The DNA of GREAT Teachers – 3 “listicles” you have to read!
“What
does the ‘DNA”
of a great teacher look like?”
This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:
New Problems, New Approaches: The
Rise of the Generalist
Bruce’s comment: I like the ideas of
the gifted generalist (dot joiner) as against the narrow specialist. Kind of
secondary versus primary thinking?“The new Generalist is in fact a
master of their trade. They bring expertise and experience in several areas,
fueled by insatiable curiosity and the ability to “hyper-learn” new concepts and ideas. They
practice empathy to fully understand and break down the nature of complex
problems and collaboratively engage specialists in reframing the problem in
order to arrive at potential solutions.”
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| Teachers at risk!!!! |
25 Tricks to Stop Teacher Burnout
“There’s a reason why teachers receive a sad, knowing nod from others at a
dinner party or when meeting new people. The profession kicks us around and
often kicks hardest when we’re down. We
teach for the pleasure of sharing a subject or skill that we love and hope to
infuse a passion in someone else. We don’t teach for the pounding headaches or the late nights grading. We don’t teach because we like low pay and
instability. So, in the light of how teachers are treated, it’s only natural to see teachers burnout more
quickly than in any other profession. That’s why we need to take steps to protect ourselves from the inevitable
because it can be prevented and controlled.”
Does Teaching Kids To Get 'Gritty' Help Them Get Ahead?
“Around
the nation, schools are beginning to see grit as key to students' success — and
just as
Bridging the Language Deficit Gap – appreciating
that before the word comes the experience! Bruce’s
latest blog article:
“Teachers
need to value their students’ views, thoughts and
questions by entering into dialogue with their students to extend, elaborate
and enrich their ideas (Hattie’s ‘rich
conversations’). The model of teaching
encouraged was a ‘co-constructivist’ one – challenging
students’ ideas and clarifying their
views.”
1 comment:
Nice and derivative blog about education and maths war. Thanks for sharing.
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