Educational Readings - for critical educators

Enjoy the short break

By Allan Alach

I’ll be out of action next week, so you can have some time off….

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!

If a student learns….

Recommended.

Help students dig deeper

“In education a common misconception is to believe that significant learning only happens when students are taught.  In reality students are born learning machines, they learn all the time, everywhere. But teachers are needed to enhance those individual learning experiences and help students to dive deeper into the subject or the area of their interest. Documenting and testing should not be the primary focus of teaching.”

http://bit.ly/1vQ1b4V

Stop The False Generalizations About Personalized Learning

“Today’s factory-model education system, which was built to standardize the way we teach, falls short in educating successfully each child for the simple reason that just because two children are the same age, it does not mean they learn at the same pace or should follow the same pathway. Each child has different learning needs at different times. Although academics, including cognitive

One test fits all -yeah right!

scientists, neuroscientists, and education researchers, have waged fierce debates about what these different needs are—some talk about multiple intelligences and learning styles whereas others point to research that undermines these notions—what no one disputes is that each student learns at a different pace.”

http://bit.ly/1gqftoj

Latest research shows class size DOES make a difference

An article written for an Australian readership, but its applicable all over (John Hattie take note)

“I found that reducing class size in the first four years of school can have an important and lasting affect on student achievement. The more years students spend in small classes during grades K-3, the longer the benefits for achievement last during grades 4-8.

Smaller class sizes are especially important for children who come from disadvantaged families. I need not point out these children are overwhelming the responsibility of public schools in Australia.”

http://bit.ly/1gsSpp5

How can teachers introduce forest school principles to their curriculum?

“Forest schools help students develop confidence and creativity by teaching practical, outdoor skills – and teachers don't need a woodland on their doorstep to incorporate the ideas.”

http://bit.ly/1tDr6uz c

This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:

Ellen Langer explains the concept of mindful learning.

Bruce comments: ‘Good advice for teaching or just living.’

I agree - this is well worth watching, mindfully of course.

‘Harvard psychology professor Ellen Langer is the author of "The Power of Mindful Learning". Langer says mindful learning is more than just paying attention; it is making a conscious effort to be "in the moment.”’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz94BmOIroA

Numbers never tell the whole story.

An article by Bill Ferriter (always worth reading) discussing lessons from baseball that can be related to education.

“The lesson to be learned:  Professions that celebrate numbers above all are inadvertently incentivizing the wrong behaviors.”

http://bit.ly/1niqM2q

The handcuffs holding us back

Another from Bill Ferriter:

“But the simple truth is that practitioners are all-too-often handcuffed by the #edpolicy choices made by legislators working a thousand miles from the classroom.  Until that reality changes, I’m hesitant to lay the blame for a stagnant system at the feet of principals and teachers.”

http://bit.ly/1or5e5P

Cultivating Passionate Learners in Common Core Classrooms

An article that suggests ways to work around the deadening effects of standards based education.

“Some may feel that the standards or curriculum being cast upon us and our students stifle any form of creativity. I don’t agree. While these things certainly establish limits, I believe we have to find our own freedom and creativity within them.”

http://bit.ly/1pgNRop

Passionate Learners by Pernille Ripp

Bruce comments: A review of an interesting book

“Passionate Learners asks incredibly important questions of teachers. One of the most difficult pieces of the profession today is keeping up with the pace of change and adjusting classroom methods to reflect the tools and resources available now. Early on, the reader is challenged to consider one of the most important questions any teacher can be asked: Would you like being a student in your own classroom?”

http://bit.ly/1lPKiPV

Educational Readings- for the critical educator

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!

Children need to be taught.

“You often hear the phrase that small children are sponges, that they constantly learn. This sentiment is sometimes expressed in a way that makes it sound like the particulars don’t matter that much; as long as there is a lot to be learned in the environment, the child will learn it. A new study shows that for one core type of learning, it’s more complicated. Kids don’t learn important information that’s right in front of them, unless an adult is actively teaching them.”

http://bit.ly/1oyStGc

Guest opinion: Learning doesn’t have a distinct look

“I’m not proud of the direction of education and of evaluators who demand rigor at any random moment of any random classroom. For this reason and other experiences leading up to it, I am leaving the profession after 17 years of teaching. I don’t believe what is expected to go on in classrooms is best for students or teachers.”

http://stjr.nl/1lKZDDV

The irony in new study that bashes popular teacher evaluation method

Value added testing a waste of time!!

Valerie Strauss from the Washington Post, looking at more evidence about the ineffectiveness of value added measurement of teachers and which rebounds on Bill Gates.

“While  there are economists who argue that VAM can measure teacher effectiveness adequately, testing experts, academics, and other economists say that more than abundant evidence shows that it doesn’t, and that reformers should stop trying to evaluate teachers and principals with unreliable and invalid measurement tools. “

http://wapo.st/1ltpBKA

Our Brains and Art

The arts change our minds

So much for narrowing the focus to standards based schooling.

“Many in the field now suggest that both hemispheres of the brain are involved in art making and are necessary for artistic expression. There is clinical research on drawing as well. A study by Rebecca Chamberlain and colleagues in the journal NeuroImage (2014) debunks right-brain and left-brain thinking to argue that those with visual artistic talent or who identify as visual artists have increased amounts of grey and white matter on both sides of the brain.”

http://bit.ly/1n3c95H

The future of knowledge in the coming era of intelligent machines

We listen then seem to ignore!

Opinion: Futurist Gerd Leonhard says the rise of artificial intelligence means we need to rethink the way we learn

“We need to unlearn the habit of acting like machines and relearn how to act like humans. Quite likely this means – as Sir Ken Robinson has been pointing out in his amazing TED talks – going back to what did as children: playfulness, experimentation, listening, imagining, dreaming and failing fast, failing cheap and trying again. “

http://bit.ly/RJK6d3

What Motivates Teachers? Education Reformers Have No Idea

Now showing in NZ

“You gotta' admire those education reformers. Despite their almost total lack of experience in education and despite all the research and evidence that flies in the face of their bankrupt ideas, they cling to their ideology like a sloth to a low hanging vine. One area where I think they can come in for particular ridicule is teacher improvement. Basing their theories on the all encompassing business model, the education reformers have decided to motivate teachers through a system of threats and rewards.”

http://bit.ly/1sDgN7y

Sacrificing Our Children

“… the fact of the matter is that the corporate education reform movement functions in way that the educational quality experienced by poor children is harmed when school privatization occurs, and corporate profit is greatly increased.”

http://bit.ly/1gdIvYb

What Teacher Trainees Should Know...15 Things You Don't Always Hear

“This is not a definitive list of things.  We would be here for a long time if I was to highlight

Look after yourself!!!

everything, but this is a list of some of the big important things that our new teachers are not always told but should know.  There are miles of lists out there that outline what new teachers need to do or know in the classroom - this list focuses on some of the obvious but not always talked about things.”

http://bit.ly/1lPpD18

The Absurdity of Teacher Evaluation Systems

Read all about teacher evaluation in USA. Want a version in your location?

“The twin methods that are put together to form a teacher evaluation system are absurd, muddled, and unreasonable.  Even more, the assumptions which are used evaluate teachers are rooted in false claims about what is effective teaching, and how one knows when effective teaching happens.  At its stupidest level, bureaucrats who sit in front of their computer screens, and who’ve consulted with agronomists, believe they have the algorithms that will actually measure in some quantifiable way, just how much a teacher adds to student academic achievement.”

http://bit.ly/1nat3zn

When PISA meets politics – a lesson from New Zealand

An article by Professor Martin Thrupp, one of the signatories on the recent letter to the OECD about PISA.

“Some of the points Schleicher has been making might be useful if the arguments were employed

We don't need Schleicher in NZ

carefully. Unfortunately, in the national politics of New Zealand – and probably in many other countries – any such subtleties are quickly lost. Instead the OECD/Schleicher arguments become fertile ground for the politics of blaming teachers for the underperformance of students from poor backgrounds.”

http://bit.ly/1ndj5wX

This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:

End of Year Burnout: How to Finish the Marathon in Stride

One for northern hemisphere teachers….   some good fun things to do with your class

“You are at mile 23 and your lungs are bursting, your legs are cramping, your mind is in a jumble,

How to win the marathon

and you just want say, "Beam me up, Scotty."

Yet, just as the marathoners make it to the finish line, so can you. Here are five ideas that work.”

http://bit.ly/1qW2MX5

Tech Tools That Inspire PBL in High School

Bruce comments: An interesting article (  with an informative small video) based on investigating a local issue – by a statistics teacher in a high school. A concept of learning applicable from junior classes to year 13 – one many NZ teachers have been making use of for decades!

‘"When will I ever use this?" This cringeworthy comment slipping from a teenager's lips can swipe away the sense of accomplishment felt by a teacher who has spent a week crafting a lesson that she thought would have staying power. If you cringe too, it may be time to lock onto the practice of PBL, which is variously referred to as project-, problem- or inquiry-based learning. Where blended learning gives students some flexibility as to where and when they do their work, PBL offers them a choice of what they do.’

http://bit.ly/1i9zlYf

Crazy Snail 3: Great video!

Imaginative snail

Bruce comments: One if the most successful studies a teacher I worked with  did an integrated study based around  snails involving  science, language art , reading -researching other molluscs,

Real observation

and  even eating them! The teacher concerned used  snails to encourage hard looking through observational; drawing  ( and later imaginative snails) to develop the idea of ‘slowing pace of work; to develop quality. Too many kids spoil their work by rushing believing; first finished is best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW-tzEKwD7g&feature=em-subs_digest

Contributed by Phil Cullen and Mary MacKay

ALEC and Charter Schools are the New Dog and Pony Show

Charter schools??????

“Since reformers pushing charter school tsunamis washing over cities across the country have little real data or proof that their scheme works, they must rely of some tricks probably learned from the makers of Fruit Loops.

You see, reformers don’t need facts. They’ve got money. And money can make illusions appear real. With enough money you can host and populate your event under some thin veil of legitimacy, and pass it off as “official” and sell it out into the public narrative as “fact.”  They make star studded Hollywood tear jerkers like Won’t Back Down and Waiting for Superman

http://bit.ly/RSCSU1

Message to Labour spokesperson/policy makers on education


Dear Mr Hipkins....

A few thoughts to consider if we are to develop a 21^st Education System

      
   If Labour is to put the welfare of people ahead of economics (the current privatization winner/loser scenario of the National Party) then the creativity of all citizens must be the number one policy to develop the common good of an inclusive and productive society.

     Labour  needs to revisit Peter Fraser/Dr Beeby’s vision of providing all students with an ‘education of the kind they are best fitted and to the fullest extent of their powers’. This vision has never

Dr Beeby

been realized. What would this mean in a 21stC environment?

.      Such a vision requires a move away from current standardisation, through the conformity ofNational Standards, towards the challenge of personalisation of learning 

    Place the  currently sidelined 2007 New Zealand Curriculum centrestage – appreciating that its full implementation requires more than current tinkering if all students are to succeed and be able to ‘seek, use and create their own knowledge’. ( NZC)

5     Reinterpret the so called ‘achievement gap’ as an 'opportunity gap’ .

Sidelined!

– ensure these students gain experiences required to develop positive learning identities

    While valuing literacy and numeracy as vitally important foundational skills they need to be ‘reframed’ to allow students to ‘seek, use and create their own knowledge’.

     Question the destructive consequences of ability grouping, streaming and setting ( struggling students need to be seen as lacking opportunities not intellect). This needs challenging!

8  Encourage schools to do fewer things well to develop deep understanding and dispositions to learn.

   Encourage innovative learning   integrated/collaborative organisations to engage students at the years 7-10 ages where student disengagement kicks in providing an environment for a range of student talents and abilities to be developed.

1       Value the creativity of individual class teachers and explore ways to share their expertise to break down isolation that many teachers feel. Provide opportunities for schools/teachers to collaborate to share ideas.

1      Encourage all schools to develop innovative programmes to suit  the needs of their communities ( as suggested in the NZC).

   Consider setting up an educational conference/ series of conversations similar to the 1936 New Education Conference that contributed ideas to the Fraser /Beeby vision.  As in 1936 invite a range of innovative thinkers to contribute to such conversations. Make use of modern technology to share ideas.

   See education as a process that begins before birth and continues throughout life    - at the very least track students to their first jobs/tertiary training.

Educational Reading Schools as Factories/ anti poverty myth/ Steve Wheeler powerpoint

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!

Math, Science, History: Games Break Boundaries Between Subjects

Having observed how much my 6 year old  grandson has learned from playing Minecraft, I agree with this article.

“Because video games are basically simulations of particular kinds of experiences, or problems, they require a kind of active engagement that simultaneously calls on diverse ways of knowing. Similar to the way most activities in life require using multiple cognitive skills simultaneously, scenarios in the game world can be constructed in such a way that individuals are forced to apply a variety of intellectual tools.”
http://bit.ly/1ntMY95

Schools as Factories: Metaphors That Stick

Reinventing the past:

“Here is what Professor Ellwood P. Cubberley, of Stanford University said in the early 20th century: Our schools are, in a sense, factories, in which the raw products (children) are to be shaped and fashioned into products to meet the various

demands of life. The specifications for manufacturing come from the demands of twentieth-century civilization, and it is the business of the school to build its pupils according to the specifications laid down.”

http://bit.ly/1iwXU0t

Is Common Core Creating the Code for a Computerized Education System?

Another thoughtful article by Antony Cody. New Zealand readers - think PaCT as you read this, and then extrapolate.

“First of all, we need a discrete set of measurable learning objectives that everyone agrees are the goal for the K-12 system. We need curriculum and most importantly closely aligned tests that tell us if students have met these objectives. We need devices that students work on capable of recording and transmitting their every keystroke, their every written thought, and everything they have read or viewed on their screen. Then we

need data systems to track the performance of all the parts in the system. We want to know how the students are doing, but we also want to measure the effects of various learning technologies, readings, assignments and, of course, the effect of their teachers. So we need systems to record, store, and analyze all this data.”

http://bit.ly/1j4Vc85

6 Scientifically Proven Brain Facts That eLearning Professionals Should Know 

I’d suggest this is relevant way beyond elearning.

“While the content, layout, and navigability of your eLearning course are important; determining how a learner's brain actually acquires and retains information is an

essential aspect of eLearning design and development. Without a firm grasp of how the brain works and the processes involved in learning new concepts, ideas, and skill sets, even the most experienced Instructional Designer will be unable to develop an effective eLearning course.”

http://bit.ly/1oi5cNt

Smart People Problems

Ever wondered why supposedly smart people think GERM is the solution?

“We've been asking for years now how such smart people can come up with so many dumb ideas about fixing schools, but I would submit that they come up with these dumb ideas precisely because they are smart people-- smart people who have no idea what it's like to not understand something.”

http://bit.ly/1nydPn1

America’s dangerous education myth: Why it isn’t the best anti-poverty program

The excuse for school reform in many countries is that it is the way to deal with increasing poverty and inequality. This article shoots down that feeble justification.

“The upshot of this lesson is that the fixation on education as a solution to poverty,

Can't see any poverty

inequality or any other distributional problem is totally wrongheaded. Good and equitable education is a huge plus for all sorts of things, but it doesn’t create an egalitarian society. Those who say it will – a group that includes reformers and their opponents – have no idea what they are talking about and, through their ignorant distractions, help sow the seeds of never-ending stratification and low-end material insecurity.”

http://bit.ly/1smCeJY

Give the Kid a Pencil

What would you do in this scenario?

‘I recently taught a university course in Seattle for graduate students seeking master’s degrees in teaching. In one lesson, our focus was on creating a psychologically safe learning environment for students. It was an issue of managing students and supplies. I posed a question:

“If a student shows up to class without a pencil, how should the teacher respond?”’

http://bit.ly/1l5sYah

Carrots and sticks are wrong way to motivate teachers

Michael Fullan, writing for Alberta, Canada , useful all over.

“You don’t develop a profession or an organization by focusing on sticks and

carrots aimed at individuals. All high-performing entities develop the group to focus collectively and relentlessly on quality work linked to high expectations and standards. If you don’t base policies and strategies on purposeful group impact you inevitably end up with low yield results along with gross distractions.”

http://bit.ly/1lcl7YF

Why Sudbury schools don’t [try to] change the world

“Every day, we rely on the natural genius of our students to navigate the world of ideas. They discuss, play with, think about, and consider ideas. They try, accept, and reject different ideas. They build and test models of the world, and ideas about how to live their own lives. Far from minimizing differences between people,  pluralism allows our students to develop into all sorts of different people, and to develop deep respect for one another and those differences.”

http://bit.ly/QLco6a

This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:

This Is A Video Everyone Needs To See.

‘“This media we call social is anything but, when we open our computers and it’s our doors we shut”… This is one of the most vital messages that everyone needs to hear.’

http://bit.ly/QurUTG

Digital Learning Futures - 3 things you need to know about

the future of learning.

A slide share from Steve Wheeler:

Bruce’s comment: Great for a staff discussion/ PD. So many quotes we share but ….

http://slidesha.re/T8I9bx

A View From the Edge

A slide share from Bruce. Similar themes to Steve Wheeler.

http://slidesha.re/1k6nIoV

Educational Readings - the trouble with high stake testing - PISA crumbling/ back to creativity

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!

What if the high stakes tests were wrong? (A thought experiment)

This thought experiment is about the USA, but it doesn’t take much extra thinking to adapt it to New Zealand, Australia, and elsewhere.

‘I discovered that by using the ‘achievement gap’ and standardized test scores for black and brown children, businessmen and politicians were able to usher in a set of market-based reforms that had the underlying mission of destroying public education while maximizing the profits of a selective group.”’

http://bit.ly/1iC3aWj

Why Education Reform is Probably Not The Best Way to Fight Poverty

The contention that education is the solution to poverty is being used in many countries, although the evidential basis for this claim is slight, and, as shown by this article, is disputable as well.

“The standard line among education reformers today is that the best route to improving educational outcomes is through improvements in teacher quality, but you apparently have to improve a teacher’s quality by a full standard deviation to get a student even a 1% income boost at age 28.”

http://bit.ly/1n583Gz

Why I Teach Plato to Plumbers:Liberal arts and the humanities aren't just for the elite.

“We don’t intellectually embrace a society where the privileged few get to enjoy the advantages of leisure and wealth while the masses toil on their behalf. Yet that’s what a sell-out of the liberal arts entails.”

http://bit.ly/1hZcI7Q

Why the Smart Reading Device of the Future May Be … Paper

Not strictly educational but then again, consider the implications for schooling.

“Paper books were supposed to be dead by now. For years, information theorists, marketers, and early adopters have told us their demise was imminent. Ikea even redesigned a bookshelf to hold something other than books. Yet in a world of screen ubiquity, many people still prefer to do their serious reading on paper.”

http://wrd.cm/1n3AyXH

Tales of the Undead…Learning Theories: The Learning Pyramid

“Since the 1960s, experts have been trying to convince people that the learning pyramid is bogus. But for every article written exposing its weaknesses, there seem to be dozens of instances where it is invoked as truth in presentations, websites, and trade publications. We hope that having read this post, you will join the forces of pyramid slaying and base your instructional choices on valid research, not educational myths.”

http://bit.ly/1mnNp3k

You Can’t Bounce Off the Walls If There Are No Walls: Outdoor Schools Make Kids Happier—and Smarter (thanks to Ken Woolford)

Real basics!

The obvious is being rediscovered.

“Isn’t this what we want for our children? This immersion in the natural world, this feeling-at-one-ness, these eyes sparkling with fire. We’re learning that grit and stick-to-it-ive-ness are some of the core character traits that determine success in school and in life. Teachers and parents of children in nature preschools and forest kindergartens are finding that mastering puddles is just as important as learning letters in preparing children to find their way through the smartboard jungle.”

http://bit.ly/1iOvUv4

Unleashing Empathy: How Teachers Transform Classrooms With Emotional Learning (another link from Ken Woolford.)

Rediscovering the obvious, part 2…

“A growing number of educators and social entrepreneurs across the country are discovering that the secret to learning empathy, emotional literacy, self-awareness, cooperation, effective communication, and many of the other skills classified as “social and emotional learning,” lies in experience, not in workbooks and rote classroom exercises.”

http://bit.ly/1nhty7h

OECD and Pisa tests are damaging education worldwide - academics

Crumbling Tower of PISA!!

The mountain of evidence grows ever larger.

“In this letter to Dr Andreas Schleicher, director of the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment, academics from around the world express deep concern about the impact of Pisa tests and call for a halt to the next round of testing.”

http://bit.ly/1jwuLHg

On the Edge of Chaos: Where Creativity Flourishes

Creativity definitely won’t flourish in a standards based classroom, that’s for sure.

‘For educators who have embraced the notion of the tightly controlled classroom, it’s a worst-case scenario. But Bilder has a reason for this theory. He tested it by asking children what aspects of a learning environment make them feel most creative. “One of the things

they found most valuable in their arts classes was the freedom not to have to seek right and wrong answers,” Bilder said. “It was that freedom to explore that led them to be increasingly engaged and allowed them to forge connections that allowed them to be more creative.”’

http://bit.ly/1fSfKAA

What's Really Wrong With Round Robin Reading?

I’m somewhat amazed that this question is being asked.

“Key here is the fact that each student is responsible for reading only a very brief portion of the text—as little as a few sentences and, at a maximum, a few paragraphs. As a result, they have minimal opportunity to improve either their fluency or their word recognition. This difficulty is further compounded given the fact that other students often jump in when the reader encounters a difficult or unknown word; as a result, the reader never has the chance to figure it out for him or herself.”

http://bit.ly/1o8fdwr

This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:

We’re About to Tell You the Secret to Creativity, and You May NOT Want to Sit Down

Bruce’s comment: Like this. Something we seem to have forgotten in this high tech obsessed world. Rediscovering the real world.

“A new Stanford study has revealed that people are 60 percent more creative when walking than when sitting, regardless of whether their environment is indoors or outdoors.”

http://bit.ly/1ibhZNV And if you like the above click on this blog about developing awareness

The Goal of Education Is Becoming

Bruce comments: Mark Prensky talks sense. Aligns well with the intent of 2007 New Zealand Curriculum – students becoming ‘good people’ able to ‘seek, use and create’.

“Rather than putting so much effort into creating and implementing the common-core standards, we would do far better to design "accomplishment-based education" whereby our kids have the means to become the kinds of people we want them to be. When they leave school, with a strong resume to their credit, they should be creative and effective thinkers, communicators, and doers. Anyone who thinks we've arrived at that goal is fooling himself.”

http://bit.ly/1if5UHJ

poverty-2.jpg

The corporate takeover of society and education.

From Bruce’s oldies but goodies file - a discussion about the corporatisation of New Zealand education. Overseas readers can play ‘Spot the Coincidences.’

“The corporate model is pushed on schools by policy makers imposing a policy framework model on schools – policy makers who have little or no experience of the reality of the classroom and deliberately the ‘voice’ of educationalists are ignored.”

http://bit.ly/1hARUnP

Discovery Time - Developing key competencies through activity based, child directed learning.

“The Discovery Time programme was developed in an attempt to create a balance

between the skill and knowledge demands of the curriculum and the activity-based, student-directed focus that many teachers believed were essential for 21st century learning.”

http://bit.ly/Qju1tx