By Allan Alach
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| Staying in Croatia |
New Zealand readers - I’ve voted from Croatia. What’s
your excuse for not voting in New Zealand?
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!
STEM is incredibly valuable, but if we want the best innovators we
must teach the arts
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| Education or testing? |
The Fatal Flaw Of Education Reform
“Nevertheless,
I believe that this “movement” (to whatever
degree you can characterize it in those terms) may be doomed to stall out in
the long run, not because their ideas are all bad, and certainly not because
they lack the political skills and resources to get their policies enacted.
Rather, they risk failure for a simple reason: They too often make promises
that they cannot keep.”
Boys Learn to Interrupt. Girls Learn to Shut Up.
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| He who speaks first slides first! |
“The
more boys there are in the group, the less often girls in the group interrupt.”
“When
girls play together without boys, they interrupt more. A lot more.”
Why replacing teachers with automated education lacks imagination
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| Early testing machine. |
“The
belief that technology can automate education and replace teachers is
pervasive. Framed in calls for greater efficiency, this belief is present in
today’s educational innovations,
reform endeavours, and technology products. We can do better than adopting this
insipid perspective and aspire instead for a better future where innovations
imagine creative new ways to organise education.”
Are You Ready to Join the Slow Education Movement?
“Education must be
personalized –
responsive to the real needs of each student. This
could mean the abolition of grade levels based on age. When education is
personalized, it emphasizes student interests, teaches skills using worthwhile
content –
and most important – shows kids how to tap into their own innate
motivation to learn. It puts the onus of learning on those who have the most at
stake in school: students.”
Beyond Caricatures: On Dewey, Freire, And Direct Instruction (Again)
This week’s ‘heavy duty’
article but don’t let that
stop you from reading it! This is important.
“The
empowered student necessarily requires the classroom offered by the empowered
teacher. Any who teaches must first work through the philosophical evolution
that Dewey and Freire represent—as well as continuing beyond the
possibilities offered by Dewey’s progressivism and
Freire’s critical pedagogy.”
Dispelling the Myth of Deferred Gratification:What waiting for a
marshmallow doesn't prove
By Alfie Kohn:
“Underlying
self-discipline and grit is the idea of deferring gratification—for
example, by
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putting off doing what you enjoy until you finish your
"work." The appeal to many educators of transforming kids from lazy
grasshoppers to hardworking ants explains the fresh wave of interest in a
series of experiments conducted back in the 1960s known as the marshmallow
studies.”
Gifted primary school children need more than special classes
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“Many
gifted boys and girls find the gifted label stigmatising, and go out of their
way to dodge the dreaded nerd status. Would these children be better off in
specialised school environment? The gifted education community is sharply
divided about this issue with some educators perceiving that the specialised
school environment is the ideal setting for gifted children, whereas others
believe that they would be better off in the regular school milieu.”
This week’s contributions
from Bruce Hammonds:
Common Core's Five Big Half-Truths
Bruce’s comment:The US has a Common Core Standards that are neither common nor core (Sir Ken Robinson calls them a ‘race
to the bottom’) New Zealand has National
Standards that are neither national or standard. Both are political and
populist. Both narrow the curriculum, encourage teaching the tests and
side-lining of creativity and the arts. Both are the equivalent to
the ‘McDonaldisation of education’.
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4 Big Things Transformational Teachers Do
Bruce’s comment: Are you a transformational teacher – read
this then decide.
“Transformational
teachers don't react. They anticipate and prepare. Lee Shulman, as reported by Marge
Scherer, suggests that expert teachers demonstrate the following, despite
enormous challenges:”
Planting the Seeds of Innovation in Education
Bruce’s comment: An innovative high school class/teacher.
‘Don
Wettrick is on a mission: revolutionizing the world of education by training
the next generation of innovators. A reformed teacher (he taught to middle and
high school students for 17 years), Don started planting the seeds of
innovation at the Franklin, IN High School 3-and-a-half years ago, having found
inspiration in Daniel Pink‘s
book “Drive”.’
Leading the Shift to Digital: School, System & City
“We’re living through the most significant shift in how human beings
learn—it’s bigger deal than the printing
press and happening a lot faster. Almost everyone has a stake in the quality
and speed of transition from the old model organized around birthdays and books
to personal digital learning. In the near future, in cities and across networks
that lead the shift, we could see a significant
improvement in career readiness and economic participation.”
From Bruce’s oldies but goodies file…
The corporate takeover of society and education.
“Since
the early 90s society has been reshaped by a neo liberal corporate ideology. An
emphasis on private enterprise and self-centred individualism has replaced an
earlier concern for collective good of all members of society. As a result of this ideological shift a wider gap has been created
between the rich and poor causing a number of social concerns. Schools as part
of this shift have been transformed from a community orientation to being part
of a competitive cut throat ideology.”
Creativity – its place in education
Wayne Morris’s essay on education for
creativity. Brilliant
- from one of Bruce’s closest associates.
“Creative
students lead richer lives and, in the longer term, make a valuable
contribution to society. Surely those are reasons enough to bother. Creativity
in the classroom – what does it look like?”
Howard Gardner on creativity – are schools
encouraging creativity? The challenge of creativity.
“By
definition all life is creative and schools ought to be the best place to
develop the creativity of all their students but this is currently not the
case.”
For New Zealand readers about to vote in the
general election - here’s some political postings from Bruce:
New Zealand Elections – are we
missing the big picture?
“That
we had the lowest voter turnout last election indicates that many citizens no
longer feel motivated to vote. Many seem to feel it makes little difference
and, unfortunately, those with most to gain in change seems the most
indifferent.”
Max Rashbrooke: NZ A
Paradise Lost –now a land only fit for the rich. Inequality in NZ
“God’s own country – once supposedly the best place to
bring up kids in the world, seems no longer to be the case. A country originally founded
to escape the worst of the class structure of England seems to
have given up on the idea of giving a fair go to all citizens. The view of many
well off people now is that the poor are the authors of
their own misfortune and only need to set about and pull up their socks
and all will be well; there seems little empathy for those
in difficult situations.”
Nigel Latta: The new ‘Haves and Have
Nots’ – time for Moral Leadership in
New Zealand
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| Hugh Fletcher |
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