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!
Four reasons to seriously worry about ‘personalized
learning’
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| Alfie Kohn |
Another gem from Alfie Kohn - a must read.
“Personal
learning entails working with each child to create projects of intellectual
discovery that reflect his or her unique needs and interests. It requires the
presence of a caring teacher who knows each child well.
Personalized learning entails adjusting the
difficulty level of prefabricated skills-based exercises based on students’ test scores. It requires the purchase of software from one of those companies that can afford full-page
ads in Education Week.”
Steve Hargadon: Escaping the Education Matrix
“What
are most kids getting out of 12 years of school?” he asks. “The
honest answer is they’re learning how to
follow, and that was the original intent. Public schools were based on the
belief that what was needed was a small group of elites who would make the
decisions for the country, and many more who would simply follow their
directions”
— hence a system that produces “tremendous
intellectual and commercial dependency.”
How Learning Artistic Skills Alters the Brain
‘The
art students specifically increased "their ability to think divergently,
model systems and
processes, and use imagery," the researchers write. The
results suggests that, in a matter of a few months, "prefrontal white
matter reorganizes as (art students) become more able to think creatively.”’
The Corruption of Learning
“The biggest
challenge facing schools is that the modern world amplifies our ability to
learn in the classic sense, and increasingly renders the official, school based
theory of learning pointless and
oppressive. While our kids’ love of learning can flourish outside of school,
it’s
extinguished inside of school as we take away agency, passion, connection,
audience, authenticity, and more.”
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| Until school begins! |
Three lessons from the science of how to teach writing.
So much for teaching by standards…
“Traditional
grammar instruction isn’t effective. Period.
Six studies with children in grades three to seven showed that writing quality
actually deteriorated when kids were taught grammar. That is, graders scored
the essays of students who’d been taught
traditional grammar lower than those of students who had not received the
lessons.”
What Comes First: the Curriculum or the Technology?
“It’s important to never force fit technology – if
it’s not supplementing what’s already happening in the classroom or a teacher’s goals for the school year, the addition will become more of a
barrier to learning than a catalyst.”
Why Slowing Down Stimuli to Real Time Helps a Child’s Brain
Suggest you read this and reflect….
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“The
pacing of all programs, both adult and child, has sped up considerably. Part of
the reason for that is that the more rapidly sequenced the scenes, the more
distracting it is. It’s taxing to the brain
to process things that happen so fast even though were capable of doing it. And
there’s emerging science now in older
children that watching such fast-paced programs diminishes what we call “executive
function”
immediately afterwards. It tires the mind out and makes
it not function as well immediately after viewing it.”
False Choices and how to Avoid Them
This came to me from Phil Cullen who found it on an Alfie Kohn tweet…
“The
lesson "accept your children for who they are rather than for who you want
them to be" is clear. Loving your kids for who they are is the only real
choice.”
Is There School Today?
“Kindergarten,
literally a "children's garden" was traditionally a place focused on
playing, singing, and otherwise imagineering. Over the past 20 years, a myopic
focus on reading and math has turned the children's garden into a factory, a
place where unique beings go for standardization, followed by 12 more years of
it. This standardized approach to learning supposedly prepares them for
placement in an economy that no longer exists.”
This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:
Welcome to Concept to Classroom!
Bruce’s comment: For
teachers who want some practical knowledge about :Constructivist
Teaching,Multiple Intelligences,Cooperative and Collaborative Learning, Inquiry
Learning, Interdisciplinary Learning, Assessment and Evaluation and Web Based
Learning,
and practical ways to implement them this is the link
for you. Highly recommended.
 |
| This is a wonderful and practical resource. Take a look!! And free. |
“The site features a series of FREE, self-paced workshops covering a
wide variety of hot topics in education. Some of the workshops are based in
theory, some are based in methodology - but all of the workshops include plenty
of tips and strategies for making classrooms work.”
16 Ways Your Brain Is Sabotaging Your
Effort To Learn
“The human brain is our best friend, and our worst enemy, and unless
we keep one eye peeled, it can hijack our learning completely.
In this article I’d like to examine some of the “traps” the
brain sets for us during the course of our academic careers, and what we can do
to avoid them.”
Welcome back to a new year of learning!
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“Discovery Time is the perfect opportunity to excite children’s curiosity, discover their strengths and stand back and observe how they work together. Keep your ‘Key
Competencies’ focussed on ‘managing
self’ and ‘relating
to others’ i.e. looking after equipment,
sharing, taking turns, cleaning up when you have finished, trying something
new, working with someone you don’t know…”
Supporting future-oriented learning and
teaching - a New Zealand perspective
Bruce’s comment: The
challenge of developing a 21st C education system. Some NZ thinking about
personalising learning. Well worth the read.
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“It is widely argued that current educational systems, structures and
practices are not sufficient to address and support learning needs for all
students in the 21st century. Changes are needed, but what kinds of change, and
for what reasons? This research project draws together findings from new data
and more than 10 years of research on current practice and futures-thinking in
education.”
Personalisation and Digital Technologies
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Bruce’s comment:
Download this document for a UK view of personalising education.
“The logic of education systems should be reversed so that it is the
system that conforms to the learner, rather than the learner to the system.
This is the essence of personalisation. It demands a system capable of offering
bespoke support for each individual that recognises and builds upon their
diverse strengths, interests, abilities and needs in order to foster engaged
and independent learners able to reach their full potential.”
Personalising learning – what
does it mean?
Not to be outdone, here’s
Bruce’s take on personalised learning. Bruce mentions a book called ‘In the Early World’ by Elwyn Richardson. All
teachers should have this in their library,
“Once ‘child
centred’ was commonly heard phrase but
it now seems dated . ‘Student
centred’ seems more relevant – is
this personalised learning? If students are helped individually some might call
this personalised but , if it is moving through a pre-determined curriculum at
the students pace this is simply a more an extreme form of ability grouping
than personalising learning.”
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