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!
The Pupil in the Middle of Your Eye
This article by former Queensland Director of
Primary Education Phil Cullen is a must read for all teachers.
“So…since
learning is institutionalised in schools, pupils need to know why they are at school and
what sort of relationship is intended during
the schooling efforts. Too often do we overlook this. Children believe that
they go to school only because someone says that they have to go. The
excitement of learning has been understated. We teach in the schools because we
are more expert at the teaching act than other people in the community and we
want to honour the contract of helping children to learn how to learn.”
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Chile’s Charter School Experiment is
Almost Over
“This
week Chile ended the education sector experiment
started in the 1980s by dictator Pinochet that had led to, by 2014, around 60% of the nation’s schools becoming
charter schools. Like Thatcher and Reagan, Pinochet was a devotee of Milton
Friedman’s free market ideology (one that
the National Party of New Zealand follows, too), and deregulating schools is key to that ideology.”
What Do We Really Mean When We Say ‘Personalized
Learning’?
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Good points made here - what teachers mean by
personalized learning is different from what Pearson Group, et al, mean.
‘“We
often say we want creativity and innovation – personalization
– but every mechanism we use to measure it is through control and
compliance,”
Laufenberg said. “Those
things never come together as long as that is the overriding moment.” She
cautions educators who may be excited about the progressive educational
implications for “personalized learning” to
make sure everyone they work with is on the same page about what that phrase
means.’
Home readers for school kids often wasted learning opportunity,
expert warns
Food for thought …
‘Lecturer
in literacy education at the University of Canberra Ryan Spencer told 666 ABC
Canberra the home reader routine was a wasted learning opportunity if the
student was disengaged.
"If they don't have interest or excitement, or if there's no
motivation to read that book, it just becomes an onerous task," he said.
"Reluctant readers take [their readers] home because they have
to and the teacher has chosen it.
"But by the time they get home, the last thing they want to do
is read this book that they've already read at school that day.”’
Ten things you need to know about international assessments
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Lots of information here, with this quote being
very pertinent.
“These
assessments were never intended to line up and rank nations against each other
like baseball standings.
That’s right. The statisticians and
psychometricians who dreamed up these assessments 50 years ago stated
explicitly that the question of whether “the children
of country X [are] better educated that those of country Y” was
“a false question” due
to the innumerable social, cultural, and economic differences among nations.
But, hey, that’s just a detail.”
One-Size-Fits-All Testing Isn't What Our Kids Need To Succeed
The message is slowly disseminating.
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“What
are the skill sets that we as a society see as necessary for the future success
of our children? What kind of future do we want to be shaping? Do we want
well-rounded children who grow up with exposure to the arts, culture, and
music? Or do we want over-tested, over-stressed children who see only the
importance of achieving academic growth? Are we looking to provide our children
with the skills that are necessary to instill a sense of morals, coping skills,
and human compassion? Or do we continue to narrow down the focus of academics
to what can be measured on a standardized test, and use that as a predictor for
future success?”
The Heavy Hitters Behind a Fund Focused on K-12 Blended Learning
For all you ……….. (insert descriptor of choice) who are buying into the propaganda
about blended learning, I suggest you read this blog by Susan Ohanian to see
who is behind it.
“Surprise.
Surprise. Look at who's behind Blended Learning."Blended" is, of course,
a diversionary term to distract from the fact that this system of
computer-directed instruction should actually be termed, at best,
teacher-lite--and, at worst, teacher dumped.”
Why technology will never replace teachers
Here’s
a gem from Steve Wheeler:
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“When
children act unexpectedly, or demand support that requires intuition, only a
human teacher who knows that child can support them effectively. Comparatively,
the human brain is highly complex, while the computer is a very simple tool. We
are only just beginning to understand some aspects of the human brain, whereas
computers are fully understandable, because they have been designed by human
ingenuity.”
‘You
have made us the enemy. This is personal.’
Seven New York State teachers write an open
letter to Governor Cuomo.
“We
are teachers. We have given our hearts and souls to this noble profession. We
have pursued intellectual rigor. We have fed students who were hungry. We have
celebrated at student weddings and wept at student funerals. Education is our
life. For this, you have made us the enemy. This is personal.”http://wapo.st/1zCio03
This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:
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Keeping alive the spirit of John Dewey
Bruce’s latest blog
article which includes this sobering comment: “The student
centred ideas of John Dewey have, it seems, all been lost in the country of his
birth.” That’s a tragic state of affairs.
“John Dewey believed that the need to learn, to make sense of ones experience was the inborn innate way humans learn
- until they reach formal schooling. One of his key phrases
was that 'children are people, they grow into tomorrow
only as they live today'. Culture counts -
for better or worse.”
Using Old Tech (Not Edtech) to Teach
Thinking Skills
Bruce’s comment: Making
full use of ‘old tech’ thinking skills with modern
technology
“I've viewed classroom technology as the means to sharing knowledge,
in addition to acquiring or manipulating it. Yet I find that not only has the
computer itself become something of a distraction, but the students aren't
making enough use of the tech’s
"share-ability" -- that is, they struggle to work effectively
together on it, and to have their ideas cohere in an intelligible way. It
occurred to me that co-editing in a Google Doc is a skill that itself needs to
be taught and practiced before it can become effective in the classroom.”
Perspectives / Five Myths About School
Improvement
Bruce’s comment: Many
schools subscribe to the ASCD magazine Educational Leadership – this
latest editorial will give you a taste. There are some good links to explore.
“Indeed, even those who advocate disparate visions about "what
works" most likely would concur that there is no panacea that will help
all schools all the time. David Berliner and Gene Glass tell why contexts
matter in the social sciences. They describe the problems with replicability,
transfer, and fading effects of single reforms, but they do not conclude that
the reform process is a waste of time.”
How We Make Progress
Bruce’s comment: Too
much of our teaching is based on linear thinking – but it seems
our learning is not as simple. Well worth the read. I have aways thought that
learning was spiral shaped , ever upwards, but at times regressing. Another great read from Anne Murphy.
“
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This is not an orderly ascension up an ever-rising set of steps. It’s something more like waves on a beach, where one wave overtakes
another and then pulls back, overtaken in turn by another advancing and then
receding wave. “Overlapping
waves” is, in fact, the name of a theory of intellectual development
proposed by Robert Siegler, a professor of cognitive psychology at Carnegie
Mellon University.”
From Bruce's ‘oldies but goodies’ file:
Dysfunctional Schools
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Bruce’s observations
on Kirsten Olsen’s book “'Wounded by School-recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing up
to the Old School Culture”
“I don't think teachers like to face up to the fact that schooling
actually harms many of their students but it is clear , reading Kirsten's Olsen
book, it does. Obviously this harming is not done intentionally but it is all
too easy to blame failure on dysfunctional students. Certainly too few students
leave school with their joy of learning alive and their unique gifts and
talents strengthened - not even the so called successful students.”
On Knowing - Jerome Bruner
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Bruce’s comment: My
favourite quote from Bruner is ‘ teaching is the canny art of intellectual
temptation’.Today we have those (usually politicians) who wish to test for learning
ignoring, according to Bruner, that 'it is difficult to catch and record, no
less understand, the swift flight of man's mind operating at its best’.“The themes Jerome Bruner covers in his book concern the process of
knowing, how knowing is shaped and how it in turn gives form to language
science, literature and art. The symbolism of the left hand is that of the
dreamer - the right that of the practical doer.The areas of hunches and
intuition, Bruner writes, has been all too often overwhelmed by an 'imposed
fetish of objectivity’…’"
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