By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come
across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
This week’s homework!
No Escape: A Brief Examination into the No Excuses Philosophy of
Education
Read this nightmarish description of life in a
US charter school. Can things get any worse than this?
“Teachers
handed out paychecks every Wednesday. The school designed these paychecks to
resemble actual pay stubs, making sure every child understood that the end goal
of every class was to maximize individual profit. The idea was to familiarize
children with the trappings of a capitalist society. Different paycheck totals
resulted in various privileges or punishments. Students who struggled to follow
rules had to attend Wednesday Extension, a three-hour block of detention spent
copying down the school’s code of conduct by
hand.” 
John Dewey on the True Purpose of Education and How to Harness the
Power of Our Natural Curiosity
This article is a complete contrast to the
previous nightmare. Where are the John Deweys of today? Where are the
educational visionaries?
“John
Dewey, one of the most influential minds of the twentieth century, distills the
purpose and ideals of education with remarkable clarity and conviction. The
enactment of these ideals today would produce nothing less than a radical,
sorely needed transformation of our broken education system.”
Is the American School System Damaging Our Kids?
 |
| Peter Gray |
An article by Peter Gray that is applicable in
many countries.
“Schools
as we know them today are a product of history, not of research. The blueprint
for them was developed during the Protestant Reformation, when schools were
created to teach children to read the Bible, to believe Scripture without
questioning it, and to obey authority figures without questioning them. When
schools were taken over by the state, made compulsory, and directed toward
secular ends, the basic structure and methods of teaching remained unchanged.
Subsequent attempts at reform have failed because they haven’t altered the basic blueprint.”
What’s the Real Purpose of Classroom
Management?
Another Alfie Kohn gem:
“Thus,
control, and the disproportionate focus on “managing” classrooms,
should be understood as an issue in its own right rather than just as something
intended to facilitate academic instruction. That recognition, in turn, makes
it possible to consider that the ideal isn’t just less control but an affirmative promotion of students’ autonomy — a concerted commitment to support their
status as deciders, active learners, and members of a democratic community.”
What are You Doing to Encourage Curiosity in Your TEACHERS?
Bill Ferriter:
“Why
would teachers who are rarely encouraged to take intellectual risks make
intellectual risk-taking a priority in their classrooms? How can we expect teachers who spend their careers learning to
follow paths created by others to design
learning experiences that facilitate multiple paths to mastery?”
What Stealing Cookies Teaches Us About Young Children and Empathy
This is an interesting article.
“Toddlers
can throw their fair share of tantrums, especially when you don’t yield to their will. But by age 3, it turns out, the little rug
rats actually have a burgeoning sense of fairness and are inclined to right a
wrong.”
How to thank teachers in tough schools? Government answer: punish
themThe teacher/school bashing in England gathers
pace… ‘coasting schools’…
“We’re voting with our feet, and schools are struggling to recruit staff
as a result. With fewer people chasing positions as the number of teachers
entering the profession falls rapidly, “coasting
schools”
will find it even harder to fill posts.”
True pedagogy
Another Steve Wheeler article:
“In
its absolute form, pedagogy is not just about teaching. It does not simply
concern itself with the 'delivery' of education or content. In the truest
sense, teaching is just one element of pedagogy and not the entire story. Pedagogy focuses on the learner and what they are capable of
achieving.”
This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:
15 Characteristics of a 21st-Century
Teacher
‘Recent technological advances have
affected many areas of our lives: the way we communicate,
Creativity in the Classroom
“One of the things that I hear
teachers worrying about is the disappearance of creativity in the curriculum.
More and more districts are ramping up the standardized exams to prepare
students for the bigger standardized exams they will take later in the year.
The beauty of creativity is slowly being phased out and replaced by worksheets.
Standardized tests are a reality where I teach, but I still find creativity
time for my students. I feel that it helps strengthen their other skills and is
needed to develop well-rounded people. Here are some things that can add a
creative spark into your class and still prepare them for those exams.”
7 Tenets of Creative Thinking
“In school, we learn about geniuses
and their ideas, but how did they get those ideas? What are the mental
processes, attitudes, work habits, behaviours, and beliefs that enable creative
geniuses to view the same things as the rest of us, yet see something
different? The following are seven principles that creativity expert Michael
Michalko has learnt during his lifetime of work in the field of creative
thinking -- things that I wish I'd been taught as a student.”
National testing of primary school
students is political not educational
A distressed mother writes a letter
to UK Prime Minister David Cameron:
“There’s a part of me that barely has the energy to write this. To ask you why
you insist on putting 10 and 11 year olds through a system that takes nothing
of child development or good pedagogy in to account, or why you put relentless
pressure on schools to up their expectations, so what was once seen as good
progress is suddenly a failure. But why bother? Why bore you with analogies of
weighing pigs that nobody fed? You won’t listen to highly qualified education experts, or even people who, you
know, actually teach. So I’m under no
illusion that you will listen to me.”
From Bruce’s ‘goldie
oldies’ file:
Reclaiming the lost art of pedagogy
Back to John Dewey.
“The conservative nature of schools
makes changing teaching practice difficult. New ideas are also opposed by even
more conservative parents and the media. The impossible curriculum and
accountability demands, that have been placed on teachers the past decades,
have diverted teachers from placing an emphasis on pedagogy.”
Creative teaching
The creative mindset of pioneer NZ
creative teacher Elwyn Richardson
“'Normal' teaching, Elwyn
believes, results in a loose commitment to teacher tasks and, as a result, many
students develop a low level of achievement and personal satisfaction. A 'good'
classroom should develop in students a personal commitment to their learning.”
What's your 'mental model' about
teaching?
The battle of educational mindsets!
Where you stand?
“It is important for teachers and
schools to be able to articulate what they believe so that they can provide
consistent learning for their students. There are two basic ‘mindsets’ to consider, each with extreme versions, and all too often they are
either seen to be in conflict with each other, or teachers unconsciously ‘pick and mix’.”
Tapping the wisdom of people.“Change is often imposed pushed on
an organisation by 'leaders' who either haven't the time to involve everyone,
or believe that such an involvement isn't worth the time and effort, or, worse
still,because those in charge know best.James Surowiecki in his book 'Wisdom
of Crowds' writes that it is only by tapping the 'wisdom of crowds' that real
change is possible.”
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