By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come
across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
Making Learning Visible: Doodling Helps Memories Stick
“The
practice also makes student learning visible and provides a valuable formative
assessment tool. If a student sketches an interesting side note in the lesson,
but misses the big themes, that will show up in her drawing. And when students
share their drawings with one another, they have the chance to fill in the gaps
in their knowledge, and drawings, while discussing the key ideas. Going over
the drawings also solidifies the information for students.”
Divide and Rule
Why are we stuck with politicians who think they
are education experts?
“A
mark of a successful primary school career is, according to the Conservatives,
the ability to do long division. As our privately-educated Education Secretary
Nicky Morgan explained, long division is at the heart of giving ‘every
child the chance to master the basics and succeed in life,’ something that is a ‘fundamental duty’ of government.”
Secret Teacher: Elizabeth is 12 and homework is stealing her
childhood
What are we doing to our children?
“I
received a phone call from one of my tutees, Elizabeth, at 10pm one night last
week. She was
Education: the Next Corporate Frontier
Wake up people.
“Education
has profound implications for the economy, for human wellbeing, and for the
future of life on this planet. It is about both what and how we teach children. Do we want private investors and corporations to
decide that? If not, then those of us in the new economy and environmental
movements need to join our voices to those of the education activists and
resist further privatization.”
Noam Chomsky: Bubble Tests Yield
Meaningless Rankings
“So you’re giving some kind of a rank, but it’s a rank that’s mostly meaningless, and the very
ranking itself is harmful. It’s turning
us into individuals who devote our lives to achieving a rank, not to doing
things that are valuable and important. It’s highly destructive. This is elementary education, so you are trying to
train kids this way, and its very harmful. …”
More on My Beef with the Term
"Instructional Leader.”
Another Bill Ferriter article:
“Can I push your thinking for a
minute?
I'd
like to suggest
that learning teams -- NOT school principals -- should be the primary source of instructional leadership in PLCs. I'd also like to suggest that using titles like "the instructional leader"
to describe the role of the principal in a PLC is incongruous with the core principles
of professional learning communities.”
Why the Drive to Prepare Students to
'Compete Globally' Entirely Misses the Point
Another hard hitting article by
Peter Greene about the USA but which is applicable everywhere else.
“We aren't losing jobs because we
can't "out-innovate, out-educate or out-build" the rest of the worldbut because we don't have enough people willing to work for far less money in
far crappier conditions., (Even if we were, you don't raise people who can
out-innovate anyone by forcing students through a one-size-fits-all,
test-driven straightjacket of an education program; even China understands that.)”
Can a quick auditory test predict
future reading ability?
This article by Stephen Krashen
debunks yet another dubious idea. Reading expert Brian Cambourne’s pithy
summary: “Another example of absurd research drawing absurd conclusions
resulting in what Ken Goodman calls ‘the pedagogy of the absurd’.”
Beware - we can expect non-educators
driving education reform to seize upon this as an another reason to test young
children.
“The claim has been made that a
short, 30 minute test, can predict future reading success. I argue here that
this test "that can look in to a child's (reading) future" (Turner,
2015) only predicts the child's performance on measures of phonological
awareness and other non-reading tasks, not reading comprehension.”
This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:
Project-Based
Learning vs. Problem-Based Learning vs. X-BL
Project
based learning and problem based learning – how different are they?
“The term
"project learning" derives from the work of John Dewey and dates back
to William Kilpatrick, who first used the term in 1918. At BIE, we see
project-based learning as a broad category which, as long as there is an
extended "project" at the heart of it, could take several forms.”
Special
Topic / "Best Practice"—The Enemy of Better Teaching
‘Research
and practical experience suggest that focusing on continual improvement of
teaching is more effective than imitating best practices.
The term
best practice is widely used in education by practitioners, researchers,
politicians, and product advocates. "We believe in using best
practices." "Our teachers need more access to best practices."
"Our product is based on best practices." These claims sound good,
except there's no consensus on what practices are “best.”'
Methods
that Matter: Six Structures for Best Practice Classrooms
And in
contrast ‘Teaching Best
Practices’ – a readings study guide for an
excellent book.
“Methods
that Matter argues passionately that teaching does matter and that the methods
teachers employ not only affect student achievement but also condition the
quality of human relationships in the classroom—and beyond.” See book in following link.
Teaching
Best Practices - a book in line with creative teaching in contrast to most
current 'best practice’.
 |
| Authors Marilyn and Harvey |
Bruce’s
latest blog posting:
“This is,
as mentioned, a very practical book based around the world of ‘real’ experts – classrooms teachers who develop their
programmes around their students experience and expression. For schools who
want to develop personalised authentic teaching this is a book that will help
them to develop quality learning that will be hard to criticize.”
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
The
learning brain
An oldie,
referencing Guy Claxton:
“Although
the structure and how the brain works are interesting to learn about what is
more important is to consider how we can create the conditions, or the
environment, to ensure we develop all the potential that lies within each
individual brain. The brain is now seen as a open system that is continually
learning, for better or worse, through continual feedback. And, to make
teaching challenging, no two brains are alike.”
Do
leaders prefer ‘dogs'?
“The dog
is usually the first to get lots of affectionate attention. When questioned
why, the reply is, 'the dog is always so happy to see me', 'the dog never talks
back'.In other words the dog is a 'suck up'.
It seems
if we aren't careful we can treat people at work like dogs by rewarding those
who heap unthinking admiration upon us. In return people learn to 'suck up' to
us.”
Too much
reliance on 'experts' and not enough common sense
Too much
reliance on ‘experts’?
“It seems
that teachers respect what real people, like themselves, do in classrooms. All
too often today’s facilitators are presenting ideas
designed by a distant group of ‘experts’ who have long since forgotten the white heat and creative confusion that
teaching all too often is. They even imagine teachers would sit down plan how
they will teach whatever, and will have time to calmly evaluate it. This is
without even considering first, that whatever little bits they are recording,
are actually worth the time to do so.”
Together
principals can do it
 |
| A cloak of shared beliefs |
“Principals
have been too passive the past decades busying themselves with complying with
demands placed on them from those on high. In this process they have become
stressed out, not sure what is expected, and this is exacerbated by the
Ministry continually adding new requirements.It is time they added their
collective voices to the debate and this is easiest done by groups of
courageous principals, defining what is important, and sharing it with others.
And what they decide ought to focus on the needs of their students and
communities and not the whims of politicians.”
No comments:
Post a Comment