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| We need to avoid the political press for standardized teching! |
By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come
across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
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| Robert Sternberg |
The Conversation: Why 1904 Testing Methods Should Not Be Used for Today’s Students “Testing is compromising the future of many of our able students.
Today’s testing comes at the expense of validity (strong prediction of future
success), equity (ensuring that members of various groups have an equal shot),
and common sense in identifying those students who think deeply and
reflectively rather than those who are good at answering shallow
multiple-choice questions.”
Avoiding "Learned Helplessness”
“Instead of coming immediately to the teacher, we want students to
experiment on their own. Many of us wonder why students constantly do the
opposite instead. I've got news for you. It's our fault. We, as educators, are
often responsible for learned helplessness, and we have a responsibility to
change it! How can we empower our students to be self-directed learners?”
Growth Mindset: Clearing up Some Common Confusions
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| Carol Dweck |
“Recently some critiques have emerged. Of
course we invite critical analysis and feedback, as it helps all of us learn
and improve, but some of the recent commentary seems to point to
misunderstandings of growth mindset research and practice. This article
summarizes some common confusions and offers some reflections.”
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| Moving away from factory teaching |
Levels of Understanding: Learning That Fits All
“In order to reach diverse learners, we need diverse teaching
strategies. Student voice and choice lie at the foundation of a differentiated
classroom. When voice and choice are honored, the one-size-fits-all model
transforms into multiple pathways for student growth.”
Why Understanding These Four Types of
Mistakes Can Help Us Learn
“We can deepen our own and our students’ understanding of mistakes,
which are not all created equal, and are not always desirable. After all, our
ability to manage and learn from mistakes is not fixed. We can improve it.”
The Global Search for Education: Just Imagine
– Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith
“The Global Search for Education consistently focuses on how to
better prepare students for the21st century — an age which will be all about
innovating and building. Today, we’ve invited education expert Tony Wagner and
entrepreneur and filmmaker Ted Dintersmith to imagine the school of the
future.”
Contributed by Bruce Hammonds:
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| Ditch cameras - draw! |
Museum Asks
Visitors to Put Down Cameras and Pick Up Pencils and Sketch Pads
“Rijksmuseum,
the Netherlands national museum dedicated to arts and history in Amsterdam,
recently launched a new campaign called “The Big Draw.” It’s an
effort to get museum visitors toditch cameras and simple snapshots in favor of
drawing the artworks in order to more fully appreciate the easy-to-miss details
The tagline of the campaign is “You See More When You Draw,””
Are Schools
Designed to Help Children Learn?
In trying to wrap
our hands around learning about learning, we need to understand how to
personalize learning by focusing on the learner first. This article discusses
three “space
invaders” that take up the space as teaching, performance and
work instead of what they should be focusing on: LEARNING.
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| One size doesn't fit all |
“When you see
learners noticing and reflecting on their learning during their learning, that
is the Wow of learning. This is the higher-order thinking skills we want our
children to adopt: learning about learning and thinking about learning. This
makes learning visible.”
Teacher
Burnout: What Are the Warning Signs?
“It is not a
matter of teachers becoming superhuman and overcoming all horrible conditions
and indignities trying to succeed in doing what is virtually impossible,
especially in a sustained way. The students need their teachers to stay engaged
and fight for them. When the conditions of teaching are bad, the conditions of
learning tend to be worse, and children suffer in lasting ways. That's why the
collateral damage of burned-out teachers is burned-up children.”
Teaching By
Doing Something Meaningful
“The illusion
of making progress in education, the continuous re-evaluating, revising, and
reorganizing of educational principles and practices, and the use of flawed
data to direct our course of action, are all part of a grand illusion that is
producing much “confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.””
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
Reflection on my teaching beliefs
“There are many, including myself, who
believe we are now entering a new age of creativity- some even call it a
'second Renaissance'. If this is so then many of our current organisations,
with their genesis in an industrial age, will need dramatic transformation, as
will, more importantly our mindsets. We will need new minds for a new
millennium.We will need to create networks of creative schools so as to to be
in the forefront of such exciting changes. To achieve this schools, and their
communities, need to stop and think about what is required of education in such
exciting and very unpredictable times. Traditional education just won't do.” |
| Get out for a better view |
The power of visiting other schools
“It is my belief that focused school
visits ( hence the need for a guide) are the most powerful means to gain
professional development and, in particular, to gain insights in to what other
schools/teachers feel important. This is all the more necessary as schools
are increasingly under pressure to distort their teaching programmes by the
need to respond to the reactionary and politically inspired introduction
of National Standards.”
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