By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come
across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
Four neuromyths that are still prevalent in schools – debunked
I’d suggest that the so-called education reform
movement is the biggest source of learning myths.
“Many “neuromyths” are rampant in our classrooms, and research suggests
that people are often seduced by neuroscientific explanations, even if these
are not accurate or even relevant. Research also shows that explanations
accompanied by images of the brain also persuade people to believe in their
validity, however random the illustration.”
6 Ways To Make Learning Visiblethe horrors of testing;
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| A 'wow' classroom1 |
7 things Blended Learning is NOT
“What has ‘Blended Learning’ done for the world of learning? It had
the promise to shake us out of the ‘classroom/lecture-obsessed’ straightjacket
into a fully developed, new paradigm, where online, social, informal and many
other forms of learning could be considered and implemented. This needed an
analytic approach to developing and designing blended learning solutions. So
what happened?”
Why England is in the ‘guard’s van’ of school reform
Andy Hargreaves contrasting Scotland and England
school systems - one of these is failing. There are lessons for many other
countries here.
'Like a horror show: It is difficult to comprehend the government's
stupidity over testing in schools’
Another article looking at the dire situation in
England, especially the move to test school entrants.
“It is not just the age of the children that makes baseline
assessment so problematic, it is also its format: a series of yes/no statements
which fail to capture the complexity of the learning process or
the child's
developmental stage. Can it really be possible to judge, on the basis of
observation in the first six weeks of children starting a new school, whether
they are or are not "risk taking", whether they have or do not
have "curiosity" and “persistence”?”
Take exams early in the morning to get a higher score
Ponder on the implications of this:
Hans Henrik Sievertsen from the Danish National Centre for Social
Research in Copenhagen and his team have looked at 2 million standardised test
scores from Danish children aged between 8 and 15. Starting from 8 am, for
every hour later that a test was taken, scores declined by an amount equivalent
to the effect of missing 10 days of school. Children who were performing worse
at school seemed most affected by the time they sat the exam.
Against the Sticker Chart
An article for parents that has implications for
the classroom.
“The problem with sticker charts and similar reward systems is not
that they don’t work. Rather, they can work too well, creating significant
negative and unintended long-term consequences for both the kids and their
families. Sticker charts are powerful psychological tools, and they can go
beyond affecting children’s motivation to influence their mindset and even
affect their relationship with parents.”
Contributed by Bruce Hammonds:
Why Ability
Grouping Doesn't Work
While schools
implement ability grouping, streaming or class cross grouping there is conflict
with modern approaches to teaching and learning.
“In the
'Pygmalion Study'(Rosenthal and Jacobson 1968) elementary teachers were told
that the lowest achieving students were actually the highest and vice versa.
Simply because of this information and teachers' subsequent expectations, the
low achieving students showed significantly higher gains in their scores. Thus
labelling or grouping students not only has a negative impact on their
self-efficacy, but on teacher expectation.”
Innovate Like
Sherlock Holmes
The power of
observation – elementary my dear Watson
“Watson: When I hear you give your reasons, the thing always
appears to me to be so ridiculously simple that I could easily do it myself,
though at each successive instance of your reasoning I am baffled until you
explain your process. And yet I believe that my eyes are as good as yours.
Holmes: Quite
so. You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear.”
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
This thing called reading.
If you have never read Frank Smith then you need
to rectify this asap.
“Frank Smith believes that children do not need to be taught to read
instead teachers need to create the conditions for them to want to. If reading
is active process, that respects their ideas and worlds, they will want to join
the reading club.”
Lester Flockton.Nothing
wrong with being critical!
New Zealand respected educationalist Lester
Flockton encourages principals to be critical.
“Lester Flockton encourages principals to develop critical
reflective thinking about what is 'put before them from on high, or the latest
offering from theorists, researchers, policy pushers, advisers, consultants,
programme package purveyors and the like'. 'Such people', Lester reminds us,
'often have claims that are incomplete in their perspectives and insights about
the working of schools and classrooms.”
More Zen - less zest!
“Hare Brain and Tortoise Mind - think less! Guy Claxton is a thinker
after my own heart.
While everyone else is rushing around introducing rational
thinking skills he is pushing the 'slower' idea of developing intuition, hence
the title of his book 'Hare Brain Tortoise Mind - how to increase your
intelligence by thinking less'.Claxton is about valuing patience and confusion
which he believes are the precursors of real wisdom rather than the current
emphasis on rigor and certainty. It is by digging into this ‘under mind’ of our
unconscious that Claxton believes creativity resides.”
1 comment:
While everyone else is rushing around introducing rational thinking skills he is pushing the 'slower' idea of developing intuition, hence the title of his book 'Hare Brain Tortoise Mind
5th Class Result 2016
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