By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come
across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
The Secret To Creativity: Become An Intellectual Middleman
This article wasn’t written about education;
however it is applicable to classroom programmes. How does your classroom
compare to this?
"A lot of the people we think of as exceptionally creative are
essentially intellectual middlemen." That is, "They’ve learned how to
transfer knowledge between different industries or groups. They’ve seen a lot
of different people attack the same problems in different settings, and so they
know which kinds of ideas are more likely to work.”
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| Tests are about control |
Standardized Tests Have Always Been About Keeping People in Their
Place
“Our modern assessments are holdovers from the 1910s and ‘20s, an
age when psychologists thought they could isolate the racial markers for
intelligence and then improve human beings through selective breeding like you
might with dogs or cats. I’m not kidding. It was called eugenics.”
Grit vs Resilience
“The whole concept of grit to me has simply borrowed from a long
history of research into resilience and given resilience a new and somewhat
trendy name. As far as I can see grit does not exist as a phenomenon distinct
from resilience but is rather a sub-set of resilience and resilience is not a
great predictor of academic success.”
Collaborative Writing, Common Core, and ELLs
“In collaborative writing, students would do their own thinking and
writing first and then connect with others to provide and receive feedback for
improvement. Or, as is the case with the collaborative story-writing ideas that
we'll be discussing, there is explicit space made for students to first use
their own intellectual abilities. Then, student interaction can follow so that the
end product is one to which everyone has contributed and is superior to what a
student creates on his or her own.”
Education in Crisis: The Threat of Privatization Around the World
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| Diana Ravitch |
“Yes, there is a
crisis, but it is not the one you have read about. The crisis in education
today is an existential threat to the survival of public education. The threat
comes from those who unfairly blame the school for social conditions, and then
create a false narrative of failure. The real threat is privatization and the
loss of a fundamental democratic institution.”
Teaching Children How to Think Instead of What to Think
“The factory model of education, with its focus on academic and economic elitism, is churning out obedient workers for the system, encouraged to conform every step of the way. We are not being treated as organic, creative, investigative human beings, but instead as parts in the machine. The education system is filtering out the inquisitive nature of our being, with the ultimate goal being to prevent dissent against the system. The system doesn’t want thinkers. It doesn’t want people to question its methods. It wants a population that can be easily manipulated and controlled so as to relinquish all its power to the elite.”
Contributed by Bruce
Hammonds:
21stC Modern Learning Environments (MLEs) and 1970s Open Plan
Schools – similar challenges and problems – or new opportunities?
Bruce’s latest blog article.
“MLEs, if implemented properly, might well be ‘windows to the future’
but education is always
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| Kids need some structure |
When Kids Have Structure for Thinking, Better Learning Emerges
“Amidst the discussions about content standards, curriculum and
teaching strategies, it’s easy to lose sight of the big goals behind
education, like giving students tools to deepen their quantitative and
qualitative understanding of the world. Teaching for understanding has always
been a challenge, which is why Harvard’s Project Zero has been trying to figure
out how great teachers do it.”
How To Kill Creativity (And How To Rebuild It)
“What if innovation isn’t about doing more stuff but just removing
barriers?
What if we just become more conscious and innovation takes care of
itself?
Perhaps by identifying and removing barriers we can accelerate
innovation simply by leveraging the capability that’s already there.”
What Quality Education Should Teach You, According to a Harvard
Scientist
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| Steven Pinker |
Wisdom from Steven Pinker.
“Don’t let the education system keep you from having a real education.
Learn how to think. Figure out how to spend more time reading. When you do,
focus on the most basic and essential wisdom — including the lessons from
history.”
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
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| A book celebrating tchr creativity |
Let's return to creative teaching!
“Creative activities were seen by teachers involved in the 60s and
70s as the central focal point for learning and integrated studies were a means
to realize this. The recent emphasis on inquiry learning continues these ideals
but struggle against the literacy and numeracy pressures that eat up almost all
available time.”
Creative teaching at Opunake Primary. Lewis Carroll's 'Alice in
Numberland’
“I think it is very important to share ideas of creative teachers in
this age of isolated self managing schools - be great if New Zealand teachers
who read this blog to pass it on to any teachers who might find it interesting.”
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| Results of powerful learning at Opunake |
Dysfunctional schools or dysfunctional students
“How many schools have taken the advice of research and good
practice to actually listen to their students? How may have tried to
personalize learning around the needs of their students rather than insisting
students 'learn' what they obviously dislike.”
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| Schools conforming students |
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