By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come
across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
Why Kids Should Use Their Fingers in Math Class
I well remember being admonished by an inspector
for allowing my pupils to use their fingers! Guess she was wrong, as she was
about a number of other things.
“Researchers found that when 6-year-olds improved the quality of
their finger representation, they improved in arithmetic knowledge,
particularly skills such as counting and number ordering. In fact, the quality
of the 6-year-old’s finger representation was a better predictor of future
performance on math tests than their scores on tests of cognitive processing.”
Rethinking Intelligence: How Does Imagination Measure Up?
“An individual’s goals within the learning classroom and excitement
about a topic affect how he or
she pursues learning, none of which is captured
on IQ tests. Worse, those tests are often used to filter people in or out of
special programs.”
Australian schools will never match Finland's unless teachers can
tell the truth
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| Will never catch Finland |
I’m sure that variations on this are to be found
all over.
“We've just finished writing reports, making sure that we have
reached "outcomes" that areincomprehensible to parents and students
but fulfil a bureaucratic need for accountability. Instead of giving our
students marks or, God forbid, rankings, we have disguised their results in
generalities so their parents are saved from facing the truth about their
children's real progress. We aren't allowed to tell it how it is.”
9 Elephants in the (Class)Room That Should “Unsettle” Us
“One of the things I’ve come to realize in my many discussions with
educators from around the globe is that there are a number of practices in our
current systems of schooling that “unsettle” us, primarily because they don’t comport
with what Seymour Papert calls our “stock of intuitive,
empathic, common sense knowledge about learning.” But what’s also notable about
those practices is that we rarely want to discuss them aloud, content instead
to let them hover silently in the background of our work.”
Science Education Is Woefully Uncreative. That Has to Change
“When students (especially non-science majors) take required science
classes, there is a reason. It’s not so that they can learn about the names of
the planets or which plants you can eat (but that is useful to know). The
primary reason that students are required to take a science class is to help
them understand the nature of science.”
Raising Creators, Not Consumers
“So when I saw the tribute by Motion and then read a comment on my
blog about poetry from a parent homeschooling in order to raise children as
artists, I was moved to think harder about our obsession in the U.S.
Contributed by Bruce Hammonds:
 |
| Dan's ;last days - an Irish themed farewell |
Respected
principal bows out - a great Irish farewell
Bruce’s tribute
to retiring Palmerston North principal Dan Murphy.
“You have been
quiet, caring and determined revolutionary a person who believes strongly
on educationally sound ideas - ideas often in opposition to the simplistic
solutions imposed on schools by politicians.”
Four Common
Sense Tenets of Brain-Based Learning
‘Our
classrooms are teeming with young neuroscientists! They may not be expressing
their findings with sophisticated expositions on the functions of neural
pathways or the specific regions of the brain, but they are often aware of the
circumstances and experiences that help them learn best. As we share with them
the scientific findings that underscore what promotes effective and lasting
learning, our students will likely offer us nods of understanding and agreement
as they respond with something to the effect of, "That's what we've been
trying to tell you!”'
Does ICT
assist learning?
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| Derek Weymouth NZ |
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
What do you believe about teaching and learning?
“I believe we now know enough about learning and teaching that no
students need fail; and that all students can learn given the appropriate task,
time and help. Translating that into practice is the challenge. What is it that
we all know about learning? What are appropriate tasks for students, and what
is the role of the teachers in helping each individual learn? Answering these
questions develops a sense of shared purpose or vision for a school.”
What's Worth Fighting For ?
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| Andy Hargreaves |
“These challenges are real for post industrial countries like New
Zealand. The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. As well schools are struggling
to educate a growing diversity of students in schools that were designed for a
simpler age. And so far there seems little awareness of the need for real
systemic change; all the so called reform we have seen to date amounts to no
more than tinkering. What we need is to develop a new consciousness about the
importance of the need to transform our schools so all students leave with
desire to learn intact.”
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| Am amazing book |
Our amazing brain
An enlightening book written by by the 'owner'
of one of the most remarkable brains on the planet - Daniel Trammet.
“It seems our role as adults is not so much to teach but to create
the conditions for all sorts of innate talents to grow. Imagine a school system
based on this premise. Such a system would be a truly creative one providing a
range of experiences for student's brains to make their own meaning from. The
role of the teacher is in such an environment, according to Jerome Bruner, 'is
the canny art of intellectual temptation’.”
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