The Kiwi Dream: New Zealand as Caring and Creative country/ the need to resolve the inequality caused by the 'free market' nightnare

This is a bit of a rant and rave!! Excuse the repetition.

It seems the New Zealand  Labour Party is aligning its efforts around the vision:

The Kiwi Dream

‘We’re backing the Kiwi Dream’.

A dream of houses, jobs, health care, sustainable growth, regional development and opportunity for all in education; about equality, equity, inclusion and fairness.

Underpinning all the above is a renewed  protective role for the state in the lives of citizens that have fallen behind the past three decades.

The current right-wing government demonised the previous Labour

The myths of market forces

government’s ideology as a ‘nanny state’. The current government’s ‘free market’ ideology is based around privatisation, individual choice ( for the wealthy), and business led efficiency. An ideology premised on the idea that the ‘market’ will sort things out and wealth will ‘trickle down’ to the benefit all. At the time it was said ‘there was no alternative’- TINA.

It has to be made clear, market forces cannot solve the problems facing us - and indeed have created the inequality that is leading to a range of problems.

There will be no space for a 'Kiwi Dream'  for all until we point out the failures of the market forces nightmare which has only rewarded the 'winners'.The neo- liberal ideology needs to be identified and shown to be failing before a new ‘dream’ , vision, or  ideology  has any chance of capturing the minds and hearts of the voters

The differences need to be made clear

As a result of the 'demonizing' he so called 'nanny state' has been replaced by a ‘big brother’   or  'corporate state', one  that  benefits the wealthy, the big business elite and the growing power of international corporates.  As a result the ‘rich have got richer and the poor poorer’. Now that we have had three decades of ‘free market’ ideology it is time to evaluate its

All too true

so called 'trickle down' success for all people.

We need to understand the ideology  that has underpinned the policies that have been 'normalized' the past three decades.

We need to challenge the status quo as the neo-liberal ideology   has become accepted as the way things are done. 

We need to utilize the same strategy  used by  Margaret Thatcher,

Ronald Reagan and Roger Douglas when they introduced their neo-liberal free market ideology. They did this by demonizing the welfare

Back to the future!

state consensus that had been the norm since WW2. 

If this neo-conservative ‘free market’ ideology is not identified then the status quo will be hard to shift particularly as it is supported and justified by the business elite and a complicit press and media.

Any opposition has to educate the people to appreciate that the state has a vital role to ensure all people get a fair deal and that only the state can solve  the inequality that has resulted from  the failing‘free market’ ideology.

Things are getting worse for too many

Achieving this new 'Kiwi Dream' has to be accepted as the only way (TINA) to remedy the 'winner loser' gap  if  all New Zealand citizens have the opportunity to reach their potential.  Only a benevolent state can provide an environment that provides opportunities for all.

Evidence for the failure of market forces need to be shared. 

Richard Wilkinson’s short video is a good start. Watching it has the power to make, all but the hardened ‘free market’ converts, feel ashamed about New Zealand’s poor showing  compared to other nations.

A must watch - look for NZ

Wilkinson's presentation shows that societies with huge income gaps are somehow going wrong. Richard Wilkinson charts the hard data on economic inequality, and shows that inequality,  resulting from neo-liberal policies,  effects negatively on health, lifespan,  imprisonment, educational achievement , economic growth , social cohesion and trust.

A lost dream?

Wilkinson's  international  data needs to be reinforced by specific evidence  of inequality in New Zealand data  across such fields as housing costs , jobs,  salary differences, educational success , incarceration numbers, and child abuse. New Zealand  sadly is a leader in income inequality creating a range of depressing social ills.

Inequality is harming us all by destroying the social fabric that was once a feature of New Zealand.

It has to be made clear that the current 'market forces' ideology in New Zealand  caters for only  for the wealthy. 

Worse still the values underpinning the market economy has led to the development  of divisive attitudes of superiority and inferiority; we have become a society premised on  achieving individual status based on consumerism. We are now a judgmental society based on how well off we are - those who are left behind have only themselves to blame.

The ‘free market’ ideology has had its day. Although it may have had success in the early days it is no longer viable – the freedom from government regulation  has resulted in a growing environmental crisis along with  divisive inequality with  all its

Poverty - a major growth area

associated social problems. Such issues can no longer be ignored. 

The growing power of corporate power, as seen in the Trans Pacific Trade Agreement is in conflict with our sovereignty. As well there is the issue of corporate  avoidance of paying appropriate taxes resulting in the top 1%  owning almost 50% of global wealth.

.
To develop a new story to inspire New Zealanders  needs more than talking about a ‘Kiwi Dream’. The destructive aspects of the ‘free market’ need to be identified and its failings made common knowledge before a real alternative can be accepted.

The ‘free market’ ideology has  meant less and less state intervention  and lower taxes for the rich.

 It has meant privatizing public services, contracting them out to private providers. Short term  business efficiency is now the model to emulate. Salaries for

executives have reached astronomical figures while for the majority wages have stood still. Many people, employed as independent operators, face a precarious future. As well many people in jobs are now the employed poor, often having to have several jobs to make ends meet.

Those supportive of market forces  driven by self-interest  have little sympathy for the less fortunate. The poor are increasingly seen as responsible for their own poverty; the rich are the new righteous.

The ‘free market’ was based on a myth of a ‘level playing field’ but the reality is different. We do not start with equal opportunity. Those who fall through the cracks now face an uncaring faceless bureaucracy while the wealthy get away with tax avoidance.

The ‘Kiwi Dream’ has to be based on ensuring opportunities for all and this means positive action to assist the less fortunate get a fair chance. It is longer good enough to wait for wealthy to ‘trickle down’.

The behaviours of those with a belief in market forces  value individual need above the common good of society.  In contrast those who are aligned behind a new Kiwi Dream place opportunity for all  and the need to value the common good  as central to their behaviours.  The future cannot be seen as either/or but there needs to be a re balancing  - to place equality, equity and fairness as

central.

To achieve the ‘Kiwi Dream’ will require people who are proud to care for the less fortunate. People who see potential in every person if given the opportunity People who believe in the common good. Such a dream links back to kind of country we were known for  before the destruction created by the depression and WW2.

Facing up to the problems created by free market thinking is not about  being personally critical  of opposition politicians but attacking the the beliefs that underpinning their policies and actions.

We need to make clear that the current policies have led to a growing rich/poor gap,  a demeaning inequality that, if not faced up to, will affect us all. The 'Kiwi Dream' is about protecting and valuing the common good in the face of private need or self-interested greed; it about uniting our growing divisive society.

Once the failures of the ‘free market' become obvious only then will their be space for  a real alternative – the Kiwi Dream’. A dream where  the state plays an important role in creating the conditions and infra-structure to ensure all people can   contribute to and feel part of the dream.

A real alternative 'dream' with a range of policies in place to achieve it.

An alternative that reaffirms our identity as a caring and creative people.

'Before we can usher in the new the old must be put to rest'

 Game of Thrones  Series 6/10

'Last year's words belong to last years language and next year's words await another voice.And to make an end is to make a beginning'. T. S. Elliot.

A vision/dream/story I like:

We are not just aiming to change the government, we are aiming to change the direction of our country. You can’t change things overnight but, with a Labour Government, New Zealand will be fairer, smarter, greener and more proud of its identity. It will be a New Zealand which, at the end of the day, we will feel much happier to leave to our children.' 

David Cunliffe Labour Leader July 2014

Other blogs with the same theme:

Nigel Latta on inequality.


Pope Francis and Thomas Piketty on market forces and inequality

NZ Paradise Lost. Inequality by Max Rashbrooke.


The Myth of the Free Market

Ruth Roger and Me


Moving into a Post Capitalist World : Paul Mason

The End of Capitalism - Lester Thurow

Market forces and Education: Bryan Bruce

What happened to the trickle down of wealth?

Creative teacher readings : politics/ maths, dance and handwriting/ MLEs/ bring back the jesters and tapping into the students' world

Education Readings

By Allan Alach

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz

Jo Cox - great loss

Politics at its worst and best

This article by Robin Alexander (Cambridge Primary Review Trust) discusses the situation in UK as the vote to stay in or leave the European Union reached the crunch point. There’s much in this article that is applicable in many other countries and I’m sure the points he makes will resonate with you.

Sir Robin Alexander

‘What has this to do with primary education? Everything. Most schools espouse a vision of human relations which is diametrically opposed to the divisive and inflammatory rhetoric to which we’ve been treated during the past few months. Somehow they must hold the line against that rhetoric’s malign pervasiveness and champion with children the possibility of a more generous and inclusive world.  Most schools – at least we hope this is so – make the quest for truth and understanding paramount in their shaping of children’s curriculum experiences, yet myths, lies and obfuscation have been rather more prominent of late in the public sphere.’

http://bit.ly/28TK12V

Seeing Struggling Math Learners as ‘Sense Makers,’ Not ‘Mistake Makers’

‘In discussions of progressive and constructivist teaching practices, math is often the odd subject out. Teachers and schools that are capable of creating real-world, contextualized, project-based learning activities in every other area of school often struggle to do the same for mathematics, even as prospective employers and universities put more emphasis on its importance. This struggle may come from a fundamental misunderstanding about the discipline and how it should be taught.’

http://bit.ly/28LOvo8

What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity, Learning and Dance

Apart from anything else the children will love it. What else do you need?

‘Talking, writing, and numbers are the media of knowledge. However, we now know that dance is a language, brain-driven art, and also, a fuel for learning subjects other than dance. In short, dance is an avenue to thinking, translating, interpreting, communicating, feeling, and creat­ing. As a multimedia communication that generates new brain cells and their connections, dance at any age enriches our cognitive, emotional, and physical development beyond the exercise itself and extends to most facets of life.’

http://bit.ly/28PhHMb

The #1 Reason for Poor Student Performance

‘His answer is clear: stress. Students from non-supportive and even violent households and environments—which is where, at least in some cases, economics does come into play—are unable to develop higher-order thinking skills.’

http://bit.ly/28QhElu

Contributed by Bruce Hammonds:

Design Thinking and PBL

‘With the development of Modern Learning Environments schools need to consider cross curricular project based learning and design thinking.While project-based learning has existed for decades, design thinking has recently entered the education lexicon, even though its history can be traced back to Herbert A. Simon's 1969 book The Sciences of the Artificial. So why the resurgence of these ideas?’

http://edut.to/28NMzvW

Art the 4th R

What the Common Core Missed 

‘Art and design work together to form a foundational language that allows us to "speak transmedia" with meaning and articulation. It is a highly portable language that translates well across curricular areas, cultures and the universe of diverse ideas. Above all, it is a language that helps us develop new perspectives, skills and habits of mind for solving problems, mining opportunities,  and "seeing" in its most compelling sense. It is time for Art to take its rightful place along side reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic. Art isn't just good for the soul. It is a language we all need to be able to speak.’

http://bit.ly/28P7dws

Building a Nation of Makers

‘Makers, builders and doers – of all ages and backgrounds – always have had a vital role in pushing our country to develop creative solutions to some of our most pressing challenges. As President Barack Obama has noted, during this week, "We celebrate the tinkerers and dreamers whose talent and drive have brought new ideas to life, and we recommit to cultivating the next generation of problem solvers.".The term "making" refers to both traditional outlets for creativity such as metalworking, woodworking and drawing, as well as to digital fabrication made possible by computer design tools, robotics, laser cutters, 3D printers and other tools.’

http://bit.ly/28NNYCS

Why Handwriting Is Still Essential in the Keyboard Age

‘Do children in a keyboard world need to learn old-fashioned handwriting? There is a tendency to dismiss handwriting as a nonessential skill, even though researchers have warned that learning to write may be the key to, well, learning to write. And beyond the emotional connection adults may feel to the way we learned to write, there is a growing body of research on what the normally developing brain learns by forming letters on the page, in printed or manuscript format as well as in cursive.’

http://nyti.ms/28NXt4i

How to Design the Perfect Modern Learning Assessment

It seems developing your school as a MLE is the big thing these days! How does one design the perfect modern learning assessment?

‘In good modern learning assessment:

•   students gain instant feedback;

•   they are not penalized for mistakes, and;

•   they are given a chance to apply changes as needed.’

http://bit.ly/28QdknL

From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:

Fundamentals in education

The creation of the mind

‘In recent years education has become more and more cognitive or rational; learning that can be seen and measured so as to prove evidence of growth. In the process real fundamentals have been overlooked.The creation of the mind is more than simply cognitive. The mind is a unified, active, constructive, self creating, and symbol making organ; it feels as well as thinks – feelings and emotions are a kind of thought. Attitudes are created from feelings and emotions.’

http://bit.ly/28Q6HDq

Bring back the Jesters!

‘The idea is worth spreading throughout all organizations to combat the blindness created by past success. It is one way to counteract the conformity which pervades top down management. Telling the truth is difficult in too many environments and as a result organizations fail to adapt to changing environments. As Oscar Wilde wrote, ‘Telling the truth makes you unpopular at the club’”

http://bit.ly/28War1x

Tapping into the student's world

‘The stance taken about how children learn is vital. Those who think they know more than the child work out prescribed curriculums and, as part of this, develop elaborate systems to see thing as are being learnt - including National testing. This is the 'jug and mug' theory of learning where the teacher is the full jug and the teachers job is to pour knowledge from the full jug to the empty mug.For others the aim is to do everything to keep alive those innate desire to learn - or to 'recover' it if it has been subverted by prior experiences.’

http://bit.ly/28OwoTx

President Obama and education/ creativity/literacy/ rote learning and Rip van Winkle

Education Readings

By Allan Alach

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz

Diane Ravitch to Obama: ‘I will never understand why you decided to align your education policy with that of George W. Bush’

Diana Ravitch

Much of this article is applicable all over.

‘I quite bluntly admit in the book that the pursuit of national standards, national curriculum and national tests is a dead-end. There seems to be an assumption that if every child is exposed to exactly the same material at the same time, achievement gaps between children from rich homes and poor homes will close. If the curriculum is over the heads of the students, and if the tests are made harder, achievement will rise. I now think all of this is nonsense.’

http://wapo.st/1UanR9F

First Comes Achievement. Then Comes Confidence.

Bill Ferriter:

The confidence o grow

‘A few weeks back, I wrote a bit here on the Radical titled Are Grades Destroying My Six Year Old Kid.  In it, I shared the story of my daughter -- who came home broken one day because her progress report wasn't what she expected it to be.  Her peers were earning threes and fours, but her report was covered in twos -- and while she knows little about what those numbers really mean, she felt like a failure.  That broke my heart.’

http://bit.ly/1PuMT1s

Reading: It's Not Always Fun-damental

Linda Neilsen

‘Parents and teachers work hard to instill a love of reading in young people. In fact, most consider that the love of reading is absolutely essential to a happy, successful, and fulfilling life. They are on an endless pursuit to find ways to cultivate readers or ignite a love of reading.  But what about individuals who prefer not to get their information that way?’

http://bit.ly/1PwR1hq

Contributed by Bruce Hammonds:

9 creativity myths you should stop believing

‘Creativity is a relative subject. Some perceive creativity as an art that can be trained and some think of it as an innate talent. Creativity is associated with many such myths that make people form different opinions of this subject But what defines “creativity” in its true sense?Creativity is anything that stimulates thinking and gives new directions to our thoughts. Keeping into the essence of its definition, any person can be creative in his own way. So, we can say that there is nothing called “born talent” or “innate creativity” in the real world.’

http://bit.ly/25YDEmY

‘Teaching to the test means schools are meeting literacy targets but failing to cultivate a love of reading’

‘It is difficult to work out a balanced view of the role and influence that testing has on the

experience of pupils and the quality of their education. Numerous policymakers insist that national testing provides an effective instrument for raising standards and rely on exam results as evidence of achievement in education.Opponents of testing deploy the language of emotional deficit to condemn testing. During the past three decades, a continuous stream of reports have claimed that testing has fostered a climate of stress and anxiety in schools.’

http://bit.ly/1WOb7v5

What I Worry About When I Worry About STEM

Author Jane

‘The bias toward STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) as the subjects for more intelligent, or more productive people is nothing new. It’s easier to see that they instil skills that are useful to industry, and that makes perfect sense, but only if we think education is all about a direct path to employment.We should encourage more young people into STEM, and do much more to demystify these subjects, but are we so worried about the economy that we’re willing to accept that education is simply a path to being an employee or entrepreneur.’

http://bit.ly/1UPQzPA

8 Myths That Undermine Educational Effectiveness

Eight myths

‘Certain widely-shared myths and lies about education are destructive for all of us as educators, and destructive for our educational institutions. This is the subject of 50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools: The Real Crisis in Education, a new book by David Berliner and Gene Glass, two of the country’s most highly respected educational researchers. Although the book deserves to be read in its entirety, I want to focus on eight of the myths that I think are relevant to most teachers, administrators, and parents.’

http://edut.to/1txkcNd

Classroom Aesthetics: Not the “Art of Teaching” - Teaching As Art

‘Sometimes the magic and beauty of the classroom, the soaring beyond simple skills and content, happens in the most unexpected ways. At these moments, we are experiencing a kind of performance art in the classroom. Take the following example.’

http://huff.to/1UamRCx

'Rote learning: the pantomime villain in education’

‘In one corner (shall we call it the blue one?) we have Dickensian school-masters in gowns and mortar boards forcing cowed and passive pupils to learn their tables by heart and recite them

perfectly at the point of a cane, or these days a stop-watch.

And in the other corner, we have caring, modern-day teachers gently leading their pupils on a journey of understanding where they discover for themselves that three fours are twelve and, because of that intimate and personal experience of learning, they never forget that fact for the rest of their lives.’

http://bit.ly/28IsIJd

From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:

30 Years ago - so what has changed?

My class in 1978

‘Recently I received an e-mail from a student I hadn't heard of since she was in my class in 1978. She wrote about how great it was to experience the class and how much all that we did has stayed with her over the years. With this in mind I searched out something I wrote, at the time, for the team of teachers I was leading. I was curious to see how much my ideas had changed since then. What follows are extracts I wrote to clarify my thoughts and to share with the team followed by some reflective comments.’

http://bit.ly/1Pi2lxL

Rip van Winkle and schools

‘A recent Time Magazine lead story begins with what it calls ‘a dark little joke exchanged by teachers with a dissident streak: Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century after a hundred year snooze and is of course utterly bewildered by what he sees’. ‘Every place Rip goes just baffles him. But when finally he walks into a schoolroom, the old man knows exactly where he is. “This is a school”, he declares. “We used to have these back in 1906”’

http://bit.ly/1ZzfQiq

We need a new story for our future.

‘What we need, as we make our way into the new millennium, is a new way of thinking to align our thoughts behind. We need a new story , myth, narrative, or metaphor, to

Darwin changed our story

replace current thinking - thinking based on a mechanistic emphasis on economic progress, exploitation and short term thinking.

It is obvious that current thinking is unable to solve the problems of inequality in our society - the gap between the rich and poor continues to grow.’

http://bit.ly/1YsZ2uV

Jerome Bruner Educationalist 1915- 2016 / the importance of visual education in a digital age.

Education Readings

By Allan Alach

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz

This week we lost the extremely influential Jerome Bruner. Here are some tributes to him.

Jerome Bruner (1915 - 2016)

University of Harvard:

‘In the course of his three decades at Harvard, Bruner published works on perceptual organization, cognition, and learning theory, all of which departed dramatically from the deliberate mind-blindness of behaviorism, by emphasizing the importance of strategies and mental representations in the processing of real-world phenomena.’

http://bit.ly/1YfnnV3

Scaffolds and spirals

Steve Wheeler:

‘Bruner was one of the founding fathers of the theory of social constructivism, an approach that pervades many of the daily activities in schools across the world. Bruner will perhaps be best remembered for two important contributions to our understanding of learning.’

http://bit.ly/1swvzEj

An Unfinished Quest in Education

‘Bruner resolved to study what he called “cognitive psychology”—how people think and reason, not just how they react and respond. For education, especially, the implications were enormous. Bruner found that even very young children constructed their own knowledge—that is, they made sense of new information based on prior experience and understanding. The job of the teacher was to help students build upon what they already knew.’

http://theatln.tc/1Xb7zTM

Inspiring Educators 3: Jerome Bruner

‘His contribution to understanding learning has been wide, deep, rich and powerful. He was a giant of educational giants. His voice was and remains strong, and his thinking as relevant as ever. Chances are you referred to his work in an essay or project while learning your classroom craft, and with a little excavation you'll find his ideas underpinning your day-to-day practice.’

http://bit.ly/25Noe1o

On Knowing -Essays for the left hand by Jerome Bruner ( from Bruce's oldies)

The themes Jerome Bruner covers in his book concern the process of knowing, how knowing is shaped and how it in turn gives form to language science, literature and art. The symbolism of the left hand is that of the dreamer - the right that of the practical doer.The areas of hunches and intuition, Bruner writes, has been all too often overwhelmed by an 'imposed fetish of objectivity'...'The lock step of learning theory in this country has been broken, though it is still the standard village dance'.

Link to blog

Contributed by Bruce Hammonds:

Bruce’s comment: I really value the importance of art in education and in particular the importance of observation in the learning process. Too many children look but do not see and thus do not remember. I believe, in this age of fast and often superficial digital learning, the ‘slow’ learning involved in drawing is an important antidote. Visual education ought to be an important element of a modern education.

Schematic stage 7-9

Why is teaching kids to draw not a more important part of the curriculum?

‘Drawing plays a big role in our cognitive development. It can help us learn to write and think creatively, develop hand-eye co-ordination, hone analytic skills, and conceptualise ideas.But drawing is rarely used as a tool for learning in schools. Generally teachers aren’t trained in visual education.Drawing is not something that should be confined to art lessons – it’s a skill that can play a role in many different subject areas in school education, and later on in the workplace.’

http://bit.ly/1U831tY

Artists Share "Before and After" Evolution of Their Drawing Skills with Years of Practice

‘Drawing, like all things, requires dedicated practice to master the craft and create amazing works that wow a wide audience. Although many people dabble in art when they’re younger, few people choose to hone their skills into their teens and adulthood. Those that do work on improving themselves have had impressive results—especially when comparing their refined techniques to their early work.Several artists have been sharing the evolution of their work online and the difference in the quality of their drawings is staggering—you’d never realize two particular pieces were made by the same person. An artist’s simple line drawing, created during their early teens, has since become much more detailed with just a few years of practice’

http://bit.ly/1UOCuRf

More Before And After Drawings That Show Remarkable Progress In Artists’ Skills

Showing students visual improvement is one way of developing confidence in learning – old fashioned perhaps but important in this digital era of fast but often superficial learning. Observation may well be the most important basic skill of all.

‘In a previous posting we featured impressive drawings that unveiled the striking evolution of artists’ drawing skills following years of practice. This posting  shows more artists have taken to showcasing their improvement  inspiring growth as artists with these before and after sketches.’

http://bit.ly/25NbQhZ

Drawing May Be Your Brain's Best Way to Secure a Memory

A new study shows that drawing a picture helps you remember something better than writing it down. Something for teachers to consider.  Drawing gives the brain time to gather information –  important in current digital fast learning environments?

‘A new study out of the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo (UW) shows that drawing a picture helps you remember something better than writing it down. The idea that pictures spark memory better than words is not new -- researchers have been trying to get to the bottom of what activities or mnemonics are most helpful in boosting memory since the 1960s.’

http://bit.ly/1U83psi

11-Year-Old Artist Creates Amazingly Detailed Drawings of Wildlife

The wildlife drawings of an extremely talented 11 year old.

‘Meet Dušan Krtolica, one of the most talented 11-year-olds ever. The Serbian child prodigy is a master artist who creates stunningly detailed, nature-inspired drawings with a skill level that is far beyond his years. Using just pen or pencil, Krtolica draws anatomically correct flora and fauna, piling together aquatic life, dinosaurs, insects, birds, and other creatures in dense illustrations that burst with life.’

http://bit.ly/1taPIQ6   

How drawing focuses the mind

‘Sketching something close up and looking at it from afar are approached in quite different ways by the brain. When you see something familiar, the higher-order parts of the visual system quickly piece together information from the eyes to help you to understand what you’re looking at.’

http://bit.ly/24AWE59

Art and Math and Science, Oh My!

‘“I think that the unifying thing about all of your interests is that you really like creating and making things, whether that’s a painting or a program.” It was at that moment that I stopped feeling weird about loving both engineering and art, & embraced it, and explored how art and technology were connected. And that’s what I’d like to talk about in this post.’

http://bit.ly/1UgwiUA

From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:

Observation - a basic learning skill

‘Schools need to tap into student's curiosity and need to express ideas. It is this sensory resource of impressions that is called upon by learners when they come to read. Better still such experiences inspire students to talk, draw, write and then to read their own ideas. Before the word the experience is a simple enough idea - the more you notice the more words and ideas you will develop.’

http://bit.ly/1swvHn4

Importance of observation.

‘Drawing is an ideal way to break through habitual ways of thinking. All too often our students see but they do not look. Observational drawing has long been an important means for some teachers to develop deeper consciousness in students - to assist students see through their habitual ways of seeing and to develop new awareness.’

http://bit.ly/1Up3hSE

Beginning the school year - the importance of observation in learning

‘Observation is an important skill in all areas of learning - all too often students look but don't see. Close observation encourages a slower pace of work which assists student memory. Once the skill of observation is in place it can be used throughout the year in all learning areas.’

http://bit.ly/1XGc0GO