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
Ambitious Mathematics Curriculum
‘What about curriculum? We all know that children enter classrooms
in many different shapes and sizes, and that their understanding of the content
we intend to teach is as varied, and yet we design curricular resources that
mostly aim to support an average child. What if there is no such average child?
The curriculum that aims to best support the average child may in fact support
no one best. It is well-known, for example, that students need multiple
opportunities to both learn a mathematical idea and to access their memory of
the idea in order to strengthen their memories. Almost no curricula
deliberately interleave practice or offer opportunities for spaced retrieval
practice. What if a curriculum deliberately included ideas from cognitive
science into its construction?’
What Students Really Remember Learning in School
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| John Holt |
Food for thought from Will Richardson.
“Very little of what I was taught in school did I actually learn,
and very little of what I learned do I remember, and very little of what I do
remember do I now use. The things I’ve learned, remembered, and used are the
things I’ve sought out or met in the daily, serious, non school part of my
life.”
Why school is a ‘confusing mental mish-mash’ for kids
More food for thought, this time from Marion
Brady.
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| Marion Brady |
‘Learners discover and deepen their
understanding of such relationships by inferring, imagining, hypothesizing,
predicting, sequencing, extrapolating, valuing, generalizing, and so on—thought
processes too complex and interwoven to be evaluated by standardized tests.
Billions of dollars, trillions of hours, and intellectual potential beyond
measure, are being wasted on tests that dumb kids down because they can’t measure
complex thought.’
Tablets in Schools: Case Study in Success
‘I think that great teachers and great teaching are the key factor
in successful learning and technology is the servant to great teaching and
learning, not vice versa. I don’t think that technology will ever substitute
teachers in a formal school environment but I do think that technology can
amplify the reach and impact of great teachers.’
Discover Genius In Your Students: The First 30 Days.
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| Lisa Nielsen |
‘When teachers celebrate student genius, the
focus in class moves to student strengths and the ongoing internal conversation
with your students and external conversation in the class, is to think about
what their particular genius is.’
Contributed by Bruce Hammonds:
Creativity is GREAT : so why would Britain cut its nose to
spite its face?
Same applies in New Zealand.
 |
| Watch his video in the article |
‘Creative new ways of working and innovation fuel our economy,
whether it’s GSK, Dyson or ARM (you know the company who make the computer chip
in just about everything from your washing machine to smartphones and tablets.
The company that was just sold to the Japanese).So why are creativity and
creative ways of teaching our children in UK schools such dirty words to many
educators, commentators and policy makers? And why don’t parents value it and
head teachers lead it?’
Can Morality Be Taught?
The key to molding well-adjusted students: experiential learning.
‘So how can educators and parents retaliate against black and white
thinking and the need to
4 Habits Of Highly Creative People
‘While creativity is often considered the
domain of artists, everyone can utilize more creativity in his or her
professional life. Achieving something that is truly fulfilling will come with
difficulties and challenges. The only way around these challenges is to face
them with the help of creativity. The question then becomes how we incorporate
more creativity into our lives and how we create the space for the
"muse" to flow through us. Here are a few habits from the most
creative people I know.’
Getting Restless At The Head Of The Class
Facing up to a standardised system in the USA
‘Every classroom has a few overachievers who perform above their
grade level and don't feel challenged by the status quo. A new report suggests
they are surprisingly common — in some cases, nearly half of all students in a
given grade.’
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
The Way David Hockney Sees It.
‘Hockney began his interest in art playing
around with drawing exploring a range of media when really young as
do most young people. Young people, Hockney says, all want to draw
something that's in front of them which he suggests they have a deep desire to depict what
they see. Children and artists gain great pleasure making
and looking at pictures and this desire to capture images goes as far back as
the cave artists. It is a shame in our literacy orientated schools
that all forms of art are not taken seriously as they might except by those teachers who retain a
more creative approach to learning.’
 |
| David Hockney |
The forgotten genesis of progressive early education
‘Progressive ideas that helped New Zealand lead the world in
education, particularly in reading, were developed by creative early education teachers
who were well aware of the modern educational ideas of the time. The
history of progressive education in New Zealand (now at risk) is the subject of
a new book, 'I am five and I go to school,’ written by Helen May.’
 |
| Julie Diamond |
Looking at Art - Julie Diamond
Ideas about art by Julie Diamond from her
excellent book ‘Welcome to the Aquarium’
‘A critical component of art work....is an acceptance of the
unknowability of the end product....I have had to learn that mistakes are not
only inevitable but necessary and useful, and that dealing with them -
untangling some knot- takes us somewhere unexpected.' Once again in contrast
with all the 'intentional teaching' now seen as 'best practice' in our schools
resulting in a conformity of product devoid of personality. And as well the
importance of art as a form of expression is demeaned.’
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