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| Project based learning |
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
Teacher knows best? Not any longer as parents muscle in on the classroom
Feel familiar to you?
‘Abusive behaviour by parents is experienced by a third of primary
teachers, either online or on the school premises, at least once a month. A
fifth of secondary school teachers are exposed to such behaviour once a month,
according to the study. Female teachers were more likely to report such
experiences.’
Projects, Passion, Peers and Play: Seymour Papert’s Vision For
Learning
‘Papert had a vision of children learning with technology in ways
that were revolutionary. He believed that kids learn better when they are
solving problems in context. He also knew that caring passionately about the
problem helps children fall in love with learning. He thought educating kids shouldn’t
be about explanation, but rather should be about falling in love with ideas.’
Can Technology Change How Teachers Teach? (Part 1)
Thanks to Tony Gurr for this one.
‘Judging whether teachers have actually altered their daily
classroom practice is surprisingly hard to do. Teachers, imbued with the
culture’s values, often say that they have changed their lessons from week to
week, year to year due to new district curricula, tests, and programs. Yet
policymakers and researchers are less certain of such changes.’
Contributed by Bruce Hammonds:
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| Nicholas Meier Author |
Will Computers
Free Teachers to Teach More Creatively?
‘At a party of
a friend recently I got into a discussion with someone about education and the
use of computer technology. The person I was conversing with suggested that
educational software could and should be developed to relieve teachers of the
technical aspects of teaching.I argue that we do not need to focus on
developing or advocating for such software what we need to do is to focus
instead on creative and critical thinking for the purpose of developing
democratic citizens. There is a real lack of movement in that direction in the
public schools.’
Gold Standard
PBL: Essential Project Design Elements
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| An excellent article |
‘If done well,
PBL yields great results. But if PBL is not done well, two problems are likely
to arise. First, we will see a lot of assignments and activities that are
labeled as “projects” but which are not rigorous PBL, and student learning will
suffer. Or, we will see projects backfire on underprepared teachers and result
in wasted time, frustration, and failure to understand the possibilities of
PBL. Then PBL runs the risk of becoming another one of yesterday’s educational
fads – vaguely remembered and rarely practiced. To help teachers do PBL well,
we created a comprehensive, research-based model for PBL – a “gold standard” to
help teachers, schools, and organizations to measure, calibrate, and improve
their practice.’
Bruce has put
together a set of articles that provide ideas about how to make use of Flexible
Learning Spaces that are now almost the norm in our schools.
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| Lisa Squire Hobsonville Point School |
Brightworks -
Tinkering School a blog by Lisa Squire (NZ)
“The only way
to appreciate how other schools work is to visit them. Lisa Squire from
Hobsonville Point Primary and her principal Daniel Birch are current;y visiting
schools in the USA featuring student centred learning in flexible
learning environment ( Modern Learning Environments/MLEs). Lisa is writing a
blog to share her experiences and for teachers interested in such learning
environments will find her blog enlightening. This blog is about her visit to a
Brightworks a ‘Tinkering
School’.”
Nuevas Upper School –
a flexible learning environment (FLE)
‘Another school
recently visited by New Zealand educators is Nuevas Upper School which offers
an educational environment in which students feel safe to be themselves, to
step out of their comfort zone and to follow their passions. This is the
highest rom of both self discovery and collaboration. This will be of
interest to teachers working in flexible learning environments (FLE). One of
the central pillars of a Nueva School education, Design Thinking is thoroughly
integrated, developing in the students a way of thinking, seeing, and doing
that increases their effectiveness.’
Brilliant
examples of project work from High Tech High Schools
‘When visiting
schools the work on display indicated the range of content being studied and
the depth of student thinking. Below are examples of project work done at High
Tech High Schools. It is their record of what they have done and how they
achieved their results. Teachers can utilize ideas illustrated by the displays to
get ideas for their own school. Through displays students can show their
parents and friends the work that they have done, and the community can see how
project based learning enables students to do and learn.’ |
| Carolyn Stuart |
Are we
expecting too much too quickly of our teachers?
Interesting thoughts from New Zealand
blogger about Innovative Learning Environments(ILE).
‘I sense that
there is a deep exhaustion across the sector at all levels of the teaching profession.
I think much of this exhaustion has come from under-estimating the enormity of
the changes we are currently demanding of the sector. Moving to shared teaching
spaces, or Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs) is one example of expecting
too much too quickly.’
Transforming Secondary Education – the most difficult challenge of
all.
‘One of the educationalists working towards a new conception of
secondary education working in what we now call Flexible Learning Spaces (MLE)
was Charity James of Goldsmiths College and in 1968 she published her book ‘Young
Lives at Stake’. I think I must have one of the few copies
Haere ra Hekia ParataNew Zealand’s
Minister of Education .
Hekia Parata has just stepped down - here are a couple of
not particularly flattering tributes to her performance over the the last five
years. Overseas readers may want to compare her to whatever flavour of
educational politician they are stuck with.
A Report Card
for Hekia Parata as the Minister of Education
Interpreting Hekia Parata’s legacy
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| Peter O'Conner |
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
Autumn - a chance to develop inquiry skills
Northern hemisphere readers will have to park
this one for 6 months!
‘Autumn is too good not to take advantage of.All too often the
results of Autumn studies seen in many classes ( usually Junior rooms) are
superficial, to say the least, but this need not be the case.If there are
deciduous trees in, or near, the school grounds what a brilliant opportunity to
develop a small integrated study.The study could be prefaced with the
provocation, 'Why do some trees lose their leaves?' Such questions introduce an
inquiry approach to the students.’
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