Education
Readings
By Allan Alach
Apologies for the absence of readings last week. I was hit by a
double whammy – our internet connection went down for 48 hours, and then, as
soon as that was restored, my computer decided to go on strike. In the end I
had to erase the hard drive and reinstall everything. Being a wise person, I
had good back ups so it was only an inconvenience rather than a disaster.
Do you have good backups in place, including some off site?
Remember that there are two kinds of computers in the world - those that have
had a major hard drive issue, and those that are going to have one… and once
you’ve lost your data, that’s it.
Goodbye to all those precious photographs …
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email
it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
Digital
Natives Do Not Exist, Claims New Paper
‘But taken as a whole, digital natives might be a myth, argues
a paper published in Teaching and Teacher Education. Students who grew up
in the digital world are no better at information skills simply because they
were born into such an era. The study also presents evidence that these
supposed “digital natives” are no better at multitasking either. In fact,
assuming that they do may harm their education.’
Fire
pits and power tools good for preschoolers
‘While
fire pits and real tools aren't things you'd normally expect to find in an
early childhood centre, new Australian research suggests that perhaps they
should be.
Exposure to
different "risks" within their preschool, including open flames
hammers and saws, (yes, you read that correctly!) resulted in preschoolers
developing more confidence, safety awareness and better risk assessment skills,
according to a new study.
The
findings, set to be published later this year, highlight the importance of
risky play in a world where helicopter parenting is increasingly common.’
Literate,
Numerate or Curious?
‘Here’s
an interesting question for your next workshop, faculty meeting, or maybe even
a dinner party?
“Would
you rather that your children were literate, numerate, or curious?” Pick one,
and why?
For
many, it’s a tough choice; for most, you want all three. But if you had to
choose one, which one would it be? In case you’re wondering, yes this is a
leading question, which I’ll get to in a moment. But I for one would want to
start my response by first asking exactly what you mean by each of those three
words.’
Talking
about Creativity Is Fun, But How Do You Teach It?
‘Nothing
in education engenders as many bumper sticker slogans as creativity. We want
our kids to develop creative minds. But creativity is difficult to measure and
so research in this area is scant,
One
common notion is that allowing students more freedom to express themselves
fosters creativity. Along the same lines, many argue that strict educational
systems dampen creativity.’
I’ve
got something to say by Gail Loane with Sally Muir
‘This
book review encompasses just about everything that needs to be known about
children’s writing and makes a mockery of the grotesque Wow! national
standards-Hattie culture of today. As I go through the review, readers will
come across small matters of difference between me and the authors; my
preference being slightly less structure and even more emphasis on expressive
writing. But if you based your writing programme on the tenets set out you
would be doing famously.’
The
Squishiness of Writing Instruction
‘The
problem with writing is that it's squishy, probably squishier than anything
else we teach. There is no solid metric for measuring how "good" a
writer. Can you quantify how Hemmingway, Steinbeck, Chaucer, Kate Chopin, Carl
Sagan, P.J.O'Rourke, Mark Twain, James Thurber, and S. E. Hinton stack up each
other by measuring how "good" they are? Of course not-- even the
attempt would be absurd. Ditto for trying to give students a cold hard solid
empirical writing rating.’
Contributed
by Bruce
Hammonds:
Dear
Justine Greening: your primary school reading reforms aren’t making the grade
‘How
do you dress up the great Tory reading reforms as a stunning success if 29%
aren’t at the expected level? Might there be a little bit of a problem
that too much emphasis has been put on “decoding” and not enough on “meaning”? After all, the ultimate
purpose of reading is to understand what it is you’re reading, isn’t it?’The idea you can put a number against a child's ability is flawed and dangerous
‘Head teacher Alison Peacock sees the demise of levels as a
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change how children are assessed nationally.
But instead of simply replacing the old structure with a new one, she’d like to
focus on enabling children to learn in a meaningful way so that assessment
becomes “a tool for improvement rather than judgment”.The assumption that you
can reliably put a number against what a child is capable of is flawed and
dangerous.’
http://bit.ly/2x60wRQ
Teaching
and Purpose: A Response to Bill Gates and his Purpose Problem
Schools
Are Not A Business: Making Them Compete Is Insane
‘The
real issue here is having schools compete for students. With this system in
place, we will always see people abandoning schools in poor areas and heading
for richer areas.
Schools and teachers should collaborate, learning from each other, and work to ensure that every local school is the school of choice.’
From
Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
Nigel
Latta: The new ‘Haves and Have Nots’ – time for Moral Leadership in New Zealand
David
Perkin’s Smart Schools
Dreams
are where the dilemma starts ’, Perkins writes – dreams about great schools. ‘We
want our schools to deliver a great deal of knowledge and understanding to a
great many people of differing
talents with a great range of interests and a
great variety of cultural and family backgrounds. Quite a challenge – and why
aren’t we better at it.’ Some, he would say, is because ‘We don’t know enough. ’Perkins,
though, thinks they’re wrong, ‘We know enough now to do a much better job’. The
problem comes down to this, ‘we are not putting to work what we know.’ 'We do
not have a knowledge gap – we have a monumental use – of - knowledge gap’.
Schools that use what we know he calls ‘smart schools’.
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