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| Teaching is assisting students learn for themselves |
Educational Readings
By Allan Alach
I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email
it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
Sir
Ken Robinson's education revolution
A refresher course for you about Sir Ken. Interesting little
anecdote here - a Liverpool music teacher had two of the Beatles in his class
yet failed to recognise their musical talents. That’s a lesson that shows how
unreliable assessment and teacher judgement is, so why does the system persist
in
‘Robinson
believes that the current systems of mass education are outmoded, too
standardised, and stifle true learning.
"My
view of it is that in many respects they are modelled on principles of factory
production, like, for example, we educate our kids in batches by age - all the
three-year-olds, all the four-year-olds, shunting through the system. There's
no educational reason to do that - it's an efficiency ideal.”’
When
Schools Forgo Grades: An Experiment In Internal Motivation
‘Because
grades are often required, and easy to understand, they have become the focus
for many
This
is exactly how our society kills creativity, in a breathtaking short film.
“Do
yourself a favor and take some time out of your daily grind to be charmed by
this beautifully crafted animation into reflecting on the woeful values of our
society.’
How
To Engage In Pseudoscience With Real Data: A Criticism Of John Hattie’s
Arguments In Visible Learning
A long and technical article; however a skim read will give the
gist of it, so henceforth you will treat Hattie’s pronouncements with a healthy
dose of skepticism.
‘
When
taking the necessary in-depth look at Visible Learning with the eye of an
expert, we find not a mighty castle but a fragile house of cards that quickly
falls apart. This article offers a critical analysis of the methodology used by
Hattie from the point of view of a statistician. We can spin stories from real
data in an effort to communicate results to a wider audience, but these stories
should not fall into the realm of fiction. We must therefore absolutely qualify
Hattie’s methodology as pseudoscience.’
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| John Hattie ?? |
Kids
Are Losing Playtime to Achievement. That’s a Problem.
‘The
decline of play and rise of the overscheduled child has become a national
concern. Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn, says that kids learn from
observation, practice, and support. Most of this is done through play. But what
happens when we limit the time kids spend playing, and what does our obsession
with “high achievement” say about our culture as a whole?’
Why
no one wants to teach in New Zealand
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| No teaching paradise |
‘Recent
analysis also shows that teachers only tend to stay in the job for about five
years. They often leave because they are burnt out by the demands of teaching,
an increasingly narrow and prescriptive curriculum, and by policy initiatives
that promise much, deliver very little, and are quickly replaced by some “new” policy
that is equally ineffective and short term. No wonder it feels like ground zero
out there for so many teachers.’
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| If only in New Zealand!!! |
Contributed by Bruce
Hammonds:
Three
minutes to appreciate Finnish Schools
Michael Moore documentary clip on Finland's school system.
On
the Wildness of Children: The Revolution Will Not Take Place in the Classroom
‘The
truth is, we don’t know how to teach our children about nature because we
ourselves were raised in the cinderblock world. We are, in the parlance of
wildlife rehabilitators, unreleasable. I
Noam
Chomsky on the Dangers of Standardized Testing
‘The
assessment itself is completely artificial. It’s not ranking teachers in
accordance with their ability to help develop children who will reach their
potential, explore their creative interests. Those things you’re not testing..
it’s a rank that’s mostly meaningless. And the very ranking itself is harmful.
It’s turning us into individuals who devote our lives to achieving a rank. Not
into doing things that are valuable and important.’
Kids’ Creativity: Two Important
Questions for Parents to Consider
‘Parents
typically want to encourage their children’s creative expression. However,
uncertainties and misconceptions about creativity abound. Here are two
questions that merit thought and discussion—along with ideas so parents can
foster kids’ creativity to the fullest.’
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
An
amoeba - a model for future change!
‘If
we want to thrive, in what is being called the 'Age of Creativity', we need to
see our organisations as living complex organisms able to create all sorts of
wonderous things as we work in concert with each other. That’s more impressive
than the simple amoeba. Schools as living communities – now that is a powerful
metaphor.’
Educational
change and leadership - bottom up!
‘The
principal’s role is to ensure such gifts are affirmed and shared with other
teachers. The principal’s role is to create the conditions for the expertise of
teachers to be shared and to develop an overarching vision and agreed teaching
beliefs for all to hold themselves accountable.’
Beautiful
minds - 'in a world of their own’.
‘The
capacity of the brain is infinite. Lucky for most of us so called 'normal'
people our brains
suppress, or filter out, most of the information coming our
way but for the savants their brains take in everything in their particular
sphere of interest without interference. It is as if they have no ‘delete’ button;
their mind, like a ‘Google’
search, recalls everything! And as a result they miss out on capacities such as
social and practical skills that we all take for granted.’
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