Whatever happens in the New Zealand
Elections Jacinda Adern has made us proud
to be Labour.
Elections Jacinda Adern has made us proud
to be Labour.
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
Don’t Say “Times” When Teaching
Multiplication (And What to Say Instead)
‘Choosing
our words carefully can have a big impact on student understanding, especially
when it comes to multiplication. Make this small change to your multiplication
vocabulary today, so students can better visualize and comprehend this important
concept.
The
word “times” doesn’t mean anything to students.’
Should
we 'pupil' kids or 'NAPLAN' them?
Phil Cullen:
‘Australia's
casual indifference to the effects of mass testing on the learning progress of
its school children, and its penchant for using children for excessive periods
of school time for 'test-prep', as if they are mere inanimate objects
available for the collection of data, contains the seeds for its
developing inabilities as a nation to mix with the world at large.’
Most
primary classes 'get less than two hours of science a week’
If I had my way, Science would be a major part of children’s
learning experiences at school. The article is about England but I fear it
applies all over.
‘Three
in 10 primary teachers did not receive any support to teach science last year,
according to Wellcome Trust study Many UK primary schools are teaching science
for the equivalent of less than two hours a week, according to a study. A
report commissioned by the Wellcome Trust argues that the subject is not
being given enough priority or time by most of the nation's primaries.’
Cooperative
Conflict: Neither Concurrence Nor Debate
By Alfie Kohn.
I’ve been to a workshop run by the Johnson brothers - one of my
best professional development experiences. I strongly recommend exploring their
work.
‘The
good news is that we aren’t forced to choose between creating a classroom in
which students must arrive at an artificial consensus and one in which conflict
is present but manifests itself as an adversarial exercise. The
alternative is to invite disagreement but nest it in caring and a framework of
shared goals. This has been called cooperative conflict, constructive
controversy, or, in a poetic turn of phrase by the brothers and social
scientists Roger and David Johnson, “friendly excursions into disequilibrium.”’
Opinion:
The value of ‘slow schools’
‘The
“slow education” movement, was founded by Maurice Holt in the UK, who advocated
that schools should provide students with time to engage in deep learning,
curiosity and reflection. This led advocates of this approach to oppose the use
of high-stakes testing and rapid improvement in favour of more time spent
developing collaborative and supportive classroom relationships for learning.’
A
textbook dilemma: Digital or paper?
‘Do
we learn better from printed books than digital versions? The answer from
researchers is a qualified yes.’
Contributed
by Bruce
Hammonds:
Learning Goals… Success
Criteria… and Creativity?
‘While I am aware that setting
clear standards are important, making sure we communicate our learning goals
with students, co-creating success criteria… and that these have been shown to
increase student achievement, I can’t help but wonder how often we take away
our students’ thinking and decision making when we do this before students have
had time to explore their own thoughts first.’
Portfolios hold new promise for
school
 |
| Digital portfolios |
‘Decades ago, portfolio
assessment—using samples of classroom work to document students’ progress
toward learning goals—meant finding room for bulging binders stuffed with paper.
But digital technologies that make it far easier to collect, curate, share and
store student work have dismantled the physical barriers that once made
portfolio assessment daunting. Schools are now taking a fresh look at the
practice.’
10 Surefire Ideas to Remove
Writing Roadblocks
 |
| Reggie Routman |
‘So you want to teach writing
well. It’s not as hard as you think. Yes, it’s a challenge, but it can be
exhilarating.I believe writing – more than anything we teach – has the power to
change students’ lives, for them to see themselves, sometimes for the first
time, as smart thinkers and writers across the curriculum.’
From
Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
Time for a rebirth of the
creative spirit
‘In the early 50s primary
education was a very formal and inflexible affair. By the 70s a major
revolution had occurred and today we take for granted the colorful child
centred classrooms of our primary schools. Early educational innovators came to
believe in ‘education through art’. Such teachers embraced enthusiastically:
the writing of poetry, movement, dance and drama, story telling, myths and
legends, social studies and natural science, the making of creative music, and
of course a wide experience of the arts and crafts, including clay and paint – and
at the same time the arts of the Maori were introduced.’
Henry Giroux - lessons for New
Zealand educators. Revitalizing the role of public education.
 |
| Henry Giroux |
Time to call an end to neo liberal
free market drivel before we ruin our country.
‘There is no doubt that current
political leadership, influenced by a neo –liberal philosophy of small
government, individualism and the need to privatise of all aspects of living
has led to the erosion of the belief in the common good resulting in a growing
gap between so called ‘winners and losers’.The winners are the financial and
corporate elite - the one percent.The corporate and financial elite, right wing
think tanks –and extreme fundamentalist political groups (the Tea Party in
America and the ACT party in New Zealand) are increasingly focusing on
privatisation.’
Experience and Education - John
Dewey 1938
Time to listen to John Dewey
again?
‘Maybe, as the self centred
greedy capitalism of the West is crumbling, the time is right to develop a new
democratic vision for the 21st Century. John Dewey's book Experience and
Education provides idea to think about for the century ahead of us? Dewey wrote
extensively about the relationship between education and democracy (1916) - a
link that those in power today choose to ignore but what better place to
establish democratic ideals through example than the school.’
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