Education
Readings
By Allan Alach
Data
Driven Into the Weeds
 |
| Data data everywhere and not a thought in sight |
‘Having
a data-driven school has been all the rage for a while now, because when you
express your ideas, thoughts, and biases in numbers, they qualify as
"facts," whereas judgment expressed in words obviously lacks
data-rich factiness, and so should be ignored. Yes, the fact that I am 100% an English
teacher may make me about 62% bitter about the implied valuing of numbers over
words; I'd say I'm at about 7 on the 11-point Bitterness Scale, and that's a
fact.’
Don’t Spend A Penny On Education
Technology Until This Is Clear
 |
| Virtual reality is it enough? |
‘This
‘keeping up with the Jones” is a familiar practice, especially in anything
related to technology. That approach, though, can lead to imbalanced education
policy, mediocre edtech programs, and a lot of wasted money. Integrating
education technology is a complex thing that depends entirely on local and
constantly changing factors.’
Why
Students Should Take the Lead in Parent-Teacher Conferences
‘But
at schools built on Deeper Learning principles, the meetings are often turned
into student-led conferences, with students presenting their schoolwork, while
their teachers, having helped them prepare, sit across the table, or even off
to the side. The triad then sits together to review and discuss the work and
the student’s progress. The message, once again, is that the students are
responsible for their own success.’
The
Power of Visualization in Math
‘The
power of this moment, the change in the learning environment, and the
excitement of my fifth graders as they could not only understand but explain to
others what the problem was about convinced me it was worth the effort to
pursue visualization and try to answer these questions: Is there a process to
unlock visualizations in math? And are there resources already available to
help make mathematics visual?’
How
can teachers introduce forest school principles to their curriculum?
‘More
commonly, forest school is part of a bigger educational mix in which pupils
enjoy time outdoors perhaps once a week, but the same principles apply: a drive
to build young people's independence and self-esteem through experiencing the
natural world. Lili Pluck, forest school assistant at Ashdon, says: "It's
about learning to realise what is around you, appreciate nature and enjoy the
freedom, space and sense of peace.”’
The Internet Is Killing
Creativity - And Analog Is About to Make a Comeback
‘In some ways, I think the
internet has made it harder to become creative because it encourages us to be
interested in all the wrong things. (Note: I differentiate between becoming
smarter--educating yourself on every topic ever, which the internet is like
freakin' fantastic at, and being creative. Artistically putting yourself out
there.) Why my negativity around creativity?’
Sir Ken Robinson on how schools
are stifling students’ creativity
‘While many Canadian educators
struggle to find the solution to students' declining math scores, there's one
expert who says we may be looking at the problem the wrong way. Sir Ken
Robinson – education guru, author and adviser – says relentless testing and the
push for standardized scores are destroying students' imagination and talent.
He argues that schools are stifling instead of nurturing kids' creativity.’
Reasons Today’s Kids Are Bored
At School, Feel Entitled, Have Little Patience & Few Real Friends
‘Today’s kids come to school
emotionally unavailable for learning. There are many factors in our modern
lifestyle that contribute to this. As we know, the brain is malleable. Through
environment, we can make the brain “stronger” or make it “weaker”. I truly
believe that, despite all our greatest intentions, we unfortunately remold our
children’s brains in the wrong direction.’
A New Zealand Haeata student gives her view
on modern learning
Three years ago when we knew
some of our local schools would be closing, my school, Aranui Primary,
started what was called "modern learning”. At first it was really weird
and we didn't know what we were doing, but then the teachers got trained in
modern learning. Over three years we changed the way we learnt to the way that
best suits us so we could self-manage, but not too much depending on how good
you were at self-managing. We had stages: Manager, Self-Managed, Self-Directed,
and Self-Driven.’
The Troubling Trend to Collect
Behavioral Data on ALL Children
‘As school starts, many parents
are being bombarded with information about behavioral data collection on their
children. A lot of this is tied to the trendy push for social-emotional
learning (SEL), and the attempt to connect behavior with a child’s ability to
read and do well in school. But it’s troubling to see schools monitoring the
behavior of every child so tightly. Children will not have perfect behavior.’
From
Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
Back to school to see what
really happens in New Zealand classrooms – Nigel Latta
‘In recent years politicians
from the ‘right’ have given the impression that our schools are failing – our
current Minister is fond of saying ‘one in five of our children are failing’ and
that the introduction of National Standards will solve the situation. ‘We
so often hear stories about how standards have fallen,’ said Latta, ‘that you
would be forgiven for thinking the sky has fallen in’.’
For
New Zealand readers - a few articles to consider before the general election on
September 23rd, which will hopefully see the end of national standards and
charter schools.
National Standards – which
Parties will keep them and which
will ditch them?
‘It’s election time again, but
before choosing which Party to vote for, make sure you know what their
education policies are – and pay attention to what isn’t mentioned, too. This
time we are looking at National Standards.’
Election questions are for all
of us
Before we settle on which
political party to support this election,
let’s ask a few questions of
ourselves. An election is traditionally an opportunity to ask questions of
would-be politicians.
More fruitfully, it’s an opportunity to ask questions of
ourselves. Questions to candidates will then follow, but the self-examination
is actually the more valuable for democratic engagement.
Nigel Latta: The New ‘Haves and
Have Nots’ – Time for Moral Leadership in New Zealand
As we begin to focus on the
upcoming elections it is surely time to move away from on the personalities of
leaders and to focus on the real issues facing our country.
‘
The programme was a serious
attempt to get to the core of inequality in NZ and its consequences for us
all.Once NZ had one of the highest home ownership figures in the world and we
didn’t see examples of extreme wealth. Latta is careful to say he is not
against people doing well but he was stunned to learn that over the past
decades the gap between the rich and poor in NZ has widened more than anywhere
in the Western World.’
NZ National government gets an F for
education
‘OPINION: My verdict on the
Government's track record in education is that it is an epic fail.
The reasons for this verdict
are many and varied, but I will focus on three main areas:
1. Our student achievement data
is declining nationally
2. Ideology is overriding
evidence
3. Trust has been completely
eroded in the sector achievement data’
will ditch them?
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