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| New Minds for a New Millennium |
By Allan Alach
Every week Bruce Hammonds and I collect articles
to share with teachers to encourage a creative approach to teaching and
learning. I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it
to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz
We won’t publish o ur readings next week as Bruce
will be off travelling. The readings will be back the following week ( Actually I might do a quick post featuring a creative school I recently visited! Bruce)
Are you engaging with the New Zealand Curriculum?
‘Most great conversations start with a really purposeful question. A
question that’s simple but not
Ako: The little bush school in the big city
‘Based at Awataha Marae on Auckland’s North Shore, it promises
education with a difference: “play-based, child-led, passion-driven and
outdoor-centered.” Children here will learn as much from the native bush as
they will in the classroom.’
The Swedish for-profit ‘free’ school disaster Also
known as charter schools, academy schools (England) and partnership schools
(New Zealand.)
‘It’s the darker side of competition that Milton Friedman and his
free-market disciples tend to downplay: If parents value high test scores, you
can compete for voucher dollars by hiring better teachers and providing a better
education—or by going easy in grading national tests. Competition was also
meant to discipline government schools by forcing them to up their game to
maintain their enrolments, but it may have instead led to a race to the bottom
as they too started grading generously to keep their students …’
School runnings: Why Kiwi kids are better off in barefeet
‘A bee-stings-and-bullrush childhood spent running about in barefeet
seems a thing of yesteryear New Zealand.But new research has suggested Kiwi kids' contemporary choice of
footwear - or lack of it - isn't too far from that at all.What's more, plenty of time spent barefoot has likely been bringing
them big benefits.’
“I don’t believe I left teaching. Teaching left me”
‘What the experts have in common is considerable distance from schools. Far too many have a
Tony Gurr, from Turkey, is a great source of educational articles.
Here are some that he recently posted on Facebook.
20 Tips To Promote A Self-Directed Classroom Culture
‘What separates good teachers from the excellent ones? The excellent
ones are handing out fishing poles; creating a culture in the classroom of
independence and self-reliance. These students don’t just recite facts or
regurgitate information- they have learned how to learn. They know that if the
answer isn’t in front of them, they have the tools to do the investigation and
research. So how do you cultivate a culture of “I can…” in your classroom?’
Why do we group students by manufacture date?
‘Grouping students by age or manufacture date is a contrived sorting
mechanism. It assumes that same age kids are alike in their intellectual,
physical, emotional, and social development; that they have commonalities in
addition to their age. Academic standards used by almost all schools are based
on the false and incorrect belief of the average student. Todd Rose quoting
Mike Miller’s research on brains found that “not a single one was even
remotely close to the average.’
Questions can be extraordinary learning tools.
Tony: “I've always said that it's QUESTIONS (not
answers...esp. when they are spoon-fed) that 'drive' LEARNing...So...What methods and approaches are there to
help students learn how to ask better questions?”
“A good question can open minds, shift paradigms, and force the
uncomfortable but transformational cognitive dissonance that can help create
thinkers. In education, we tend to value a student’s ability to answer our
questions. But what might be more important is their ability to ask their own
great questions–and more critically, their willingness to do so”
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| Need to look beyond the buildings themselves to the learning |
Here’s a selection of articles about modern learning environments.
While the long term outcomes of these is yet to be determined (there seems to
be opinions either way on their effectiveness), we support a holistic
integrated approach to teaching and learning – one that develops the gifts and
talents of all students. This needs to underpin both the traditional
single room model and modern learning environments.
To MLE, or not to MLE, that is the question: An open letter to my
colleagues
‘So, another MLE story has been put out by Stuff – students in MLEs
as guinea pigs this time; and
another deluge of negative comments about MLEs,
not just by parents or the media, but by our very own, in forums such as The
New Zealand Teachers (Primary) Facebook page of which I am a member - comments
that are often dismissive of MLEs as failing and worthless. Now we see some teachers aligning themselves
with some parents and the media against teachers-in-MLEs. The focus of “teacher
bashing” just seems to have shifted.’
Modern Learning Environments: Not ‘any colour as long as it’s black’
‘When Henry Ford said of his Model T cars ‘You can have any colour
you like… as long as it’s black’, he could just as easily have been talking
about high school when I was young. Apart from a few amazing teachers who were
as inspiring as they were enthusiastic, most lessons were pretty black and
grim. Thankfully, Henry-Ford-style learning has disappeared from most
classrooms, but there’s no escaping the fact that we ask many of our best
teachers to inspire and engage young people in buildings designed around the
time Henry Ford was making cars.’
All MLEs are not the same: Towards a "high level"
definition
‘So many people have opinions to proffer and comments to make about
MLEs (modern learning environments) or ILEs (innovative learning environments).
To be honest I am not a fan of either term. . The assumption that all MLEs are
the same is not true and neither is it helpful because it leads to a binary
view of us and them – a false dichotomy that may not really exist. I have often
felt invisible, sitting across from people who say MLEs are this and that.
Well, I am here and we are not!’
Secret Teacher NZ: Why I left teaching?
The trials of teaching in a MLE.
‘Imagine a large hall-like space with
three teachers in different areas, each reading with a small group of children.
Scattered around are more groups of children, some on laptops, some on tablets,
some with board and card games, some sitting in corners together working in
their exercise books. You might imagine its harmonious, a buzz of children
learning, both independently and supported by teachers. Unfortunately, for the
majority, this is not the case.’
From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:
What are Innovative Learning Environments (ILEs) or Modern Learning
Environments (MLEs) really about?
‘Education is about an ‘ecosystem where learning is personalised
across a range of institutions across a range of institutions and spaces …. And
it is a move away from the mind-set of school as a “be-all “and “end all”’. This obviously refers to the idea that with
modern technology learning can occur anywhere, anytime from anyone.’
How to organise the school day for personalised learning and MLEs
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