Educational Readings
Friday 3rd May 2019
The hubs – a return to
collegiality?
Bruce attended a meeting to hear the views of the opposition (Nikki
Kaye). Few local educators were present nor adults with school aged children.
The main issue was focused on the idea of developing Education Hubs to provide
services to schools – it was felt by
those opposed as an unnecessary layer of
The idea of groups of schools under the support of a ‘hub’ relates back to the days before Tomorrows
Schools when primary schools were administered by Education Boards. Bruce
worked as a school adviser for an education board and was a principal during
the change over to the self-managing system we have today. Allan moved to the principal
ranks in 2002, having taught and developed his skills in the education board
days. As the school
Very few current principals or teachers experienced the education board
system and possibly can’t see the point of making any changes. Few would not
say that the education board concept didn’t need to be ‘modernised’ and that
schools needed to be given greater ‘self-management’ but in the change process
many good ‘babies were thrown out with the bathwater’.
The one area we both feel has been lost is collaborative nature
of
schools working together sharing expertise through having the professional
support of school inspectors (reframed today as ERO) and the advisory services.
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| Time for some real learning |
The inspector’s role was to ensure all school were providing a suitable
education (now ERO’s responsibility) and to grade and appoint teachers (now a
BOT responsibility).
In later years inspectors also took responsibility for
professional development, elected teachers to go on courses and created
curriculum groups in areas not covered by the advisory services – notably in
language and social studies to share ideas.
The loss of the localized advisory team, who visited all schools to
prove help and, equally importantly, identify and share the work of creative
classroom teachers, was the greatest loss. There were advisers in art and
craft, science, Maori, music, physical
It is the provision, in some form, of such advisory service the ‘hubs’ would provide that is most exciting and,
we think, would return schools to a
collaborative and sharing educational environment. An advisory service would
also provide exciting career opportunities for teachers. We both believe that
creative
The Review, we believe, is not about imposing control over schools as
critics suggest, but all about cooperation and creativity - a move away from
standardisation and compliance of the past decades.
Sadly Kelvin Smythe died shortly before the report was released, so we
will never know what he thought. However he had some main hopes when the review
was established: no more National Standards, a return to the ‘holistic
curriculum’ of the pre Tomorrow’s School era, the replacement of ERO in its
present form, reducing the role of Boards of Trustees, and the re-establishment
of the advisory service. Given that, we think he would have given his general
approval to the review.
Worth thinking about?
We think so.
Allan Alach and Bruce Hammonds
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| See if you can find this inspirational book in your school |
Readings - a return to the creative arts
More and more people are writing about the importance of art and
creativity as technology take over our lives. Time to make
personal discovery and creativity central to our curriculums - through the arts
humans creates themselves.
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| Michael Rosen |
National Poetry Day? Week? Month? Year?
‘Most people will know about Michael Rosen who wrote ‘We are going on a
bear hunt’. He provides ideas to introduce poetry to your class. If you're a
teacher reading this, Rosen suggests that you think up as many different ways
of 'serving up' poems as you can.’
Why an education in visual arts is the key to arming students for the
future
‘Visual skills are essential for a sophisticated workforce, yet we offer
so little education in the vital skills of learning to see and developing the
ability to interpret and critique our image-saturated world.’
10 Points About Arts Education by Elliot Eisner
‘Elliot Eisner was a visionary in the field of arts and education. He
maintained that the arts were critical to developing skills in young students.’
Standardisation broke education. Here's how we can fix our schools
‘We are all born with fathomless capacities, but what we make of them
has everything to do with education. One role of education is to help people
develop their natural talents and abilities; the other is to help them make
their way in the world around them. Too often, education falls short on both
counts. We have the resources and the
expertise, but now we need the vision and commitment.’
Play-based learning: producing critical, creative and innovative
thinkers.
‘Go inside any primary school classroom and look for the ‘play’. Where
is it? When did we become so serious with our students and forget to include
play? It was only 15 years ago that we could go into any Year 1 classroom and
find children playing with play-dough and creating the most
Playing to Learn
‘How a pedagogy of play can enliven the classroom, for students of all
ages.’
This is what powerful professional development looks like in an
Australian School
‘It’s the start of the school year here in Australia, and most schools
schedule one or two days of professional learning for all faculty before
students return. Princes Hill runs an inquiry-based
Four Inquiry Qualities at the Heart of Student-Centered Teaching
‘Whether it be project-based learning, design thinking or genius hour,
it's easy to get confused by the many education buzzwords floating about. But
at their heart these pedagogies are all student-cantered and there are
commonalities across them that are the key to their success and far more
critical than keeping the jargon straight.’
Yes, we know what great teaching looks like — but we have an education
system that ‘utterly fails to support it.’ What’s wrong and how to fix it.
‘You could be forgiven if you have gotten the impression that we are
still trying to figure out exactly what great teaching looks like. In recent
years, the teaching profession has been under assault by those who have sought
to deprofessionalize it.’
Make your mark: the enduring joy of drawing
‘Drawing is democracy. Everyone does it. You doodle in the margins of
this newspaper. I sketch the view while hanging on the phone. We draw on our
hands, on walls, on the back of envelopes (like Monet), on office notepaper
(like Van Gogh), on restaurant napkins (like Picasso and Warhol). We draw to
pass the time, to catch the moment, to remind ourselves what we saw, felt or
thought. We draw to see what life looks like in two dimensions. We draw because
we can.’
Three of Bruce’s ‘oldies’ about the creative arts
Creative teaching - an alternative to the political press for
standardisation
‘The authors write that we need to look to the creative work going on in
real classrooms, particularly in the writings of New Zealand’s pioneer creative
teachers, rather than importing
What has really changed on our school the past 50 years?
‘The other day I had the opportunity to visit a school I began my career
visiting in 1960. During a discussion with the principal she mentioned the
classrooms had been developed into innovative (or flexible) learning
environments. I couldn't help suggest that
I bet the daily classroom
A while ago Bruce was asked to give a talk to teacher, parents and students at a students art opening - it forced him to think about the importance of the creative arts.
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