Education Focus
- Learning about Teaching from Tom Waits [James M. Lang] ' I would argue for the pursuit of experimentation and novelty and “not-yetness” in our teaching as an essential tool for a teacher to remain inspired and engaged throughout a long career. Our teaching strategies, like the fingers of a musician, can become like dogs: they go to the same familiar places over and over again. If those strategies are producing learning, that’s wonderful; but if they are leading to the slow strangling of our passion for teaching, that will eventually manifest itself in our classrooms, our relationships with our students, and our commitment to our work. I know that I tend to be good for about three iterations of a course before I get tired of it and need to make substantial changes, or at least need to put it away for a few semesters before I return to it. I prefer to have variety in the courses I am teaching; if I can’t have that, as I sometimes can’t, I need variety in my course design, my classroom practices, and my assessment strategies.'
- Is growth mindset pseudoscience? | David Didau: The Learning Spy 'Suffice it to say that if you want to find evidence to prove [...] claims [about mindsets] there’s a lot of it out there. But, and it’s a big but, when schools try a growth mindset intervention without support from Dweck or her colleagues, sometimes it doesn’t work. Maybe you’ve tried telling kids about growth mindsets and how this can turn them into academic superheroes? Has it worked? If it has, I’m glad for you, if it hasn’t, the problem might be that either you or your students have a ‘false growth mindset’.'
- Why Is No One Paying Attention to This Roaring Educational Success? - The American Interest '[T]he Chicago study shows that there is buried treasure even in America’s most underperforming schools. It’s not necessary, as some interests in the education establishment would have us believe, simply to lower expectations for low-income students and resign ourselves to poor outcomes. Smartly implemented back-to-the-basics reforms—good teaching coupled with a demanding curriculum—may be able to unleash tremendous potential at relatively low cost. It’s time foe Chicago study shows that there is buried treasure even in America’s most underperforming schools. It’s not necessary, as some interests in the education establishment would have us believe, simply to lower expectations for low-income students and resign ourselves to poor outcomes. Smartly implemented back-to-the-basics reforms—good teaching coupled with a demanding curriculum—may be able to unleash tremendous potential at relatively low cost. It’s time for the K-12 establishment to start paying attention to the ideas that work.
- So much more than money | Sam Shepherd 'It is very clear now that the focus for area reviews is how much money college leavers will produce. Economic benefit is the easy win for FE, especially vocational courses. [...]. But [...] as my own learners demonstrate, the value of post 16 education is not just in its financial benefit, but also its social benefits: integrative, interpersonal, cultural education. [...] [P]resent day social benefits like educating adults are surely likely to lead to future social and economic benefits: cohesion and integration, support and independence in the present gives birth to a better educated, more successful future.
- Colleges warn cuts 'threaten adult education' - Telegraph 'The Association of Colleges (AoC) estimate nearly 200,000 adult learning places could be lost next year alone if the government cuts to the adult skills budget continue. The Association, which is the national representative body for further education, said health, public services and care courses could see a drop of over 40,000 places in 2015.' See (or hear) also: BBC Radio 4: "File on Four: Colleges in Crisis".
- Do learner-centred approaches work in every culture? | British Council 'Is it time to challenge Western assumptions about education, especially when it comes to promoting 'good teaching approaches' in the developing world? The British Council's Ian Clifford looks at the case of Burma, ahead of his webinar on 12 October 2015.'
- Donald Clark Plan B: 10 examples of how ‘DEVICE fetish’ is ruining EdTes 'Educational debate around technology is, as my father often says ‘arse before elbow’. It’s obsessed with devices – tablets, mobiles, whiteboards, holes-in-walls, 3D printers and so on - which is to focus on the wrong end of the problem. Device fetishism has been a destructive force in research, procurement, projects and outcomes. So here’s some blowback.'
- Education’s Panacea Fever | @LeeDonaghy | Labour Teachers 'The way forward is actually something approximating another mania that briefly flared in the wake of London 2012 and Team GB’s success in the cycling events: marginal gains. Not the commoditised, hashtagged bandwagon it became on Twitter, but the acceptance that we need to continually seek to refine every aspect of our practice, and that improvement comes from the interplay of many different changes we make to what we do in the classroom.'
Other Business
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments welcome, but I am afraid I have had to turn moderation back on, because of inappropriate use. Even so, I shall process them as soon as I can.