Items to Share: 11 January 2015

Education Focus

David Didau special!

• Thanks to you… David Didau | A Skeptical Teacher 'David skilfully explores why it really pays to be aware of the inherent problems of research in the field of education and wary of the conclusions we draw from said research. [...] I felt fairly self-assured that I was not overdoing the ‘Yes but education research shows that…’ line of argument. I’d like to thank David for pointing out several interesting issues that I hadn’t been aware of and reminding me of the somewhat shaky ground that some of my claims rested on.' 

• Laudation: a review of ‘The Secret of Literacy’ by David Didau | Whatonomy 'As a summary of what is current and considered in not just literacy but teaching and learning, it is nothing short of marvellous'. 

• Do we really have a growth mindset? | David Didau: The Learning Spy 'This is my bottom line: It is morally reprehensible to expect teachers to sacrifice their home lives on the altar of professional responsibility. If we really valued a growth mindset approach to education we’d make damn sure it was safer for teachers to learn from failure.' 

and...

• My New Favorite Word - Teach Like a Champion My new favorite word is ‘pause’- especially when it’s used in place of the word ‘stop.’

• Do Learners Really Know Best?.pdf (Kirschner and van Merrienboer, 2013) 'This article takes a critical look at three pervasive urban legends in education about the nature of learners, learning, and teaching and looks at what educational and psychological research has to say about them. The three legends can be seen as variations on one central theme, namely, that it is the learner who knows best and that she or he should be the controlling force in her or his learning. The first legend is one of learners as digital natives [...] The second legend is the widespread belief that learners have specific learning styles [...] The final legend is that learners ought to be seen as self-educators who should be given maximum control over what they are learning and their learning trajectory. It concludes with a possible reason why these legends have taken hold, are so pervasive, and are so difficult to eradicate.'

• Eight SoTL articles that deserve a place on your reading list | Faculty Focus 'based on my pedagogical reading throughout 2014, I’ve identified eight top articles, listed below in alphabetical order.'

• A Guide to the Flipped Classroom - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education 'We've compiled a booklet, downloadable [...], designed to serve as a quick primer on this growing—and sometimes controversial—teaching approach. It contains several recent articles and essays from The Chronicle, along with a list of links for further reading. Downloading is simple: Just fill out [a] form, and the booklet is all yours.

• There Are Learning Styles, But… | SurrealAnarchy '…the learning styles that most people think of when we use the phrase are bunkum'

• Lesson Study as a way of Enabling Scholarship of Teaching and Learning | HE Reflections 'Lesson Study' is a shared approach to action research across the pond, sometimes a bit too cumbersome, but worth looking at. 

Other Business

• Getting Grief Right - NYTimes.com 'When I was trained, in the late 1970s, the stages of grief were the standard by which a grieving person’s progress was assessed. [...] That model is still deeply and rigidly embedded in our cultural consciousness and psychological language. It inspires much self-diagnosis and self-criticism among the aggrieved. This is compounded by the often subtle and well-meaning judgment of the surrounding community. A person is to grieve for only so long and with so much intensity.' Kubler-Ross has much to answer for!

• How Diversity Makes Us Smarter - Scientific American 'Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working' 

• RSA short "What Do We Need To Know?" - Boing Boing [John Lloyd]Animated excerpt from talk (2:21)