Educational Readings - creativity/prodigies/ space study and Nigel Latta

By Allan Alach

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.

This week’s homework!

Thinking about One’s Thinking

“Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one’s thinking.  More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance. Metacognition

includes a critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner.”

‘This kind of explicit instruction will help students expand or replace existing learning strategies with new and more effective ones, give students a way to talk about learning and thinking, compare strategies with their classmates’ and make more informed choices, and render learning “less opaque to students, rather than being something that happens mysteriously or that some students ‘get’ and learn and others struggle and don’t learn”’

http://bit.ly/1kgDRLj

An Open Letter To My Son's Second Grade Teacher

“My son is a curious kid. He's high-energy and artistic and he loves thinking deeply. He's a sensitive soul and sometimes the smallest amount of criticism can feel crushing.  I could tell you the ideal way to teach him. I'd probably tell you to avoid the stickers. Opt out of homework. Go with qualitative feedback instead of grades. Forget the Class Dojo points and the Firebird Dollars and think instead about being ethical.”
http://bit.ly/1l9i8Qt

Run schools like a business? Flip that theory to see flaws

“This is an 

absurd comparison, yet schools are continuously compared to a business model, which, when reversed, would be considered stupid by those in “business,” for there would be little if any profit, and the expectations of 100 percent success are delusional at best.”

http://bit.ly/1pACcMP

One True Path

Another great article on Curmudgucation by Peter Greene.

“This is one of the fundamental articles of faith for reformsters-- there is One True Path to a good life, to happy, healthy, productive adulthood. This idea-- along with its corollary (all happy, healthy, productive adult lives look pretty much the same)-- is so patently, observably false that I resist writing about it because I feel as if I'm using a slice of the internet to argue that grass is usually green. But as long as these guys keep saying it, we have to keep pointing out that it's wrong.”

http://bit.ly/1tmXN1N

Child Prodigies and the Assault on Creativity

This is a very good article, that examines how the system restricts opportunities for children, especially those with Aspergers, ADD/ADHD, and other so-called disorders.

“For some time now, the education system has been geared increasingly towards controlling

children in an authoritarian environment (much research has been conducted into the comparison between schools and prisons), preparing them for a regimented series of arbitrary tests to make them suitable for a particular vocation.”

“This assault on genuinely creative and original modes of thinking is inevitable, given that the ruling elites of the system are characterized by psychopathy, a personality trait which is inherently incapable of creative thought.”

http://bit.ly/1zvm9XH

Payment by results – a 'dangerous idiocy' that makes staff tell lies

Not that neoliberals will take any notice, of course…

“Here's why: payment by results does not reward organisations for supporting people to achieve what they need; it rewards organisations for producing data about targets; it rewards organisations for the fictions their staff are able to invent about what they have achieved; it pays people for porkies.”

http://bit.ly/UO2u5M

What do standardized tests actually test?

Another excellent article by US educator Marian Brady, a leading voice in the US anti-GERM campaign.

“That’s three very different approaches to teaching—telling, showing, and involving. The first two lend themselves to standardized testing. The third one—the only one that really works—doesn’t. It

says that what needs to be evaluated are the outcomes of personal experience, and personal experience is very likely to be too individual, too idiosyncratic, too much a product of a teachable moment exploited or created by the teacher, for its outcome to be evaluated by machine-scored standardized test items.”

http://wapo.st/1uSeh3A

The Danger of Back to School:Children’s Mental Health Crises Plummet in Summer and Rise in the School Year

Another very useful article by Peter Gray - brings back memories of the torture that was my experience of Rotorua Boys High School.

“School, too often, is exactly like the kind of nightmare job that I just described; and, worse, it is a job that kids are not allowed to quit.  No matter how much they might be suffering, they are forced to continue, unless they have enlightened parents who have the means, know-how, and will to get them out of it.  Including homework, the hours are often more than those that their parents put into their full-time jobs, and freedom of movement for children at school is far less than that for their parents at work.”

http://bit.ly/1r1lFUa

This week’s contributions from

Bruce Hammonds:

Habits for Success in School and Life

Bruce’s comment: A number of schools in NZ have implemented Art Costa’s Habits of Mind. The link below will refresh your appreciation of  the thinking habits.

‘The 16 Habits of Mind are drawn from a modern view of intelligence that casts off traditional abilities-centered theories and replaces them with a growth mindset for remaining open to continuous learning, another important habit. These habits are often called soft skills or non-cognitive skills. In fact, these skills are among the most difficult to develop because they require a great deal of consciousness. Ultimately, they become an internal compass that helps us answer the question, “What is the most ‘thought-full’ thing that I can do right now?”’

http://bit.ly/1oLxtLY

How to Make Your Classroom a Thinking Space

“Take a moment and imagine a creative work environment. Don’t worry about the kind of work going on. Just focus on the space. Close your eyes and picture it. What is that space like? What does it sound like? How are people interacting? Is there movement? Is there evidence of work in progress? Is it tidy, or busy-messy? Can you imagine working there?”

“Think back to your mental image of a creative workplace. Was the place you imagined a school? If the answer was “no,” why not?School is a work place for 55 million people in the United States where 51.5 million student “workers” and 3.5 million teachers are charged with shaping the future. That’s a big job. That’s work!”

http://bit.ly/1r1nFf9

6 Things for Children to Understand About Writing and 4 Ways to Help Them Get Started

“We understand that if kids don’t read and write over the summer, their reading and writing muscles grow slack. They lose some of their imaginative muscle. Just like a coach sees the difference in her players if they spent the summer lounging instead of being active, I certainly see a literary sluggishness in my students if they return to school in the fall without picking up a book or writing in their journals with true engagement.”

http://bit.ly/1sBaRyX

Learning your way into the future - applied to a Space Study

A blog posting by Bruce.

“A recent TED Talk presenter, when talking about developing innovative enterprises, said the future was about learning not education. He continued that education is what others do to you – learning you do for yourself and that it is important to learn how to learn. ‘We need’, he said, ‘to learn our way forward’.” And:

“A visit to your local primary or secondary schools will show that teachers are still teaching as if it is they who control the learning. Current teachers reflect the way they themselves were taught or are conformed by accountability systems and pre-defined curriculums.”

http://bit.ly/1okbqMt

An article by Bruce for New Zealand readers:

Nigel Latta: The new ‘Haves and Have Nots’ – time for Moral Leadership in New Zealand

Nigel Latta and inequality

“Even the idea that education is seen as a basis for a successful life is in doubt.  Students mount up tremendous debts. University students leave with $50000 loan debts and still have trouble finding jobs. Even students of the middle class are feeling the squeeze – something never experienced by their parents. Free education is a myth.”

http://bit.ly/1slX9hB

Nigel Latta: The new ‘Haves and Have Nots’ – time for Moral Leadership in New Zealand

Nigel Latta outside Sth Auckland loan 'sharks'.

Blog based on Nigel Latta’s documentary http://tvnz.co.nz/nigel_latta/video

As we begin to focus on the upcoming elections Nigel Latta’s TV programme is timely. 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.

He wondered why this is the case; how did it happen and what are the consequences for us all?

.The recent Quality of Life Survey has reported that 1 in 5 families do not have enough money to live on. Many families have to resort to food banks that were not necessary in the 70s. One in 3 households cannot survive more than a few weeks if they were to lose their jobs.

Yet while there are those struggling to survive there are a relatively smaller number of people

Bernard Hickey

who are now fantastically wealthy. Bernard Hickey (Financial Adviser) makes the point that during the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC) the people who were rich got richer and now corporate executives live in luxurious style. The trouble is, says Hickey, that the widening gap presents real problems, ‘When you have very unequal societies they tend to be slow growing economies. People with wealth invest in gold, houses and land which do not generate lots of jobs.’

The richest 100 people in NZ have increased their wealth in 12 months by 7 billion – an average increase of 47 million. During the same period the real wage fell by .05 %. We have been told for decades that the money would ‘trickle down’ but, Hickey says, ‘could it be actually flowing the other way?’

Hugh Fletcher (one of New Zealand’s richest men) states bluntly ‘the trickle-down theory doesn’t work.’ ‘All the fruits of the economy has gone to the top and the average income hasn’t gone anywhere in the last 30 years. Fletcher is concerned about the inequality because of its effect on social cohesion; ‘extreme poverty does not bring about cohesion’.

Hickey continues by saying ‘when you have a lot of poor people living in poverty they do things – they upset the apple cart’. He says that ‘if you continue to press down and impoverish a group of people they end up living behind barb wire walls. The last time we saw such levels of impoverishment was during the 1930s.’

Traditional advice to those struggling is to get a job, work hard and save but this it seems to Latta is no longer possible. Many poor families have two people currently working but still can’t

Growing underclass

make ends meet. Such families, the programme showed, are able to feed their children properly of give their kid’s simple treats. One job may be at the minimum wage the other cleaning jobs earning $10 an hour working all hours of the night. These families are becoming the working poor. 40% of families with children living in poverty have parents in full employment.

Latta states the obvious (but too often ignored by politicians from the right) ‘research shows strong correlation between poverty and teen pregnancy, drug abuse, suicide, imprisonment and life expectancy’. The biggest impact of inequality is the crucial consequence of the effect it will have for later generations.

Dr Garesh Nana

Dr Garesh Nana (Chief Economist BERL) pointed out that the critical factor for life success is your endowment – what you start out with in life. Some people start well ahead – others well behind and the gap widens. There is no level playing field. The wealthy are able to buy up property while the others become increasingly desperate and those who start with the greatest advantage will eventually dominate all the others. So much for the trickle-down theory!

The bottom 10% adjusted wage rises have risen 13% since 1984 while the top 10% have seen their wages rise by 78% which is 40% faster than those in the middle  who have seen their wages rise by 19%. The rich are getting richer!

Gabriel Makhlouf

Gabriel Makhlouf ( Chief Executive of NZ Treasury) tells us inequality was on the decline but through the 80s the gap has widened due to two causes: the impact of technological changes that ‘have emptied out jobs’; and the impact of globalisation – things can be made cheaper elsewhere due to lower wages.

Bernard Hickey (Financial Consultant) comments that ‘the benefit of globalisation has accrued to those at the top and the costs spread to middle and lower income groups’.’ The real victims of globalisation has been the loss of a large number of jobs- it started in factories and now is being seen in the service industries- legal services, accountancy services, medical services, education services – jobs moving into the cloud and overseas.’

But it is not just overseas, says Hickey, incomes in NZ have also been eroded. In 1989 the hourly rate was $21.83 .If this had kept pace with productivity workers’ wages would have increased by 50% but instead have only risen by 16%.

So, asks Latta, how has society become so unequal (if you haven’t worked it out by now)?

Jane Kelsey

Jane Kelsey (University of Auckland) joked that ‘the government has been snatched by the money men’. ‘The major U-turn began in the mid-80s- this is when inequality took off’. ‘Everything was liberated from the financial to the labour market. As a result we now have more conspicuous wealthy and the reality of poverty more obvious – there are now beggars on the streets’.

Dr Charles Waldegrave and others have stated a campaign for a minimum living wage – defined as enough to supply the family with the basic necessities of life. ‘Research’, he says, ‘shows that with a minimum wage you increase production, increase work happiness, decrease instability’. ‘Such a living wage should be not be compulsory – but an aspirational goal to appeal to the best in people.’ ‘This is an idea that has been picked by such companies as the Warehouse – if they can afford it why not others?’

The world of the elite rich!

The growing wealth of the few has created a demand for extravagant houses – particularly in Auckland – a 270% increase in house prices while salaries for workers has risen less than 1%. This means for those not on the property ladder owning a house is a romantic dream. Bernard Hickey comments, ‘for young people in their 20/30s there has been a collapse in home ownership the last decade’. ‘Banks in the last decade have allowed people to borrow more  and more so people can pay more for houses and the demand goes up’. ‘Middle income group borrowing has been encouraged by banks’. ’Those with extra money invested in houses as you avoid paying tax – which further drives up the demand and prices’.

This, Hickey says, ‘ends up with a housing market that is worth 12 times than the stock market and a very serious debt problem’ ‘The moment interest rates rise people will get mortgage debt and be wiped out’.

The 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) ‘was a warning shot across the bows. Says Jane Kelsey, ‘and there will be more and they will affect NZ more deeply than the 2008 crisis’. ‘People cannot continue with a pyramid of debt. People don’t appreciate how indebted the NZ economy is – they would be shocked. It is not public debt it is private debt.’ ‘It is the debt that makes up the gap between real wages and what families have to live on.’

Jane Kelsey’s vision has Nigel Latta worried!

Back to Makhlouf at the Treasury. What are his concerns? The issue of private debt – household debt! There is, he warns, the possibility of the ‘housing bubble bursting’. ‘The surge in our debt is because borrowing has become easier; if the banks won’t loan there are the loan sharks’. Repayment for many is too much for wages to cope with.

 Latta comments that ‘poverty leads to immediate thinking and people fall into debt trap’ – the really poor fall back on pawn shops for cash supply for immediate needs. ‘Things are seriously messed up when good people are paying impossible interest payments to loan sharks’.

Even the idea that education is seen as a basis for a successful life is in doubt. Students mount up tremendous debts. University students leave with $50000 loan debts and still have trouble finding jobs. Even students of the middle class are feeling the squeeze – something never experienced by their parents. Fee education is a myth.

So what has changed asks Latta in regard to Government money for public good?

The trouble is that the government gets less tax from companies and from people on a higher income. And lots of people are fiddling their taxes. As a result the government get less tax. Dr Lisa

Dr Lisa Marriet

Marriet (Victoria University of Wellington) tells us that ‘there is a significant amount of undisclosed tax – more than 5 or 6 billion!‘And’, she says, ‘it is not just local companies and individuals, an enormous amount of tax is avoided by international corporations – Google, Facebook and Apple pay no taxes anywhere!’

We would all be better off if everyone paid their fair share of tax.



Make them pay a fair share!

As Nigel Latta says ‘it seems crazy to me that the tax system has been changed to suit the people with lots of money while the low earning kiwis, young people and students are forced into debt’.



Over the past 25 years most of us have seen little in wage growth while we all have been faced with increased house prices and ballooning debt – which you have to repay while living from day to

day. If you can’t you are in debt trap which some people see as the biggest failing in our current economy.

With regard to wages Bernard Hickey said that ‘Henry Ford quadrupled the wages of his workers so they could afford to buy his cars!’  ‘Our economy will stall if we get to poor to pay for goods’.

Nigel Latta: ‘we need some visionary thinkers in business. People prepared to make bold movers that Henry Ford himself would find impressive. Luckily we have such an individual in Derek Handley’.

Derek Handley

Derek Handley is a self-made millionaire - a successful entrepreneur. Handley has joined a group of business visionaries concerned with the role business plays in the role preventing inequality. They are determined to revolutionize the way business leaders operate – they are calling themselves ‘The B Team’. Their mission is to encourage the purpose of business away from short term to long term gains/profits so as to be a driving force for social, environmental and economic benefit.

They want to change the game because of the growing problems and issues facing us. They are asking if business is so powerful why businesses aren’t playing a pivotal role in addressing such important issues that affect us all?

It is an ambitious plan but it has the support of global heavyweights such as Sir Richard Branson. Business has the power to make the world a better place but it needs a ‘Plan B’ –one that concerns itself people, the planet and the economy. There are business leaders in NZ who want to be part of such a movement.

Handley says, ‘We are talking about a total lack of moral leadership in  business leadership’. 

Handley believes that ‘it would only take a 100 of the top CEOs to change the world. Such people could be the leaders pointing the way to a better future for all.

As Latta comments, ‘up until now it has been profits first – why wouldn’t business leaders change? Why would they care?

 Handley answers by saying, ‘In the long run sustainability will be big business – businesses will need to include social and environmental goals’. Such goals will not only will it make our community better but it will be profitable in the long run. Businesses can help deliver on both.

Even the Treasury is considering measuring aspects well beyond GDP - to measure quality of life. It seems we have focussed too much on financial success for a few and not enough on the quality of life for everyone.Something new we will have yet to discover but to base success on simplistic GDP is so last century and is centred on the Christchurch rebuild and the dairy industry.

We owe’ says Latta, ‘a better life for our children; a dream of a better world for our kids; for them to grow up in a country where everyone has a fair chance of a job; a decent home to live in; and able to feed their kids’. ‘We don’t want a world where we have working people living in debt with the rich living in gated communities afraid of the poor’

.

‘Addressing the issue of growing inequality’, Latta comments, ‘is a no brainer because ultimately inequality hurts us all’. ‘More and more people are getting disillusioned. New economic thinking is

Beggars in NZ!

required to face up to the reality of growing inequality’.

Nigel Latta has timely defined the real issue of the 2014 election – and without a politician in sight!

Political leadership will now be required to go forward

(Apologies for any misinterpretations; check the video yourself – Bruce Hammonds bhammonds@clear.net.nz )

And if you need more information read what Max Rashbrooke has to say about inequality in NZ

More detailed information available at http://www.union.org.nz/economicbulletin159.

Educational Readings- literacy/school reform b/s / and the arts

By Allan Alach

I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allan.alach@ihug.co.nz.

This week’s homework!

Being a Better Online Reader

“Certainly, as we turn to online reading, the physiology of the reading process itself shifts; we don’t read the same way online as we do on paper. “

“The tangibility of paper versus the intangibility of something digital.” The contrast of pixels, the layout of the words, the concept of scrolling versus turning a page, the physicality of a book versus the ephemerality of a screen, the ability to hyperlink and move from source to source within seconds online—all these variables translate into a different reading experience.”

http://nyr.kr/1lpnbfo

Brain waves show learning to read does not end in 4th grade, contrary to popular theory

“Teachers-in-training have long been taught that fourth grade is when students stop learning to read and start reading to learn. But a new study tested the theory by analyzing brain waves and found that fourth-graders do not experience a change in automatic word processing, a crucial component of the reading shift theory. Instead, some types of word processing become automatic before fourth grade, while others don't switch until after fifth.”

http://bit.ly/1rmVgSW

10 School Reform Phrases That Should Trigger Your BS Detector

What others can you add to this?

“Education is filled with jargon, buzzwords, and BS. I've had a lot of fun over the years skewering the inanity that gets bandied about in education research and professional development. Education policy and school reform are rife with their own vapid vocabulary.

A must read!!!

It's worth flagging this stuff. Doing so reminds us that fatuous phrases don't make problems go away.  It helps puncture sugarplum visions fueled by hot air. Left unchallenged, pat phrases allow wishful thinking to stand in for messy realities. After all, these fatuous phrases are pervasive. Hell, I've lapsed into using them...plenty of times.  So this is less about calling anybody out than ensuring that we don't let pleasant words stand in for careful thinking. Here are 10 phrases that, when heard, should cause listeners to ask the speaker to explain what he or she means, using words that actually mean something:”

http://bit.ly/UoOz5Q

Teachers have to make lessons “dull” for Ofsted inspections

Not just restricted to England, I’d suggest.

“Teachers have to make their lessons dull and mechanical during Ofsted inspections in an attempt

to be judged “outstanding” instead of making the lessons enjoyable and creative a report has claimed. In a wide ranging report by the University of Sunderland, researchers found that teachers are constrained by the structure of the school day and the push for conformity is hindering progress in “deprived” schools.”

http://bit.ly/1ng7MlD

Sweden’s School Choice Disaster

Hey GERMERS, maybe you should read this … Oh sorry, I forgot - you prefer ideology to evidence. My mistake.

“Advocates for choice-based solutions should take a look at what’s happened to schools in Sweden, where parents and educators would be thrilled to trade their country’s steep drop in PISA scores over the past 10 years for America’s middling but consistent results. What’s caused the recent crisis in

So much for charter schools

Swedish education? Researchers and policy analysts are increasingly pointing the finger at many of the choice-oriented reforms that are being championed as the way forward for American schools. While this doesn’t necessarily mean that adding more accountability and discipline to American schools would be a bad thing, it does hint at the many headaches that can come from trying to do so by aggressively introducing marketlike competition to education.”

http://slate.me/1nEn45r

What Happens When School Design Looks Like Game Design

Quest to Learn has featured in previous reading lists. Here’s another article.

“Digital games can be amazing tools, but only when used to make it easier to contextualize the gifts we’ve received from Shakespeare, Socrates, Euclid, and others. The thing about tools is that their strength is usually derived from the way they approach a problem rather than in the particularity of the solution they offer. For example, consider the hammer: a great technological innovation that our

human ancestors imagined more than 2 million years ago. What made it revolutionary was not so much in the material from which it was assembled, nor the particular object it bashed. Instead, the hammer was revolutionary because it forever transformed human experience by introducing the possibility of striking, and therefore altering, our natural surroundings. It changed the way we look at things.”

http://bit.ly/1x6GUG4

Passion and Purpose

“Learning should be passion-driven rather than data-driven and focus on the needs of students rather than the needs of the tests. Classroom activities should provide numerous opportunities for students to connect with their dreams, feelings, interests, and other people rather than demand students read closely and stay connected to text.”

http://bit.ly/1mJeRXE

The Neuroscience Behind Stress and Learning

Hey GERMERS, here’s another one. Convinced yet?

“The realities of standardized tests and increasingly structured, if not synchronized, curriculum continue to build classroom stress levels. Neuroimaging research reveals the disturbances in the brain's learning circuits and neurotransmitters that accompany stressful learning environments. The neuroscientific research about learning has revealed the negative impact of stress and anxiety and the

qualitative improvement of the brain circuitry involved in memory and executive function that accompanies positive motivation and engagement.”

“Joy and enthusiasm are absolutely essential for learning to happen -- literally, scientifically, as a matter of fact and research. Shouldn't it be our challenge and opportunity to design learning that embraces these ingredients?”

http://bit.ly/1rIISwQ

The arts as "the basics" of education.

This article comes from a site run by US educator Kieran Egan (thanks to Robert Valiant of the US ‘Dump Duncan’ Facebook page for bringing it to my attention). Egan’s site has a lot to explore and is highly recommended.

Bruce’s comment.’This article gives insight to his thinking – that young learners have powerful, rich, affective imaginative lives that we lose as we grow and that a developmental

approach (that we move from the simple concrete to the abstract) fails to recognise. The idea that students learn though stories and metaphors is worth thinking about.’

“I want to suggest that the problem we find ourselves in--sidelining the arts increasingly even though we recognize their centrality to education--is in part tied up in our having accepted a set of basic educational ideas that are mistaken. That is, I want to make the uncomfortable case that the root of the problem is a set of ideas that most readers of this article probably take for granted.”

http://bit.ly/1pEv0PP

This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:

First up is a series of art relate links, a discipline that Bruce is passionate about.

Arts Teach Deep Noticing

Bruce: Exposure to the arts teaches observation, or deep noticing. There is a difference, as you know, between looking and looking closely. When students are asked to draw something, they must look closely to accurately observe the lines and shapes of the object they are trying to portray. Students learn to see tiny differences and to record them. Doesn't this sound like what a scientist does.

http://bit.ly/1b0Bfw9

Observational drawing tips for senior students




“For many students, drawing is the core method of researching, investigating, developing and communicating ideas.”

http://bit.ly/1tSfyDC

Drawing is understanding

The Prince's Drawing School

Bruce: Video Clip about drawing. Many people think camera and computers have made drawing obsolete. Through drawing you learn to see the world as if for the first time. Drawing is a way of asking questions and drawing answers. It slows the pace of the mind and as a result of drawing the world looks different. In our classrooms too many spoil their work by rushing( thinking first finished is best) This slowing the pace of mind is hard to achieve with a camera – although cameras are great for gathering visual ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fn3T0iPzaog

Austin's Butterfly: Building Excellence in Student Work - Models, Critique, and Descriptive Feedback

Help students observe like Austin

Bruce: This is a great little video helping young children learn to look hard and to draw. You can’t get this  kind of skill using digital media.

http://vimeo.com/38247060

Bruce continues: Lots more neat videos from the people who bought you Austin's butterfly example.

 http://elschools.org/leadersoftheirownlearning

Moving on …

Pasi Sahlberg: Five U.S. innovations that helped Finland’s schools improve but that American reformers now ignore

Bruce: Time to get back to Finland – enough of this neoliberal GERM nonsense that has infected education in Australia, the UK , the US and next year in New Zealand if no change of government.

“The question should not be: “How to have more innovation in education?” The real question is: “How to make the best use of all existing educational ideas that are somewhere in American schools and universities?” The answer is not to have more charter schools or private ownership of public schools to boost innovation. The lesson from the most successful education systems is this: Education policies should not be determined by mythology and ideology but guided by research and evidence from home and abroad.”

http://wapo.st/1nQ8p5w

From Bruce’s oldies but goodies file:

Transforming Secondary Education – the most difficult challenge of all.Thoughts from a past age – ‘Young Lives at Stake’ by Charity James

Bruce’s comment: An oldie but relevant for rethinking education for students from middle school to senior secondary. Based on thinking developed 40 years ago by Charity James, the approach provides the basis for a truly transformed education based on developing the gifts and talents of all students.  Very much in line with the intent of the  largely side-lined , 2007 New

Zealand Curriculum which asks schools to develop students as ‘seekers, users and creators of their own knowledge’.

“Secondary schools, if anything, remain determined to lock both teachers and students in a fossilised 1950s punitive environment of isolated specialist teaching, arbitrary periods of time, timetables, streaming by ability, uniforms and hierarchal power structures. Such schools are dysfunctional but there seems little pressure to change them – instead teachers are criticized for students’ lack of success and even poverty is not to be seen as an excuse.” 

http://bit.ly/1k3YTMR

This week’s contributions from Phil Cullen

Teaching Strategies: A Practitioner’s View

This is an excellent article by Phil, that all teachers should read.

“Maieutic strategies convey midwifery roles to teachers; and the strategies towards the right-hand end of the continuum imply that a child’s natural desire to learn is helped to manifest itself as the child

develops. The teacher is there at the birth of learning of something new and nourishes the child’s personal control of it. Learnacy is part of a child’s psyche from birth and its development is the real business of the concerned teacher. The pupilling processes accelerate cognitive development with genuine concern for achievement.”

http://bit.ly/1oF36qh

Neoliberalism – The New Religion

Another gem from Phil that is everyone (not just teachers) should read.

“Profit before people. Profit before social services. Profit before environmental welfare. Profit.Profit. Profit.Leads to : Men before women. White before black. Right-wing before Left-wing. Sycophancy before experience. Adults before children. Bureaucrats before Mums. Testing before learning.”

http://bit.ly/UKrn27

UTS campus becomes innovative public school

“In one of Sydney's most striking public buildings, the age of students will not dictate what they learn, teenagers and preschoolers will study together and Skype hubs will put students in daily contact with their peers around the world.”

“Professor Heppell said the recipe could include developing the school as a village for all learners of all ages, creating small schools within the school, a focus on studying "by stage not age" and ensuring it was technology rich with a global focus.”

http://bit.ly/1plmPdQ

Education expert Dr Yong Zhao says schools stifle creativity

Dr Yong Zhao

Another expert for the Australian government to ignore, mind you, given Prime Minister Tony Abbbott. who’d be surprised?

“Internationally renowned education expert Dr Yong Zhao told principals in Brisbane on Thursday there was a global mismatch between skill shortages and unemployment and schools need to shift from “a sausage-making model”, in which they produced students with similar skills and similar knowledge, to one that encouraged creativity and entrepreneurialism.”

http://bit.ly/1obGb5E