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Bringing Science To Education
Thursday, November 15, 2012 Why do we still base the education of children on tradition and habit, or on unfounded and unproven theories? There’s another alternative: science, says Pooja Agarwal, a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis. As she writes in the journal Education Psychology Review : “Currently, we are witnesses to profound educational ‘experimentation,’ for example with charter schools, voucher programs, educational technology, new standards and assessments, revamped educator evaluations, and the growth modeling and analysis of student data.About | Full On Learning
I am a learning & teaching geek. Unapologetically so. I adore all aspects of creative thinking and reflective practice to stimulate new ideas and thinking. This blog is a mixture of reflections on my own learning and acts as a repository for those sparkling gems I come across and don’t immediately know what to do with. But, like any ideas magpie worth their beak, if it catches my eye, I can’t resist collecting it.
Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Prime Minister, with his family. Photograph: Corbis The Labour Party, founded in 1900, has been in existence for 112 years.
Half-echoes of the past
* If you are looking for basic info on the EBacc (e.g. subjects included, how it affects certification) this post about ‘what is the ebacc’ might be more appropriate). If you want to know the reasons for the subjects included, read on!* Schools must now publish on their websites the % of pupils passing the ‘English Baccalaureate’ – a set of 5 GCSEs that must include English, Maths, Science, a Modern Foreign Language and either History or Geography. While I agree with Eng, Maths & Sci, I remain sceptical on MFL and entirely bemused by the inclusion of ‘History or Geography’. I’ve never fully understood why this group of subjects was chosen and below are some of the reasons I have heard for the choice and why, so far, I have found them entirely unconvincing.
Reasons for EBacc Subjects (and reasons why I don’t agree) | Laura McInerney
NAHT Warwick Mansell
Here, at this conference, where what seem to be major – and imminent - changes in the content of what children will be taught at primary school were being discussed, a civil servant was talking about how teachers would be trained in making the reforms work. And the answer for conference attendees seemed to be: “Have you got any ideas?” As an insight into the way our policy-making has moved from what was widely felt within the profession to be over-prescription under Labour to the opposite of this in the form of a complete lack of central stipulation under the coalition – at least in those areas of policy where the present government has chosen not to favour centralisation – it could hardly be bettered. I think the debate in this area actually has a lot to reveal about dysfunctionality within England’s over-politicised policy-making system.
7 Apps to Organize Your Life | Cioccolanti Blog
I’m writing you from my new laptop ~ the Macbook Pro with Retina. It used to take me a couple of days to set up a new computer, but now I’m getting better and picker about what I put into my workplace. Clutter is not good and too many apps can slow or freeze your computer.
Party Poopers
You can tell it’s the week in which GCSE results come out. How? Well, the ever-loyal praetorian guard of the Department for Education (that is, the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph ) have dutifully published stories rubbishing vocational qualifications and so-called Mickey Mouse subjects.
Over the last week I have been blogging about the 2013 Musical Futures conference. The last formal session of the first day was given by Mark Phillips, Ofsted HMI and national advisor for Music. Ofsted have released a number of publications this last year, all available here.
Creative Curriculum Design: Our inspiration
Becoming an innovative school? My top 10 ideas « Anne Knock: Learning everywhere today
Northern Beaches Christian School: one of the most innovative in the world. Thanks to everyone for great day of discussion …from @wethink When one of the world’s leading authorities on innovation described Northern Beaches Christian School as “one of the most innovative in the world” we were amazed and honoured. Charlie Leadbeater (@wethink), is a former adviser to the British government and author of We-think: The Power Of Mass Creativity. Leadbeater ran a one day seminar with us in June 2011. His TED Talk Education innovation in the Slums has more than 300,000 views and he was described as:
Flickr: Marquette La By Dolores Gende Apple’s iBooks2 and authoring app has created big waves in education circles. But smart educators don’t necessarily need Apple’s slick devices and software to create their own books.
How to Create Your Own Textbook — With or Without Apple
Summer gloom
It shouldn’t feel like this. I know we’re right at the end of term, when tempers in schools fray, when the end of term seems tantalisingly close yet infuriatingly distant, and when we all become too thin-skinned about issues which - in a month or week or day - won’t matter any more. But it shouldn’t feel like this.The title of this blog is a headline you are unlikely to ever read. But before anything is invented, it is first an idea, so let's at least entertain the idea and aspire to its subsequent genesis. Why so serious? Because, like the rotten apple of Gotham City, the people tasked with directing and protecting education have become as wanton and derelict as any flatfoot with a roll of fifties and a guilty conscience. The Office for Standards in Teaching, has been caught in flagrante delicto .
Ofsted put in Special Measures: the blind leading the sighted
The Difference Between Learning And Instruction
An article has just appeared in American Educator which, essentially, argues that educators who believe in the value of experiential, problem-based learning, are misguided fools. 'Putting Students on the Path to Learning: The Case for Fully Guided Instruction', written by Richard E. Clark, Paul A. Kirschner and John Sweller seeks to 'put an end to (the) debate' around which mode of learning is best: partially-guided instruction (as seen in discovery learning, problem-based learning, or inquiry learning) or fully-guided instruction.Pedagogy - one of those words that’s used when people want to sound all academic. So let’s just call it learning practice. Of one thing we can be sure; teaching does not seem to have changed much in the last 100 years.