Disrupting Class by Clayton Christensen The way we learn doesn’t always match up with the way we are taught. If we hope to stay competitive– academically, economically, and technologically–we need to reevaluate our educational system, rethink our approach to learning, and reinvigorate our commitment to learning. In other words, we need disruptive innovation. Clayton M. "After a barrage of business books that purport to 'fix' American education, at last a book that speaks thoughtfully and imaginatively about what genuinely individualized education can be like and how to bring it about." Howard GardnerAuthor of Five Minds for the Future Why first impressions are so persistent New research by a team of psychologists from Canada, Belgium, and the United States shows there is more than a literal truth to the saying that 'you never get a second chance to make a first impression'. The findings suggest that new experiences that contradict a first impression become 'bound' to the context in which they were made. As a result, the new experiences influence people's reactions only in that particular context, whereas first impressions still dominate in other contexts. "Imagine you have a new colleague at work and your impression of that person is not very favourable" explains lead author Bertram Gawronski, Canada Research Chair at The University of Western Ontario. "A few weeks later, you meet your colleague at a party and you realize he is actually a very nice guy. According to Gawronski, our brain stores expectancy-violating experiences as exceptions-to-the-rule, such that the rule is treated as valid except for the specific context in which it has been violated.
Christopher Alexander Christopher Alexander is Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, best known for his seminal works on architecture including A Pattern Language, Notes on the Synthesis of Form, and The Nature of Order, Volumes I-IV. He is the father of the Pattern Language movement in computer science, and A Pattern Language was perhaps the first complete book ever written in hypertext fashion. He has designed and built more than two hundred buildings on five continents: many of these buildings lay the ground work of a new form of architecture, which looks far into the future, yet has roots in ancient traditions. He was the founder of the Center for Environmental Structure in 1967, and remains President of that Company until today. He was born in Vienna, Austria in 1936. In 1958 he moved to the United States, and lived in Berkeley, California from 1963 until 2002; in 2002, he moved back to West Sussex, England, where he now resides.
Tacit Knowledge and the Student Researcher I’m old enough that the annual Beloit Mindset List (created to help instructors avoid making what they think are contemporary cultural references that are actually historical to their students) is full of references to things that I never got around to knowing before they became passé. I’ve started compiling a different list, one that identifies the tacit knowledge many of us have about information and how it works based on experiences that our students haven’t had. Here’s what I have so far. Journals and magazines are published as ongoing series. For those of us who remember print, articles are bundled into issues, issues into volumes, and every year more articles are published in these bundles. News is different than opinion. Books don’t have to be read cover-to-cover to be useful. Citations have the information you need to track down the source. Databases and catalogs (usually) don’t search inside books and articles. Catalogs are (usually) local; article databases (usually) aren’t.
A Pattern Language A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction is a 1977 book on architecture, urban design, and community livability. It was authored by Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein of the Center for Environmental Structure of Berkeley, California, with writing credits also to Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel. Decades after its publication, it is still one of the best-selling books on architecture.[1] The book creates a new language, what the authors call a pattern language derived from timeless entities called patterns. As they write on page xxxv of the introduction, "All 253 patterns together form a language." It includes 253 patterns such as Community of 7000 (Pattern 12) given a treatment over several pages; page 71 states: "Individuals have no effective voice in any community of more than 5,000-10,000 persons." According to Alexander & team, the work originated from an observation that References[edit] External links[edit]
Looking for love? Manspreading could be the key to success, study suggests | Science Never mind sparkling conversation, smelling clean and remembering the person’s name. In the world of modern dating, the secret to success is to take up space. The unusual tip for finding love, or at least a lover, comes from US researchers who used speed dating videos and a Tinder-style app to show that people were rated as more attractive when they stretched themselves out. People who extended their torsos, pushed out their legs and spread their arms wide were rewarded with more romantic interest than others, probably because the postures implied openness and dominance, the researchers claim. In contrast, those who hunched themselves up, and crossed their arms and legs, fared poorly in their bids to win over potential partners. The findings could help scores of singletons who, in the time of Tinder and online dating sites, have only a handful of photos and a few seconds to convey the immense reward that a relationship with them would doubtless represent.
MUSE Deborah Meier on Education Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852) - Biography, Froebel's Kindergarten Philosophy, The Kindergarten Curriculum, Diffusion of the Kindergarten - Children, Established, School, and Education The German educator Friedrich Froebel is significant for developing an Idealist philosophy of early childhood education and establishing the kindergarten, a school for four-and five-year-old children that is found worldwide. Biography Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel was the youngest of five sons of Johann Jacob Froebel, a Lutheran pastor at Oberweissbach in the German principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolfstadt. Froebel's mother died when he was nine months old. When Friedrich was four years old, his father remarried. In 1805 Froebel briefly studied architecture in Frankfurt. From 1810 to 1812 Froebel studied languages and science at the University of Göttingen. In 1816 Froebel established the Universal German Educational Institute at Griesheim. Froebel returned to Germany, where in 1837 he established a new type of early childhood school, a child's garden, or kindergarten, for three-and four-year-old children. Froebel's Kindergarten Philosophy The Kindergarten Curriculum