Critics challenge MOOC leaders to a debate Dive Brief: The Campaign for the Future of Higher Education is maintaining its steady drumbeat of criticism against massive open online courses, challenging the leaders of Udacity, edX, and Coursera on Tuesday to a public debate about the “claims and promises” of the online education industry. Also on Tuesday, the group released a video called “Online Ed: Teaching Millions or Making Millions?" The clip includes cartoons representing the founders of the top three MOOC providers: Daphne Koller, Anant Agarwal, and Sebastian Thrun, who appears to be permanently wearing Google Glass. The campaign issued letters to the three last week, repeating the same basic themes about MOOCs promising more than they deliver and their motives skewing more to investors than to disadvantaged students. Dive Insight: Wouldn’t it be interesting to see Thrun, Koller, and Agarwal debating the powers-that-be in the Campaign for the Future of Higher Education? Recommended Reading:
Changing Horizons: A Blog by Martin Waller - Teacher and Educational Researcher The Principal of Change Back to school for lessons on teaching Opinion Geoff Masters Geoff Masters: research shows learning is maximised when students face challenges appropriate to their levels of achievement. Reforming schools and improving student achievement levels are priorities for governments around the world, but the question is which reform strategies are proving most effective? Those tried include: Setting standards and targets: This attempts to drive improvement by setting explicit curriculum standards to make it clear what teachers should teach and what students should learn in each year of school and targets for improvement, such as the “adequate yearly progress” targets for schools in the United States and the Australian government’s goal to be among the top five countries in the world by 2025. Using performance measures: This has led to a push for greater public transparency about how schools are performing. Rewards and sanctions: Little improvement So why have results not improved? Take, for example, the evidence on incentive schemes.
Emergent Learner open thinking: rants & resources from an open educator Born gritty SmartBlogs As I was pulling out of my driveway one morning, I looked over into the neighbor’s yard. Their two-year-old was on the edge of a small, sloped retaining wall, about two feet high. The toddler concentrated on the slope, rocking back and forth to gain some momentum, trying to find the perfect foot placement. Go to any educational workshop or conference these days, and you are bound to hear about “grit,” the term psychologist and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Angela Duckworth uses to describe “perseverance and passion for long-term goals.” NPR recently published a story on the topic. Thinking of the toddler’s victory dance, however, I wonder if we’re asking the wrong question. Perhaps we find a clue later in the NPR piece. Now, believe me, I’m not a big fan of making kids cry. I’ll never forget a phone call I got one day when I was teaching fifth grade in a small religious school south of San Francisco: “Mrs. Pablo Picasso said, “All children are artists.
In Practice Essential teaching practices – do they exist? | Teacher | ACER [Image © Shutterstock/StockLite] It is often observed that there is no single best way to teach – that what works for some learners under some conditions does not work for all learners under all conditions. For this reason, it is argued, teachers require a broad repertoire of teaching methods that they can call on as appropriate. Evaluations of specific teaching approaches (such as Bloom’s Mastery Learning or Engelmann’s Direct Instruction) suggest that almost all teaching methods can be effective for at least some students if implemented by committed and highly competent teachers. Nevertheless, reviews of research identify some classroom practices as more highly correlated with improved student outcomes than others [1]. An interesting question is whether there are general principles of effective teaching, regardless of who is being taught, what they are being taught or the teaching context. Establishing where learners are in their progress Providing immediate feedback to guide action
To Help Students Learn, Appeal to What They Value A Hunger for Recognition Greg was among my toughest students in a tough year of teaching high school. Physically he attended class, but academically he was missing. He was a freshman invested in his image with older students he deemed cool, and academic achievement was not a group value. He was disruptive and disengaged. But Greg began to care about school the day that study hall rules changed and he could not leave the classroom -- not even to buy snacks. His face smoothed in surprise. The start of Greg's visible respect for school was simultaneous with my visible respect for him as he wanted to be seen: wild, misunderstood and in need. To know why it is important to understand what students value, I encourage everyone to reflect on how they feel -- and perform -- when a school leader knows and acts on what is important to team members. Now think about when a leader ignores or disrespects team and individual values. Getting Inside Their Heads 1. "The teacher." 2. 3.
Are mixed-grade classes any better or worse for learning? Often when students are placed in a composite or multi-age class, parents of the younger children worry they won’t be able to keep up. Parents of the older children worry their advanced needs won’t be met. However, before deciding whether mixed-grade classes are “good” or “bad” for your child, first we have to establish what it is you want out of school – is it the best academic achievement, a focus on social-emotional development, a strong friendship group? The different types of mixed classes In most schools, students are placed in a single-grade class (as in “Grade 2” or “Year 2”), based on their age. “Multi-age” and “composite” are only two types of mixed-grade class, though in common parlance the terms are used to describe all types of mixed-grade classes. In small rural schools, permanent multi-grade classes are a necessity because of the low number of students. Should children be grouped by age anyway? This boy can be a “star” when he plays sport in an age-based team.