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!
A Big Problem with Ed Research
If this article is accurate (and there’s no reason to suspect otherwise) then the
basis of Hattie’s
mega-analysis research may have been severely undermined.
‘It
means that very likely a great deal of what's passed off as research-based
knowledge is information that has never been checked, the result of just one
piece of research. Imagine if you were seriously ill and your doctor said,
"Well, there's this one treatment that only one guy did only this one
time, and he thought it turned out well.”'
Revisiting Content And Direct Instruction
This is a very important article about the
battle for education in America (and applicable elsewhere) over the last
century. The seeds of today’s
problems were sown a long time ago, and survive, in spite of visionaries such
as Dewey and Freire.
“Before
diving into the content and direct instruction debates, I want to address what
is really going on. You don’t have to read George
Orwell or Ray Bradbury to know this (although you should*), but the powerful in
any society recognize that those who control knowledge (and language is
knowledge) ultimately control everything. Thus, to codify what is known, what
counts as knowledge, and what facts mean is to establish power.”
A Conversation On Lessons From Finland
More from Pasi Sahlberg, this time in
conversation with an Australian educator. Very applicable all over, especially
in the usual five Anglo-Saxon dominated countries.
The Time is Now
An article by Dr Robert Valiant, sourced from
the US website Defend-Ed.
“I
have been doing a little reading on one of my true loves, brain research, and
would like to take a moment to say that rapid growth in the field is producing
astounding findings that are important to those of us in the brain business,
teaching and learning. I am, of course, dismayed by the current education
reform efforts, most of which appear to be diametrically opposed to the new
research findings. I won't go into detail here, but even on the macro level the
predatory reformers have it wrong.”
Manufactured education
Another blog posting from UK academic Steve
Wheeler:
“And
yet standardisation, synchonisation and centralisation stubbornly persist in a
few notable enclaves. Perhaps the most notorious resistance to the
technological wave comes from the state
education systems.” And:
‘The
factory model of education persists, because in the mind of its proponents, it
is still the most efficient, cost effective way to train the workforce of the
future. And yet, according to critics such as Sir Ken Robinson, this is not
the way forward. In a recent speech, Robinson intoned: "We still educate children by batches. We put them through the
system by age group. Why do we do that? Why is there an assumption that the
most important thing kids have in common is their date of manufacture?”’
“Education
As Great Equalizer” Deforming Myth, Not Reality
A very comprehensive article that debunks the
neoliberal myth that education is the solution to poverty.
“So,
you are 2.5x more likely to be a rich adult if you were born rich and never
bothered to go to
college than if you were born poor and, against all odds,
went to college and graduated. The disparity in the outcomes of rich and poor
kids persists, not only when you control for college attainment, but even when
you compare non-degreed rich kids to degreed poor kids!”
Growth Mindset – The Holy Grail Of Education?
“The
author of mindset theory, Carol Dweck, cited neuroscience research that
examined brain activity of students when receiving feedback. Students were
asked various questions and then told whether they were right or wrong. If they
were wrong, they were also told what the correct answer was. Pretty much every
student’s brains were active when being
told whether they were right or wrong but only growth mindset students’ brains remained active to hear what the correct answer was if they
had made a mistake."
Ranking and Sorting: The Sordid History of Standards and Tests
Very important article by Anthony Cody, which
will give you the essential understanding of the whole testing and standards
movement. It’s not nice.
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“One
of my heroes was the late Stephen Jay Gould, who devoted his life to exploring
and explaining the intricacies of evolution. In his book, The Mismeasure of
Man, he reveals the roots of standardized testing in the work of Lewis Terman,
who brought to us the first widely applied tests, building on the work of
Binet, who had pioneered intelligence tests for inductees into the Army during
World War 1.”
“This
“science” of measurement was also connected to a
movement called “eugenics.” It
was seen as undesirable for the less intelligent to reproduce, since their
offspring would be inferior, and thus a burden to society. And there were heavy
racial implications as well.”
This week’s contributions from
6 Things You Should Know About The Future
Bruce: “The
future’s not what it used to
be!!”
“That’s the funny thing about the future. It’s never as fantastic as we hope nor as horrible as we
fear. The one thing that’s for sure is that
times will change and we will have to adapt. While there is no way of knowing
exactly how that change will play out, we can identify trends, make common sense
judgments about where they lead and prepare for them.”
Why phonetic spelling isn't effective
GERMers seem to love phonics as the solution to
everything (e.g State of New South Wales in Australia). They obviously haven’t read Frank Smith.
“However, it seems to me, that those people who want phonetic spelling have not thought through all the problems that would be created by it. The problem is that different people pronounce some words differently and so would spell them differently phonetically. Amongst people who speak English there are many different types of accents and thus pronunciations.”
“However, it seems to me, that those people who want phonetic spelling have not thought through all the problems that would be created by it. The problem is that different people pronounce some words differently and so would spell them differently phonetically. Amongst people who speak English there are many different types of accents and thus pronunciations.”
15 Things Every Teacher Needs from a Principal
Bruce’s
comment:Seems an insightful list to me.
‘“Principalship” entails
many things, but at its core, it is—and has always
been—about building trusting relationships. We may balance the budget and
successfully maintain the building; we may ensure that teachers have the
necessary resources and all the professional development opportunities in the
world…but if we fail to build trusting relationships, what good are
balanced budgets, “SMART” classrooms,
one-for-one programs, and squeaky clean amenities?’
From Bruce’s oldies but goodies file:
The corporate takeover of society and education.
This is the GERM that needs to be challenged – the key issue of the
upcoming NZ election. One of Bruce's most popular blogs.
“As
part of the corporate strategy was the demeaning the teaching profession
through finger pointing and blaming them for student failure while at the same
time ignoring the effects of poverty
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on student achievement. The market forces corporate ideology places value on hardnosed economic growth and
demonizes teachers and schools as failing students and being stuck in the past.
To reform this seemingly failing situation a standardised model has been
implemented which has resulted in a one dimensional approach to education with
success being determined and measured by narrow literacy and numeracy levels in
primary school and NZCEA levels in secondary.”
Another expert on teacher quality? Disruptive or dangerous?
While this article is about New Zealand, it
discusses a problem common to all GERM countries, and also the OECD, where
economists feel qualified to comment on education and teacher quality.
Dangerous.
“No
one would challenge Makhlouf's assertion that education is the key to economic
success but how one defines achievement ( in a narrow literacy / numeracy
sense, or the development of
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student's talent and gifts) needs debating. And as
for Makhloufs enthusiasm for performance pay, once again, this depends on what
is counted as achievement. Performance pay has had a checkered career in the
US. Makhlouf , being an economist, believes it is all about collecting data to
measure success. Simplistic stuff - important learning attributes defy easy measurement.”
Basing education around student inquiry.
Bruce’s
comment: This popular blog outlines a discovery approach NZ creative
teachers at all levels are aware of.
“Well-executed
PBL begins with the recognition that, as in the real world, it’s often difficult to
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distinguish between acquiring information and
using it. Students learn knowledge and elements of the core curriculum, but
also apply what they know to solve authentic problems and produce results that
matter. Students focus on a problem or challenge, work in teams to find a
solution to the problem, and often exhibit their work to an adult audience at
the end of the project.”
The Blue School
“The
Blue School in Lower Manhattan was established by members of the Blue Sky
Company -a company involved in helping organisations develop creative
ideas.They wanted to establish a school
that celebrated the creativity and
ideas of children - they wanted to establish a school they would have liked to
have gone to - a dream school for their own children. They wanted school
committed to keeping alive the sense of wonder, play and joy of young children.
The school currently caters for children from 2 to 6. The ideas will not be new
to creative teachers, particularly those that 'teach' younger children but
their emphasis on making student inquiry central is a challenge to us all in
these day of making literacy and numeracy achievement central.”
This week’s contributions from Phil Cullen
A History of Blanket Testing
This is a powerful article from Phil that
discusses his experience of Minimum Competency Testing in the USA in 1980. You
will notice that apart from a change of name to common core standards, not much
has changed. This is a must read.
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