Friday, November 27, 2015

Education Readings for creative teachers

We need to avoid the political press for standardized teching!


By Allan Alach


I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz

Robert Sternberg
The Conversation: Why 1904 Testing Methods Should Not Be Used for Today’s Students “Testing is compromising the future of many of our able students. Today’s testing comes at the expense of validity (strong prediction of future success), equity (ensuring that members of various groups have an equal shot), and common sense in identifying those students who think deeply and reflectively rather than those who are good at answering shallow multiple-choice questions.”


Avoiding "Learned Helplessness”
“Instead of coming immediately to the teacher, we want students to experiment on their own. Many of us wonder why students constantly do the opposite instead. I've got news for you. It's our fault. We, as educators, are often responsible for learned helplessness, and we have a responsibility to change it! How can we empower our students to be self-directed learners?”

Growth Mindset: Clearing up Some Common Confusions
Carol Dweck
Recently some critiques have emerged. Of course we invite critical analysis and feedback, as it helps all of us learn and improve, but some of the recent commentary seems to point to misunderstandings of growth mindset research and practice. This article summarizes some common confusions and offers some reflections.”



Moving away from factory teaching
Levels of Understanding: Learning That Fits All
“In order to reach diverse learners, we need diverse teaching strategies. Student voice and choice lie at the foundation of a differentiated classroom. When voice and choice are honored, the one-size-fits-all model transforms into multiple pathways for student growth.”

Why Understanding These Four Types of Mistakes Can Help Us Learn
“We can deepen our own and our students’ understanding of mistakes, which are not all created equal, and are not always desirable. After all, our ability to manage and learn from mistakes is not fixed. We can improve it.”


The Global Search for Education: Just Imagine – Tony Wagner and Ted Dintersmith
“The Global Search for Education consistently focuses on how to better prepare students for the21st century — an age which will be all about innovating and building. Today, we’ve invited education expert Tony Wagner and entrepreneur and filmmaker Ted Dintersmith to imagine the school of the future.”




Contributed by Bruce Hammonds:

Ditch cameras - draw!
Museum Asks Visitors to Put Down Cameras and Pick Up Pencils and Sketch Pads
“Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands national museum dedicated to arts and history in Amsterdam, recently launched a new campaign called The Big Draw.” It’s an effort to get museum visitors toditch cameras and simple snapshots in favor of drawing the artworks in order to more fully appreciate the easy-to-miss details The tagline of the campaign is You See More When You Draw,””

Are Schools Designed to Help Children Learn?
In trying to wrap our hands around learning about learning, we  need to understand how to personalize learning by focusing on the learner first. This article discusses three space
One size doesn't fit all
invaders”
that take up the space as teaching, performance and work instead of what they should be focusing on: LEARNING.
“When you see learners noticing and reflecting on their learning during their learning, that is the Wow of learning. This is the higher-order thinking skills we want our children to adopt: learning about learning and thinking about learning. This makes learning visible.”

Teacher Burnout: What Are the Warning Signs?
“It is not a matter of teachers becoming superhuman and overcoming all horrible conditions and indignities trying to succeed in doing what is virtually impossible, especially in a sustained way. The students need their teachers to stay engaged and fight for them. When the conditions of teaching are bad, the conditions of learning tend to be worse, and children suffer in lasting ways. That's why the collateral damage of burned-out teachers is burned-up children.”

Teaching By Doing Something Meaningful
The illusion of making progress in education, the continuous re-evaluating, revising, and reorganizing of educational principles and practices, and the use of flawed data to direct our course of action, are all part of a grand illusion that is producing much confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.””

From Bruce’s ‘goldie oldies’ file:

Reflection on my teaching beliefs
“There are many, including myself, who believe we are now entering a new age of creativity- some even call it a 'second Renaissance'. If this is so then many of our current organisations, with their genesis in an industrial age, will need dramatic transformation, as will, more importantly our mindsets. We will need new minds for a new millennium.We will need to create networks of creative schools so as to to be in the forefront of such exciting changes. To achieve this schools, and their communities, need to stop and think about what is required of education in such exciting and very unpredictable times. Traditional education just won't do.”
Get out for a better view

The power of visiting other schools
“It is my belief that focused school visits ( hence the need for a guide) are the most powerful means to gain professional development and, in particular, to gain insights in to what other schools/teachers feel important. This is all the more necessary as schools are increasingly under pressure to distort their teaching programmes by the need to respond to the reactionary and politically inspired introduction of National Standards.”

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