As the year draws closer, I’ve been reflecting on which are the words we use in education that we have managed to normalise, appropriate, or in some cases bastardize over the past twelve months. No doubt ‘narrative’ has to be a big contender for a top 3 spot and it would all be very funny […]
The Transformation Fantasy Read More »
There are times when I truly wonder if traditional schools can actually change in any appreciable way that moves agency over learning and teaching to the learners and the teachers. Reading Bruce’s column from last week, I was struck by the dedication on the part of the Finns to push their thinking and practice forward
Can We Really Change? Read More »
I’m sitting in the office of Pasi Silander, Development Manager for the Helsinki Department of Education, and I ask him what he thinks really matters for young people in Finnish schools. His answer doesn’t have a 4 letter acronym starting with ‘P’ in it, in fact it doesn’t relate in any way to tests, scores
What If the Finns Got it Right, Again? Read More »
Right now, there are eight Tibetan Monks staying at my house. They’re sleeping on floors, couches, and my kids’ beds. (My kids are now on my bedroom floor.) They’re with us for 10-days as they do healings and meditations and school visits. (They made it down to Science Leadership Academy on Friday, in fact.) Only
The Zen of School Change Read More »
It’s a funny thing, but despite all the predictions and over-the horizon talk we continually hear around emerging technologies, I can’t recall any ‘futurists’ predicting the impact personal technology access is now having on our very young children. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with anticipating future trends per se, it’s just that we seem
Babes in the Technology Woods Read More »
Every now and then when I have some free time between basketball tournaments and conference presentations I actually do some reading using these things called “books.” Some of them I actually have to hold in my hand and manually turn paper pages. Shocking, I know. Some have been on my shelf for a long time,
Schools That Learn Read More »
Something’s happening. Call it a groundswell, a rumbling…whatever you like, but it seems to me that the call for educational change has suddenly gotten louder. No longer is this a cry from the wilderness for a simple ‘70’s renaissance, nor is it a belief in the miracle of technology, but rather this time it represents
Disruption, Delusion and Deep Learning Read More »
A few months ago I found myself in a room full of administrators having a conversation about how to change their schools. These were principals, assistant superintendents, and other leaders from a number of rural districts in the Midwest. “What I really need,” said one of those in attendance, “is for you to help my teachers
Given the torrent of publicity that has surrounded the release of the most recent PISA report on Students, Computers and Learning, it might be about time that we starting asking questions around the scope and intent of the whole PISA regime and the impact that it has around the world. Whether we like it or not,
A High Stakes Question for the World’s Highest Stakes Test Read More »
Is it me, or does it seem like much of what we’re doing in education these days is trying to fix what we ourselves break when it comes to kids and learning? I mean, what does it say that our kids come to us as creative, innovative thinkers when they’re five or six years old,
Fixing What We Broke Read More »
How many times have you been held to ransom by the bureaucratic silos that inhabit so many of our government and large corporate organisations? You usually find yourself wringing your hands and saying the ‘left hand doesn’t seem to know what the right hand is doing,’ and sadly it seems, that’s in fact exactly the
Who you gonna call? Silobusters! Read More »
I want to circle back to a post I wrote in this space a couple of months ago regarding the “Pedagogic Creed” of John Dewey and the model that he presents for clearly articulating your beliefs about learning. I’ve begun asking the leaders at the schools I’m visiting if they’ve ever written down what they believe
This New School Year, What Do You Believe About Learning? Read More »
If you don’t believe phonics is the answer to kids learning to read and spell, then ask anyone who was educated in the 1950s. It is no accident that we can all read and spell with little trouble, compared with the kids from the decades since ~The Australian, August 17, 2015 As hard as it
Who Owns Advocacy? Read More »
I’ve been thinking a lot about learning over the last couple of years, more so than at any other point in my life. While I spent 22 years teaching and administrating in a public school, I can’t say that I spent a lot of time thinking about learning during my career, specifically how kids learn.
Discovering Learning or Delivering an Education Read More »
I was talking recently with a prominent Regional Director (aka Superintendent) who said currently her biggest challenge across her 85 schools (75k students) was variability. She said that while parents and the media focused on outputs such as test scores and ‘league tables’, her attention was on inputs, namely the consistency of the quality of
Variability and Inequity Read More »
