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!
Jerome Bruner on what's behind the "surprise" of
creativity
From Scottish educator Ewan McIntosh:
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| Jerome Bruner |
“Eureka!
moments rarely come from nowhere. Creativity and insight is hardly ever a
lightning strike of insight, but more often a long hard slog. But it's been
frustrating to hear people write off the hard slog required for this kind of
creative insight, so I've been in search of some more backup for why this hard slog, what one might call the "trough of
enlightenment", is necessary.”
Forget test scores: fight poverty and keep education public
This article is from Nova Scotia, Canada.
“Public
education is public for a reason — it is created
by, monitored and implemented by people
Even more importantly, as long as poverty is a factor in children’s lives, all evidence points to the fact that those children’s performance in school will suffer. More than pedagogy, curriculum,
or even class size, poverty is the main indicator of how well children do in
school.”
Smaller class sizes generally better, new study says
Research to contradict ‘highly selective research’
that purports to show that class sizes make no
difference (John Hattie, for example). As Hattie, et al, have provided school
reformers with the justification for increasing class sizes, this is a valuable
counter argument.
“The
evidence that reducing class sizes in the early years of primary schools was
that it had considerable impact, but the effect was less pronounced in
secondary classes, although again it was greater in the most disadvantaged
schools.”
Teaching Students to Embrace Mistakes
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“Changing
your students' perspective on mistakes is the greatest gift you can give
yourself as a
The Wrongest Sentence Ever in the CCSS Debate
Indisputable. Excellent article in response.
“Businesses
are the primary consumers of the output of our schools, so it’s a natural alliance.”
Applicable all over.
“My claim is that
the No Child Left Behind Act set in motion a culture of schooling which seeks
conformity and an authority to which participants must subscribe, meaning
teachers, students and their parents. Followed by the Race to the Top, we have
created in American schools an environment that many have shown to be harmful
to the psychological well-being of not only students, but teachers as well.”
Beyond Dystopian Education in a Neoliberal Society (thanks to Joce
Jesson) Excellent article by Henry A. Giroux.
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| Henry Giroux |
“Welcome
to the dystopian world of corporate education in which learning how to think,
be informed by public values, and become engaged critical citizens are viewed
as a failure rather than a mark of success. Instead of producing “a
generation of leaders worthy of the challenges,” the dystopian
mission of public and higher education is to produce robots, technocrats, and
compliant workers.”
Pedagogy First – Technology….
English educator Daniel Edwards, from his ‘Learning and Innovation’ blog:
“Historically
technology has changed the normal methodology, but has had little impact on
outcome and teachers have been delivering excellent lessons in a ‘standardised’ way for decades. This way has been challenged by the introduction of
tablets into schools. And, it is a challenge to understand the change in
pedagogy that comes along with a device that acts as a portal to the world. The
ability to access information; give instant feedback and communicate outside ‘lesson
time’ restructures the learning process.”
This week’s contributions from Bruce Hammonds:
Do We REALLY Need to Do New Things in New Ways?
This article by Bill Ferriter has a similar theme to the one above.
“Failing
to create learning spaces where all children can use today's tools to learn together, to solve problems, to change minds or to manage
and evaluate information is failing kids.”
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| Jerome Bruner |
Legendary Harvard Psychologist Jerome Bruner on the Art of “Effective
Surprise”
and the 6 Essential Conditions of Creativity
Good article reviewing Bruner’s insights
into the creative process.
“The
road to banality is paved with creative intentions. Surprise is not easily
defined. It is the unexpected that strikes one with wonder or astonishment.
What is curious about effective surprise is that it need not be rare or
infrequent or bizarre and is often none of these things. Effective surprises … seem
rather to have the quality of obviousness about them when they occur, producing
a shock of recognition following which there is no longer astonishment.”
We Are All Artists
Bruce’s comment: The blog
about the importance of the arts -
worthwhile but I wouldn’t bother with the
links and uninspiring illustrations.
“Classrooms are places where different forms of creativity should be
nurtured and limiting narratives should be challenged. Learning can be
structured so that all are able to discover avenues for creatively expressing
themselves. Creation and creativity are integral to joy, investigation,
analysis, expression and identity.”
An extra 'I've added Alan!!!!
Exploring the natural environment - the 'real world'.
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| The 'real' world! |
Not suggesting buying the book ( but tempting) because it very much
reflects the approach that many NZ teachers once used. Well worth at least
reading the blurb. To me it emphasises the importance of the real world in
contrast to the virtual.
And it links to two of my recent blogs. One about Rachel Carson. Another about walking with experts.
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