It seems to me that that the continuum between reactionary educators who still find overhead projectors a cutting edge tool and progressive educators who seem to master each tool and philosophy du jour is stretching ever longer every year. As a classroom teacher in the 70s and 80s, we all taught pretty much the same way, with the same sets of tools.
The question of importance to me is not the mastery of tools, but the underlying processes that are important. This is the rub - there are those who, rightly or wrongly, are amongst the elite in terms of commentary or influence on directions in education, who it seems to me have become what my own family constantly remind me not to be…..
and
Unfortunately there are some amongst us that are so poorly read themselves that they can’t see how silly it is to tout 20th century ‘industrial age schooling’ as the reason for educational change. Oh but they are probably the same people who run your education system, or institution and are good at verbose cliques to justify their actions.
Yes, there’s a lot that needs to change about schooling. Let’s focus on the facts to get there. Cliches are born of ignorance - that’s all. Focus on the revolution not the rhetoric!
I am reminded of the rubbish written about digital immigrants and digital natives - a cliche that doesn’t hold water. I have written about this a lot in the past and it frustrates me to still see people lapping it up at conference and in blog writings.
Some kids love technology, some love singing - sounds like my kids! Sure kids starting school now have only ever known the technologies as part of their lives. But give me a break, this doesn’t mean they are actively engaged with it and know it well. Any more than living in NZ means you love rugby and understand netball!
I do like Judys point about the widening gap between the teachers who actively understand and engage with technologies and those who don’t. Some would argue that we all have to keep up, but many don’t. There are lots of teachers and classrooms out there where a computer is simply and expensive typewriter and an even more expensive way to keep the room warm. ICT PD has extended to nearly 70% of primary schools now but how many schools who have ‘been in the programme’ now have few/no staff who were there when it was happening?
Clay Burell often has thoughtful (if a little ’stream of consciousness’ for me) things to say:
Whether tools are used in classrooms is pretty unimportant, compared to what type of learning is expected in the classroom. Most classroom learning doesn’t deserve the budget outlay for increased technology. Extra cash would be better spent on redefining what’s worthwhile for the young to learn. I’m a techie too, somewhat, but find educational philosophy far more vital than technology.
Coming back to the quality of teaching rather than the what of teaching.
I am reading Graham Nuthall’s book at the moment. It is fascinating and a great, simple but very informative read. I feel privileged to have had him as a lecturer in the late 80’s in my time at Canterbury Uni (along with Adrienne Alton-Lee, John Church, and other amazingly astute classroom-based researchers).
Graham makes the point that as we look at classrooms to see what things make a difference to childrens learning we need to understand what ACTUALLY happens in their heads (as opposed to what we assume happens) and what, if anything, teachers can do to make a difference. We need to look at the CHILDREN to define successful learning, not the teacher. Learning is NOT a direct outcome of teacher actions and behaviour, but an outcome of the things that happen in childrens heads as they integrate new stuff with old stuff and make sense of it all.
This book should be compulsory reading for all in education! It is Graemes summary of the key things he had learned in a career as an educational researcher with an international reputation. As he wrote the book he knew he was dieing of cancer and wanted to share his understandings. Indeed the last chapter is written by others as he died before being able to complete it.
I have been trying to catch up on the numerous saved entries from Bruce Hammods blog recently. I enjoy Bruce… he has his crap detector turned up high. He also has the luxury of sitting far enough outside “the system” now to be able to critique with impunity. He and Kelvin Smythe have been promoting what we largely see as the New (or so I am told, now to be called REVISED - the wordsmiths are at work) Curriculum for may years.
Nothing much changes really does it. As one of my colleagues here in Dunedin put it the other day “learning styles is just a fancy way of saying a good range of learning activities”. May be a bit extreme but there is still some truth to it!
Who we become is influenced by the talents, gifts and passion we develop that drive us to learn more - the competencies are a means to an end. We are driven by an evolutionary curiosity to make meaning of our experiences. As we explore we focus on the things that really interest us us, and as our interest grows we get better at whatever it is we like doing.
He is quoting Mary Chamberlain earlier in the post and responding to her comments on the Key Competencies. I think he is right - the Key Competencies are being seen as something new and onerous that will add tremendously to teacher workload. They shouldn’t …. we have been assessing them anecdotally for years. We all know the children who are successful socially, with their learning etc. The difference is the structure.
I do like Bruces’ focus on talents, gifts and passions … there lies the challenge! To help children find the things that light the fires for them. We have an obligation to provide opportunities for them to discover these thingsI believe. These moments are the ones where the lights come on and the class (or individual) gets so into the task/unit that it takes on a life of its own.
Now we can’t expect that all the time and I think we have to realise this. Sometimes what kids need to know or understand is pretty mundane. Some of what they have to do is “just because they do” (and we know better than they do). They will not always pose their own questions or be independent inquirers …. especially the younger ones. We are still teachers much of the time (in terms of actively managing the learning), only sometimes will we be standing back as mentors and guides. We have to make sure that when the genuine guiding and sharing opportunities arise we are poised, skilled and aware enough of them to make them the best they can be.
Now there is a challenge!
Key Competencies then are the vehicle to learning and inquiry; particularly to becoming inquirING. They are not just an end in themselves.
and this comment was left by an 8th grader on the original on youtube:
I agree, I am an 8th grader in the US and are school really needs to kick up the tech program, all we do with computers is use them for typing reports. I cant even take a tech class, or get into a tech club because there are none available. So thank you for the video and I hope this changes the mindset of some schools.
Young people who consistently participate in comprehensive, sequential, and rigorous arts programs are:
- 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement
- 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools
- 4 times more likely to participate in a math and science fair
- 3 times more likely to win an award for school attendance
- 4 times more likely to win an award for writing an essay or poem.
Source: Americans for the Arts (www.artsusa.org).
The arts provide children with:
- different ways to process information and express their knowledge
- the ability to think creatively in areas like math and science
- the ability to be independent and collaboration skills
(source: Young Audiences, Inc. www.youngaudiences.org)
The arts also:
- teach children to make good judgments about qualitative relationships.
- celebrate multiple perspectives - showing students that there are many ways to see and interpret the world
- make it clear that neither words in their literal form nor numbers exhaust what we can know. The limits of our language do not define the limits of our cognition.
- help children learn to say what cannot be said. They must learn to reach into their poetic capacities to find the words to describe how the work of art makes them feel.
(source: National Art Education Association website - www.naea-reston.org/tenlessons.html From Elliot Eisner’s book: The Arts and the Creation of Mind)
Time to look/listen to the Ken Robinson TEDTalks video again …..??
One of the cool things about being married to a Speech Language Therapist is being paseed wee gems like this:
Does your child have good hearing but listen poorly?
Some parents refer to this as selective hearing, but your child may actually have trouble listening. While hearing is the ability to detect sound, listening is how the brain processes auditory information.
Children with poor auditory processing skills tend to exhibit the following problems:
• Trouble hearing or easily distracted in noisy environments.
• Hard time following a conversation or following directions.
• Disorganized and forgetful.
• Problems with reading, comprehension, spelling and/or writing.
• Trouble recalling a story in proper sequence.
• Difficulty understanding verbal math problems.
Auditory Processing problems closely mimic AD/HD symptoms, and children are often misdiagnosed. If a child is having trouble processing auditory information, he or she will often appear to be inattentive.
Bruce Hammonds often has some thought prooking stuff on his blog:
Research is now saying sex does matter and that there are immutable differences between boys and girls- that there are genetic differences between the sexes. Girls brains develop faster for starters, even before birth. The brain of a six year old boy looks like the brain of four year old girl - men evidently don’t catch up until they are in their thirties! Emotional development is different in boys and girls brains- it is more evolved in girls. With their rapid brain development girls acquire language skills more readily. Boys, forced to read too early, begin to fail. Girls are currently getting better grades than boys in all areas, including maths.
As well girls thrive in collaborative learning situations and boys are more motivated by competitive environments with clearly defined winners and losers.Different reading preferences of girls and boys are well known.
Bruce contends it is curriculum differentiation that is the key.
A little bit simplistic but it is good to be prompted to think about how we manage gender (and any other) differences in learning styles
‘The test of successful education is not the amount of knowledge that pupils take away
from school, but their appetite to know and their capacity to learn.’ Sir Richard
Livingstone, 1941
‘All skills will become obsolete except one, the skill of being able to make the right
response to situations that are outside the scope of what you were taught in school. We
need to produce people who know how to act when they are faced with situations for
which they were not specifically prepared.’ Seymour Papert, 1998
‘One of the core functions of twenty-first century education is learning to learn in
preparation for a lifetime of change.’ David Miliband, 2003
‘Pedagogy should at its best be about what teachers do that not only helps students to
learn but actively strengthens their capacity to learn.’ David Hargreaves, Learning for
Life, 2004
Michael Fullan talked about the implementation dip - where performance, enthusiasm etc fall off just after an initiative is put into place. Competence then increases and performance improves beyond the previous base line given time, practice, experience etc.
I think that often the picture is a bit different. My blogging is certainly a good example of where performance and enthusiasm increase markedly at the outset, then drop off and eventually come back to at least the base line level. I am finding it difficult to prioritise and get very enthusiastic about blogging at the moment. School is very busy and we have a of of balls in the air at the same time:
* Two staff appointments
* An ICT PD Cluster to get orgaised and off the ground
* Some major behavioural issues to address from children
* all the end of year-ness to keep ahead of
* a new classroom to get on-site and organised
* an internal upgrade of two classrooms to get organised before the reunion next year
* classes for 2008 to get sussed
* etc, etc, etc….
Not complaining …. I applied for his job and LOVE it. Just full-on at the moment ….
so … do you see change as showing an immediate dip, or where the initial enthusiasm carries on for a while and then things fall off a bit over time … to come back as things get fully embedded? What do you find in your school??
A bit of a ramble but I hope you get the point of my question …
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