Some call this vertical learning (not to be confused with virtual grouping/mixed age teaching)
Stand up learning has 6 key elements: ...continue reading "Stand up learning"
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Mastery Transcript Consortium
Mastery Transcript Consortium - a US organisation that is working to bring about pedagogical change (moving to mastery learning) by changing ...continue reading "Mastery Transcript Consortium"
Digital technology, SES and disadvantage
I have always assumed that there was a straightforward relationship between socio-economic status (SES) and opportunities to use digital technology outside school. However, ...continue reading "Digital technology, SES and disadvantage"
We should teach computational thinking in schools
Back in 1990 I wrote a piece called 'What's wrong with Logo' in which I argued that we should teach programming (with Logo) in primary schools. However, ...continue reading "We should teach computational thinking in schools"
Educational vision is not enough (D2)
[This is a second draft following thought provoking feedback from Will Richardson on the original version (thanks Will) - key changes include a revised version of the 'key relationships' diagram and subsequent explanatory text]
We know that having a shared educational vision is important because it enables us all to travel in the same direction. “Vision is a key part of ending up someplace on purpose” (Hill 2010 p.28). However, ...continue reading "Educational vision is not enough (D2)"
What is school for?
This is a critical question (both in the sense of being important and in the sense of implying criticism of our current school system).
Prince Ea asks this question in a YouTube video ...continue reading "What is school for?"
Talkfactory – a simple ‘real time’ data logging tool
Talkfactory was designed to help enhance the quality of debates in classrooms. It is a simple, free, web based app that ...continue reading "Talkfactory – a simple ‘real time’ data logging tool"
Educational vision is not enough
[This draft has been superseded following thought provoking feedback from Will Richardson. Check out the second draft ...]
We know that having a shared educational vision is important because it enables us all to travel in the same direction. “Vision is a key part of ending up someplace on purpose” (Hill 2010 p.28). However, ...continue reading "Educational vision is not enough"
What do you mean by learning?
Learning is one of those fuzzy terms that we bandy about, often without being clear about what it means. We kind of assume that ...continue reading "What do you mean by learning?"
Why halfbaked?
Most people would accept that our education systems need to change to reflect the world around them. However, there isn't general agreement about what those changes might look like or indeed what the purposes of education should be in the automation age.
A traditional academic approach would be to carry out research and then publish findings in a refereed journal article. I have a number of concerns about that ...
- academic research is often dependent upon external funding - which often distorts both the research focus and approach (and at times willingness to publish findings)
- the process of publishing academic research findings is generally slow and what gets through the review process may be distorted by views of what counts as high quality research (e.g. by the metrics used in research assessment exercises such as the Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the UK)
- we already have a great deal of evidence (from theory, practice and research) that is relevant to education - but much of these seems to be ignored. For example, research that I led looking at the implementation of the then government's Information Communication Technology (ICT) strategy concluded that