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Education Readings Thinking out of the box By Allan Alach I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz Link to latest posting So who says competition in the classroom is inevitable? Thanks to Phil Cullen for this link about what appears to be an excellent boo k. Phil Cullen ‘In this extract from her new book Beautiful Failures , the Guardian’s Lucy Clark tackles the culture of contests and ranking s at school, arguing that for children – indeed all of us – it is unnecessary and damaging.’ ‘In personally questioning the role of competition in education I have lost count of the number of people who have said to me, yes, but life is competitive and school is just a training ground for the sort of competition our kids will face as adults in the real world. Is that what school should be ? A warm-up for the main game? A simulation of grown-up life, where we wake up in the morning, put on our armour and go out to compete in a dog-eat...

A number of years ago many schools implemented the ideas of Dr William Glasser . Glasser had written a number of books  all with a focus on achieving quality work for all student s  without teachers using coercion. There is a New Zealand Glasser Association  for anyone interested. Glasser's belief is that  , with the appropriate conditions, all students can do quality work but, it would be fair to say, many teachers find this hard to believe .  Currently schools focus on students achieving imposed standards which sadly labels a number of students as 'not achieving the standards ( or in the students and parent's eyes failing).  The currents government's dogma is that 1 in 5 students fail while at the same time ignoring the  effect of poverty on achievement; that the students from poor socio-economic backgrounds lack the 'social capital' of their more well off classmates. This lack of 'social capital' does not mean the teachers cannot assist such studen...

Education Readings By Allan Alach I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz Noam Chomsky on the Dangers of Standardized Testing “The assessment itself is completely artificial. It’s not ranking teachers in accordance with their ability to help develop children who will reach their potential, explore their creative interests. Those things you’re not testing..  it’s a rank that’s mostly meaningless. And the very ranking itself is harmful. It’s turning us into individuals who devote our lives to achieving a rank. Not into doing things that are valuable and important.” http://bit.ly/1waGc0j 'Schools must appoint teacher coaches to keep staff up to speed with rapid changes in technology’ ‘Probably the biggest problem teachers have is the rapid rate of change that occurs in our computer-driven culture. Things change so fast, that we are now faced with “ data obsolescence ”. That which we believe to be true today, may not...

Escape the audit surveillance culture Education Readings By Allan Alach I welcome suggested articles, so if you come across a gem, email it to me at allanalach@inspire.net.nz The problem of perfectionism: five tips to help your students Pressure to be perfect ‘As well as affecting general well-being, perfectionism can lead to fear of failure. When your whole self-worth and identity are tied to your success, mistakes and setbacks are seen as a threat and you avoid taking risks. We need to talk about these issues – but where to begin? Here are some tips for helping students manage and overcome perfectionism.’ http://bit.ly/2d8nzGh Why For-Profit Education Fails Good… ‘Indeed, over the past couple of decades, a veritable who’s who of investors and entrepreneurs has seen an opportunity to apply market discipline or new technology to a sector that often seems to shun both on principle . Yet as attractive and intuitive as these opportunities seemed, those who pursued them have, with surpri...

'Paying attention to attention' Seems a simple idea but  a powerful one.   Too many students spoil what they do by rushing through their tasks working on the principle that 'first finished is best'. When teachers allow this 'mindset' to be an implicit part of the school culture students are not encouraged to stop and think ( or Ten year old observation reflect) about whatever they are undertaking and , as a result, a frenetic atmosphere can result. Slowing the pace  allows no time for teachers to give students ( particularly those struggling) appropriate help. One wise old teacher ( long retired) once told me, as a result of this many students never get to finish most tasks they undertake . He called them the 'three quarters of a page kids'. If teachers were to look closely at the work their students 'complete' they will find many students who have achieved very little. One solution is to have different expectation for every students and to make...