A blog post, by a Minister of Religion, offering a strong, thoughtful voice to challenge the current attack on
teachers and children in the USA. Very relevant here in Australia. On The Other Hand
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Preschoolers' Language Skills Improve More When They're Placed with More-Skilled Peers
Researchers found that children with relatively poor language skills either didn't improve over the course of a year, or actually lost ground in development of language skills when they were placed with other low-achieving students. Read article here
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Teaching Styles, Learning Styles
Psychologists and educators differ as to whether they believe in the existence of different styles of learning and thinking. Harold Pashler and his colleagues have claimed that the evidence for their existence is weak, but a number of scholars, whose work is summarized in a 2006 book entitled The Nature of Intellectual Styles, and in a forthcoming edited Handbook of Intellectual Styles, have provided compelling evidence for the existence and importance of diverse styles of learning and thinking. Read article here
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Should children do traditional homework?
Views presented by: The Teacher, The Academic, The Researcher, The Principal. Worth reading. Click here |
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Homework in primary schools an exercise in futility, say academics
It's not just parents who suffer; teachers waste valuable time too, write Andrew Stevenson. The evidence that homework actually works is patchy at best. Read article here |
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The Closing of the Creative Mind
Something valuable is being lost in the race toward standardized curriculum and high stakes testing. ... Our capacity to be creative and innovative are central to identifying and solving the crisis we face in the world today. We will not find the solutions to ending problems like poverty, racism, war, or global climate change on a standardized test. We create them in the worlds that do not yet exist. The solutions lie in our capacities to imagine. Read article here |
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Why are Finland's schools successful?
Finland has vastly improved in reading, math and science literacy over the past decade in large part because its teachers are trusted to do whatever it takes to turn young lives around. Read article here
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A primer on navigating education claims
Debates about education and education reform can be taxing, confusing, and ultimately circular, resulting in little that we call productive. In this article, Paul Thomas offers some guidelines for navigating the education debate. When you confront claims about education, and counterclaims, what should you be looking for?
Read article here
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Helping students conduct better Google searches
Google's "search anthropologist" offers 12 tipsfor teaching students how to use Google to conduct research efficiently and to judge the quality of the information they find. Read blog entry here
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Success with new way of teaching languages
Jenny McKinney (a teacher at Carey Grammar) attended a workshop run by Wendy Maxwell - a Canadian immersion teacher responsible for a major breakthrough in second language instruction. She now uses gestures,music, dance and theatre to teach French. Her students achieve remarkable fluency, despite the fact that she threw away her textbooks and lists of nouns and verb conjugations. Read article here
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Playing to Learn
New Book: Meier, Engel & Taylor, "Playing for Keeps: Life and Learning on a Public School Playground."
See also, the following article: http://susanohanian.org/show_yahoo.php?id=685 |
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Talking and Listening the key to Literacy
Improving the ability of teachers to recognise students with poor oral language skills and targeted intervention to improve them can produce stunning improvement in literacy and learning. Read article here |
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Tech gadgets aid teachers, less so students
As gadgets such as laptops and tablets are used by schools in Singapore, educators said some efficiency has been gleaned but downsides such as distraction and lack of tangible results to students' grades exist.
Read report here |
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Good first teachers equally important as small classes
Having consistently good teachers in the first years of school is just as important for student achievement as small class sizes. The study shows that "teacher effects do not fade, but remain strong predictors of student achievement" and that we must identify and hire effective teachers in the early grades. Read article here |
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Fundamentalism Kills
Fundamentalists, religious or secular, do not challenge their own beliefs of investigate the beliefs of others. They don't bother with the hard and laborious work of religious, linguistic, historical and cultural understanding. They do not engage in self-criticism or self-reflection. Fundamentalists have no interest in real debate, real dialogue, real intellectual thought. Fundamentalism is about feeling holier, smarter and more powerful than everyone else. [Question: Does the growth of fundamentalism make critical literacy evenmore important for the new Australian Curriculum?] Read article here |
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Repeat years do low-achievers no good: OECD
Forcing low-achieving students to repeat grades is a recipe for porr performance, an analysis of the latest international test data shows. The data also links the practice of transferring weak or disruptive students to other schools to bad outcomes. Read article here |
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Web weaves its effect on young brains
Heavy use of the internet by adolescents has been linked to the shrinking of brain tissue. Teenagers may be chatting with friends more than ever on Facebok, but the loss of eye contact and physical closeness is unleashing changes equivalent for humanity to that of climate change. Read article here |
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Should children with special needs be taught in a mainstream class?
Read various viewpoints here. |
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Screen but not heard: kids tap into digital age
A quarter of 3 year olds with internet access go online every day, a study reveals. By 8, they are regularly playing with gadgets such as iPods, iPads and video games, as well as watching television, taking their total daily exposure to digital media to about 8 hours. Read article here |
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What Facebook (and other websites) Is Hiding From You
In their own lives most people are shielded from viewpoints that do not mesh with their own, making it difficult to build the diverse coalitions that lead to real change. ... Companies like Goodle, Facebook and Acxiom are using increasingly sophisticated programs to map your personality. "Web personalization" directs us to viewpoints and interests similar to our own, shielding us from alternative viewpoints.
Read article here |
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Study from White House: Arts integration raise achievement in reading, math
A study by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities says arts education is an effective tool for school reform, even as arts education funding has declined. Read article here |
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The Myth of the Normal Curve
No other shape has influenced education as much as the bell-shaped curve. It thrusts everything calculable into its form to be ranked, ordered and rendered meaningful. The problem is that the normal curve is best suited to represent distributions of random events, and human behavior and experiences are never random. The book highlights the fallacies of using the normal curve in education and challenges the assumption that intellect naturally occurs along the lines of a bell-shaped distribution. Read article here |
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Possible links between autism and power stations
The Federal Government is being urged to release statistics which could identify a link between autism rates and coal-fired power stations. Read article here |
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Five Amazing Games that add a third dimension to learning
To read about these educational games, click here.
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Teaching the Facebook generation
Schools have had to act fast to try to manage the widespread use of Facebook and other social media by students and teachers. Read article here |
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Meet the most important person in your child's schooling – you
The research is clear. Read article here.
The biggest factor in whether students succeed in school is the attitude of their parents. That means: (1) Read to your children. (2) Build self-confidence and encourage. (3) Set high but realistic expectations. (4) Show your support and enthusiasm. (5) Create a study space, stay organised. (6) Stay involved, parent-teachers associations are powerful. (7) Encourage learning at home. (8) The ZZZZ Factor. (9) Limit television, social networking sites and electronic games. |
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Abusing Research
How we might deal with those who claim that their absurd pedagogies, practices or theories are 'evidence-based' or 'research-based.' Read article here
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Language Rules are meant to be broken
For linguists, the statement "language change is inevitable" is uncontroversial. Yet we're constantly told that teenagers are destroying the English language. Most languages have "standard" varieties which are used for formal occasions, but when communicating with friends and family, online, or in other informal situations, "vernacular" or "colloquial" language is more appropriate. Read article here
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Reading TO kids pays off, research shows
Literacy advocates say magic hapens when a young child is read to regularly. Research shows that the love of reading at an early age is key to success in school and later life. Read article here
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Lessons to be learned from Paulo Freire as education is being taken over by the mega rich
At a time when memory is being erased and the political relevance of education is dismissed in the language of measurement and quantification, it is all the more important to remember the legacy and work of Paulo Freire. Read article here
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Schools integrate dance into core academics
Integrating the arts appears to be gaining a stronger foothold, as advocates struggle to ensure time and support for their disciplines. Read article here
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Setting Young Minds Free
Chris Bonner (a board member of Big Picture Education Australia) takes the latest fads in schooling with a pinch of salt but one project to help disadvantaged children has made him a convert. Read article here |
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Language Gap for disadvantaged children
One in five Melbourne four-year-olds have difficulty using or understanding language, putting them at risk of long-term learning difficulties. Read article here |
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Handwriting proves a stretch for computer-savvy students
Year 12 students are taking classes to relearn the art of using a pen and paper so they can successfully negotiate the Higher School Certificate. Read article here. (Note: Are we letting students down by not spending enough time on handwriting?) |
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Kids have no time for play
Time for play andhaving a childhood is being sacrificed in the race for higher marks at school. Parents have told the herald their children are doing too much homework - up to an hour or more a day in kindergarten. Click here to read article |
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New thinking backs daydream believers
There is mounting evidence amongst brain researchers and psychologists that daydreaming is good for us. It helps students to plan and to develop self-regulation. Daydreaming has been an important factor for creative, successful scientists who have really advanced things. Schools need to recognise the power of daydreaming. Schools could benefit by allowing brief periods where children can relax into their own throughts or draw, or write tings down in a free and imaginative way. Click here to read article. |
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Options for special needs kids
Debate is intensifying over whether children with special needs or disabilities should be educated away from mainstream classrooms. Article here |
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The Case for $320,000 Prep/Kinder teachers
New study: Students who learned more in their first year at school were more likely to go to college than students with otherwise similar backgrounds. As adults, they were earning more. Early years teachers are worth more than they are earning! Read report here
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What's Wrong with Accountability?
The measurement of student achievement can be a useful determinant of educational policy and reform. But not if it is folded into a scheme of high stakes accountability that promotes aggressive individualism in America’s schools. Reformers have yet to face up to the fact that the complexity of their task has far more to do with not destroying the very features that make education an uplifting, noble endeavor than it has to do with perfecting their devices for measuring and judging individual performance.
Click here to read this article.
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Putting the "Boy Crisis" in context
Finding solutions to boys' reading problems may require looking beyond gender.
Click here to read this article.
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Would later school start times benefit Australian students?
Research shows students who start school later in the day sleep more, contribute more in class, have better attendance and report fewer cases of depression, among other benefits. Click here to read this article. |
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Children need food, health care, and books. Not new standards and tests.
The single strategy to improve education is to eliminate or drastically reduce poverty. Click here to read this timely article by Professor Stephen Krashen at the Univeristy of Southern California. |
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Why do Finland's schools get the best results?
Click here to read this article, and then wonder why Minister Gillard doesn't follow their approach (instead of the failed approach taken in the US and the UK).
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Jonathan Kozol, Savage Inequalities
Kozol's latest book dramatically documents the lack of opportunity presented to many poor students. Essential reading. Click here to read his advice to the Obama administration. |
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Getting Real Reading to work
Reading for pleasure is a key factor and indicator of learning and intellectual growth. Read the article by clicking here -- it's worth it! |
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All languages are created in the same brain areas
Karen Emmorey, a professor of speech language at San Diego University, suggests language is universal and doesn't depend on whether people use their voices or their hands to talk. Read article here |
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Doubt About Learning Styles
"At present, there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice." Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence, in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Volume 9, No 3, December 2008. Jay Mathews, an education columnist for The Washington Post, summarises the report and concludes that learning styles are hogwash. Read the report here.
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NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing
The National Council of Teachers of English has released this Position Paper on the teaching of writing. Highly Recommended. |
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Synthetic phonics fails in England - Schools freed from central grip Click here to read report
The 'literacy hour' which prescribed synthetic phonics in English classrooms has failed (no change in standards since the 1950s). Now, in a stunning U-turn, schools are being freed from central control. The £100million spent every year will now go to schools instead. They will spend it as they see fit on teaching English and maths. |
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The Next Generation of Testing
Since the IBM Type 805 Test Scoring Machine first hit the market in 1938, fill-in-the-bubble score sheets and multiple-choice test items have remained the dominant approach to assessment. Such an approach measures only a portion of the skills and knowledge outlined in state standards and does not align well with what we know about how students learn. Read article here
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Confessions of a Twilight Addict
An English teacher and scholar, who loves the classics, explains why she loves the TWILIGHT series.
Read article here |
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Finnish schools succeed because teaching is valued
Finland, whose pupils have been the top performers in international tests run by the OECD, puts equity in the way it treats children as among its top priorities. Also, just one in 10 teacher applicants wins a place to train as a teacher, and all take masters degrees. The schools are truly comprehensive and do NOT stream pupils.
Read article here |
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Aussie School tries to liberate teen brains
Unusual Australian school demonstrates what teaching teenagers could look like if their biology were taken seriously. Read article here |
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10 False Assumptions behind "Race to the Top"
Marian Brady, a veteran teacher, administrator, curriculum designer and author, writes about the false assumptions behind the US "Race to the Top" initiative. There are important messages here for Australian educators in a time when our Federal Minister of Education believes we have something to learn from education in the US. Read article here
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Examining the "No Effects" phenomenon in education research
Experimental research studies in education often produce the same results: 'No effects,' 'No effects,' 'No effects.' Veteran educators have seen many widely touted research-based innovations come and go with little serious change in student achievement. Read article here |
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Gifted, talented, but it's no easy ride
Despite the introduction of gifted and talented classes and the growth of selective schools, many feel that Australian culture stigmatises rather than values intellectual ability. Read article here |
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Successful ELL Policies (English Language Learning)
This report identifies the factors involved in successful ELL programs. See report here.
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Geurrillas to locate literacy in brain
Former guerrillas in Colombia have helped neuroscientists locate which parts of the brain are involved in literacy. Read article here |
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Can I have your attention?
Caroline Milburn, 12 October 2009, The Age Read report here
One in four teachers loses 30% of classroom time because of disruptive student behaviour and administrative tasks, according to a report card of the world's education systems. |
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First three years key to school success: study
Adele Horin, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 July 09 Click here to read article
How children are faring before they turn four is a strong guide to early school success. It is more important than what happens to them in the year immediately before they start school. |
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Literacy Educators Gather to be Inspired by Global Scholars
Prof Brian Cambourne, certainly a global scholar, spoke to literacy educators in the United States about natural language learning. Click here to read more. |
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Inspirational Speech by Ian Thorpe: Australia's Dirty Little Secret
9 July 2009
Click here to read Ian Thorpe's speech about the plight of many indigenous Australians. This will stir your conscience! |
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Study: Focus on teacher performance causes decline in student achievement
This link will take you to a University of London study, in Portugal, that concludes, "Our results consistently indicate that the increased focus on individual teacher performance caused significant deline in student achievement, particularly in terms of national exams." http://ftp.iza.org/dp4051.pdf |
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To the barricades
Brian Caldwell (University of Melbourne) says it's time for the community to rise up and demand a better deal for schools. Click here to read article.
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To quality through equity in a Finnish way
Pirjo Sinko, from Finland, recently gave a keynote address at the national AATE/ALEA conference in Hobart. She explained that Finland has little difference between schools and that a comprehensive, inclusive education system is the right of every child. (Not so in Australia, sadly.) Click here |
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Technology continues to depersonalize us
Technology and automation no doubt save money and time, but they also have taken a toll on personal interaction. We need to question the validity of inserting more automation when judging human potential. The raw numbers obtained from standardized tests are flawed and we can mourn an era when we were better able to make judgments person to person, rather than through the lens of automated technology that "quantifies" who we are. (Clay Evans, Daily Camera online) Click here to read article
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Education does not equal a head full of facts
Marco Torres, a member of Obama's education taskforce and award-winning teacher, asks a simple question: What is an educated person? He says there is a chasm between learning and schooling. Click here to read the article. (The Australian, 9 June 09) |
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Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments
OECD Directorate for Education. Click here to read report
OECD's Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) provides the first internationally comparative perspective on the conditions of teaching and learning, based on data fromover 70,000 lower secondary teachers and principals. Three out of four teachers feel they lack incentives to improve the quality of their teaching, while bad behaviour by students disrupts lessons in three schools out of five. |
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Beyond Reading and Writing
Kathy Walker in "The Age" (18 May 2009) Education is about the "whole" child, and a focus on literacy and numeracy means that other skills lose out. Click here to read the article. |
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No Longer Letting Scores Separate Pupils
Winnie Hu, The New York times, 14 June 2009 Click here to read report
Sixth graders in a Middle School in Connecticut were ranked 'high', 'middle' or 'low' depending on the previous year's standardized test scores. But this longstanding system for tracking children developed into an uncomfortable caste system in which students were largely segregated by race and socioeconomic background, both inside and outside the classrooms. After mixing the classes, the school reported fewer behavior problems and better grades for struggling students, but also some complaints from high-perfoming students who said they were not learning as much. |
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Phonics, Reading, Common Sense and the Dangers of "Read-i-cide"
Prof Brian Cambourne (March 2009)
Phonics, Reading, Common Sense and The Dangers of "Read-i-cide"
It makes much more sense to teach phonic knowledge in the context of learning to write, than in the context of learning to read.
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The Riches of Learning
June Factor, The Age, 23 March 2009. Click here to read June Factor's article.
The Cambridge Primary Review concludes that "a policy-led belief that curriculum breadth is incompatible with the pursuit of standards in 'the basics' is false. Consistent evidence over decades demonstrates that far from being a threat to achieved standards in 'the basics', a broad, rich, balanced and well-managed curriculum is actually the prerequisite for those standards." |
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Early Years Learning Framework
The Australian Government is committed to the development of a national Early Years Learning Framework. A Discussion Paper is available. |
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No Shame in Failing
There is absolutely no shame in failure. Once we learn to define failure as an opportunity to learn, the better our lives will be. Click here to read the article from ON LINE opinion. |
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Stop High-Stakes Testing: An Appeal to America's Conscience
This new book may be relevant in Australia if Rudd and Gillard go the American way: high-stakes testing. Click here for a review of the book by Audrey Amrein-Beardsley. |
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Toward a definition of 21st-century literacies
Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy.
A position paper from NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English). |
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Good grammar without the grief
An article by Mark Tredinnick, author of "The Little Green Grammar Book." Sydney Morning Herald
(6-10-08) Click here |
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Shaping a progressive revolution in education
Neil Hooley, Lecturer, School of Education, Victoria University (January 2008)
Published in 'The Age' with the title, "Students Deserve Genuine Educational Reform."
Click here to read the article -- it is a great argument for inquiry based learning in accessible language. |
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Education or Learning
Education is different from learning. Children are programmed to learn and develop: that is the work of childhood and youth. Education institutionalises that work. We spend many hours thinking about our children's education, but little time actually thinking about our children's learning. Click here to read the article (On Line Opinion, 12 February 2008) |
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Refugees in our schools
Schools are the best place to address the damage done to young refugees, says Dorothy Hoddinott (principal of Holroyd High School in Sydney). Click here to read this article from Teacher (ACER National Education Magazine). |
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All our students thinking
Any subject – be it physics, art, or auto repair – can promote critical thinking as long as teachers teach in intellectually challenging ways. Click here to read this article from Educational Leadership, February 2008, Volume 65, Number 5. |
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The cost of accommodating classroom technology
Michael Bugeja, Teachers College Record, 14 Dec 2007
In the course of thirty years in higher education, I have seen technology used as delivery system, then as content in the classroom, and finally as classroom, building and campus itself, and in every case, pedagogy changed to accommodate the technology. Click here to read the article.
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NCTE Guideline:
On Reading, Learning to Read, and Effective Reading Instruction:
an overview of what we know and how we know it.
National Council of Teachers of English. http://www.ncte.org/about/over/positions/category/read/118620.htm |
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ONLINE LITERATURE FESTIVAL
The festival, which engages thousands of young people from all schools across Australia, is on again. See www.learningplace.com.au/sc/ipswich/olf
"Ideas, concepts, stories, raps, conversations with mystery guests andinterviews with loved and renowned Australian authors, illustrators, publishers, game makers, script writers and songwriters will leap from keyboards in Australia’s largest online festival. This highly creative and interactive online festival captivates, excites and amazes all who participate." |
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Harry Potter Casts a Spell on Student Readers
Resources for exploring Harry Potter in your classroom: National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). http://www.ncte.org/groups/cee/inbox/127655.htm |
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Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America's Schools
Nichols, Sharon & Berliner, David (2007)
Click here to read the review by Susan Ohanian, Education Review, May 2007.
"High stakes testing is wrong – intellectually, morally, and practically. Not only will it 'not work' to improve education, it is already doing demonstrable harm."
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Educating the Whole Child
Special Report. "The Whole Child: An International Perspective."
Click here for short report.
To download the full report, go to www.unicef-icdc.org/publications/pdf/rc7_eng.pdf
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Quality School Leadership
Katina Zammit et.al. (University of Western Sydney) "Teaching and Leading for Quality Australian Schools: a review and synthesis of research-based knowledge." Click here
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Beyond the Reading Wars
A new book, published by PETA, which helps teachers and parents of primary children struggling to understand the issues behind the debate related to the teaching of reading.
Open and print a FLYER (pdf file) or lick on this link:
http://www.peta.edu.au/Catalogue/Publications/books/page__1589.aspx
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