- 24 March 2015
- Education & Family
Monday, 30 March 2015
Wednesday, 25 March 2015
'Give children time to really learn
Do you remember the Slow Food movement?
It appealed for people to reconnect with authenticity through local produce and move away from an experience that had become highly processed and industrialised. More wonky carrots, less air freighting from the other side of the world.
Now Slow Education is here, with a similar hope of recapturing a learning experience that is somehow more personal and authentic.
Its advocates argue something crucial has been mislaid in schools.
They blame a culture of continuous testing, a push to improve exam results and standardise performance, and a large dose of inspection to ensure that all happens.
The campaign group, formally launched this week, wants to see some less structured learning across subjects, and longer-form projects that allow children to experiment and sometimes fail as they learn.
Less emphasis on teaching to the test will, Slow Education says, deliver children more able to think independently.
International comparisons
Some of this fits within the growing interest in the kind of international comparisons made by the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) tests run by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
Pisa claims to measure not what children know, but how well they apply their knowledge and skills in something closer to real-life problem solving.
But it was England's performance in Pisa tests compared with other economies that was used to justify an extensive overhaul of what children should study in key subjects.
Pisa tests:
Reading top 10 scores:
1. Shanghai 570
2. Hong Kong 545
3. Singapore 542
4. Japan 538
5. South Korea 536
6. Finland 524
7. Ireland 523
8. Taiwan 523
9. Canada 523
10. Poland 518
Source: OECD
If your children are starting to study for their GCSEs this autumn, they will be taught that new curriculum for English language and literature and maths.
Expect more maths homework, and more poetry.
The reality is that testing and inspection are here to stay, and so, to the despair of teenagers for many decades, are exams.
The results are still the key measure used by employers, colleges and universities to offer them opportunities or not.
This is a debate about the balance within schools between delivering good exam results and educating children that can function well not just in exams but in the challenges they will face afterwards.
It is territory the political parties will use to try to tease out the differences in their offer to voters in England on education in the election.
Low expectations
So in her final speech to teachers, Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said giving greater freedoms to some schools and a focus on standards under the coalition was a key part of fighting a "soft bigotry of low expectations".
But she also welcomed a move towards schools devising their own ways of assessing the "real" level of understanding a child has reached.
Shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt addressing the same audience said "children's lives are ruined by low expectations" and that he fully believed in an "interventionist inspectorate" that could root out underperformance.
But he said the idea that children's potential could be fulfilled by just raising the targets and demanding "one more heave" was approaching its "end stages".
In these speeches, we can see the outline of the battle positions of the main parties.
The Conservatives will argue they have re-introduced rigour into England's exams and given more schools the freedom to move away from the national curriculum.
Labour, which does not plan to alter the coalition's changes to the exams, will say instead the next stage needs to be one of re-introducing greater creativity and breadth to how children learn.
The Liberal Democrats have backed the focus on standards with David Laws saying only "half the journey" has been completed. He argued inspection would play a key role making sure the pupil premium championed by the party was used to close the gap for poorer children.
The Slow Education movement may not wish to be entangled with party politics, but politicians will borrow or reject its arguments selectively in order to define their position.
PISA tests:
Maths top 10 scores:
1. Shanghai 613
2. Singapore 573
3. Hong Kong 561
4. Taiwan 560
5. South Korea 554
6. Macau-China 538
7. Japan 536
8. Liechtenstein 535
9. Switzerland 531
10. Netherlands 523
Source: OECD
Friday, 27 February 2015
Study proves classroom design really does matter
Study proves classroom design really does matter
Click to enlarge
In a pilot study by the University of Salford and architects, Nightingale Associates, it was found that the classroom environment can affect a child’s academic progress over a year by as much as 25%.
The year-long pilot study was carried out in seven Blackpool LEA primary schools. 34 classrooms with differing learning environments and age groups took part.
The study took two lines of enquiry. The first was to collect data from 751 pupils, such as their age, gender and performance level in maths, reading and writing at the start and end of an academic year.
The second evaluated the holistic classroom environment, taking into account different design parameters such as classroom orientation, natural light and noise, temperature and air quality. Other issues such as flexibility of space, storage facilities and organisation, as well as use of colour were evaluated.
This holistic assessment includes both classroom design and use factors to identify what constitutes an effective learning environment.
Notably, 73% of the variation in pupil performance driven at the class level can be explained by the building environment factors measured in this study.
Current findings suggest that placing an average pupil in the least effective, rather than the most effective classroom environment could affect their learning progress by as much as the average improvement across one year.
Professor Peter Barrett, School of the Built Environment, University of Salford said: “It has long been known that various aspects of the built environment impact on people in buildings, but this is the first time a holistic assessment has been made that successfully links the overall impact directly to learning rates in schools. The impact identified is in fact greater than we imagined and the Salford team is looking forward to building on these clear results.”
The pilot study was commissioned by THiNK, the research and development team at Nightingale Associates. The practice will use these initial findings to inform their designs and work with schools undertaking refurbishment or build new projects to maximise their investment in the learning environment.
Design Research Lead, Caroline Paradise from Nightingale Associates, said: “We are excited by these early findings which suggest that the classroom plays an important role in pupil performance. This will support designers and educators in targeting investment in school buildings to where it will have the most impact, whether new build or refurbishment.”
Through these promising findings, the study will continue for another 18 months and cover another 20 schools in different areas of the UK. This study is being funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The findings are in reference to a study sample of 751 pupils in Blackpool LEA. Pupil performance was measured against statistics for all the participants and all data captured maintained pupil anonymity.
The study took place over one academic year, between September 2011 and June 2012.
Thursday, 22 January 2015
Which of these top 20 programming languages should your school teach?
One IT expert and educator discusses the how and why of choosing the right programming language
“Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.” -John Woods
Way back in the 1970s, working as a computer programmer was quite prestigious, and if you wanted to get into computer programming, your potential employer would more often than not put you through a batch of aptitude tests in order to determine your suitability: even if you had a degree.Nowadays, programming is more widespread and you don’t need a degree to be a programmer; it’s no longer mainly for scientists and engineers: students studying the humanities, English as a foreign language students, people building websites, and a whole host of other folks are learning to program. This non-technical article will give you novices [non-expert instructors] out there some basic guidance in choosing a programming language that is appropriate not only for your students’ needs, but for faculty and staff interested in online basics.
The most important question on people’s minds will probably be, “What programming language(s) do I need to learn?”
In order to answer this question, a personal PAL (Purpose, Ability, and Level) should be able to help. A person’s PAL will guide him or her through the complex maze of programming languages so that he or she can find the most suitable one(s):
Purpose: What you need to do, will determine what programming language(s) you need to learn. It is of the utmost importance that your purpose is correctly served by the use of an appropriate programming language: choosing the wrong one may result in a program that is wholly unsuitable for your purposes–as well as wasted hours of code writing.
Ability: If you aren’t especially logically wired, avoid learning difficult programming languages. If you are faced with choosing from several almost equally appropriate programming languages–always go for the one(s) that are most appropriate for your ability–otherwise, you’ll soon discover that “Profanity is the one language all programmers know best.”
Level: Make sure that the chosen programming language is at a suitable level of complexity and appropriateness. You wouldn’t try to teach calculus to kids at grade school–so don’t select programming languages that are either excessively complex or inappropriate for your students’ level of maturity and education. Let’s now look at some specific situations…
According to the prestigious IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), the top twenty programming languages to learn right now are as follows:
- Java
- C
- C++
- Python
- C# (pronounced C-sharp)
- PHP
- JavaScript
- Ruby
- R
- MATLAB (matrix laboratory)
- Perl
- SQL
- Assembly
- HTML
- Visual Basic
- Objective-C
- Scala
- Shell
- Arduino
- Go
Programming for beginners/young students
Programming languages can be taught to beginning students—especially kids. Here are three programming languages worth considering:
Turtle Art: “Turtle Art is an activity with a Logo-inspired graphical ‘turtle’ that draws colorful art based on Scratch-like snap-together visual programming elements.”
Scratch: Scratch allows children to program their own interactive stories, games, and animations; these can be shared online with other users.
Tynker: Beginners can learn the basics of programming or coding games with this programming language.
Programming for middle and high school kids
VBScript (Visual Basic Scripting Edition) is a programming language developed by Microsoft that is modeled on Visual Basic: this will probably be the first formal programming language learned. You, as a teacher, should also learn it!
Teachers might also like to look at Lua, and Papyrus for Skyrim.
Building a website for business, pleasure, or education
If you, or a student, are interested in building a website, you will need to know the following programming languages:
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). HTML is an example of a Markup language: the programming language that is used to write the code for your website: currently HTML5.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). This is the programming language used for describing the web pages written in a Markup language. It controls the actual appearance of the web pages that you see when you visit a website.
JavaScript is a programming language that is used to create an interactive environment within web browsers.
jQuery is a JavaScript library of codes, which is noted for its speed, compactness, and feature rich content; it has changed the way that people write JavaScript: most web developers prefer to use this than write straight JavaScript because jQuery is easier and can perform all the same tasks with less code.
You might also like to look at one of the following programming languages: PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), Ruby, or Python. Incidentally, it is said that Python is currently the most popular language for teaching introductory courses in computer science at top-ranked U.S. university departments.
Incidentally, building an educational website can be a great tool for teaching English as a foreign language, humanities students, and other foreign language students: it shouldn’t be thought that websites are only for sciences and math students. Build your own website and use it for setting online homework, multiple choice tests, and quizzes – include a students’ blog and then sit back and watch your students enjoy it.
Building a website may seem challenging, but it’s not as difficult as it seems. HTML is, comparatively speaking, an easy language to learn; furthermore, CSS code can be mastered with a little bit of perseverance, and jQuery is well worth learning to use.
Programming for business
If a student is interested in becoming a programmer in the business world, two programming languages to become familiar with are:
COBOL (Common Business Oriented Language) is used for payroll, accounting, and other business application programs.
SQL (Structured Query Language – for databases) is a specially designed programming language for managing data in relational database management systems; it is mainly used for its ‘Query’ function, which is used to search informational databases.
Programming for academia, education, research and industry
If you as a faculty or IT member are involved in research, education, or industry:
MATLAB (matrix laboratory) is widely used in all fields of applied mathematics, in academia, education, research, and in industry. As a programming language, it is one of the easiest for writing mathematical programs.
C languages (C, C++, C#, Objective-C) one or more of these general-purpose programming languages are well worth knowing, wherever you go.
Friday, 7 November 2014
Great Lessons (TOM SHERRINGTON)
This series of posts is about the habits of teaching; the things we do every day; the strategies and attitudes that define our default mode. These are the characteristics of lessons that feel outstanding as soon as you walk in… no tricks, no gizmos, just embedded routine practice.
Please read the full Great Lessons Series:
Please read the full Great Lessons Series:
Wednesday, 22 October 2014
How teachers’ myths about the brain are hampering teaching
How teachers’ myths about the brain are hampering teaching
October 17, 2014
Photographs of the left and right midsagittal sections of Einstein’s brain (credit: the National Museum of Health and Medicine)
Teachers in the UK, Holland, Turkey, Greece and China were presented with seven “neuromyths” and asked whether they believe them to be true.
A quarter or more of teachers in the UK and Turkey believe a student’s brain would shrink if they drank less than six to eight glasses of water a day, while around half or more of those surveyed believe a student’s brain is only 10 per cent active and that children are less attentive after sugary drinks and snacks.
Over 70 per cent of teachers in all countries wrongly believe a student is either left-brained or right-brained, peaking at 91 per cent in the UK.
And almost all teachers (over 90 per cent in each country) feel that teaching to a student’s preferred learning style — auditory, kinaesthetic or visual — is helpful, despite no convincing evidence to support this approach.
The new research from the University of Bristol, published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, calls for better communication between neuroscientists and educators.
“These ideas are often sold to teachers as based on neuroscience, but modern neuroscience cannot be used support them,” said Paul Howard-Jones, author of the article, from Bristol University’s Graduate School of Education. “These ideas have no educational value and are often associated with poor practice in the classroom.”
The report blames wishfulness, anxiety, and a bias towards simple explanations as typical factors that distort neuroscientific fact into neuromyth.
“Sometimes, transmitting ‘boiled-down’ messages about the brain to educators can just lead to misunderstanding, and confusions about concepts such as brain plasticity are common in discussions about education policy.”
The report highlights several areas where new findings from neuroscience are becoming misinterpreted by education, including brain-related ideas regarding early educational investment, brain plasticity, adolescent brain development, and learning disorders such as dyslexia and ADHD.
Hopes that education will draw genuine benefit from neuroscience may rest on a new but rapidly growing field of “neuroeducational” research that combines both fields, he said.
Abstract of Neuroscience and education: myths and messages
For several decades, myths about the brain — neuromyths — have persisted in schools and colleges, often being used to justify ineffective approaches to teaching. Many of these myths are biased distortions of scientific fact. Cultural conditions, such as differences in terminology and language, have contributed to a ‘gap’ between neuroscience and education that has shielded these distortions from scrutiny. In recent years, scientific communications across this gap have increased, although the messages are often distorted by the same conditions and biases as those responsible for neuromyths. In the future, the establishment of a new field of inquiry that is dedicated to bridging neuroscience and education may help to inform and to improve these communications.
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