Category: pedagogy

Design Thinking for Teachers 1.0: centring the learning experience
pedagogy · Philosophy of Education · Policy

Design Thinking for Teachers 1.0: centring the learning experience

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In earlier blogs, I describe educational learning as a series of designed learning experiences.  In this blog, I want to focus on the issue of Design Thinking.  As with previous blogs, Ruth Swailes provides concrete examples. Originally conceptualised to address physical objects designers increasingly apply Design Thinking to complex interactions like customer experiences. In an educational context,… Continue reading Design Thinking for Teachers 1.0: centring the learning experience

On extreme instructivism and the social construction of evidence
pedagogy · Philosophy of Education

On extreme instructivism and the social construction of evidence

edsacredprofane2 Comments

I was struck by Lorraine Hammond’s recent piece for The Conversation, favourably comparing explicit instruction with inquiry learning. Hammond describes inquiry as “based on a theory of learning called constructivism” and: (…) a type of learning where, before students are shown the essential information, they are asked to practise a task, and then discover and construct some or all of the essential… Continue reading On extreme instructivism and the social construction of evidence

On Ofsted’s definition of learning and designing an alternative
Ofsted · pedagogy · Philosophy of Education

On Ofsted’s definition of learning and designing an alternative

edsacredprofane3 Comments

Introduction This blog, outlines the problematic nature of Ofsted’s definition of learning, offering an alternative 1. Ofsted defines learning as: (…) an alteration in long term memory. If nothing has altered in long-term memory, nothing has been learned 2. Learning causes alterations in memory but so does forgetting. You could easily replace learning with forgetting and Ofsted’s definition would work equally as well. Ofsted suffers… Continue reading On Ofsted’s definition of learning and designing an alternative

On curriculum objects and designing learning experiences for the early years and beyond
Blog · pedagogy · Philosophy of Education

On curriculum objects and designing learning experiences for the early years and beyond

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In our previous blog, Ruth and I discussed the use of the discovery method.  I want to revisit that blog,  and the knowledge object 1 + 1 = 2, and cast a material lens1 on the nature of curriculum knowledge. As Ruth points out, this approach is particularly relevant to the early years because of… Continue reading On curriculum objects and designing learning experiences for the early years and beyond

On the sacred and profane of powerful knowledge
pedagogy · Policy · Powerful knowledge · Progressivism

On the sacred and profane of powerful knowledge

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Introduction School’s minister, Nick Gibb, frequently talks about the national curriculum in terms of a canon. In ancient Greek, a canon referred to a measuring rod, which could offer a symbolic description of the current education system.  The canon of the medieval education system was the gospels; the trivium introduced the medieval elite to the word of… Continue reading On the sacred and profane of powerful knowledge

On episodic and semantic memory: a caution against a prosaic curriculum
pedagogy

On episodic and semantic memory: a caution against a prosaic curriculum

edsacredprofane1 Comment

I thought it might be it might be useful to share the following four research papers on episodic and semantic memory: 1. Interaction between episodic and semantic memory networks in the acquisition and consolidation of novel spoken words, 2. How do episodic and semantic memory contribute to episodic foresight in young children? 3. Hippocampal Activation during Episodic and… Continue reading On episodic and semantic memory: a caution against a prosaic curriculum

An argument for discovery learning in early years classrooms
pedagogy · Progressivism

An argument for discovery learning in early years classrooms

edsacredprofane10 Comments

In this blog, I intend to address the issue of discovery learning. Critics have claimed that discovery learning has been the dominant ideology in education for much of the past 50 years. Some consider it to be the cause of many of the problems suffered by education during that period. I want to address the… Continue reading An argument for discovery learning in early years classrooms

pedagogy

Some thoughts on academic and non-academic subjects

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In his latest two blogs, Old Andrew defines an academic subject as: (…)  one where mastery of it was best characterised by further study. The people who are best at history, are historians and they study history. In this blog, I offer an alternative view. I do not suggest that Old Andrew is wrong in his… Continue reading Some thoughts on academic and non-academic subjects

pedagogy

On Professional Development: the smallness of repeated actions

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Educational practice is, arguably, a specific form of human experience. Schutz describes “meaning” as a human reflection upon experience (or practice) making a distinction between experience and the meaning of that experience to the individual. In other words, what we do as teachers is not the same as the way we think about what we do. In… Continue reading On Professional Development: the smallness of repeated actions

On fabricated classroom practice: norm circles, placebos and evidence proxies
Ofsted · pedagogy · Policy

On fabricated classroom practice: norm circles, placebos and evidence proxies

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  I’ve been thinking about feedback; more specifically, how do you know whether feedback given to students is good or otherwise? Despite the research, I’m not convinced that feedback is a good thing per se. Good feedback is a good thing, bad feedback isn’t. You might think that is self-evident but research suggesting that feedback… Continue reading On fabricated classroom practice: norm circles, placebos and evidence proxies