The second most important word in education?

It has been said that the most important word in the language is a person’s name.  And it is probably true - we all respond well to the use of our name, we feel that the speaker knows us, which makes us feel valued.

But, at  professional development session recently with Dylan Wiliam, author of “Embedded formative assessment”,  he mentioned a word he ranks as the most important word in education.  “Yet.”
It is a simple word that carries a powerful message.
Consider the child who says “I can’t do this.”  The educator’s response is “Yet."


The message is clear - this simple word sends powerful messages;

• You may not be able to do this task now, but with effort and practice you will be able to.  

• You have the capacity to do this.
• You can improve.
• You can get better.
• You can and will learn.
• Making an excuse is not an escape -you can and will learn this thing.

What a simple way to deliver a powerful message - possibly the most effective way of sending this message I’ve come across - yet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Readers might like to read a longer and more detailed post on a similar theme - “The more I practice the luckier I get - mindset”  here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Poor Scholar's Soliloquy

I came across this piece only recently - despite it first appearing in 1944. Despite its age it seems as modern as tomorrow.  I don’t think any commentary that I could add would improve it. The author, Stephen M. Corey, was Dean of Teachers College, Columbia University.

THE POOR SCHOLAR'S SOLILOQUY

Stephen M. Corey "Childhood Education" - January 1944

No, I'm not very good in school. This is my second year in the seventh grade, and I'm bigger and taller than the other kids. They like me all right, though, even if I don't say much in the classroom, because outside I can tell them how to do a lot of things. They tag me around and that sort of makes up for what goes on in school.

I don't know why the teachers don't like me. They never have very much. Seems like they don't think you know anything unless you can name the books it comes out of. I've got a lot of books in my room at home-books like Popular Science Mechanical Encyclopedia, and the Sears & Wards catalogues--but I don't sit down and read them like they make us do in school. I use my books when I want to find something out, like whenever mom buys anything second-hand I look it up in Sears or Wards first and tell her if she's getting stung or not. I can use the index in a hurry.

In school, though, we've got to learn whatever is in the book and I just can't memorize the stuff. Last year I stayed after school every night for two weeks trying to learn the names of the presidents. Of course, I knew some of them--like Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln, but there must have been thirty altogether, and I never did get them straight. I'm not too sorry though, because the kids who learned the presidents had to turn right around and learn all the vice-presidents. I am taking the seventh grade over, but our teacher this year isn't so interested in the names of the presidents. She has us trying to learn the names of all the great American inventors.

I guess I just can't remember the names in history. Anyway, this year I've been trying to learn about trucks because my uncle owns three, and he says I can drive one when I'm sixteen. I already know the horsepower and number of forward and backward speeds of twenty-six American trucks, some of them Diesels, and I can spot each make a long way off. It's funny how that Diesel works. I started to tell my teacher about it last Wednesday in science class when the pump we were using to make a vacuum in a bell jar got hot, but she, didn't see what a Diesel engine had to do with our experiment on air pressure, so I just kept still. The kids seemed interested though. I took four of them around to my uncle's garage after school, and we saw the mechanic, Gus, tear a big truck Diesel down. Boy does he know his stuff!

I'm not very good in geography either. They call it economic geography this year. We've been studying the imports and exports of Chile all week, but I couldn't tell what they are. Maybe the reason is I had to miss school yesterday because my uncle took me and his big truck down and we brought almost 10 tons of livestock to the Chicago market.

He had told me where we were going, and I had to figure out the highways to take and also the mileage. He didn't do anything but drive and turn where I told him to, Was that fun. I sat with a map in my lap, and told him to turn south, or southeast, or some other direction. We made seven stops, and drove over 500 miles round trip. I'm figuring now what his oil cost, and also the wear and tear on the truck--he calls it depreciation--so we'll know how much we made.

I even write out all the bills and send letters to the farmers about what their pigs and beef cattle brought at the stockyards. I only made three mistakes in 17 letters last time, my aunt said, all commas. She's been through high school and reads them over. I wish I could write school themes that way. The last one I had to write was on, "What a Daffodil Thinks of Spring," and I just couldn't get going.

I don't do very well in school in arithmetic either. Seems I just can't keep my mind on the problems. We had one the other day like this:

If a 57 foot telephone pole falls across a cement highway so that 17 3/6 feet extended from one side and 14 9/17 feet from the other how wide is the highway?

That seemed to me like an awfully silly way to get the width of a highway. I didn't even try to answer it because it didn't say whether the pole had fallen straight across or not.

Even in shop I don't get very good grades. All of us kids made a broom holder and bookend this term, and mine were sloppy. I just couldn't get interested. Mom doesn't use a broom anymore with her vacuum cleaner, and all our books are in a bookcase with glass doors in the living room. Anyway, I wanted to make an end gate for my uncle's trailer, but the shop teacher said that meant using metal and wood both, and I'd have to learn how to work with wood first. I didn't see why, but I kept still and made a tie rack at school and the tail gate after school at my uncle's garage. He said I saved him ten dollars.

Civics is hard for me, too. I've been staying after school trying to learn the "Articles of Confederation" for almost a week, because the teacher said we couldn't be a good citizen unless we did. I really tried, though, because I want to be a good citizen. I did hate to stay after school because a bunch of boys from the south end of town have been cleaning up the old lot across from Taylor's Machine Shop to make a playground out of it for the little kids from the Methodist home. I made the jungle gym from old pipe. We raised enough money collecting scrap this month to build a wire fence clear around the lot.

Dad says I can quit school when I am sixteen, and I am sort of anxious because there are a lot of things I want to learn--and as my uncle says, I'm not getting any younger.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The piece speaks for itself and needs no augmentation from me.  However, I find it saddening that this piece could have been written today.  Has education changed so little over the years?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Credits:
Text = Stephen M. Corey, "Childhood Education" - January 1944

Image =  http://www.maebs.com/articles/Liz_Davies/TreeAcrossTheRoad.jpg

Educational reform; like building a plane - in flight!

I love this clip. To me it is a wonderful metaphor for educational reform.

One of the major issues with educational reform is that schools have to be operational while education is transformed. We can’t simply shut down the schools and learn new and more effective educational techniques. We need to test and trial our learning when and where it matters - in the classroom with our students. We need to learn new skills while we teach via established methods. There are those who suggest that teachers can learn new approaches when students are on vacation - and to some extent this is true. However, the important aspects of classroom teaching can only be learnt through implementation in the real world - and that means while the students are present. There is a time when a trainee pilot needs to land a plane in real life and not in a simulator.

There are obvious issues with this. Our students are not guinea pigs or lab rats. We should not experiment with them. On the other hand, we need to continually improve our practice - and that means we need to be constantly trialling new approaches or trying to refine and enhance established ones. This balance can be difficult to achieve - perhaps this explains the almost glacial pace of school reform.

Clearly there are risks involved in any educational reform - if any innovation is ineffective then students suffer in comparison to what they may have achieved with another approach. However, there are more risks involved in educational stagnation and ignoring new possibilities and potentials.

So how do we build an educational plane in flight? We start by being clear about what we want to do and why. We acknowledge that established techniques may not be appropriate in this operational environment. We try to anticipate any likely issues and develop responses in advance - or at least be observant and flexible to respond to issues as they arise. We clarify our roles - who does what, when and to what standard? Who checks and assists? How do we know when we have succeeded? We accept that the task may be difficult - but, if we are clear about our objectives, it should be worthwhile.


And then we take a deep breath and build our plane.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Credits: EDS commercial via youtube @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2zqTYgcpfg

Original idea to link to education: Thanks to a long forgotten presenter at a SPERA conference in Darwin who used this clip in his session.

A track less travelled

Like most people I am a creature of habit.  I am also a keen bush walker - partly for exercise, partly for photography, partly for personal therapy.  My most favourite site just happens to be a World Heritage area less than two hours from my home - Cradle Mountain.

I tend to stick to well  trodden paths when I visit. With scenery like this waiting why not?

When you know you will be seeing this why would you go elsewhere?

Yet that is just what I did recently - due, in part, to weather conditions.  Seeing as though my favourite tracks were shrouded in morning mist I went on some of the less well known tracks... and “discovered” this...

and this...

I even met some of the locals...

Not only did I add some gems to my walking catalogue but I also discovered tracks to two other destinations that I had been wanting to visit.  In short, by breaking my habits I discovered some “unknown” locations - but also found some exciting places to explore in the future.

So how does this relate to education?  It struck me that my habits prevented me from exploring other options and opportunities.  This happens in classrooms too.  How many teachers cover the same material every year?  How many people use the same task design year after year? No doubt these are successful teachers - if it didn’t work they wouldn’t do the same things repeatedly.  Yet this approach reduces innovation and exploration of alternate methods - especially in the nature of what the students do.  The curriculum may dictate what students are to be taught - but usually teachers have freedom to select how they  present and get students to explore material.  This is easy to say but possibly a little harder to do - but there are some simple ways for teachers to expand their instructional horizons.  

One might be to use this resource - the Kelly Tenkely's blooming peacock.  This resource identifies areas of Blooms taxonomy and then identifies software that addresses that mode of thinking.  Another llist, by Kathy Schrock ,does the same thing but limits the software to that produced by Google - meaning free and web based. Andrew Churches' Blooms Digital Taxonomy  worksheets also provide advice on how to address Bloom via technology. One way for teachers wishing to expand their skills and move beyond their current habits into 21st Century skills might be to choose one new piece of software per unit and become an accomplished user of that site or program. Once done, select another site that suits your purpose from the next level up in Bloom’s taxonomy. Over a relatively short period of time teachers will have learnt not only a range of useful skills and programs  but shifted their teaching towards the higher end of Bloom’s spectrum.

Taking a fresh look at how we teach and trying something different is likely to be very rewarding - for the teacher as well as the students.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you like the images displayed in this post you may like to view this video I made of walks completed last year. 

Educational reform? Start with the right questions....

Educational reform is a complex area - not only are individual aspects complicated in themselves but the various aspects often interact and entwine and become jumbled in our thought processes.
So where do we start?  How do we know where to direct our energies?  One answer is to ask the right questions before we dilute our energies on activities that may not result in improved student outcomes - irrespective of how they are measured.   A recent post at the The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning may have recently done just that by identifying what the authors call “...the Seven Definitive Questions” of learning.

So what are these questions?

1. How does learning occur?
2. Which factors influence learning?
3. What is the role of memory?
4. How does transfer of knowledge occur?
5. What types of learning are best explained? (If we can understand it better we can provide for it more.)
6. What is the relevance of instructional design? Five assumptions are made about learning here:

1. Learning is multidimensional
2. Learning occurs in various planes simultaneously
3. Learning consists of potentialities which exist infinitely
4. Learning is holistic
5. Learning environments are living systems.

     7.  How should instruction be structured to facilitate learning?

So what does it all mean?
The authors identify several implications, including;

• Online learners have the capacity for a breadth and depth of knowledge that in the past was reserved for the minority with geographical access to educational institutions.
• Courses can be designed that have less reliance on set texts and readings. “Instead learners can be provided with topics and themes and encouraged to seek out information sources and resources to inform themselves.”
• The “isolation” of online learners may actually be a blessing in disguise as it allows “undistracted thinking and reflection”.  “Further, online learners have the freedom to learn at a time and place that is right for them. That is, they have more control over their learning environments. Learning can be engaged in comfortable, personally motivating spaces and places that become their individualized classroom.”

A question that occurs to me after reading this piece is why is it that our classrooms are perceived to be uncomfortable and disengaging places? Certainly they can be - but surely not all should be classified this way? There is a sense though in which the answers provided by the authors may not be as important as the responses their questions might prompt at the school level.  If teachers can confidently explain their understanding of these “definitive” questions they are likely to have a sound understanding of the educational process.  If not...perhaps some professional discussions around these questions would be of benefit. Or perhaps this list is not as “definitive” as the authors suggest?  Schools could do worse than trying to identify what they think are the really important core questions to do with education. Some of my own questions would include;

• “What do we think we know about how students learn?”
• “What are some of the ways in which we teach?”
• “Does our method of teaching align with the way our students learn?”   
• If not, what will we do about it? *

Of course, coming up with “the answers” is the easy part. The real reform begins when our teaching practice reflects our beliefs, not just convention.


Post Script:
I have to admit that I found some aspects of the original article cited here rather dense and wordy. Whilst it  appears to be talking about learning theory in general it then leans towards adult learning, particularly in the online environment (which I suppose is hardly surprising given the focus of the e-journal).
There is also some significant content that I have not presented here but which would reward examination. The source article is certainly worthy of both reading and reflection. Read the source article by Janzen, Perry and Edwards here.

* I have asked myself these and similar questions many times and have come up with the TARGETS mnemonic to guide my educational practice. It is the result of my own reflection and research into effective education and may be of interest.



Credits; graphic http://www.radiowroclove.pl/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/question-mark.jpg

What can QWERTY teach us about education?

 History has virtually forgotten Frank E. McGurrin – which is perhaps a pity given his  unintended but very real impact upon virtually every  person living in the developed world.   It could be argued that it was McGurrin, as winner of the first ever typing contest, that cemented the place of the QWERTY keyboard as the dominant key board layout for typewriters – which evolved (or perhaps mutated) into the computer keyboard.

The survival of the QWERTY keyboard is worth contemplating as it is truly a bizarre story.  The layout of keys with which we are so familiar was actually designed to make typists less efficient – or at least slower.  Early typewriters were mechanically cumbersome and the mechanisms jammed if typists struck the keys too quickly. So,  keys were arranged in such a way as them harder to press quickly – letters that are used more often were moved so that weaker fingers were used to type them or to places where fingers would need to be moved more in order to press them – in other words to slow down the user.  There was considerable experimentation to find the right balance and produce a keyboard that was efficient enough to be better than writing by hand but not so easy as to result in jammed machines.    It is possible to write 70% of all English words using the letters   D H I A T E N S O R  - yet few of them are in favoured positions on the keyboard.   Amazingly, salesmen also apparently had input into the QWERTY design – they wanted to be able to create the word TYPEWRITER  using letters on one line of the keyboard to demonstrate the ease of use of the new machine – and they got their wish.

McGurrin, was employed by a Ms. Longley, also largely forgotten by history despite being the founder of the Shorthand and Typewriter Institute in Cincinnati.  A rival company, using a different configuration of letters on their machine, challenged Longley to a contest to see which company was producing the best typists – McGurrin was nominated to represent his employer and duly won the contest.  This was seen as endorsement of the superiority of QWERTY over other layouts and helped propel the configuration to undisputed domination of the market. (An interesting footnote to this anecdote is that McGurrin was apparently the first typist to memorise the keyboard – and it may well have been the simple fact that he may have been the first touch typist in history rather than any design feature of the keyboard that enabled him to win the competition.)

Over the years typewriters improved, non-jamming machines were created and more efficient keyboard layouts were devised. However, they were not widely adopted – despite being demonstrably more efficient. Even in the electronic age of computers QWERTY continues to rule supreme – despite there being absolutely no phsycial reason for it to do so. I’m writing this on a QWERTY keyboard, every computer in this building have one, all the  keyboards in my house are of that configuration, even my smart phone uses the layout. The  DVORAK keyboard, generally considered to be much more efficient than QWERTY, lies overlooked  in obscurity simply because we have become accustomed to QWERTY . In short, QWERTY is a survivor , it continues on and on and on – despite there being no compelling reason for it anymore. 

There are aspects of the education system that have a striking similarity to QWERTY  in that they continue long after their  usefulness has past. Examples include:

·         Starting and managing student progress through the layers of school according to the calendar rather than on progress, demonstrated learning or readiness.

·         “Streaming” students despite both social-constructivist theory and formal testing programs suggesting this does not enhance students.

·         Confusing factual recall with understanding.

·         Teaching “subjects” in silo-like isolation.

·         Clinging  to paper based practices when the world outside of the school ground  is essentially  digital.

·         Pretending that the school is still the primary source of information available to students.

·         Teaching all students more or less the same thing at more or less the same time in more or less the same way – regardless of interest, ability or appropriateness.

·         Spouting social-constructivist learning theories but practicing behaviourist techniques (seen a “star chart” lately?).

·         Providing A-E type feedback to students and parents.

·         Using formal testing data to evaluate school performance – regardless of the various social and economic factors known to impact on education.

·         The standard school day itself  is fixed and based upon the needs of a bygone era. (Why do some schools offer “before school”  and “after school” care? Why not just change the hours of operation of schools to reflect social needs?)

This list is of course far from complete...and is obviously open to addition, agreement or disagreement. In a sense agreement is not necessary here, it is discussion that is important. We as educators should question the fundamentals of our practice.  We need to examine our basic assumptions about what makes a good school, how we can best serve our students, what are we trying to achieve and how we are trying to achieve it. Then we need the courage and energy to act upon our reflections.

 If we don’t we are essentially engraving QWERTY on our educational practice.

Image:

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/exhibitions/boland/images/memorabilia/images/typewriter_jpg.jpg

Historical information about the surprisingly interesting history of the typewriter is sourced from Stephen Jay Gould’s book “Bully for Brontosaurus”, published by Penguin.  

Schools - Formula 1s or 4X4s?

I’ve been thinking / reading about educational reform lately. What struck me was how little things have really changed over the course of my career.   With the exception of a few islands of excellence, many of the classrooms that I encounter on school visits are predictably generic – and demonstrate pedagogy enshrined in practice now for generations.  In fact, many of the people who helped train me would be able to dust themselves off (literally in some cases) and step into the role of a current teacher easily – despite being out of the classroom for decades.

How can this be? How is it possible that the technological advances in recent years have not transformed education?  Surely, when one considers the explosion of digital technology, the growth of the Internet and the transformation of society in general, schools surely must have changed?  Yet it is still possible to visit schools that almost seem to pride themselves on resisting genuine educational innovation.  Some schools use a shield of “educational rigor” to disguise the rigor mortis that defines their programs.

It occurs to me that schools are more like Formula 1 teams than Four Wheel Drivers. By this I mean that school teachers and administrators are hard working and dedicated people working towards a common goal – they pour their energy into their jobs and do so with great skill and commitment.  The same could be said for the Formula 1 teams.  Their goal is set – and it has been for years; to make their car go faster, to go from start to finish in the shortest amount of time possible.  They do this by making minute adjustments to their car – retuning the engine, changing tyre composition, modifying the aerodynamics  and generally tweaking the car to maximise performance.  The teams have been going to essentially the same tracks for years and years; season after season, lap after lap,  with one aim – to help get the driver from point A to point B faster than anyone else.

Contrast this approach with that of the four wheel drive enthusiast. The 4x4 car is well maintained and in good order.  Great care and concern is taken to ensure mechanical reliability. The difference is not in attention to detail – the difference is the destination.  The 4x4 driver is likely to try to go to new places by new routes – even if there is only a track rather than a road – and sometimes not even a track.  The fact that the journey may be over new or rarely explored territory adds to the allure of the trip. Being “better” simply has no relevance in this context.

In short, the 4x4 driver thinks about the destination while the Formula 1 team thinks about the process.
Our schools are now the equivalent of Formula 1 pit-crews  – hard working,  skilled, focused and putting large amounts of effort into making minor revisions that produce very small advances – if in fact they prove to be effective at all. The other parallel that strikes me is that Formula 1 cars are irrelevant in any other situation. You cannot take them on “the open road”, you couldn’t use them to get the shopping, or transport the family or do any of the other required functions of cars in the “real world”.  How many of our educational practices are limited in relevance to only the school environment?  If we are to break from the unproductive “reform” practices maybe we need to be more like the 4x4 drivers – work out where we really want to go and then do what it takes to make that happen.  

We need to have a serious look at the curriculum – not just in the sense that we re-badge or reorganise it. What do our students really need?  What is the best way we can provide it for them? What activities and projects will enable them to acquire the skills necessary for modern life and keep them engaged in the process?  How can we change education from something we do to students to something we do with them? What needs to change at the class, school and system level to enable this to happen?
There are many educational issues  that would benefit from genuine consideration and action including;

• ·         What do our students want from their schools?
• ·         What are we trying to achieve – in specific terms – with our students?
• ·         What content should we have in the school curriculum?
• ·         How do engage students in the educational process?
• ·         How do we use ICT effectively in the classroom?
• ·         How relevant is what we teach to our students?
• ·         Is the curriculum ever-expanding like the universe –  or can we acknowledge that students can learn some things elsewhere and hence omit some aspects. If so, what can we cease to teach?
• ·         What is the purpose and impact of formalised testing?
• ·         How can we embed a growth mindset into students,  staff...and “the system?”

Of course, governments and education departments all over the globe have been “reforming” education for decades.  But, to return to my earlier metaphor, the mind set in use has been that of the Formula 1 team – “We already know the objective, let’s improve the process”.    However, there are other groups that have taken the 4x4 approach – and their alternatives to vanilla flavoured education are freely available on the labyrinth of the Internet.

To continue the motoring metaphor, before commencing any journey it helps to have a map so you can choose the terrain over which you want to travel.   The equivalent to that might be this site -   the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow Today  and the associated PDFs.  The document isn’t exactly a road map – but it might help you work out where you might like to go – and provide some of the insights that might help you get there.



Photo credits:
4x4 on beach
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/images/parks/touroperators/profiles/versions/BigRiverEnvironmntlSvcesLg.jpg

Learning Styles - When a myth becomes a legend

When a myth becomes a legend.

Like, many others, I love this prose.

I like the tone, the sense of pathos, the sense of learning something too late - or perhaps in the nick of time. I like the imagery of it all.  The prose is inscribed on the tomb of an unnamed Anglican Bishop buried in Westminster Abbey and dates to around 1100 A.D.

When I was young and free and my imagination had no limits, I dreamed of changing the world. As I grew older, and wiser, I discovered the world would not change, so I shortened my sights somewhat and decided to change only my country.

But it, too, seemed immovable.

As I grew into my twilight years, in one last desperate attempt, I settled for changing only my family, those closest to me, but alas, they would have none of it.

And now, as I lie on my deathbed, I suddenly realize: If I had only changed myself first, then by example I would have changed my family.

From their inspiration and encouragement, I would then have been able to better my country, and who knows, I may have even changed the world.

What a pity it isn’t true. 
No such tomb exists.  
This will no doubt come as a surprise to many - the legend of the prose features heavily on poetry and self help sites across the Internet,  is featured in books such as “Chicken Soup for the Soul” and is regularly emailed around the globe.  However, as appealing and entrenched as belief in the poem is, the fact that many people believe something doesn’t make it true. The legend is a myth.

Education is not immune from widely held and deeply cherished ideas that are also based on belief rather than fact. One of these is the notion of “learning styles”.

Consider the following from Professor Daniel Willingham,  Department of Psychology, University of Virginia.

For some this challenge to the notion of learning styles is akin to heresy.  And perhaps heresy is exactly what is  since - heresy is the term usually used to describe those who oppose the teachings of a church.  I  don’t wish to get into the field of religion here - but religion is based upon faith - not logic. Religion neither relies upon nor requires logic.  But education should.

For those who might require further convincing I recommend reading this.   

And this.

Or this.
  

Or even this.

How did this unsupported belief become so wide spread? Possibly because it appears to work. Certainly teachers who subscribe to the belief and accommodate it in their practice appear to reap the benefits.  However, with a moments thought we can see why - catering for “different learning styles” means providing variety, it means designing lessons that are more than “chalk and talk” or lecture style, or worksheet based instruction. It may mean that material is presented from more than one perspective - which of course takes time - and we know that time on task is associated with learning. In short, it means putting effort into pedagogy - it results in improved teaching.  So, the misguided belief in learning styles actually produces better teaching,  which leads to engagement - which leads to concentration - which leads to learning.  

Thus, this flawed theory leads to improved teaching.   So, if this is the result, what’s the problem?

The belief in “learning styles” has no more scientific support  than the study of phrenology once  claimed, or the notion that ability is fixed (as in the belief of a static I.Q.). Surely our professionalism should dictate that we only advocate those practices that can be supported with evidence?  After all, it is evidence that separates informed practice  from mere opinion or entrenched habit.   It is evidence based practice that will enable us to improve our instructional techniques.

If we, as a profession, begin to insist on evidence based practice in this matter we may start questioning other aspects of our practice - the notion of assessment techniques could bear close scrutiny for example, or how computers can be used to  teach effectively, or the benefits of delaying the introduction of algorithms until at least grade 4, or the benefits of Project Based Learning, or the benefits of a “growth mindset” approach... the list is endless.  Evidence based practice can lead to innovation and improved education.

If we are to improve education we need to ensure that we as educators know why we do what we do - and can demonstrate that it is more effective than other approaches.  If there is a truth in the “learning style” myth it is that teaching style matters.  

And that is something we can all learn from...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Credits:

All links go to external sources.

Image:

http://www.bugbog.com/images/galleries/france-pictures-guide/Loire-Valley/Tours-cathedral-tomb-colours.jpg

(I stress this is NOT the tomb of an Anglican Bishop in Westminster Cathedral.)

ADDENDUM. A post on the same theme by Steve Wheeler can be accessed here.