• For Teachers

    The School

    The recent 3-part RTE series “The School” broke new ground in terms of education and television.What takes place in schools is both familiar and mysterious to most adult viewers. Our school experiences resonate throughout the entire span of our lives and, for many, learning identity forged during teenage, years remains fixed and unchallenged long after our initial schooling is complete. Every society looks to young people to reproduce and reinvent itself for the future.  Put simply, organised societies that are good at education will survive and outlast societies that fail to do so.  Schools and education are our biggest investment apart from health systems. Strangely, unless you are currently an…

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    Really Useful Websites on Learning and Teaching

    As a follow-up to my previous blog on the Top Ten Insights on Learning I would like to provide a list of web sources and resources that may act as good places to start with insights on learning and teaching. I’ll try to give a brief description of each and why it makes the cut for me.Starting Points: Aggregation SitesTheory into Practice (TIP)Greg Kearsley has put together an excellent resource that deals with a wide variety of learning theories.  This is an excellent starting point and it will give the beginner a good appreciation of the breath of theories and their practical applications. Emtech’s  Learning TheoriesThis is another excellent starting…

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    Top Ten Insights on Learning

    It’s the time of year for reviews.  I call it the season of the “top tens”: we have the top ten songs of 2009, the top ten sporting moments, the top ten films and so on. I have decided to step on the band wagon and am now pleased to present my Top Ten Insights on Learning. Here we go: Learning is constructed People are curious We learn best in social settings Much adult learning is child’s play We have a Learning Identity Meet the Digital World Adults learn what they want to learn Learning can be additive or transformative We learn throughout life We strive to be all that…

  • For Teachers

    Problem Based Learning: The Apprentice?

    Those that know me will know that I am a fan of Problem-Based Learning, usually referred to as PBL.Ireland’s version of “The Apprentice” is being aired on TV3 and watched by many including our household. The idea is that contestants are fighting it out to get a big job as apprentice to Bill Cullen (Ireland’s best known, self-made entrepreneur). For each episode the contestants are asked to complete authentic tasks usually with a sales or design element.We get to see them work in groups, select a project manager, set goals, solve problems and think and act creatively. As television it’s quite absorbing and informative and there is plenty of learning…

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    Knowledge Surveys

    I came across an interesting piece on Knowledge Surveys from Edward Knuhfer and Dolores Knipp (linked above). They advocate the use of Knowledge Surveys as a tool in support of learning and instruction.These surveys consist of a series of questions – similar to a set of exam questions – but the difference is that the learner is asked not to answer the question but to rate their own ability to respond. For example – consider the following questions: Q1 Describe three characteristics of an constructivist theory of learning? Q2 Compare constructivism with social constructivism? Q3 Outline practical applications of a behaviorist approach to learning? Now, in a traditional assessment the…

  • For Teachers

    The Skillful Teacher

    I came across this quotation from Confucius many months agoand I have been waiting for an opportune time to include it in my blog.Please forgive Confucius for his use of the term 'man' only in his descriptionof the skillful teacher. The most skillful teachers I know are women. When a superior man knows the causes which make instruction successful, and those which make it of no effect, he can be a teacher of others. Thus in his teaching, he leads and does not drag; he strengthens and does not discourage; he opens the way but does not conduct to the endwithout the learner's own efforts. Leading and not dragging produces…