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David Hilton

Constructivism - 0 views

carbon.cudenver.edu/...constructivism.html

constructivism education theory pedagogy teaching

shared by David Hilton on 25 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Heath Sawyer on 25 Mar 09
     
    Links, research and readings on constructivism
  • ...1 more comment...
  • David Hilton on 04 May 09
     
    Constructivist theories grew out of the work of a couple of Russians around the time of the Russian Revolution. It is radical subjectivism dressed up as science, and has no scientific credibility whatsoever. It is used by radical educators to push their barrow that nothing the teacher knows is worth the student learning and that all knowledge is innate. It's bullsh*t. Theories like this rot are part of the reason that the bottom has dropped out of Western education and we have a generation who can't write. This should be resisted by any educator with an interest in educational excellence.
  • Ken Stanton on 04 May 09
     
    David, back up your argument. If you think this is junk science, then be a real scientist and substantiate your claim. I'm a very objective thinker and will listen and gladly debate this with you, but having studied this and used it, I'm skeptical of your dissent. It is the only thing that has gotten me through our failed education system, not the reason the system has failed (unless your argument is that our system is failing due to lack of use of constructivist approaches).
  • David Hilton on 13 Jun 09
     
    Constructivism is a prime example of the dangers of deductive reasoning. Instead of starting with evidence from observed reality which the scientific method dictates (inductive reasoning) constructivism starts with theories and then makes the evidence fit the theory or else dismisses it and rationalises it away. It's the same type of thinking that has gotten all ideologues into trouble throughout history, whether it's the Spanish Inquisition, the Nazis, the hippies or the recent Wall Street bankers who drove our economy off a cliff. Any true system of thought must start with the real world as its beginning, or else it's just a bunch of people making stuff up and then defending it despite all evidence to the contrary until the weight of truth destroys them and usually the institutions they've taken over.
Ruth Howard

This is Zimbabwe - 0 views

www.sokwanele.com/thisiszimbabwe

zimbabwe africa elephants all_teachers administrator

shared by Ruth Howard on 06 Apr 09 - Cached
  • Ruth Howard on 06 Apr 09
     
    A USA company called Cape to Cairo Safari is hunting elephants in Zimbabwe's National Parks info@capetocairosafari.com, please email your strong objection, thanks.
Ruth Howard

report.pdf (application/pdf Object) - 0 views

web.mit.edu/...report.pdf

inventiveness inventions creativity MIT University research learning design

shared by Ruth Howard on 21 Apr 09 - No Cached
  • Ruth Howard on 21 Apr 09
     
    MIT report on inventiveness! att:cross-curricular info fostering human potential! Invention is learning personified.
Fabian Aguilar

What Do School Tests Measure? - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com - 1 views

roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/...what-do-school-tests-measure

nytimes all_teachers math science

shared by Fabian Aguilar on 12 Aug 09 - Cached
  • According to a New York Times analysis, New York City students have steadily improved their performance on statewide tests since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took control of the public schools seven years ago.
  • Critics say the results are proof only that it is possible to “teach to the test.” What do the results mean? Are tests a good way to prepare students for future success?
  • Tests covering what students were expected to learn (guided by an agreed-upon curriculum) serve a useful purpose — to provide evidence of student effort, of student learning, of what teachers taught, and of what teachers may have failed to teach.
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • More serious questions arise about “teaching to the test.” If the test requires students to do something academically valuable — to demonstrate comprehension of high quality reading passages at an appropriate level of complexity and difficulty for the students’ grade, for example — then, of course, “teaching to the test” is appropriate.
  • Reading is the crucial subject in the curriculum, affecting all the others, as we know.
  • An almost exclusive focus on raising test scores usually leads to teaching to the test, denies rich academic content and fails to promote the pleasure in learning, and to motivate students to take responsibility for their own learning, behavior, discipline and perseverance to succeed in school and in life.
  • Test driven, or force-fed, learning can not enrich and promote the traits necessary for life success. Indeed, it is dangerous to focus on raising test scores without reducing school drop out, crime and dependency rates, or improving the quality of the workforce and community life.
  • Students, families and groups that have been marginalized in the past are hurt most when the true purposes of education are not addressed.
  • lein. Mayor Bloomberg claims that more than two-thirds of the city’s students are now proficient readers. But, according to federal education officials, only 25 percent cleared the proficient-achievement hurdle after taking the National Assessment of Education Progress, a more reliable and secure test in 2007.
  • The major lesson is that officials in all states — from New York to Mississippi — have succumbed to heavy political pressure to somehow show progress. They lower the proficiency bar, dumb down tests and distribute curricular guides to teachers filled with study questions that mirror state exams.
  • This is why the Obama administration has nudged 47 states to come around the table to define what a proficient student truly knows.
  • Test score gains among New York City students are important because research finds that how well one performs on cognitive tests matters more to one’s life chances than ever before. Mastery of reading and math, in particular, are significant because they provide the gateway to higher learning and critical thinking.
  • First, just because students are trained to do well on a particular test doesn’t mean they’ve mastered certain skills.
  • Second, whatever the test score results, children in high poverty schools like the Promise Academy are still cut off from networks of students, and students’ parents, who can ease access to employment.
  • Reliable and valid standardized tests can be one way to measure what some students have learned. Although they may be indicators of future academic success, they don’t “prepare” students for future success.
  • Since standardized testing can accurately assess the “whole” student, low test scores can be a real indicator of student knowledge and deficiencies.
  • Many teachers at high-performing, high-poverty schools have said they use student test scores as diagnostic tools to address student weaknesses and raise achievement.
  • The bigger problem with standardized tests is their emphasis on the achievement of only minimal proficiency.
  • While it is imperative that even the least accomplished students have sufficient reading and calculating skills to become self-supporting, these are nonetheless the students with, overall, the fewest opportunities in the working world.
  • Regardless of how high or low we choose to set the proficiency bar, standardized test scores are the most objective and best way of measuring it.
  • The gap between proficiency and true comprehension would be especially wide in the case of the brightest students. These would be the ones least well-served by high-stakes testing.
Ruth Howard

foundation_advanced_tas0903.pdf (application/pdf Object) - 0 views

www.bigpicture.org.au/...oundation_advanced_tas0903.pdf

foundation_advanced_tas0903 foundation_advanced_tas0903.pdf Big icture pedagogy curriculum bestpractices all_teachers professionaldevelopment

shared by Ruth Howard on 11 Jul 09 - No Cached
  • Ruth Howard on 11 Jul 09
     
    A model originating in the USA being implemented in some Tasmanian high schools to engage students/citizens one student at a time-based on the students individual learning goals and life aspirations/circumstances.
Ted Sakshaug

brainstormer.swf (application/x-shockwave-flash Object) - 0 views

www.distractionbeast.com/brainstormer.swf

story writing-prompt writing ELA education

shared by Ted Sakshaug on 09 Jun 09 - No Cached
  • Ted Sakshaug on 09 Jun 09
     
    The Brainstormer is a random story idea generator. The Brainstormer has three wheels of words. Each click of the "random" button spins all three wheels. If you're struggling to develop an idea to start a fiction story simply click the "random" button to spin the wheels of the Brainstormer.
Ruth Howard

I'm sure I'm doing it wrong | Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech - 8 views

ideasandthoughts.org/...im-sure-im-doing-it-wrong

blogging education inflection network pln digital literacy edtech assessment flixr wiki

shared by Ruth Howard on 08 Oct 09 - Cached
  • According to many definitions of good teaching, I don’t qualify: I don’t clearly state objectives If I do state them, they are as fuzzy as all get out I have a hard time measuring student progress My course syllabus changes almost daily I never use tests I constantly stray off topic
  • I do constantly question whether or not I need to be more structured.  Do I need to be able to define my outcomes more succinctly than this? Students will learn that: Learning is social and connected Learning is personal and self-directed Learning is shared and transparent Learning is rich in content and diversity
  • I do provide rubrics, build criteria together, emphasis and utilize descriptive feedback.  Providing supports and the odd insight best describes my role.  I’m of total confidence they are learning. Just read their blogs.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  •   I’ve read, listen and thought  more about assessment than most and yet it still baffles me. Mostly because the kind of assessment that makes most sense (immediate and descriptive feedback) isn’t really valued in schools.
anonymous

SocialNetworkingWhitepaper.pdf (application/pdf Object) - 10 views

www.elluminate.com/...SocialNetworkingWhitepaper.pdf

pdf

shared by anonymous on 25 Nov 09 - No Cached
  • anonymous on 25 Nov 09
     
    Interesting whitepaper on social networking and web 2.0 tools in education. Ammunition against your filter?
Kelly Faulkner

MoooJvM's Channel - YouTube - 4 views

www.youtube.com/mooojvm

youtube museum obsolete objects items things old

shared by Kelly Faulkner on 24 Oct 11 - No Cached
  • Kelly Faulkner on 24 Oct 11
     
    pretty interesting youtube channel for items that are now obsolete.
Ed Webb

Liberal Education after the Pandemic | AAUP - 1 views

www.aaup.org/...beral-education-after-pandemic

LiberalArts liberal_arts education future US USA pandemics economy sustainability science climate opinion

shared by Ed Webb on 19 Sep 20 - Cached
  • The current massive and unanticipated experiment in online education could transform higher education as we know it. We should begin these difficult conversations about the future of the liberal arts now, in cyberspace, before the new normal takes shape—whenever that may be. Even if we feel trapped in our own homes and beset with anxiety and cabin fever, we also have an opportunity to reconsider the aims of higher education not in the abstract but in this concrete historical moment, with attention to specific institutional needs, public policy proposals, ideological pressures, and the overarching economic crisis.
  • A genuine commitment to ethical, historically aware, egalitarian, or democratic principles can land an individual in a world of trouble. I am thinking, for example, of the basic scientific literacy, historical awareness, and ethical commitment that equip an individual citizen to recognize the expertise of infectious disease specialists and reject the common sense of neighbors or the priorities and demands of an employer—or to spot the bogus claims, fundamental incompetence, or ethical depravity of some elected leaders. Such scientific literacy and basic familiarity with statistical analysis allow nonexperts to understand the arguments of climatologists and reject the sophistry of coworkers or talk show hosts or governors who point out, for example, that “the climate has always been changing.”
  • The reason that individual institutions cannot pitch such potential outcomes under ordinary circumstances is that these intellectual faculties serve the public good but do not necessarily advance the economic interests or career objectives of individual prospective or current students, especially those incurring significant debt. Being a whistleblower, for example, is generally a costly, painful career move—but the public needs to know nonetheless if the US military is shooting civilians in the streets of Baghdad; or the pharmaceutical industry is engineering a profitable opioid epidemic; or the health insurance industry is denying legitimate claims.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • just as the current crisis represents an opportunity for the people who have been working hard to privatize everything imaginable, dismantle public education, sink net neutrality, and align higher education with the demands of prospective employers and industry moguls (think here of the interventions of the Koch brothers in higher education, for example), it also represents an opportunity to push for the basic conditions under which a liberal education might properly serve its public functions. We should use these months to advocate for the kinds of public policies, such as tuition-free higher education, that recognize liberal education as a common good. We must articulate the reasons why a liberal education is in fact a common good and why a liberal education is disfigured if it is made to promote the demands of prospective employers.
  • We need a society capable of devising new and more humane social contracts, new political economies, new food and energy grids, and sustainable use of resources—whether or not these projects produce financial dividends for individual graduates or for their employers. An accessible, publicly funded liberal education decoupled from the demands of industry and prospective employers is the best way to prepare people to do these things.
  • we should use these months of confinement to strategize about a long-term case for liberal education and for public investment in an educated citizenry. Now is the time to invest some of our intellectual capital in education advocacy that ultimately makes a difference not only in the lives of students but also for the collective well-being of our nation and the world
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