From Exam Factories to Communities of Discovery
I loved Coffield Exam Factories... Great suggestions that are ignored by government! #edncucb
- Helen Kerr (@HelenKerr3) April 4, 2016
From Exam Factories to Communities of Discovery passionately calls for educators to challenge the dominant market-led model of education and instead build a more democratic one, better able to face threats such as environmental damage; intensified global competition; corrosive social inequalities in and between nations in the world; and the need for a new, just and sustainable economic model. The book documents how education policy has led to schools and universities becoming exam factories and further education colleges becoming skills factories.
The authors analyse neo-conservative agendas and conclude that solutions pursued in this way will only strengthen social inequalities and corrode the security and professionalism of educators. They then set out an educational balance sheet that captures the strengths and weaknesses of the present 'system' of education, drawn from England and from education debates across the developed world. They use this evidence to propose an alternative future for education, which builds 'communities of discovery' by realising the collective creativity of students and educators through democracy. They explain how this alternative is better suited to current times and refer to organisations that have embraced this approach to solve problems such as how to re-engage disaffected youth. The authors conclude by asking 'Can we do it?' and warn us of what we may face if we don't act. This book is written as a 'call to action' for all educators working in a wide variety of settings - in schools, colleges and universities, in work-based learning and within communities - and for those interested in education policy.
Lots of things but a few have really stuck with me. 1) Book: Presence by Amy Cuddy. Impressed - love her passion and enthusiasm #EdNCUCB
- Donna Brown (@_mrs_b) April 4, 2016
Have you ever left a nerve-racking challenge and immediately wished for a do over? Maybe after a job interview, a performance, or a difficult conversation? The very moments that require us to be genuine and commanding can instead cause us to feel phony and powerless. Too often we approach our lives' biggest hurdles with dread, execute them with anxiety, and leave them with regret.
By accessing our personal power, we can achieve "presence," the state in which we stop worrying about the impression we're making on others and instead adjust the impression we've been making on ourselves. As Harvard professor Amy Cuddy's revolutionary book reveals, we don't need to embark on a grand spiritual quest or complete an inner transformation to harness the power of presence. Instead, we need to nudge ourselves, moment by moment, by tweaking our body language, behavior, and mind-set in our day-to-day lives.
Amy Cuddy has galvanized tens of millions of viewers around the world with her TED talk about "power poses." Now she presents the enthralling science underlying these and many other fascinating body-mind effects, and teaches us how to use simple techniques to liberate ourselves from fear in high-pressure moments, perform at our best, and connect with and empower others to do the same.
Brilliantly researched, impassioned, and accessible, "Presence" is filled with stories of individuals who learned how to flourish during the stressful moments that once terrified them. Every reader will learn how to approach their biggest challenges with confidence instead of dread, and to leave them with satisfaction instead of regret.
@JanePothecary I have found Geoff Petty's Teaching Today v.informative in terms of practical application of learning theories #EdNCUCB
- Lori-Kate Dickinson (@Lori_Kate) April 4, 2016
This book is a very readable how to teach book with hardly any jargon. It starts from scratch and is appropriate for anyone teaching students in Primary or Secondary schools, Colleges, in work environments and elsewhere. It has been one of the best selling books on teaching for 20 years. Very few books tell you how to teach. Most books on teaching give background knowledge, and if you are lucky will tell you what to do but not how to do it - for example 'when using questioning, ensure all your students are engaged'.
But how do you ensure all students are engaged? Especially that one in the back row? Questioning is done badly in most classrooms because most teachers don't know the best methods. Teaching Today has more than 20 pages on this topic alone. Questioning methods are amongst the most powerful teaching methods we have, and students love class discussion, but questioning is done badly in most classrooms. Other methods are not used well either.
Resolutely practical this book has 24 chapters on practical advice on different teaching methods, giving the detail of how to set active tasks, explain, demonstrate, check and correct learning, and much more. The book is informed by reviews of research on teaching methods. Geoff is also the author of 'Evidence Based Teaching' which is a follow on book to Teaching Today for those with some teaching experience already.
Where Have All the Intellectuals Gone?
'Where have all the intellectuals gone?' by Frank Furedi, like the premise but as I read on it's adding little to the start #EdNCUCB
- Lou Mycroft (@LouMycroft) April 4, 2016
The Intellectual is an endangered species. In place of such figures as Bertrand Russell, Raymond Williams or Hannah Arendt - people with genuine learning, breadth of vision and a concern for public issues - we now have only facile pundits, think-tank apologists, and spin doctors. In the age of the knowledge economy, we have somehow managed to combine the widest ever participation in higher education with the most dumbed-down of cultures. In this urgent and passionate book, Frank Furedi explains the essential contribution of intellectuals both to culture and to democracy - and why we need to recreate a public sphere in which intellectuals and the general public can talk to each other again.
The first edition of this book met with urgent and volatile views - both in support and opposition to Furedi's argument. Here, for the first time, he offers a candid and hard-hitting response to his critics.
Evaluating the reflexive practices in a learning experience
Then on Sat I read Bruno, Galuppo, Gilardi - Reflexive Practice for the BA and it's rocked my world a little #EdNCUCB
- Lou Mycroft (@LouMycroft) April 4, 2016
@JanePothecary Bruno et al: three types of language: cognitive, emotive, volitive (hopes and aspirations) #edncucb
- Lou Mycroft (@LouMycroft) April 4, 2016
Teacher Toolkit: Helping You Survive Your First Five Years
3) I am currently reading Teacher Toolkit by Ross Morrison McGill @TeacherToolkit. Love the Vitruvian Teacher concept! #EdNCUCB
- Donna Brown (@_mrs_b) April 4, 2016
Ross Morrison McGill, aka @TeacherToolkit believes that becoming a teacher is one of the best decisions you will ever make, but after more than two decades in the classroom, he knows that it is not an easy journey!
Packed with countless anecdotes, from disastrous observations to marking in the broom cupboard, TE@CHER TOOLKIT is a compendium of teaching strategies and advice, which aims to motivate, comfort, amuse and above all reduce the workload of a new teacher. This beautiful high-spec paperback includes humorous illustrations, photocopiable templates, a new-look 5 minute plan, QR codes to useful videos and flaps with a detachable bookmark.
As anyone who has followed him on Twitter knows, Ross is not afraid to share the highs and lows of his own successes and failures. He strives to share great teaching practice, to save you time and to ensure you are the best teacher you can be, whatever the new policy or framework. His eagerly-awaited new book continues in this vein and is a must-read for all new teachers.
Vitruvian teaching will help you survive your first five years:
Year 1: Be resilient (surviving your NQT year)
Year 2: Be intelligent (refining your teaching)
Year 3: Be innovative (take risks)
Year 4: Be collaborative (share and work with others now your classroom practice is secure)
Year 5: Be aspirational (moving towards middle leadership)
Start working towards Vitruvian today.
bell hooks Teaching Trilogy
@_mrs_b @KaySocLearn Yes bell talks about the nonsense of the mind/body/personality split in teaching #edncucb
- Jane Pothecary (@JanePothecary) April 4, 2016
In a series of short, accessible, and enlightening essays, hooks explores the confounding and sometimes controversial topics that teachers and students have urged her to address since the publication of the previous best-selling volumes in her Teaching series, Teaching to Transgress and Teaching Community. The issues are varied and broad, from whether meaningful teaching can take place in a large classroom setting to confronting issues of self-esteem. One professor, for example, asked how black female professors can maintain positive authority in a classroom without being seen through the lens of negative racist, sexist stereotypes. One teacher asked how to handle tears in the classroom, while another wanted to know how to use humor as a tool for learning. Addressing questions of race, gender, and class in this work, hooks discusses the complex balance that allows us to teach, value, and learn from works written by racist and sexist authors. Highlighting the importance of reading, she insists on the primacy of free speech, a democratic education of literacy. Throughout these essays, she celebrates the transformative power of critical thinking. This is provocative, powerful, and joyful intellectual work. It is a must read for anyone who is at all interested in education today.
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of FreedomFull of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines a practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world of emotions and feelings. This is the rare book about teachers and students that dares to raise questions about eros and rage, grief and reconciliation, and the future of teaching itself.
Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of HopeIn Teaching Community bell hooks seeks to theorize from the place of the positive, looking at what works. Writing about struggles to end racism and white supremacy, she makes the useful point that "No one is born a racist. Everyone makes a choice." Teaching Community tells us how we can choose to end racism and create a beloved community. hooks looks at many issues-among them, spirituality in the classroom, white people looking to end racism, and erotic relationships between professors and students. Spirit, struggle, service, love, the ideals of shared knowledge and shared learning - these values motivate progressive social change.
Teaching Critical Thinking Practical WisdomIn Teaching Critical Thinking, renowned cultural critic and progressive educator bell hooks addresses some of the most compelling issues facing teachers in and out of the classroom today.
#edncucb Tweets
Related
