teaching + learning
Scenes from the Battleground responds
Image by Getty Images via Daylife OldAndrew, blogger of Scenes from the Battleground, took the trouble to comment on my earlier post (his comment is here, my original blog post is here). Thank you, OldAndrew. I’ve been reading more of his blog posts. At first, it was horrified fascination that kept me reading his stuff, [...]
Brain Gym, or propaganda in schools
Image via Wikipedia Andrew Old, blogging on Scenes from the Battleground, wrote a piece on Brain Gym, a system of simple exercises promoted by Britain‘s Education Ministry and used in thousands of schools around the country. He includes a couple of video clips from a 2008 Newsnight program that suggest it’s not backed up by [...]
Scenes from the Battleground – a secondary school teacher reveals the horrors of British classrooms
Image via Wikipedia I’ve just spent the last few hours reading the Scenes from the Battleground blog. Andrew Old is old-school: a believer in teaching facts and knowledge, in the importance of effective discipline, and he does not believe in progressive education. He writes well, with zest and humour. Here’s a good example: someone sent [...]
TPRS workshop in Japan
Autonoblogger has details of a TPRS workshop in Kagoshima in January. I’ve posted some details in Japanese here.
The truth about (American) colleges
Gary North writes regularly for the libertarian, free-market economics website LewRockwell.com. I’ve been impressed by his no-nonsense, fact-filled, humour-laced style (a combination of honest businessman and high-powered professor). Links in these articles led me to Dr North’s own website. Here, there’s free stuff and a subscribers-only area. The free stuff includes sections on college finances [...]
Bad dependence
James Atherton is a retired teacher and teacher-trainer. He has an extensive website which I’ve referred to before on this blog. I came across this article of his on dependence while looking for something else. It strikes a chord with me because I teach in Japan, where people generally strongly believe that “the dependent leader [...]
Something is destroying British education, says former Chief Inspector of Schools
Image via Wikipedia Chris Woodhead, a man many teachers loved to hate when he was Chief Inspector of Schools under the Conservative and then Labour governments, 1994-2000, has written a book in which he expresses his views about British education. An excerpt was published in the Times (online), May 10, 2009. Fifty years ago the [...]
More on education
Image via Wikipedia I wrote earlier about whether universities have a future, a subject I’m obviously interested in as a I work in one. After writing that entry, I came across these quotes from the Austrian economist Ludwig von Mises on the subject of education and schooling: It is often asserted that the poor man’s [...]
The end of universities
Image via Wikipedia Been finding a few articles on the end of universities recently. 1) Universities will be “irrelevant” by 2020, says professor. This doesn’t say much that is new (“institutions that do not adapt will will out to those that do”), and I’m still waiting for all these universities to go belly-up and for [...]
Teaching in Japan: the Way of the Dragon
Image via Wikipedia The scene: a highschool gym which also serves as assembly hall. The hall is filled with rowdy students. A stranger takes the podium. No-one pays him the slightest attention. He stands there gazing around at the chattering students. “Why don’t you say something?” asks a girl at the front, “you peed in [...]
