As we reach the end of 2020, I think most people who work in Education will simply be thankful for reaching the end of the year. It’s been a year that has highlighted the role of Schools in keeping economies open, as parents struggled to work at home and supervise their ‘homeschooled’ kids. It’s been …
Continue reading “Snakes and Ladders or Monopoly?”
I was at a Learning Creates Australia workshop event a few weeks ago where the following chart was shared. I suddenly realised why so many young Australians are disengaging from education and their future. Australian competitiveness means Australian teens are set up to fail. Australia’s Over-Competitiveness The graph clearly shows that young teenage Australians have …
Continue reading “Australian competitiveness means teens are set up to fail.”
Why is interdisciplinarity so important? I have been in the workforce now for over 3 decades and in that whole time, and keep in mind this time started pre-internet, I have never had to do any role that involved me in applying a single subject only. Even when I was in a job that no …
Continue reading “Why Interdisciplinarity Wins”
I looked forward to the report on the NSW curriculum review of education with some optimism as I’d heard on the grapevine that it was making recommendations that align with the work I do. While they recognise that kids are disengaging from the current offering, the recommendations for implementation fall far short of the mark. …
Continue reading “Time to slaughter the Sacred Cows: A response to the NSW Curriculum Review”
I was an early pioneer of online teaching, teaching through video conference to classrooms overseas before Zoom, Collaborate, Google Classrooms and Microsoft Teams existed. I’ve got over 10 years of experience teaching online in universities, and I have spent the last four years developing an online curriculum for high school children who, for whatever reason, …
Continue reading “Shutting your school? Teaching online is different to teaching face to face”
We’ve seen a decline in PISA comparative results for Australia for nearly 2 decades now, and what have seen in response. More rigid curriculum requirements; more rigid reporting requirements; more rigid testing requirement; more pressure and blame on the teachers; more diversified funding of schools leading to greater inequality of provision; and in some states, …
Continue reading “Stop Blaming the Teachers for Poor Results”
