With few exceptions, the world’s school systems – both public and private – were unprepared for the conditions created by COVID-19. This is a rapid look at what I have seen happening. First Take The lockdown approach adopted by most countries, designed to limit the spread of COVID-19 and to relieve pressure on medical services, […]
I have Jenni Kincaid to thank for this insight. Jenni and I were thinking out loud – across continents – about the lessons being learned about educational leadership during this crisis of lockdown and separation. Personally, I can see a difference between schools not just relating to their choice of distance learning solution. I can
Leadership during Crisis Read More »
A famous and brilliant passage of writing about effective teaching is called, ‘Imagine Three Teachers’. Written in 1991 by cognitive scientists Scardamalia and Bereiter, the passage is a thought experiment that compares three classroom teachers: Teacher A, Teacher B and Teacher C. The strength of the passage is that the Teachers appear at first glance
When Teacher A, Teacher B and Teacher C work from home Read More »
And so Coronavirus brings Online Learning and the Virtual School into the spotlight. Up to this point, our schools have clung on dearly to their bricks and mortar tradition. A physical centre, a place of learning, a workplace for teachers, a social centre, a community hub. Assembly rooms, science laboratories, music practice rooms, tech facilities,
The talk is everywhere of Online Learning Read More »
You have to enjoy this. The BBC reports that there have now been 30 years of UK exam results where girls have consistently out-performed boys. I can’t claim the credit (or blame?) but I do remember when I joined the National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) in the early 1980s, that the future was in the air.
Doctoring the results Read More »
This week, my education journey takes me to Japan. You wouldn’t immediately think that Japan would be opening up to private international schools. This country has great PISA and TIMSS results and stands as one of the best-performing Government school systems in the world. The schools are free to the national population, who are sophisticated,
Even the Rising Sun Read More »
In the last two years, the pioneering territories for international schools in the UAE and China have hit some problems. China is posing regulatory challenges from time to time, which impacts enrolment numbers and the predictability of any ramp-up. While the UAE has experienced an economic slowdown much like the rest of the world and
Mature, diversify, and open new ground Read More »
In my series of blogs about the pedagogy of the Middle East, I have been pleased to come across McKinsey’s study of the 2015 PISA data sets. PISA has a large database of student results from around the world, based on its regular international testing rounds. I don’t quite agree with all of McKinsey’s method and
Mindframe and Teacher Direction Read More »
Several of my friends are much better writers than I have ever managed to be. A couple have the muse. They can write with rhythm and poetry in their prose. Others have stamina and can produce books in a moment, it seems, only to go on and produce another and another. I take great pleasure
In my blog about Changing the Pedagogy of the Middle East, I tried to express my great frustration at the efforts being made to improve our teaching and learning in the region. I dislike the way that some educators bring to the region a ‘fashionable pedagogy’ that is not even supported by evidence in the west.
Baby steps to changing the pedagogy of the Middle East Read More »
