Those of you who follow such things as our reports on Alfie Kohn’s controversial condemnation of homework, you probably noticed that French president Francoise Hollande’s proposal to ban homework. Of course the two camps in the debate predictably unleashed …
The U.S. report on the 2011 TIMSS has recently been published by the National Center for Education Statistics. The Trends in International Science and Mathematics Study (TIMMS) is an international assessment of math and science knowledge of 4th and …
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We know that primary sources are a great way to inspire our students and help them hone their analytic thinking skills while playing the sleuth.…
We’re still enraptured here at LearningDiversity.org by the Finnish school model, which emphasizes early interventions and individualized support as key components for academic success. …
By now most of us have heard of Dr. John Ratey’s research showing the cognitive benefits that follow physical activity, but it seems there may be an even more immediate body-brain connection. Several recent studies suggest that brain function is …
Alright, this is to make up for some of the doom and gloom I’ve been posting specifically in regard to reading and education. According to the results of the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress exam (also known as the …
A recent study published by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research has found that teacher credentials are unrelated to student achievement. This particular study has widespread implications, as often in public schooling salary and tenure is based upon certification, degrees, …
Dr. Robert Brooks, an expert on resiliency and motivation in students, discusses Dr. John Ratey’s book, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. While this article is a few years old I thought it apropos to share …
A couple of recent posts by my colleagues Sara and Sean (here and here) commented on Susan Engel’s recent article in the New York Times “Let Kids Rule the Schools.” Like Sean I also suspect that implementing this …
NPR reported last evening that Food and Drug Administration advisory panel released the position that “the current scientific data is just not solid enough to show that artificial food dyes cause hyperactivity in most children”. This reminds me of the …
I recently read Anastasiou and Kauffman’s article “A Social Constructionist Approach to Disability: Implications for Special Education” in the spring number of Exceptional Children. I was frankly stunned to read their assertion that “the social constructionist model [of disability]…has …
Yesterday I was alerted to an op-ed piece in the New York Times by one of my college friends who wrote that it directly aligned with our own academic experiences during our undergraduate years. She stated that I should take …
While in my earlier post I argued that any worthwhile interpretation of a text must be preceded by competent understanding, let’s consider the inherent dangers of this approach and the value of an alternative one.
The danger of neglecting an …
A couple of recent posts (Interpeting Comprehension, Reading is a Cultural Activity) on LearningDiversity.org have rested on the assertion that reading is a cultural activity and that we teachers should encourage students to read creatively. My worthy …
The following Arts Integrated interdisciplinary curriculum unit comes to us from artist and art teacher Pat Bock and frequent contributer to www.learningdiversity.org, Diana Mackiewicz. Pat has given us examples of ways that several of us have recognized content connections, …
Teaching and learning, in secondary schools in particular, are predominantly determined by the examination syllabi, and school activities at that level are very much oriented towards exam preparation. Subjects such as music and art, and in some cases even physical education, are removed from the timetable because they are not covered in the public examinations.
As educators I think we all struggle from time to time with finding a balance between laying out strict requirements and letting our students take the initiative. Each approach has obvious benefits. Structure facilitates clear communication, including the imparting of …
Now that the hustle and bustle of the holidays is over let’s take a moment to really reflect on them. Here is a top ten list of what the holidays should really be about after all……
Stanley Fish is adamant that a liberal arts curriculum should not—and anyway cannot—be justified as economically desirable or as a boon to society in some less quantifiable but otherwise more important way. On the first point I am convinced, though …
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