Thank you Phil Cullen

Phil Cullen is a highly respected Australian educator. Now retired he was once the Director General of Primary Education Queensland. He continues to show an interest in educational matters and expresses concern about approaches he feels go against teacher professionalism - in particular national testing moves.His website is worth visit. Extracts from Bruce Hammonds: TOWARDS A 21stC SCHOOL FOR ALL LEARNER {Teachers Today magazine,NZ, July 2010} ….with interruptions from an Australian commentator in italics. Bruce Hammonds is a New Zealand education consultant, author of “Quality Teaching and Learning.”The NZ government’s response to schools’ failure and poor teaching is to implement National Standards aka Naplan in Australia and NCLB in the...

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Posted in: Big Picture,change,Educationalists,Leadership,national standards,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning

Inquiry is the basis of all education

Students, as part of a bush study, observe the flowers on a nikau palm tree.The students in this particular class were real experts in native plants , ecology and native plant propagation. Such intense inquiry leads not only to science understanding and environmental awareness put also observational art , imaginative art and poetic language work.The 'new' New Zealand Curriculum (07) is all about students 'using creative, critical and meta cognitive process to make sense of their information, experiences and ideas' - in simple language inquiry learning. The curriculum asks of teachers to ensure all students leave 'confident life long learners'... 'competent thinkers and problem solvers who actively seek, use and create their own knowledge'....

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Posted in: Creative teaching,inquiry learning,Integrated Learning,project based learning,teaching and learning

Reflections on diary thoughts; the artistry of teachers.

This painting arose because the student concerned wanted to make a painting of an experiment from the class science study on sounds. It features the experiment where bell like sounds from the swinging spoons reach the ears.It is also a an excellent painting showing a great use of paint.As I was reading and then writing about the thoughts in my diary of my first months teaching I recognised the same challenges that face creative teachers today.My experience in the classroom -which lasted three years - was my attempt to put into practice the beliefs about teaching and learning I had come to believe in and which I had helped other teachers implement as part of my role as an adviser.Today we need to return to valuing the ideas of creative teachers...

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Posted in: Big Picture,change,Creative teaching,inquiry learning,Integrated Learning,Personalized Learning,project based learning,Rants and Raves,T,teaching and learning

It is all about relationships.

Only when students feel trust and have confidence in their teachers can they openly share their thoughts. Teaching is all about respect and relationship and to develop such things students need to feel their questions, thoughts and experiences are valued. Two things get in the way of this – teachers who see their role of ‘teaching’ children what 'they' think they need and predetermined curriculums that ignore the experiences of each learner.Today curriculum, assessment, and ‘experts’ from outside the classroom are kings. During my teaching the curriculum ‘emerged’ or at least involved the students – if they weren’t interested it was difficult. Thankfully children are innately curious and are easily engaged. As Jerome Bruner has written, ‘teaching...

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Posted in: change,Creative teaching,Personalized Learning,teaching and learning

Coming together

By the end of the year students had the skill to complete lino cuts of real quality - this one features a bird and Mount Taranaki. Completing such quality work will long be remembered by the children who complete them.As I read through my diary entries there is a sense of things coming together without ever finally realizing a set daily programme as with my fellow teachers. Enough structure for both me and the thirty-eight children to positively get on with things and enough time to take advantage of ‘teachable moments’. It seems that I had avoided the over regulated approach of teachers of the time (ability grouping in reading and maths and a current study in the afternoon) and established a more learner centred environment.The programme...

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Posted in: Creative teaching,inquiry learning,Integrated Learning,Personalized Learning,teaching and learning

Fragile Beginnings

A school I visited in Soho way back in 1980 ten Years after teaching in the UK! To this day some of the schools I visited during my first visit still remain as an inspirational to me.Unfortunately things have changed in the UK but now there are now those who want to return to the best of those more creative days. Unfortunately they are now living with standards and league tables!Decisions all too often have to be made without real knowledge of consequences. Deciding to go teaching after years of advising was such a decision but once made there can be no turning back.My memories of my first few weeks teaching were one of continual rearranging of my programme to find something that seemed to work. My strongest memories however are of being very...

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Posted in: Creative teaching,Integrated Learning,teaching and learning

Diary of a teacher

Sharon, a gifted writer and artist, begins her personal experience book with a portrait of her teacher in 1976. I still meet up with Sharon regularly -she now has her own children at a local primary school.Developing a student centred inquiry classroomPrologueDuring a recent cleanout I came across of a diary I wrote when I began my teaching career in New Zealand in 1976 although I had previously taught in the UK in the late 60s.Nothing unusual about this but for me it was a major shift in my career since 1961 I had been an adviser in school science and my ‘teaching’ had been limited to assisting teachers in my province with their science programmes. This entailed taking classes on environmental studies of the bush, streams, the mountain, the...

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Posted in: change,Creative teaching,inquiry learning,Integrated Learning,Personalized Learning,project based learning,teaching and learning

Inquiry Learning and Teaching as Inquiry

Many years ago I was involved with a class that studied a local redoubt built by British troops during the land wars in Taranaki. This was motivated by visiting a archaeological dig on the site of the redoubt and led into researching the redoubt and the exciting life of Pakeha Maori Kimbel Bent. A real example of student inquiry.There seems some confusion about 'inquiry learning' and 'teaching as inquiry'.Both are included in the 'new' New Zealand Curriculum.Teaching as Inquiry is where teachers inquire into their own practice to improve the quality of their teaching so as to benefit their students.Teaching as Inquiry is to be seen as an ongoing process and is based on reflecting on evidence of success or otherwise of the teachers teaching....

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Posted in: Action Plans and Lessons,inquiry learning,Ministry NZCurric,project based learning,teaching and learning

Learning as a transformational experience

I was lucky enough to visit this classroom to see this young artist see her print for the first time. A moment of transformation and personal pride that will leave a positive and lasting image in her mind forever. This is the essence of transformational learning ; an experience that literally changes ones mind. Many students have acquired less than positive images of many areas of learning because this attitudinal or emotional aspect of learning has been neglected. Too much emphasis has been placed on objectively measuring achievement and not enough in valuing studnts attitudes towards areas of learning.Children go to school. What they learn and how they learn depends upon what we believe and feel about children. Teachers beliefs make schools...

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Posted in: Creative Schools,Creative teaching,inquiry learning,Leadership,Ministry NZCurric,national standards,Personalized Learning,project based learning,Rants and Raves,teaching and learning