Book Review

David & Goliath : Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants.  By Malcolm Gladwell.

This is the latest in the line of excellent books by Malcolm Gladwell (Outliers and Blink I would highly recommend).  David & Goliath is one of the rare books where an international bestseller writes so clearly on educational ideas.

Gladwell's style is very good - he takes complex notions and illustrates them well in real life narrative.  He takes you as a reader to Paris in the Impressionist art movement, to the ancient biblical setting of Judea, back into modern settings.  Each new story bringing out his ideas of overcoming adversity.

Malcolm Gladwell

As an educator I was most impressed by chapter four where Gladwell works through an explanation of the science of dyslexia.  This complex medical term has grown and grown in educational circles - but remains to most teachers something of a mystery.  The beginning pages of this chapter was a concise/clear summary of what is happening inside the head of a young person with dyslexia.
 
 Another great chapter for teachers to read is chapter two where the majority of the material is focused on the best class size (a controversial and political  subject).  Gladwell takes a scientific approach to calculating what is the best size class for learning.  He works well through the balance of work loads, class engagement, teacher one on one time and classroom management.  FYI Gladwell concludes that too smaller classes (which are major selling points for private schooling) are not the best.  Rather he settles on 24 or 18 as these can be assigned into groups easily.  It is interesting to see he's constantly looking at the underdogs so considers greatly those introverted/shy students in classes.

I related well to the sections devoted to the 'size of the pond'.  Here Gladwell contrasts the effects of being the big fish - small pond vs being a big fish - great big pond.  For us here at Waihi College (with cohorts around 100 students) has many tangible positives.

I would definitely recommend this book.  Teachers that would get additional benefit from reading David & Goliath are career counselors, teachers with dyslexic students, teachers from the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths classes), and those interested in the big picture around education.

Finally here is a quick YouTube clip of Gladwell discussing his latest book...

This post relates to RTC#8. "Demonstrate in practice their knowledge and understanding of how ākonga learn." and RTC#7. "Promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment."