Book Review

Educating Ruby : What Our Children Really Need to Learn
by Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas.  

Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas are two of the worlds most prominent educational theorists.  Guy Claxton is best known as the guru behind the 'BLP - Building Learning Power' movement in the United Kingdom (and expanding).  

Educating Ruby (2015) is a modern view of the societal ills centered around education.  Like many current education material Claxton and Lucas are very interested in the bigger picture of education.  Why thinking about the meta idea of learning as opposed to curriculum or pedagogy.  Having been familiar with BLP (book review coming shortly) I found much of Educating Ruby to be a companion document.  

Whist this book is not specific to New Zealand's educational system (although some acknowledgements to our early childhood systems are made), Educating Ruby is equally valid reading for Kiwi teachers.  

A strong case for curriculum review is made by Claxton and Lucas in Educating Ruby where hegemonic thinking about the 'heirarchy' of subjects is raised:  “In school, subjects assume importance in inverse proportion to the amount of bodily activity they involve.  If you can stay clean and still while you are learning, that is good, so maths and English come out at the top of the pecking order.” (p. 51)  This is somewhat reflective of Waihi College's review of students vocational pathways.  

Strong criticism is made of the supremacy of testing in education, whilst the authors a making specific reference to the UK system, NCEA easily is reflective.    Teachers are under increasing pressures to get student through a myriad of assessments in 'preparation' for life after school.  Questions are raised about the 'depth' of modern testing methods.  Reference made to the work of Sugata Mitra and revolutionising what learning should be.  

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." And ERO's School Evaluation Indicator - Domain Five : Professional Capability & Collective Capacity.

Passionate and Inspired Teachers

Inspired Teaching and Passionate Teachers
As a part of our work with Cognition Education and their Visible Learning Plus programme we looked today at the notion of 'inspired and passionate teaching'.  I have a theory that because teaching is not the best paid profession that is out there the overwhelming majority of teachers have signed up to a life of education because of a great deal of personal inspiration and passion for learning.  

It is also a fact that teaching is a very hard profession as Guy Claxton and Bill Lucas put in their Educating Ruby book; “Teachers know that controlling crowds of bored teenagers, or squeezing a few extra children across an arbitrary assessment borderline, is not what lights their fire.  It is not why they wanted to become teachers in the first place.” (2015, p. 31)  Modern teaching is a process of continually fronting up in the classroom and doing your best.  For most teachers levels of passion and inspiration will ebb and flow.  It is a conscious effort for each individual teacher to monitor themselves.  

Specific emphasis on 'passion and inspiration' is placed upon the quality of the relationships between the teacher and his/her students.  That's something that is axiomatic for most teachers... yet strained teacher student relationship would be one of the most pressing issues in modern schooling.  

Here is a copy of the PowerPoint presentation that we worked through last Monday.   

Inspired and passionate teaching 12th october from WaihiCollege

This post relates to RTC #1. "Establish and maintain effective professional relationships focused on the learning and well-being of ākonga".  And ERO's School Evaluation Indicators Domain 4 "Responsive Curriculum, Effective Teaching and Opportunity to Learn - students develop learning to learn capabilities."