A new history of the world
In The Silk Roads, Oxford-based historian Peter Frankopan has written a world history that is worthy of such a “big idea”. This is reading on a grand scale . . . . .
Humanities
Kyle Kopsick considers that we need to think hard about our global values and examine what we teach and how we teach it using the challenging perspective of postcolonialism. What? Read on!
Teaching analytical thinking and writing for Linear A Level and IB Diploma
This two day course, run in association with Infinite Learning, Dubai examines a consistent and repeating methodology for developing Year 12 & 13 students as independent learners, capable of writing, speaking and thinking under pressure, ready to leave school successfully.
A pedagogy for the 21st Century
Roger Sutcliffe, who is a trainer with Sapere, the UK based organisation supporting Philosophy for Children (P4C) looks at how developing the right habits of mind in the classroom can infuse teaching with new meaning and energy.
Deeper Learning
Slow Education aims “to make time in the classroom for creative teaching and learning”. Mike Grenier, one of the movement’s leading advocates, explains the ideas that are reaching a growing number of classrooms around the world.
Philosophically speaking: P4C
Philosophy for Children – P4C – is attracting the attention of an increasing number of international schools around the world. One organisation supporting the programme is the British based charity, SAPERE (Society for the Advancement of Philosophical Enquiry and Reflection in Education). ITM recently spoke to SAPERE CEO, Bob House, about their latest international initiative.
Five steps to help students develop the planning habit
How many times have you made the comment “It is important to plan your work” at the end of a Grade 11 or 12 (Year 12 & 13) essay? A student who writes without planning often shows that he or she “knows things” but, frustratingly, they have not “used what they know” to write a relevant answer. Here Andy Homden suggests five steps to help students develop “the planning habit” in order to write more effectively.
Is analytical thinking undervalued? Andy Homden thinks so. Without it, critical thinking is so much more difficult, if not impossible, to teach. Here he explains why.
Building a body of knowledge
The idea of building a memorised body of knowledge has become unfashionable. If we are living in the Knowledge Economy, the knowledge is at our fingertips and accessed on-line. The cloud, it is said, has changed everything: what children are learning at school now will be outdated by the time they leave university, so why bother? Progressive thinkers would regard the learning of more factual knowledge as less important than the development of transferable skills, creativity and critical thinking.
Learning independently, linear assessment and language
Why is the ability to learn independently so important? Andy Homden suggests that unless students learn to think for themselves, take the initiative and display the kind of self–discipline that gets things done, they will neither fulfill their potential nor be ready for the expectations of higher education and the world of employment. But – they have to be shown how.
Writing independently
The importance of knowing how
Students become independent learners when they know how to do things, but the ability to master increasingly complex tasks at secondary level, takes both time and practice under the right kind of supervision. Planning and then writing an informed and relevant academic answer using properly marshalled evidence in the form of an essay is such a task.