World Mosaic

What 21st Century learning isn’t

Marketers tell us their products support ’21st Century learning’. The products may have been invented in the 21st Century, but are they supporting 21st Century learning or are they merely automating 19th and 20th Century learning and thus creating an obstacle for schools and colleges wanting to move forward? 21st Century learning is a problematic term. It implies that learning before the millennium was traditional or insufficient. It suggests that learning over the past decade or so has improved just…

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Putting old wine into new Common Core skins?

What is your understanding of Common Core (CC)? It’s a marketing catch phrase for some, a political handle for others. Many have read the CC Website, know the key ideas and have perhaps reviewed some of the standards, but what does CC mean for the day-to-day learning of US school students? Has much really changed? What are the lessons for schools?  Is Common Core driving real reform and more effective learning, or is it often more a case of re-jigging…

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What problems are we really trying to solve in education? Seven suggestions

The quest to improve education systems has become an industry. Governments and schools promise improved student performance, excellence and academic rigor. Some want a broken education system fixed, but is there enough reflection or debate about what excellence means for education and what education’s underlying problems are? Debates about funding, homework, teacher pay, discipline and test scores will persist, but do we really think the next generation will flourish on the basis of these issues alone being solved? With all…

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