If ever we ask a student "why do you need to know this?" and he doesn't know (or can't come up with anything more than "for the test"), we need to stop and re-think what went wrong, no matter what the child's age. If the student doesn't know why they're "learning" something, they probably can't [...]
A couple of weekends ago I surprised my son with a box of Meccano and suggested we build something together. I don’t have a particularly glorious track record in the field of assembly (we won’t discuss the unfortunate table football incident), but I thought that if he and I constructed something together, it would not [...]
It doesn’t take very long to scroll through LinkedIn to find a post on what makes an effective leader. Great leaders, we are told, are supposed to be empathetic, humble, inspiring, accountable. They should empower others and lead from the back while finding success in other people’s goals and achievements. Leadership should come from everywhere, [...]
When we define the success of a school based on its test scores, we are doing nothing less than commoditizing students at the expense of learning. Worse, we are perpetuating a system that is already outdated insofar as its entire reason for existence is to prepare students for the future, which it is failing to [...]
Kindness is all that matters. While grades hinder learning (and don’t even assess it), kindness stays. Kindness has impact. Kindness is the great leveler, no matter what race, socio-economic background, privilege or challenge, we can all be kind. Perhaps we should think more about cultivating kindness and less about what scores our kids get on [...]
There doesn’t seem to be a universal definition of what curricular innovation is all about, even if it’s one of the hottest buzzwords in education. Curricular innovation is often associated with student-centered experiences, learner empowerment, creation over consumption (or regurgitation), and preparing kids for the unknown. Of course in some circles this raises the question, [...]
I have been thinking quite a bit recently (and I am certainly not the only one) about how much of the curriculum delivered in the classroom actually prepares students for success in their professional and personal lives. There is so much discourse out there about 21st-century skills and the preponderance of competency development over knowledge [...]
What if we turned assessment upside down and, instead of starting with looking what the student can do or what they know, we started to measure the impact of students' ideas and actions? What if, instead of having assessment center on skills and knowledge in relative isolation (a test, a product, a presentation), we looked [...]
I am thinking a lot about the ethos of international schools and how so many mission statements want to develop global-minded learners. I think this is wonderful!... but, at the risk of generalizing, I would bet most of the kids in international schools have been exposed to the world for years by living and traveling [...]
Twenty-First Century Skills, Survival Skills, Soft Skills, Approaches to Learning, the 6C’s, the 4 C’s… whatever we decide to call the dispositions, approaches, and abilities that are difficult to quantify and supposed to be so critical for success in the world, they remain inexplicably absent from the core of curriculum development and reporting in many [...]
At Pixar, writers and directors sit around a table to go over the script during what they call crit sessions. It is an open conversation but there is a process called “plussing,” which means that no idea is shot down and you’re only allowed to make a comment if you are adding to the idea. [...]
Walking into an Early Years classroom can often be a disorienting experience for a high school teacher. There are sand tables and water table; shelves with blocks in one corner, easels in another; firefighter, doctor, and police officer getups in a third; and an adult or two who observe students and take notes on the [...]
I am not naive enough to believe this will be easy, but maybe if we just throw the idea out there we can start something that will change the way we think and do things. Also, this may be more problematic with Early Years and lower grades. Americans will probably remember a specific Seinfeld episode [...]
Thinking about curriculum in a way that uses student agency to develop thinking, core skills, and socio-emotional growth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6zAVvzCTTw
Over the last hundred and twenty years, not much has changed inhow most schools organize their co-curricular or after school activities. Traditionally these programs offer students the chance to participate in sports, learn to play an instrument, or be part of a club that gathers like-minded or interested peers. These activities offer wonderful opportunities for [...]
Living in Hong Kong provides many opportunities and conveniences. Cycling on the island is not always one of them. In the early hours of weekend mornings one can spot groups of riders on the road in tight formations climbing hills before zipping down their slopes, but the narrow roads and even faster drivers make this [...]
Students engineer an Escape Room in which they will lock up their parents. Learning happens most effectively when it is meaningful. The freedom to decide what and how one learns allows for the creation of a learning experience that becomes personal and therefore has greater impact. Students can imagine what and how they want to [...]
Note: We are not sure we even like the term "personalization" as it can put the learner in a passive position if someone else "personalizes" their experience. If deep understanding only happens when it is personally relevant, no one can personalize an experience, but rather, the learner must find personal meaning in that experience herself. [...]
We tried something that we hope is innovative to meet learners where they are and where they need to be (including their voices). We tried something that aims to change the way we approach learning and assessment. This something also shifts thinking in terms of how reports communicate: instead of only looking backward, we made [...]
Our idea of what the 21st century classroom looks like is different from what most of us experienced a few decades ago. The physical space can be reconfigured to meet the different needs individual and collaborative projects. Digital devices are used in ways that transform experiences. Learners are actively engaged rather than passively receiving information. [...]
The word “Inquiry” is used in education all the time, whether in marketing brochures, school mission statements, or curricular plans. Most people in the sector will agree that an inquiry-based approach comprises of some form of central question and is designed to promote student exploration and curiosity, with the majority of the learning coming not [...]
Coconut Thinking 