real life learning

i am writing up a research report about the importance of engagement with real life experiences outside of the formal classroom context - trying to shake some sense into educators that think they can continue to control children's learning with an island mentality through a transmission of information model that operates in isolation from the rest of the world - somehow we have to influence formal educators towards a pedagogy that embraces life as meaning making activity :

‘Learning power depends on developing certain dispositions, qualities and capabilities; but, as with all other knowledge and know-how, these are embedded within a shifting intuitive sense
of when, where and for what purposes they are best employed ……Knowledge and know-how that are learnt intellectually have to be re-embedded through reflective practice in the functional networks of the brainscape before they can turn into fluent expertise.’ (Guy Claxton 1999;338-9)

we only really know something when we use that knowledge in real life - so the process of learning should be less about accumulating and rehearsing knowledge and much much more about developing our understanding in response to the problems and challenges of real life - the phrase 'use it or lose it' comes to mind !

fun with maths

i have been having fun today creating several different surveys for some research into creativity and maths i am doing - one for teachers and then eight others for different classes of children - all of them are trying to collect information about confidence and enjoyment in maths - it is going to be very interesting to see what the results show - my job has been made much easier by the marvellous inventions of the organisation survey monkey - i was rubbish at data handling and statistics at school - survey monkey make it all beautifully easy and the results are actually quite elegant !

i have been planning some work on education for sustainable development for older children and community groups to play with together - there is some really good material out there that is produced by aid agencies, so it has been fun crawling and trawling for stuff - thought it might be useful to record the main sites i used, just in case some of you are launching summer term community projects where you are working with the global citizenship theme - worth looking at are :

cafod - for primary schools

global gang - for children - Christian aid

learn for educators - Christian aid

oxfam education

cool planet (for children and educators) - oxfam

save the children

actionaid

food and agriculture organisation excellent manual for planning a community garden

tearfund youth

worldaware

if anyone is starting a community garden or outdoor education project, i have found grounds for learning, learning through landscapes and the eden project to be very friendly and helpful for ongoing advice - hope you have fun with this stuff !

connecting

jim was reminding me yesterday of a book that really influenced me in my teaching and learning - parker j palmer is one of my mentors and the kind of educator that i aspire to be - to know as we are known is a 'thin' book, for educators who are in that uncomfortable, 'thin' place where they are wrestling to bring some congruency to who they really are as people and how they really teach - i find that it is very easy within a fomal education system to feel out of alignment with who i really am - sometimes that sense of dissonance makes for more creativity, but mostly i find that feeling of loss of integrity disempowering - anyway, parker's book is all about recapturing 'hidden wholeness' and the recovery of community in education - he calls that dissonance 'the pain of disconnection' and describes education as a process where authentic spirituality is nourished through the creation of spaces in which obedience to truth is practiced : we become reconnected through the process of living as a community of truth - that is really hard to do in schools right now - there is no time to connect with children and the school improvement agenda ensures we have no option but to comply with directives that for the most part seem to run counter to any attempt we might make at 'wholeness' - however, this book has always inspired me to keep on trying for those things, so i think it is definitely worth a read for those of you that face the same struggles - (thanks jim for teaching me how to embed a link - you are a mighty fine educator !!)