Archives for Engagement

And on the sixth day……

…students came back into school to make it not like school. This week-end I was privileged to witness one of the most exciting exemplifications of self-determined learning I’ve yet to see. In OPEN, I write about the inevitable shift, from  Pedagogy (tutor-directed learning), to Andragogy (self-directed learning), to Heutagogy (self-determined learning). I argue that our formal institutions will increasingly have to follow learner needs and interests, simply because, when we’re learning socially, it’s all self-determined. So, we can expect that we will demand more of what works for us socially, when we’re in a more formal space. However, self-directed or …

Read More

We Can’t Engage Students and We Can’t Motivate Them!

It’s the last, sweltering, couple of days in the school year here in England. In Scotland and the US, teachers have already been on vacation for a couple of weeks of well-deserved rest. In Australia, however, they’re just getting back to work after the mid-winter break. In both hemispheres, this is often the point when teachers reflect on their students and their relationships with them. Because most of us have been living through an era of ‘done to’ education, some of those reflections might be about what more they can do to motivate and engage their students. Please teachers, don’t …

Read More

Learn It Again, Sam

I’ve just completed the first leg of my speaking ‘tour’ of Australia and New Zealand. For the past few days I’ve been speaking to teachers and education civil servants in Adelaide. I’ve just come from working with the curriculum department of the government education department, and it was great to see the level of innovation, and passion, coming from their staff. I can’t say that I’ve experienced such creativity and enthusiasm on a regular basis from their English counterparts. I’d prepared quite a formal quasi-academic (because I could never convincingly pull off the full academic schtick) presentation on my work …

Read More
/* Add these to the or the