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We have looked at many different areas of research and some of what we have learned has not even been properly analysed yet to see if it could be applied in the school setting.
The main headings are as follows:
This is the work of Carol Dweck concerning how the particular ‘mindset’ growth of fixed that a learner adopts has a profound effect on their learning. The school has worked on this for over 2 years.
This is the result of a massive research programme undertaken by John Hattie and his team spanning may years and literally hundreds of research papers. It shows what really works in raising achievement.
There is a link to a ‘Ted’ talk and to Michael Sandel and his famous Havard lectures on Justice. These are easy to follow as he presents different scenarios and then adds layers of complexity by providing alternative explanations, which really challenge your thinking. This is a superb introduction to philosophy from a very gifted communicator.
Ken Robinson gave the most watched ‘Ted’ talk on the internet concerning creativity and how the system of education in most countries, including ours, diminishes the freedom of children to be creative. There are three talks and all are very entertaining but make salient points about the present inadequacies in schools concerning the encouraging of creative thought and action. Watch them in date order.
This is concerned with motivation, of great interest to us is how to ensure that our children have ‘intrinsic’ motivation; i.e. motivation from within themselves as opposed to ‘extrinsic’ where they have to be coerced into learning.
Contains details of the work of world renowned negotiator Stuart Diamond and the
intuitive ways in which we can achieve our goals when in negotiation
or a transaction with another party. Really useful for when you might face a tricky
meeting with an irate parent or customer.
This is under development but in many ways has the potential to be really exciting. It will contain a variety of different problems to illustrate visual and cognitive illusions. There will be problems and questions for children of all ages to consider and attempt. I am hoping to have a series of videos showing pupils of different ages attempts at the problems. In addition it will contain links to the presentations given in school to aid children’s learning and thinking.
This is a collection of resources downloaded from the Times Educational Supplement resources website, which are design for use by teachers and mainly older pupils.
This is a series of links to videos, summaries and pdf copies of the work of some
the most notable and important behavioural scientists in the world. Daniel Kahneman
has written ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’, probably the most ground-
breaking book on psychology
written in the last 30 years. It is fascinating and packed with details and examples.
It illustrates how easily and unknowingly we are fooled by our own mind.
Dan Ariely references this work and shows how are irrational behaviour is often very predictable, whether in handling money, making decisions, choosing partners or deciding whether to donate organs.
Thaler is concerned with choice architecture and how by ‘libertarian paternalism’ people can be influence to make decisions which should be to their benefit.
This has been a rapidly expanding field due to the advent of imaging techniques,
such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging M.R.I. Leaders in this field as applied to education
include Professor Barbara Sahakian from Cambridge, Professor Sarah-
UCL and Dr Paul Howard-‘Neuroscience;
implications for education and lifelong learning’. There are some videos and powerpoints
too. Jones, from Bristol An important document to look at is
Jessica Lambert asked for children to take part in some original research, which would form part of her dissertation for the M.A. in Museum Studies. The title of the dissertation is, “How does the narrative voice contribute to meaning making in immersive environments?”
The research aims to look at how children react to how the story is told in museum environments. As part of this study 3 immersive museums were visited. Immersive means that it feels like you are visiting a different part of history. For this project we visited the SS Great Britain in Bristol, the Big Pit in Cardiff and the Roman Baths in Bath.