Category: Uncategorized
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Opinion: Science teachers can’t just ‘skip’ the content.
‘The enemy of our future prosperity is complacency. Past investments in skills development have underpinned our strong economy and enviable lifestyle, which in turn have diminished our sense of urgency’ (Finkel 2018, p.3). Students are increasingly opting out of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects in Australian Schools, with broadly decreasing achievement trends in […]
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Social Constructivism in the ‘adult world’
Constructivism has been around for a long time, with the main contributors to this theory being Kant, Piaget, Vygotsky and Bruner. There is a wonderful ‘constructivist thinking timeline’ linked below which explores all of the various contributors, both large and small, to this pedagogical understanding of learning. According to Piaget (Piaget 1936), intellectual development is […]
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Learning is strictly making mistakes
The work of Jo Boaler (Boaler 2013) and Carol Dweck (Dweck 2006) shows us that the main hinderance to students learning maths is the belief that they cannot do it (i.e. an emotional response). This concept was introduced to me through the TED talk ‘How you can be good at maths, and other surprising facts about learning’ […]
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I feel, therefore I learn
As a scientist, I love hard evidence. I love to actually see the ‘this, therefore maybe that’ process in action, as a scan or a measurement or a double-blind experiment for instance. In fact one of the first obstacles I had to overcome in studying an Arts Masters (teaching) after having completed a Science Bachelor was bringing […]
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The outdoor classroom
A field trip or excursion is defined by Jose et. al. (2017, p. 271) as ‘a trip arranged by the school and undertaken for educational purposes, in which students go to places where the materials of instruction may be observed and studied directly in their functional setting’. Out-of-school learning can include non-formal institutions and organizations […]
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Re-framing disadvantage
Children learn about themselves and construct their own identity within the context of their families and communities. This includes their relationships with people, places and things and the actions and responses of others. Identity is not fixed. It is shaped by experiences. When children have positive experiences they develop an understanding of themselves as significant […]
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Be a teacher!
I was a conscientious student in year 11 and 12. I studied hard, I prepared for all of the tests and spent hours revising essays. When it came to thinking about what I should study after school, teaching was definitely not seen as desirable amongst all of the many other options – doctor, lawyer, scientist… […]
Lauren Swann 