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Research evidence about “Brain Based Learning” identifies “neuromyths”
Education By Fusive on Sunday, July 30, 2006
Over the last ten years “brain-based learning” has been a subject of considerable interest to teachersa. Neuroscience is informing the education industry about brain disorders (eg. ADHD and Dyslexia) there is precious little evidence for the current enthusiasm of basing classroom practice on a so-called neuroscientific basis. So says new Scottish Research.
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Helping young people to improve investigative, reasoning and writing skills
Education By Fusive on Friday, July 28, 2006
It is increasingly clear we get what we teach to young people – rote learning in, rote writing out. A recent study finds that, if teachers are not careful, students relay on their teacher’s and textbooks interpretations of historical events rather than think of working out their own interpretation of an issue by looking at different source documents
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Sixth formers & parents underestimate University Debts
Education By Fusive on Sunday, July 23, 2006
The average sixth-former expects to leave university with debts of just over £6,000 - less than half the average amount graduates actually owe, research showed today. Parents were not much better at estimating the financial burden of going to university, with the average parent expecting their child to accrue debts of £7,080. Parents say that they are willing to deprive themselves of holidays in order to put their child through University
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Teachers are cheating by helping pupils to get good grades in GCE coursework
Education By Fusive on Saturday, July 22, 2006
A letter from a teacher revealed that, in order to reach the government target “A-C” pass rates there was no other choice for him but to cheat by helping pupils turn out good quality work. In addition, teachers spend hours coaching pupils for the exam (nothing new there, then)
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Sir James Dyson to fund a school for inventors and engineers.
Education By Fusive on Friday, July 14, 2006
Said to be open in two years, it is reported that Sir James Dyson, the vacuum man, is willing to spend millions investing in Britain’s first specialist design and engineering school, which he wants to train, inspire and educate future generations of inventors and engineers.
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Teachers to refuse to apply sunscreen to avoid abuse claims. Have we gone mad in this country?
Education By Fusive on Monday, July 10, 2006
Who would be a teacher in this climate of pupil power and threats to teachers. As pupil bad behaviour and untrue allegations increase, support for teachers is almost non-existent. There has been a report this week that teachers have been advised not to put sunscreen on pupils for fear of exposing themselves to allegations of child abuse.
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Evidence that After-School programs improved achievement and attitudes amongst disadvantaged children
Education By Fusive on Sunday, July 09, 2006
There is now strong research evidence that children growing up in economically disadvantaged circumstances are less likely to achieve well at school than their more affluent peers. A recent American study evaluated different kinds of after-school care for impoverished children and found that after-school programs had significant effects on the children’s school achievement.
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Parents, research shows it’s not the money you have but the quality time you spend with your children & your relationships that count.
Education By Fusive on Wednesday, July 05, 2006
It has long been known that parental involvement in their children’s education makes a big difference to their academic progress, and a major review of research on parental involvement found that the impact of parents on pupil achievement was, in fact, far greater than that of schools in the primary years, and was still an important factor at secondary level. The most crucial factor was the extent and quality of parental engagement with their children at home.
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2006 and still stereotyped career aspirations for boys and girls
Education By Fusive on Sunday, July 02, 2006
Of all the research reports in education being studied by the NERF what seemed to surprise them most was the high level of young people who still have gender stereotyped vocational aspirations for future studies in further education.
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Drugs and young people –some interesting facts and figures
Education By Fusive on Thursday, June 29, 2006
Mental Health problems are increasingly being linked with drug abuse, which damages many young people’s chances of success at school. You won’t be surprised about the groups that are at risk, but you may need to be looking at who your children spend time with.
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Did you know that more than 10% of children suffer from mental health problems ?
Education By Fusive on Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Are genetic factors or parenting issues more significant in the high incidence of children with mental health problems ? It appears both, but good parenting and a secure homelife is indicated to protect young children by my reading of the information.
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Including special needs pupils in mainstream “can be a form of abuse” it seems
Education By Fusive on Saturday, June 24, 2006
The title of this piece is a quote from the report Professor John McBeath of Cambridge Universit co-wrote for the National Union of Teachers. Also the NUT General Secretary Steve Sinnott called for an audit of provisions for Special Needs pupils looking to address “major areas of policy failure
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Can Thinking Skills be taught ? Research says yes but
Education By Fusive on Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Teaching Thinking is, it is said, a growing area in schools and colleges – and Thinking Skills are often rushed into by enthusiastic teachers but there are now so many approaches that it is unclear what kind of activity is supposed to do what.
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The Tories say that they would cut the A level pass rate to boost confidence in the exam system.
Education By Fusive on Thursday, June 15, 2006
The Tories say that they would cut the A level pass rate to boost confidence in the exam system. So – would that make any difference ? Possibly only to those students who would fail under a harder marking system unless the system is well thought out.
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Education for Citizenship. What on earth is this – could it be any use.
Education By Fusive on Tuesday, May 30, 2006
I was quite bewildered as to what Education for Citizenship would possibly be. Would this be like saluting the flag stuff like the Americans ? Surely not. No, it turns out to be nothing like that at all, and though looking at some evaluation studies I can see some point in certain aspects, I can’t really see how this more than woolly curriculum as it is developing, can meld our children into respectful citizens (in fact, some of the issues seem determined to foster rather selfish ideals.)
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Teaching sentence combining likely to improve children’s writing skills
Education By Fusive on Sunday, May 28, 2006
A systematic review of literature on the teaching of grammar identified a particular technique as likely to improve writing skills. If teaching time is limited, the researchers suggested that using the time to teach techniques such as sentence combining would help children write better, rather than teaching formal grammar which they say there is little proof of it improving writing skill in young children.
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Do you think grammar should be taught formally in schools ? Is such teaching effective ?
Education By Fusive on Saturday, May 27, 2006
I have found reports of two research reviews about grammar teaching. The two reviews had some rather controversial findings and want ministers to review National Curriculum guidelines about the teaching of formal grammar teaching. At the moment, younger primary children are required to learn about nouns, verbs and pronouns, and older primary school pupils learn all major parts of speech as well as the grammar of complex sentences.
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Its Adult Learners’ Week. Is this an outdated concept ?
Education By Fusive on Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Adult Learners’ Week is when events are staged all over the country to celebrate Adult Learning and Learners’ achievements. But, there have been major changes in priorities in further education and money for leisure provision has gone –and support for learners over 19 cut (at least that’s how it seems to have ended up).
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Parents should support children in working hard at school
Education By Fusive on Sunday, May 21, 2006
The Chief Inspector of Schools (the head of OFSTED) Maurice Smith has said that parents should make sure that their children do not stay up late watching TV and do not look scruffy going to school. He says that parental support was important for children and schools’ success.
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School dinner companies lose money following Jamie Oliver’s wake-up call
Education By Fusive on Friday, May 19, 2006
It seems that the contract catering industry has take a huge loss following behaviour and attitude changes set in motion by the work of celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver. Some contracts for school meals are not attracting tenders as companies say they can’t make any profit on the current monies offered.
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Belief in creationism and other religiously-inspired beliefs are interfering with the teaching of Biology and hence medicine – some really worrying news
Education By Fusive on Thursday, May 18, 2006
It was though to be an American problem – the teaching that the world was created in 7 days as the bible says, and that evolution is wrong – but increasingly it is clear that both Muslim and Christian fundamentalists dogma is having an impact on the thinking of young people. This is now impacting on their ability to study Biology
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Bad news about vocational training – time to get the 14-18 system mess right
Education By Fusive on Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Research at the Centre for Economic Performance has concluded that rigid teaching styles in schools up to 16 are leading to poor life chances for 50% of young people who do not go to university. They then fail to reach the standards of skills and employability that is now taken for granted in other industrialised countries.
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Many more European students are coming to UK Independent Schools. Why ?
Education By Fusive on Monday, May 15, 2006
It has been reported that the number of students from Europe in Independent Schools has risen overall by 11% in the last year, because, it is said, their families are worried about the standard of education in their own state schools (well we know all about this don’t we)
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Teachers and Parents often haven’t a clue about protecting children whilst surfing the internet
Education By Fusive on Saturday, May 13, 2006
Research by telecommunications provider, BT, just published found that 70% of teachers did not know where to get advice if they suspected a child was being exploited on the internet or had accessed inappropriate material, such as pornography. It is also clear that many parents are not themselves enough internet-savvy to know how to protect their children at hom
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Middle Class girls are the new “brat bullies” – why are girls vulnerable to bullying in school ?
Education By Fusive on Friday, May 12, 2006
The report to the Commons Committee on bullying that mentioned the new type of spoilt “brat bullies” also made clear that the new breed of bullies tend to be girls.
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Middle Class spoilt children are new playground bullies – is this your child ?
Education By Fusive on Thursday, May 11, 2006
A report to the Commons Select Committee by Michele Elliot, director of Kidscape said that middle class parents who spoil their children have created a new breed of unpleasant bully. These young people – called "the brat bullies" - come from "nice" homes but have been brought up always to get what they want
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More on Stress at nursery and Playschool and real problems for under 2’s particularly
Education By Fusive on Monday, May 08, 2006
The study looking at young children’s levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) during the day at Nursery or playschool , due to be published next year, showed that children at nursery do not see a drop in cortisol levels over the day as they would if they were at home. Instead, they remain "unusually aroused or stressed",
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Research shows that starting at nursery or playschool is very stressful for young children
Education By Fusive on Sunday, May 07, 2006
Young children starting nursery or playschool after being at home showed high levels of stress (as measured by the levels of the stress hormone cortisol) in the first weeks after separation from their mothers
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Parents’ survey says parents want schools to set bedtimes for young children
Education By Fusive on Friday, May 05, 2006
I believe that some independent (and state) schools recommend a minimum number of hours sleep for their children –the TES says that this is about 18% and 9% respectively
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Got a teenager interested in University – check out the Guardian gradings to help you suss out which university they should be aiming for ….
Education By Fusive on Thursday, May 04, 2006
If all your family have been to university and you yourself work in education you might know all there is to know about a particular university’s strengths and weaknesses: most parents don’t – and therefore most of us aren’t in a position to help our children at this crucial time.
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Should schools be teaching Social Skills ? Teach children how to talk ?
Education By Fusive on Tuesday, May 02, 2006
A Nottingham Labour MP, Graham Allen is asking for basic social skills to be taught by schools to fill the gap of “poor parenting”.......
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LSC Manager sacked for failing an IQ test. Why don’t more educational institutions try this ? What about local councillors too ?
Education By Fusive on Saturday, April 29, 2006
IQ Assessment tests are being used as a selection tool for manager’s posts at a time of large redundancies though the Unions are up in arms over the use of such tests.
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There is “outrage” over “tough new targets for 5-year-olds”. Who is kidding who ?
Education By Fusive on Friday, April 28, 2006
There has been a major backlash against the announcement of “tough new targets” for five year olds. So the government wants 53% of 5 year olds performing to this standard. But just look at the standard – who is kidding who ? They are not so tough. But… are some of them even reliably measurable ?
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Help your child learning the computer – you’ll know more than the teachers about it !
Education By Fusive on Monday, April 24, 2006
Schools no longer have the best expertise on ICT technologies and are becoming "technically irrelevant" because pupils know more about computers than their teachers,
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Women graduates are better at finding jobs. You need to help your sons !
Education By Fusive on Monday, April 24, 2006
Latest research from HECSU shows that women are better at finding jobs after their training, than men are. I can relate to this from experience.
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Warning: Computers and Electronic media is changing children’s brains
Education By Fusive on Friday, April 21, 2006
Scientists are warning of the impact on children’s brains of long hours of watching screens by our children.
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Are Faith Schools at a crossroads ? Teachers ask for faith schools’ funding to be cut
Education By Fusive on Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Two Teachers’ Unions – the NUT and the ATL (Association of Teachers and Lecturers) will debate motions to ask for the phased withdrawal of funding to the UK’s 7K faith schools.
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The Government cuts funding for Adult Education
Education By Fusive on Tuesday, April 18, 2006
It seems a weird thing that a government that came to power chanting “education education education” could be responsible for so many cuts along the way. The cheap day and evening class programme subsidised by education funding will soon be a thing of the past.
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Disciplining children: What do I do if my children get really angry because I discipline them?
Education By Fusive on Monday, April 17, 2006
Often children get angry when being disciplined (who ever liked feeling in the wrong?). As long as you are being fair, it's OK. Let them be angry but you keep calm.
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Disciplining young children: I’m losing my temper with this child ! What can I do ?
Education By Fusive on Thursday, April 13, 2006
It is so very difficult when a child’s behaviour makes you so cross and you get so angry you think you will lose your temper. In this state there is the danger that you will shout and scream and even hit the child. There were certainly times in my teaching career that a child’s behaviour – either to me or another child made me very angry. You can never solve any problem when you are in this state,
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Help your teenager organise revision for GCSE’s – there’s still time
Education By Fusive on Wednesday, April 05, 2006
The GCSE Mock examinations that year 11 pupils sat this term should have signalled a wake up call to some and certainly set out strengths and weaknesses. They will also suddenly have made clear to some young people just how hard it can be working to limited time constraints.
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Disciplining young children. So what do I do when my children break the rules?
Education By Fusive on Wednesday, April 05, 2006
The most important thing to do, however irritated you feel is to stay calm. Think what is fair and what is fair to do. Sometimes, the child or children (if there are a group of them) can help you decide what is fair to do when a rule is broken. Do something that is fair and makes sense and will help them learnnotto make the same mistake again. For example, if they write on the wall, have them help clean it up.
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Boys should be taught by male teachers. Compelling research supports this.
Education By Fusive on Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Generally, in the UK Education system, there is a major trend away from single sex education – a system in which boys and girls are taught separately and often have teachers of the same gender. Currently there are differences in achievement between boys and girls which are significant
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Disciplining young children - Will my children hate me when I set down limits? Will they think I'm unfair and unkind ?
Education By Fusive on Sunday, April 02, 2006
Its difficult for parents and grandparents sometimes to be tough with their young children when they make a fuss over you keeping them to agreed rules such as bedtime. Its easy enough to think “Oh well, so what’s wrong with giving way a little”. I think the point about this is its about building up discipline and the belief in the young child that you mean what you say when you say “No”.
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Start saving up NOW to send your children to University
Education By Fusive on Saturday, April 01, 2006
I think its time for parents and grandparents to start saving up NOW to help their children go to University in the future – though I think it’s a good thing that more students are working to go toward their costs for higher education –they are also borrowing a great deal and this may well become a major millstone round their necks year on year. A Department for Education and Skills (DFES) survey
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Is GCSE Coursework going to be abolished ? I hope so.
Education By Fusive on Friday, March 31, 2006
GCSE Coursework assessment has had many critics over the past few years. Firstly, there is the huge opportunity for cheating – or for over-helpful parents to be doing more work than their children, ......However, coursework could become a thing of the past for GCSE students in many subjects, the government's exams watchdog said
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Disciplining young children – Setting limits for behaviour
Education By Fusive on Wednesday, March 29, 2006
I do find it difficult sometimes as a Grandparent to be as firm with rules of behaviour – quite often things that annoy parents are quite OK for me (such as the child rushing around and making noise – I quite like the change!). But there are some main ideas that, as a former teacher of young children, I know are important to do with early education in setting up rules of behaviour.
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Disciplining young children – setting routines and keeping to them !
Education By Fusive on Tuesday, March 28, 2006
I think probably the first and most important education of young children is to set routines for the key activities of the day such as bathtime and bedtime, mealtimes and key jobs that children should be starting to do, such as tidying up their toys or clothes. Routines help children feel safe and calm, because they know what parents expect,
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More on disciplining young children “ I feel awful telling her off when she’s so little”
Education By Fusive on Monday, March 27, 2006
I think I did better at this as a parent than I am doing as a grandparent., but the following advice I found is just brilliant. If you have to tell a young child about their mistakes or “tell them off” about their behaviour, also “say two nice but true things to children for every time to correct them”.
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The budget may help prevent FE College budgets from “melt down” – or may not
Education By Fusive on Thursday, March 23, 2006
A week ago or so the Department for Education and Skills announced a reduction of funding of around 10% to colleges , with the remainder open for tender to other training organisations – this could threaten to close some colleges – and its interesting that sixth forms are not being threatened with such radical funding loss
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