Tag Archives: innovation
Reflections on a 21st Century School
I recently had the opportunity to spend a day at Thomas Haney Secondary School in Maple Ridge, BC. The school is known for its commitment to flexible, individualized, learn-at-your-own-pace education, and is touted by many as an exemplar of progressive pedagogy. As a teacher cautiously interested in the phenomenon of “21st century learning”, but also a [...]
There Are Costs Associated With Choice and Flexibility
The following is a recent contribution I made to the BC Edplan website; the government is using the site to gather feedback for its current forays into “21st century learning” and “personalized learning”. Admittedly, the site is probably also being used to legitimate any future policies that may turn out to be controversial, but I’ve [...]
Some surprising conclusions regarding creativity and innovation
Howard Gardner is well known for his theory of multiple intelligences. He is less well known for a fascinating book on creativity. In his Creating Minds (1993), Gardner explores the lives of seven famous persons from the 20th century – Sigmund Freud, Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Igor Stravinsky, T.S. Eliot, Martha Graham, and Mahatma Gandhi [...]
Ben Levin’s thoughts on education
The presentation below, by Ontario professor Ben Levin, makes some interesting points about modern education. The first point is that many of the elements that differentiate the education systems of Canada and the USA – and lead to better PISA results in Canada – are macro-factors outside the control of individual teachers. Levin points to [...]
