Modern Tools for Modern Times
As an academic and facilitator for nearly 30 years, I have a love/hate relationship with the ubiquitous “course evaluation survey” students are asked to complete. I love feedback! On the one hand, I love receiving feedback on what they liked/disliked about [...]
Mapping the Learner Experience
No doubt you've heard the joke about the man lost driving through the countryside who asked the local farmer how to get to where he needs to go. Having done his best to explain the directions as best as he could, given the intricate state of the roads and [...]
Don’t get Burnt by the Burning Platform
The ‘burning platform’ is a well-known metaphor for igniting personal or institutional change. It’s based on the idea that change needs a spark – a very big one – to ignite the process. Without a burning platform, the change process flames out. Burning [...]
Shifting the Paradigm Shift Faster
Besides the many ideas and innovations Kurt Levin advanced as one of the most influential social scientists of the 20th Century, he once commented “there is nothing so practical as a good theory”. Shifting the paradigm from teacher centred to student [...]
Back to the Future: Student-centred Learning in the 21st Century
I’ve formally worked as an educator for the best part of 30 years. During that time, I thought I’d done a pretty good job of adopting a student-centred approach to learning. However, as I’ve delved deeper into the literature, I’ve realised I’ve still [...]
Why Making Paradigm Shifts is SO Hard
Moving from an industrial ‘might’ to an information ‘byte’ education system will require a Herculean effort – supported by listening, collaboration and an open mindset. The dominant paradigm has been in place for the best part of two centuries, but [...]
The Paradigm Shift Needed in Education
I was first introduced to the term “paradigm shift” by Tom Peters and Bob Waterman in their classic business book “In Search of Excellence”. Shared Beliefs They argued that the rational model of business – a direct descendent of the scientific [...]
Industrial Might to Information Bytes
As an educator, I love to learn, and I love sharing what I have learned. While conducting research on educational institutions and education pedagogies for this series of blogs, I came across a fascinating article by Peter Gray, a Research Professor of Psychology [...]
Educating Knowledge Workers in the Info Age
The late Peter Drucker has been described as the founder of modern management. I still remember the title of his textbook “Practices of Management: Planning, Directing, Organising and Controlling” when I first studied management at university in the [...]
The Do’s and Don’ts of Moving Learning Online
One of the clear messages to emerge from the COVID-19 crisis is that education has changed forever. Single biggest pedagogical change in decades Private school principals, state education secretaries, and education consultancy CEO’s all agree. COVID-19 has [...]