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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Humanising Organisations: Ideal to Reality
I’ve long believed – and research consistently shows - that adopting humanistic management principles and practices such as empowerment and treating people with dignity and respect generates positive economic value for organisations. Mental Health and [...]
Employee happiness depends on the boss
I’ve long been interested in the relationship between employee job satisfaction and work-related performance ever since I read about the famous Hawthorne studies conducted by Elton Mayo, a Harvard professor and generally regarded as the founder of the [...]
Calling all leaders – the environment needs you!
As a leadership and management commentator, I don’t normally blog about climate change and the environment. However, in my view today’s most pressing and complex leadership challenge is climate change and the environment. The world needs leaders from all walks [...]