Be so good they can’t ignore you. Steve Martin Introduction As teachers we spend a lot of time thinking about what we need to do to help students learn and often that translates into spending a lot of time thinking about what we’re supposed to do. Which is fine as long as that’s not all…
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Author: Michael Rowe
The One about Feedback Literacy
Published July 1, 2021 by Michael Rowe
Feedback can’t provide answers, but it can (and should) generate questions. Naomi Winstone Introduction The traditional narrative in higher and professional education is that feedback is about telling. We make an observation about a student’s performance and then we tell them 1) what was wrong with it, and 2) how they need to correct it.…
Leave a CommentThe One about Personal Learning
Published June 1, 2021 by Michael Rowe
It’s when we do stuff that we learn, not when stuff does something for us. Stephen Downes Introduction I’ve noticed that people tend to use the terms personal learning and personalised learning interchangeably. But they’re different concepts and the difference is, I think, important. In personalised learning, a system makes suggestions for how you should…
Leave a CommentThe intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant but has forgotten the gift. Bob Samples (1976) Introduction The standard description of our understanding of the left and right hemispheres of the brain is that the left hemisphere is the…
Leave a CommentThe One about English as the dominant language of the profession
Published April 1, 2021 by Michael Rowe
The most difficult thing about majorities is not that they cannot see minorities but that they cannot see themselves. Glen Colquhoun (2004) Introduction In a 2005 commencement speech to the graduating class of Kenyon, David Foster Wallace told a story of two fish swimming along when they pass an older fish swimming in the opposite direction.…
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In this episode Ben and Michael speak to Shaun Cleaver about the idea that English is taking over as the default language, not only of communication between people of different cultures, but also as the language of knowledge generation and dissemination. We talk about why this might be a problem, and how we might start thinking about solutions.
1 CommentThe One about Learning Styles
Published March 1, 2021 by Michael Rowe
We conclude therefore, that at present, there is no adequate evidence base to justify incorporating learning-styles assessments into general educational practice. Thus, limited education resources would better be devoted to adopting other educational practices that have a strong evidence base, of which there are an increasing number. Pashler et al. (2008) Introduction In this newsletter…
Leave a CommentWhy is it not 52% or 55% or 45%? What is the scientific rationale for using a score of 50%? Unfortunately, the answer to all these questions is the same: We don’t know. Scarpa Schoeman Introduction I started working as an academic in 2009 and from day 1 I was hooked on the idea that…
Leave a CommentThe One about Education Research
Published November 1, 2020 by Michael Rowe
In medical education, teaching is currently viewed as an intervention that causes learning. The task of medical education research is seen as establishing which educational interventions produce the desired learning outcomes. This ‘medical model’ of education does not do justice to the dynamics of education as an open, semiotic, recursive system rather than a closed,…
Leave a CommentUnposters and unconferences
Published October 1, 2020 by Michael Rowe
In far too much online learning, we over-architecture engagement, reducing it to a series of tasks with point values, rather than leaving enough breathing room for organic and intrinsically-motivated community to develop. Jesse Stommel Podcast Ellis, B., & Rowe, M. (n.d.). Reflections on WCPT and the Unposter (No. 13). Retrieved 30 September 2020, from https://inbeta.uwc.ac.za/2019/10/07/13-reflections-on-wcpt-and-the-unposter/…
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