At the end of November 2020, the Ministry of National Education launched the 30 minutes of sport per day operation at school in order to fight against children’s sedentary lifestyle. An important problem already before the Covid-19 epidemic, and that the periods of generalized confinement made even more glaring, as first scientific studies have shown . Beyond this measure, and the […] … learn more→
Blog Archives
The body at school: a forgotten dimension
School budgets have held up better than expected in some states, but looming cuts will hurt learning long after pandemic ends
The year 2020 may prove to be pivotal in the history of U.S. public education. Many children have gone missing from school completely since March, and millions more are struggling with wholly inadequate online learning experiences. Lower-income and minority children are particularly hard-hit. The pandemic has exposed and exacerbated deep inequities across our public schools. Merely restoring school budgets to their […] … learn more→
Choosing sides in campus culture wars is counterproductive
As the wintry months turn icy, the winds of a new intellectual Cold War are sweeping across UK universities. Having blown across the wider cultural and political landscape for some time, these winds are starting to bite on campuses, with the recent debate at the University of Cambridge over whether staff must be “respectful” of […] … learn more→
Academic writing choices – learning from blogging
I’ve been thinking about academic writing and blogging again. I’ve been wondering what we might learn from thinking about the writing that bloggers do. Academic blogs are not all the same. They can be categorised in various ways. I’ve been thinking about categorising blogs as “action” – focusing on what they seem to want to […] … learn more→
Secularism: how do children perceive it ?
As after the Charlie Hebdo attacks , the assassination of Samuel Paty gave rise to its share of proposals to strengthen the teaching of secularism at school: the president of the “Republicans” group in the National Assembly, Damien Abad, in particular demanded the establishment of “courses on the values of the Republic and secularism” , sanctioned by a compulsory test for the […] … learn more→
Measuring quality with metrics ignores transformative mentoring
When abstract metrics are used to measure teaching excellence and graduate outcomes, often with very little granularity, it is worth dwelling on moments that remind you of the real purpose and impact of a university education. My own recent reminder to look beyond the bureaucratic statistics on student satisfaction and graduate employment came while supervising […] … learn more→
Five ways to help your child develop a love for reading
A love for reading can be hugely valuable for children. The benefits of leisure reading include increased general knowledge, a positive impact on academic achievement, enhanced reading ability and vocabulary growth. Indeed, research suggests that time spent reading for pleasure could be a key indicator for the future success of a child – even more important than their family’s socio-economic status. It […] … learn more→
Education 2020: The Year We Study Dangerously
Education has suffered throughout 2020 perhaps the greatest stress test in its history. But until the pandemic was unleashed in all its virulence and educational centers around the world closed, there was time, however, to devote to some issues that were gaining prominence. At the beginning of the year, the so-called “parental pin” stirred the educational […] … learn more→
Revise – by connecting academic reading with academic writing
How do you know what to do when you are revising your writing? Revision always involves making a judgment about your own work. You become a self-evaluator. But what criteria do you use? Art educator and philosopher Elliott Eisner (1976, pp. 140-141) suggested that any evaluation of your own and/or others’ artistic or creative work […] … learn more→
The 5 main problems in learning a foreign language
The demand for learning foreign languages has got really high over the last decade. This tendency mostly reflects the situation on the labor market. Many open positions in global companies require the knowledge of at least one foreign language. Fluent English gives an opportunity to receive a scholarship and get a diploma from any college […] … learn more→
