Items to Share: 18 October 2015

Education Focus

• Evidence Based Educational Leadership: Lesson Study - The New Brain Gym?  Probably not, but is scepticism becoming cynicism?

• ‘We need a cultural revolution’: Alan Tuckett’s inaugural | thelearningprofessor  Alan—long-time leader of NIACE—has taken up a Chair at Wolverhampton. 

• Heutagogy and lifelong learning: A review of heutagogical practice and self-determined learning | Blaschke | The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning Another "brand" in lifelong learning: what does this one have to offer? 

• A Step Change for Ofsted? Stepping Out, not Stepping Up! | kevenbartle's Blog  Excellent and fairly dispassionate analysis from a headteacher of the ills besetting the whole Ofsted model. 

• Blowing the Whistle on the UC Berkeley Mathematics Department [alexandercoward.com] Alexander Coward's account of how he fell foul of the powers that be in the Department, for teaching too well, and was then fired. 

Other Business

• BPS Research Digest: Social psychology textbooks ignore all modern criticisms of Milgram's "obedience experiments" [bps.org.uk ]

• The Myers-Briggs personality test deemed expensive and silly / Boing Boing The MBTI is a storytelling hack. It tells exactly you what you tell it, but in nicer words, assigning you to a Jungian team along archetypal lines wired into us by generations of social role-play and entertainment. Of course it's going to be more popular than the MMPI! The sad part is that it isn't even very good at that purpose: as Emre writes, "Jung would likely be greatly displeased, if not embarrassed" by the transformation of his magic into a rigid, jargon-bound "type indicator." Also: Uncovering The Secret History Of Myers-Briggs - Digg

• Carol Dweck Revisits the 'Growth Mindset' - Education Week '[A]s we’ve watched the growth mindset become more popular, we’ve become much wiser about how to implement it. This learning—the common pitfalls, the misunderstandings, and what to do about them—is what I’d like to share with you, so that we can maximize the benefits for our students. [ ] A growth mindset isn’t just about effort. Perhaps the most common misconception is simply equating the growth mindset with effort. Certainly, effort is key for students’ achievement, but it’s not the only thing. Students need to try new strategies and seek input from others when they’re stuck. They need this repertoire of approaches—not just sheer effort—to learn and improve.'

• President Obama and Marilynne Robinson: A Conversation in Iowa by Barack Obama and Marilynne Robinson | The New York Review of Books You may have heard of him, but not of her. She is arguably (of course) the greatest, most humane, most insightful, most graceful (in several senses) novelist of this century, but not exactly the most prolific. He was sufficiently impressed to interrupt a scheduled visit to Iowa, so he could interview her. Read all about it and then read her oeuvre.