We seem to be living in an age in which the more half-baked the idea, the more likely it is to find traction. I wonder, often, if this is because people think, “X has said this. X is an intelligent and wise person. Therefore this must be sensible.”
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Ask them to explain what they think they've learnt. Picture by Kidaha on Pixabay.com CCO
7 questions to ask pupils during lesson observation
If you're observing a lesson, here are seven questions to ask the pupils.
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Questions, questions, questions Picture from www.pixabay.com CC0
My best and worst IT lessons #7: What's the interest rate?
Whether or not you can easily look up the answers to questions is far less important than asking the right questions in the first place.
Read MoreYou must be joking, right?
I don’t know if many people ever look at the categories that blog posts have been assigned to. I know I do sometimes, especially if I’m looking for a particular article or type of article. But, in the interests of making people’s lives as easy as possible as far as finding articles on the ICT in Education website is concerned, I not only assign articles to categories but sometimes make up new categories in order to be even more specific. Thus it was that I recently created a new category called Really?
25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #18 Don’t ask questions
You’d think that giving people in your team the freedom to teach ICT how they like would be met, by them a least, with unbridled enthusiasm. You’d think that the best way to get on with your boss would be to offer no resistance to his latest idea, even if you secretly believe it is completely nuts. You’d think that not challenging your students when they proudly show you the results of their programming or desktop publishing efforts would be much better than the opposite, lest their (supposedly) fragile self-esteem be damaged.
You’d be wrong.
25 ways to make yourself unpopular: #11 Ask questions
It’s a very sad thing, I think, but one thing I have discovered is that if you ask questions, or at least the wrong type of questions, that’s a sure-fire way of attracting opprobrium. A strong word to use, perhaps, but there is little doubt in my mind that daring to question the current conventional wisdom is indeed often regarded as shameful, and usually indicative of not having fully understood the situation.
For example, a lot of people think that one device per child is a good thing to aim for. It certainly sounds admirable, especially in the context of wanting to reduce the digital divide. But when it comes to making purchasing decisions in a school, is it the most sensible or desirable target to aim for? The questions I would ask here are: