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curriculum
There’s an age-old concept in the field of education called ”the teachable moment.” This is when an event happens unexpectedly that provides an opportunity for students to learn something new.  So, for example, if a great statesman died, this might be the chance to learn something about his life, or to examine the traits of...
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For parents who are homeschooling their kids in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and are looking for things to teach their kids, here’s a way to teach even younger kids (grade 3 and up) the principles of the very first scientific law that could be expressed in a mathematical formula:  Boyle’s Law – a...
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There’s all this talk of ‘’best practices’’ in education but nobody talks about worst practices.  Here’s something that I think qualifies as a ‘’worst practice’’ – it involves educators’ propensity to teach mostly explicit knowledge as opposed to tacit knowledge.  Scientist and philosopher Michael Polanyi bases his understanding of ‘’tacit knowing’’ on the principle ‘’that...
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It’s been eight years since the Common Core State Standards were unveiled and states began adopting them for use in their evaluation programs.  The firestorm of controversy which initially greeted their introduction into American education from both sides of the political aisle seems to have died down somewhat and presently the Common Core appears to...
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The Common Core Curriculum states that ”[b]y the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.  The question is, how many students actually know them?  One adult scientist has noted:  ”I’m 49 years old, have a PhD in physics, and teach math and physics for a living. When I need...
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