In my search to explore ways to develop, educate and coach teaching quality I found 5 elements do deal with. Teaching quality is defined as instruction that enables a wide range of students to learn. Therefore the aim is is to reach all students and not just those who choose to participate in classroom learning. Continue reading “Professional Development in Teaching”
Improving learning is a very important task for every educator. When it comes to sports teachers and trainer/coaches the main aspects of learning can be described as:
– the best way to learn how to do something is to do it;
– the closer practice activities resemble the full activity the better.
Putting these aspects into practice doesn’t mean students will learn. Teaching or coaching is something different than learning. Working with students we frequently experiment with how it can looks like and practice. Ofcourse we also debate what it means in practice. I still enjoy the discussions and energy we put in together to learn and find some personal answers. It is a search to put learning to the forefront of the sport lessons. Continue reading “How to Improve Learning in Sports”
The world has changed. Being a learner is more important than being learned. To have the best chance of happiness and success in the world students have to be able to flourish in freedom. Can you agree? Intellectually, you may be able to make sense of the arguments but the biggest barrier to rethinking education is our own experience. Continue reading ” How To Create DIY Learning”
I’ve spent the last couple of days thinking about some tools I will use next year with my students. I want to prepare an inspiring and effective ground for learning. I don’t want to structure and pre-define everything. I do not want to create a community for my students. Instead, I want to create the conditions necessary for the right kind of environment to emerge. Building an environment for the students is likely to result in failure: environments and communities need to be build with the students, with their full participation, through their work and their interactions. Continue reading “Creating a Learning Experience”
It’s about diving in head first, a DIY approach, looking at things from different angles. This is what the world’s greatest minds do naturally. It’s from this method that we gain higher order knowledge and understanding. Continue reading “DIY Mindset in Learning”
Many research verifies the relevance of empowerment to education. When students are empowered, they learn more, and they learn better. So how do we help those tentative, cautious learners who are lack confidence in themselves and, above all else, want learning to be pleasant and painless? Continue reading “How Do You Create Empowered Learners?”
Empowerment is about how students approach learning – motivated, with confident, and ready to tackle the task.
Unfortunately, it is not how many of our students approach learning. Their mindset is more like: how hard it’s going to be, how you aren’t going to like it, worry that you are not smart enough, wonder if there might be some easier way, and wish you didn’t have to undertake such a tough assignment. Continue reading “What Is An Empowered Learner? “
Do we want teachers to be empowered or engaged? I would like to work in a school culture in which teachers feel empowered to learn and try new things. This builds leadership capacity and intrapreneurship. Should teachers be engaged? Absolutely, but after they feel empowered. I don’t think this would be different for students. Continue reading “Empowerment Comes Before Engagement”
To banish cheating in school, we must change the culture of school. To change the culture, we have to measure what matters. Continue reading “Relationship between Cheating and Learning”
Content and standardised testing should no longer be at the heart of education. In the information age the teacher his main job should be to help students develop key skills necessary for when they leave education. To be a successful lifelong learner there are 8 things to be good at: Continue reading “Play + Passion = Purpose”
How can we best prepare students for a world that will require more of them? The most important resource in education reform is the learner’s mind. We need to re-ignite the hunger for learning that many students lose along the way. Explicit and embedded work on learning mindsets and learning strategies & habits puts students in the driver seat of learning. It gives them direction to chart their paths to succes and happiness. Lets take you through it. Continue reading “Deep Learning Mindsets & Strategies”
Around the globe, economies are shifting away from machine-focused industries toward human-powered creative industries. Many adults are caught in the middle of this shift. Educated for the industrial age but trying to make a living in the information age. Inspired by the work of John Abbott and some others I wrote this post about the effect of this for education. Continue reading “One-size-Has-to-fits-all”
Most teachers make an effort to get to know their students, and regularly distribute surveys at the start of each year are part of it to speed up that process. But is this a fair view to people? Our students bring so much more to the table. Continue reading “Different Kind of Student Data”
Teaching is in the middle of a change, an evolution, a revolution. The intensity of the description depends on whom you ask. One could argue that this change is natural and part of an ebb and flow cycle. This change feels faster, and possibly more frenetic — likely due to technology’s role in the change. Continue reading “Differentiated Instruction on Steroids”
We know that sports and play kids are getting is good for their health. Or at least provides them with an attitude and exercises that are fun and have the oppertunity to involve them in a more active lifestyle. But that’s not the only motivation for encouraging children to participate in (organized) sports and play.
I will be proud if I give my students the power to consider what kind of society they want to be part of, teaches them to use their abilities to create the change they want to see, and gives them the skills to act on their dreams. This is an ambitious mission and so needed in todays and tomorrows society. I will use my time and energy to make a difference. With this post I celebrate my one year anniversary. It’s exactly one year ago that I started trenducation. I’m thankful for all the followers and readers. You motivate me to continue writing. Thank you very much for reading, dialogue and of course sharing. Continue reading “Encourage the Growth of Talent”
Touched by a life changing event in the winter of 1969 Leo Buscaglia decided to start an experimental class at the University where he taught. He wanted to explore the most essential elements of existence and called his course simple: Love Class. In the following years the classes became one of the most popular. In 1972, Buscaglia published the most universal and important ideas in Love: What Life Is All About.
Daniel H Pink has studied motivation in the business world for a long time and he came to the startling conclusion that traditional ways of motivating people with financial incentives doesn’t work. The only time incentives worked, in fact, was when the problem was mechanical and the path to the solution was straightforward. Study after study, social scientists have found that external rewards narrows the focus and restrict possibilities. The same studies proved that external drives makes it difficult for people to come up with creative solutions to complex problems. Continue reading “Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose to be Happy”
Adult life is all about making choices, learning from them, and prioritizing competing demands for our time. A healthy educational environment must allow students to experience such opportunities and challenges. To do this, students must be able to make their own decisions and pursue their own passions. I believe that this creates the opportunity for them to flourish to their full potential if they have a supportive, respectful and loving surrounding. Knowing what they want to learn or do, and then following through to learn it or achieve it, is a core skill for learning. Continue reading “No Tests, No Curriculum Standards: Agile Learning”
Reflection can be an accelorator for learning. Deep learning asks for meaningful reflection. Meaningful reflection is metacognitive, applicable, and shared with others. But how can we make reflection meaningful? Let’s look at each of these characteristics. Continue reading “Making Reflection Meaningful”
There are many initiatives around the globe to change education. Operation Education, MindShift and Disruptors are all pasionated about reinventing the educational system. The change needed can be discribed as learning that is more future-proof and supports innovation and entrepreneurship. More than ever lifelong learning becomes key. Continue reading “Play, Passion and Purpose”
Education is all about empower other people and supporting people to change their behavior. Getting kids to pay attention in class, getting teens to understand they need to look at their future and getting students to share their talents to move the world. At the center of all this persuasion is selling: educators are sellers of ideas. Continue reading “Empowerment is Ruled Out by the Educational System “
For me it is always time to explore the future of learning. It requires that I take time to reflect. That I understand more explicitly which values and priorities underpin and connects all of the opportunities surrounding me. Continue reading “Be Your Own Change Agent”
During a decade as teacher, lecturer and coach at secondary education and the University of Sports Studies I knew a large number of students who had lived scheduled lives. It started as children and as young adults most of them couldn’t tell me why they had done it. ‘Because you have to’, is a common heard answer. Having done that, they were stuck in perpetual ‘now what?’ mode, hoping someone else would answer that question for them. Continue reading ” Checklisted childhood”
Every educator wants to create an environment that will foster students’ love of learning. Because the criteria are intangible, it’s difficult to define exactly what they are. But one group of researchers is giving it a try. They launched the Innovative Learning Environments Project to identify practical interventions that mark innovative learning environments. Their is a growing need of designing future proof learning environments. Continue reading “Innovative Learning: 7 Essential Principles”
