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Showing posts from March, 2017

Should schools teach national over global values? A critical debate:

Snippets : - “Of course we want good relations horizontally across nations, but also need to build good horizontal relations at home,” - Former UK education minister Michael Gove  -  Peace, freedom and democracy, amongst others, were universally aspired to, and they should therefore have a place in education. -  “The history of humanity is taking us to a more globalized and connected planet. Our values need to be values of the planet,” -  Julia Gillard – now chair of the Global Partnership for Education  Click to read :

No quality education without happy learners:

Snippets: -  Growing evidence suggests that an emphasis on happiness and well-being improves not only life satisfaction, but education outcomes as well.   -  Most teachers and principals acknowledge that the socio-emotional development and well-being of their students is as important as mastery of school subjects and the accumulation of knowledge. -  Are schools happy places? What we can do to enhance the well-being of learners and other stakeholders? Click to read from source:

Attractive preschools and learning materials & better trained teachers give children a strong foundation:

When interviewed,  David Otero,  Director of Policy and Planning, Ministry of Education, Nicaragua, said: “In Nicaragua, we know that 3-5 year old children who have developed a series of emotional, affective, cognitive, and psychosocial aspects will have the physiological, biological, psychological basis (…) for their academic future and even their personal development, and will not have any difficulties to carry out their life ambitions.” This is echoed by  Daysi Cordero, Director of Preschools,  Ministry of Education, Nicaragua: “If you are going to build a house and you don’t have a strong foundation, it is going to fall. That’s early childhood education: the foundation (…) Investing in early childhood education is a great  return on investment as we avoid school repetition and school failure.” Click to read from the source:

Mother Tongues matter amid English-language push in Asia

Snippets: < Andy supports the use of  English as a lingua franca (ELF) , whereby the aim is mutual comprehensibility in intercultural communication rather than adherence to native speaker norms. To do this effectively, he says, English must be delayed until children have fluency and literacy in their local and national tongues. -  Andy Kirkpatrick, Griffith University professor and expert in English and its use in Asia. < “There’s a kind of myth that you need to be a youngster to learn a language. That is simply not the case.  Adults are very good language learners . Age is not necessarily relevant.” -    Andy Kirkpatrick, Griffith University professor and expert in English and its use in Asia. < “There’s a kind of discourse of despair. If you travel around Asia, you will hear people say time and again, ‘You’re teaching English to these children for 10 years and they still can’t construct a single sentence in English,” he says. “The reality is children are not learni