Qualche anno fa la celebre serie di spot del Gratta e Vinci utilizzava il claim: “Ti piace vincere facile?“. Ultimamente quello slogan mi è spesso tornato in testa, in discussioni legate a temi di politica, economia, attualità. Ne è nata una riflessione sul perché sia fondamentale, in particolare oggi, avere una cultura del gioco, e…
Tag: Teaching
Tutto quello che avresti voluto sapere sull’istruzione in Estonia (e non hai mai osato chiedere)
L’Estonia è un Paese piccolo, molto piccolo. 45mila chilometri quadrati per solo 1 milione e 300mila abitanti, il Paese meno popolato dell’UE dopo Malta, Cipro e Lussemburgo. Ed è anche un Paese non molto ricco, con un reddito procapite di circa 28mila dollari (dati 2014), uno dei più bassi dell’area OCSE (fonte). Eppure, quando si…
How To Teach Art To Kids
If you’ve ever seen Mark Rothko’s paintings and thought “a child could do this,” you’ve paid him a compliment. Rothko greatly admired children’s art, praising the freshness, authenticity, and emotional intensity of their creations. He worked as an art teacher for over 20 years and was a thought leader in the field of children’s art…
Seven big myths about school systems
The man in charge of the PISA tests, Andreas Schleicher, says the evidence from around the world reveals some big myths about what makes for a successful education system. 1. Disadvantaged pupils are doomed to do badly in school Results show that the 10% most disadvantaged 15-year-olds in Shanghai have better maths skills than the…
Ten Commandments of Critical Thinking and Democratic Decency
[…] Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue […]. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows: 1 – Do not feel absolutely certain of anything. 2 – Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence,…
10 Rules for Students and Teachers
Rule 1: Find a place you trust, and then, try trusting it for awhile. Rule 2: (General Duties as Student) Pull everything out of your teacher. Pull everything out of your fellow students. Rule 3: (General Duties as Teacher) Pull everything out of your students. Rule 4: Consider everything an experiment. Rule 5: Be Self Disciplined. This…
Top Ten Ways to Lose an Audience
Going to university means coming across things like this. Dedicated to us: students, citizens, spectators. We, the public. Here it goes: 10. Avoid eye contact. For example, looking at the screen. Remember: you crafted slides to augment what you say, not to replicate it. Puzzled faces and hands raised are more important than being obsessively exhaustive. Plus: they…
