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David Hornsby

Schools could teach children how to be happy – but they foster competition instead

By Learning, School System

Prof Angel Urbina-Garcia,The Conversation, 2 Sept 2019.  Children are experiencing more mental health problems and behavioural disorders (such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, autism).  Education systems could tackle this – if they set out to do so.  By promoting learning over league tables, Nordic countries (Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland) appear in the top ten happiest countries.  Read the article here

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What Finland is really doing to improve its acclaimed schools

By School System

Valerie Strauss, The Washington Post, 30 Aug 2019.  The Finnish education system is one of the best in the world.  It is a whole-child-centred, research-and-evidence based school system.  Education is not managed like a business with measurement-based accountability and competition, and the system is not judged by literacy and numeracy test scores alone. Read the article here

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The Australian Curriculum:English and the proposed Year 1 phonics test

By Learning, Literacy

David Hornsby, 2017.  This paper is available for download.  It may be copied (without changes) and distributed freely.  The proposed test is not compatible with the intentions of the Australian Curriculum: English, but we might ask why a test on one day of the year would be worthwhile.  Assessment is a continuous process, not an event. Aust Curric & Yr 1 phonics test

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The flawed thinking behind a mandatory phonics screening test

By Literacy

EduResearch Matters, Dr Paul Gardner, 15 July 2019.  While the systematic teaching of phonics has an important place in a teacher’s repertoire of strategies, it does not appear to make any sense to make it the exclusive method of teaching reading.  To give it a privileged status as a test does exactly that.  In England, phonics screening check scores have improved by students’ reading abilites have not.  Read the article…

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