Presumably, the "decades of research" were based on self-report personality tests. Which, if the tendency to present a best face is true, does tend to undermine the credibility of the research…
I take your point. But then one of my friends has a deeply educated, carefully cultivated and abiding taste for "schlock horror". Needless to say we don't watch these films together. That he…
An interesting question posed. However, the implicit question is whether or not the people sharing the experience have similarly educated/cultivated palates - which is different to tastes simpliciter…
Nice rant Greg, but apart from an anecdote from "decades ago", no evidence and no argument. What you believe you see and what you believe ought to be are not necessarily connected to solid research…
The author is correct to say: "Waste is, however, a dangerous topic to discuss in an environment of educational “efficiency dividends”. " It is dangerous because "waste" has a particular…
Yes Leo, the brain and the mind it creates are inherently disordered despite their best efforts to the contrary. Our lives are pretty disordered as well and there is no facility to actually go backwards…
Hi Greg, it isn't just immigrants (regular or not) who are not native English speakers. There are also Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who do not have English as a first language. Also…
Apart from music, which in this article is presented primarily as a vehicle for acquiring aspects of language and literacy, nearly all of the "new literacies" are dependent on the "small…
I recall my correspondence with a Jewish Israeli academic in 2002 when this boycott was just getting underway. Rachel Giora, whose book "On Our Mind : Salience, Context, and Figurative Language"…
David, a few places on any given scale isn't much of a slide. Most of the so-called slide is because of the efforts of places like Finland and Singapore to improve their kids' education, not that we've…
Gavin, what you say is technically correct. However, if you read the popular press, especially letters pages, and various websites (The Drum, the National Forum, etc) and venture below the line, you will…
Greg, I was talking about kids today. Critical thinking does not necessarily improve with age - it is a skill and atrophies if not used, hence my comment about "cognitive miserliness": nobody…
Thanks for this piece. What is happening between "customer" and "student" is what might be called a conceptual blend (Fauconnier & Turner). However, I conjecture, it is a blend…
I don't buy your assertion that kids have any worse critical thinking skills than adults or that the implicature of current education being less effective than previous education holds any water. If it…
"Our centre will be equipped with state of the art brain imaging equipment and we will be able to assess changes in brain function as people learn." It may be more difficult to establish changes…
Hi John, Such systems as you describe generally use a saltwater "coolant" and a heat exchanger and are commercially available for households. They are considerably cheaper to install at the…
David, a minor quibble: the nominal form of rational is rationality. "Economic Rationalism" (from which the particular "rationalist" used in the article derives) assumes that individuals…
Among others, Ladwig and Gore have established a strong literature on what actually works in Australia (NSW, QLD & ACT at least) through their research and development in the "Quality Teaching…
While not all wine is consumed socially, an awful lot is consumed with friends and/or family over a meal or some snacks. From my limited experience the unit of consumption by the group is not number of…
Peter, I'm sympathetic but ... Sex is about reproduction, recreation, release and/or expression (possibly, but not necessarily, of love). Also, Steven Covey (7 Habits) put it nicely: 'Love is a verb."…