I'm glad you have started a separate thread Geraldine. Here is a link to a comment from SEA, someone who hasn't actually read the book but is commenting on reviews in other journals! I predict there will be huge debate on this book! http://educevery.wordpress.com/2012/09/13/andrew-adonis-and-his-fri...

I can hardly put this book down!

This seems like an excellent read. I've just read the introduction and it is quite stirring really. I've been away from UK too long to have a real grasp of the changes in secondary education but already I am impressed by Andrew Adonis. I had no idea he had such a tough start in life as a Greek Cypri...

Pulished in 2002 but I've just been given a copy of "Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive Scrabble Players " http://www.amazon.com/Word-Freak-Heartbreak-Competitive-ScrabblePlayers/dp/0142002267/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347177355&sr=8-1&keywords=Word+Frea...

How awful to read this. There'll be nothing left in Queensland of public services at the rate Campbell Newman is going. I do believe that the Cape York Institute does have significant private funding as well? Do you happen to know if this is true.

I have not sat for hours with children who don't 'get' a concept. Rather, if a child cannot perform or behave in a way which indicates there is understanding, then I simply back up to the part where the learning broke down. To do this you do need a very good curriculum. In my opinion the DI program...

This account assumes that the learner's environment is held constant because the instruction is carefully controlled, but of course there many environmental factors that affect learners, beyond the control of the teacher. I suppose you mean things like a child being upset, or hungry, would affect i...

The point I was making was that people devising educational methods do need to know how human learning works - biologically, psychologically and socially -

..Meanwhile, perhaps a theory of instruction will suffice
http://psych.athabascau.ca/html/387/Ope ... eory.shtml

Thanks all for these references. I generally us REWARDS for multisyllable work, but have been on the lokout for an easy to use reference. I like the look of the Red Hot Roots. The REWARDS Intermediate is good for children from about Grade 5 and the other ones for G7 up. The spellings are, of course,...

Why isn't there more adverse publicity about its potentially harmful effects? This book was published way back in 1975 - http://www.amazon.com/The-Myth-Hyperactive-Child-Control/dp/0394495551 I think it is fairly well-known that there is overdiagnosing and over medicating. Here in Western Australia...

Thanks Susan! To read the Financial Review you can sign up for a free two week subscription BUT they require your card details so if you subsequently forgot to cancel you will be up for a hefty fee!

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/why-our-kids-still-cannot-read/story-e6frgd0x-1226447081549 Jennifer Buckingham writes. .....Yet here we are in 2012, and little has changed. Indeed, it is as if nothing ever happened. The Teaching Reading report has disappeared from the feder...

Neither can I see my union having such a role. When we had outcomes based curriculum in WA my union was falling over itself in support, and absolutely loathed 'PLATO' the group of teachers that managed to get rid of it.

Textbooks indeed - it is a significant cost to families of several hundreds dollars in Australia, even more so once the child gets to secondary school. 'Booklists' are sent out to students during term 4. You can now pre-order but once, it meant joining enormous queues at the bookshop. The choices of...

http://standpointmag.co.uk/features-june-12-child-centred-learning-has-let-my-pupils-down-matthew-hunter-a-s-neil-plowden-free-schools?page=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C5 This is another interesting article I found on my day off sick! Child-Centered Learning Has Let My Pupils Down MATTHEW...