education
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Identity Achievement and Emerging Adulthood
Emerging adults need to be recognized for who and where they are. They also need to be encouraged to recognize themselves for who and where they are, and not be too hard on themselves. Many CEGEP students seem to feel that they need to be more focused and committed than would be adaptive at this… Continue reading
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Moral Reasoning and Empathic Orientation in Adolescents
Nancy Eisenberg’s model of moral development is based on the assertion that most children’s and adolescents’ moral dilemmas involve a choice between serving one’s own interests and those of others. She divides moral reasoning into four stages: hedonistic orientation (concern with one’s own pleasure), needs-oriented orientation (concern with others’ need for help), stereotyped approval-focused orientation… Continue reading
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education is a carnival
For thought-provoking education posts galore, check out the 134th Carnival of Education at Matthew K. Tabor’s site – many thanks to Matthew for hosting it. There’s a mention of my post “Mean ’til Hallowe’en,”, as well as lots of other good stuff to chew on. Continue reading
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A Little from Column A, a Little from Column B
Tell me, does this make for a good first day? Or not? 1. Before I’d even arrived at my office, a student showed up at my door and, when I turned out not to be there, asked my colleagues in the surrounding offices whether it would be worth her while to come to my class… Continue reading
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Effective Reasoning and Prior Beliefs
Klaczynski and Narasimham demonstrated in a 1998 study that if children and adolescents are presented with evidence that contradicts beliefs they already hold, they will often ignore or reject the evidence, rationalize as to its real significance, or otherwise do whatever they can to hold on to their preconceived notions. As educators, we can certainly… Continue reading
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the pre-semester roundup
My fall semester starts officially tomorrow. My sincere intention is to continue blogging very regularly. We all know, however, how during the semester, nothing but teaching, grading and preparing seems to get done. So I wanted to mark this day in a few ways, both to celebrate the enjoyment I’ve gotten from blogging so far… Continue reading
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What is a CEGEP?
Those of you who don’t live in Quebec may not know what a CEGEP is or how it works. And you may want to. Happy to oblige. (CEGEP teachers: please feel free to comment on what I’ve gotten wrong or left out.) Students in Quebec spend five years in high school (Secondary 1-5, equivalent to… Continue reading
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the adolescent brain
This article from today’s Globe and Mail discusses a book by Robert Epstein, the former editor of Psychology Today, which claims that the psychology of “adolescence” has no basis in biology or neurology, but is socially constructed – that adolescents are, at the biological base, intellectually and emotionally no different from adults. This strikes me… Continue reading
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I really do like my job. Here’s why.
1. The people in my department are totally awesome. (With a few, easily disregarded, exceptions.) 2. Even when the bookstore loses my book orders, they are so freaking nice about it that I can’t possibly get mad at them. 3. We have holidays so long that, at the end of them, I look forward to… Continue reading
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what would Bertrand Russell do?
On Education has posted an essay by Bertrand Russell that jibes with some of the ideas/questions/comments in my post on discipline and the beginning of the semester. I particularly love Russell’s final paragraph: Unfortunately, it is utterly impossible for over-worked teachers to preserve an instinctive liking for children; they are bound to come to feel… Continue reading
About Me
My job is to teach people to read and write; aside from that, I like to learn things.
Classroom as Microcosm 