September 29, 2016
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Comments Off on Top down educational leadership in Scotland
A big story in Scottish education broke last year as the SNP government decided to change the policy on primary school testing. Details are still emerging but this is likely to lead to a lot of discussion among those involved in education over the coming years. Most recently a series of benchmarks, that match to […]
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September 29, 2016
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Comments Off on Extra-curricular Activities
Moving to university is a challenge in many ways, not least in the overwhelming task of making friends. It feels rather childish, to be calling home and the first question on your parents lips: “have you made any friends?” It feels like the first day of school all over again, which in a way it […] Continue reading
September 28, 2016
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Comments Off on Values: Self, Society and The Professions Workshop
Our first values workshop started out as what seemed like a normal group task. We were randomly split up into four groups, I was put into group one. We were given an envelope which contained a variety of resources including rubbers, pens, etc.. Little did our group know, that we had been given the best […] Continue reading
September 28, 2016
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Comments Off on Ett, två, tre…
This week we looked at the Education System in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, which has been long praised and admired. Before joining this course, I had never really considered the starting age of school in this country, as it is the norm that I have grown up with. However, upon looking at research and […] Continue reading
September 28, 2016
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Comments Off on But Why?
Our internal monologue is programmed to make judgements and connections about the world around us. We almost create stories in our head about what people are doing and why. These “causes” that we create are called attributions. These attributions that we assign to different situations are what decide how we react and interpret behaviour, either our […] Continue reading
September 28, 2016
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Comments Off on Beautiful Books!
I love a good story! Whether it’s in a book, a TV show, a movie or even a friend telling me about their weekend – stories are what keep me … Continue reading → Continue reading
September 28, 2016
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Comments Off on Tell a Dance Story (Dance 1-2H)
This task requires me to choose a nursery rhyme for which I will then devise a simple choreography to tell the story without using any words. On first thought I felt that this task would be simple however, when looking into nursery rhymes in detail, in order to see the story, the task turned out […] Continue reading
September 28, 2016
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Comments Off on Outdoor Learning
Last weekend I took the opportunity to join the RSPB for a CPD on outdoor learning at Perth’s Quarry Mill. Outdoor learning plays a huge part within my teaching philosophy. Removing the boundaries of the classroom and teaching children within the context of their community and the natural world is key to creating inquiring learners. Upon arrival […] Continue reading
September 27, 2016
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Comments Off on A Sixth Sense
Piaget believed that children were born with no cognitive understanding of mathematics, or “numerosity” – the ability to understand small quantities (Marmasse, Bletsas and Marti 2000). However, more recent research has shown that children of just a few months old understand very small quantities, distinguishing between 2 and 3 items, but not between 4 and […] Continue reading
September 27, 2016
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Comments Off on Racism and Patriarchy
My Story on Racism and Sexism. When growing up, I never looked at the colour of someones skin and judged them. I never thought about why a man was with a man or a woman with a woman. I had the privilege of being brought up in a house where it doesn’t matter where you […] Continue reading
September 27, 2016
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Comments Off on The ‘ugly’ doll
During our Values lecture this morning, we were discussing the ideas of racism. During the presentation, we were shown the history of racism towards African/American people from the 19th century up until the present day. It was seen that racism was a big part of history and a story in particular we spoke about was […] Continue reading
September 27, 2016
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Comments Off on Clever and Cunning (values module workshop)
After my first values module lecture, I left inspired, calm and collected. After my first values module workshop, I left panicked, confused and hysterical. Then I laughed, cried, then laughed again and wondered why I did not realise what was really happening during this workshop. I entered the classroom to find we were being split into four […] Continue reading
September 26, 2016
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Comments Off on The first value’s workshop
Last Tuesday marked our first workshop of the Values: Self, society and professions module. To say I was anxious about what would be involved was an understatement. When we arrived to the class we were randomly split into four different groups. I was in group four (if only I knew the implications of this beforehand). […] Continue reading
September 26, 2016
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Comments Off on Values workshop – Leonardo DiCaprio or Derek Robertson
On the 20th September – a late Tuesday afternoon – I had my first values workshop. When I arrived to the classroom, each individual was split up into four groups of roughly ten people. I was in group four and knowing my luck, this unfortunately turned out to be the worst group to be in. […] Continue reading
September 26, 2016
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Comments Off on Is there Social Imbalance?
The Exercise: To demonstrate social imbalance in a small scale, first the class was separated into 4 groups. We were spaced around the room and given a packet of supplies and instructed to plan and make a tool which may be useful for a future student of Dundee University. I was placed in group 1 […] Continue reading
September 26, 2016
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Comments Off on The mysterious brown envelope..
On Tuesday the the 20th of September all Education, social work and CLD students came together for our very first ‘values’ lecture. The lecture focused around the three levels of ‘bias’ and how to overcome these to make the unconscious conscious. We were also shown a video to exemplify how social structure plays a big […] Continue reading
September 26, 2016
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Comments Off on Let the Teaching Begin!
This time last week my modules officially started and to say I was nervous for starting my studies was an understatement. Apart the normal challenges a first year student faces in the first couple of weeks such as making friends and settling into your new home I was also worrying about how I was going […] Continue reading
September 26, 2016
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Comments Off on First Values Workshop
Last week, we had our first values workshop. We got separated into four groups and we had to sit around 4 separate tables with a large brown envelope; each envelope with a different number from one to four. Each envelope contained different things such as sheets of paper, paper clips, elastic bands, envelopes, etc. We […] Continue reading
September 26, 2016
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Comments Off on Inequalities. Where do you start?
On Tuesday we had our first Values: Self, Society and the Professions workshop. I was in Carrie’s group, she was the person who interviewed me for this specific degree just a few months ago!! So as you can imagine I was a bit nervous. We were divided in to four groups. Carrie used our birthdays […] Continue reading
September 26, 2016
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Comments Off on Our first values workshop: Experiencing inequality and how it effected the group
On Tuesday, we had our first of the values workshops. For this, we were split into 4 groups. I, unaware of what was to come, was put into group 4. All four groups were handed an envelope, that included items in which we had to use to make a resource for freshers coming into the university that […] Continue reading
