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 ISSUES IN EDUCATION - COMMENTARY


√ Communication

√ Critical thinking

√ Education

√ Leadership

√ Professionalism





The Teacher's Gift




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New year resolutions for stakeholders of education systems

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Every New Year brings a set of challenges, some new, some carried over from the old year. And every New Year we make resolutions, some personal, some career related, that we hope we will fulfill in the year. This year, I am suggesting a number of resolutions for stakeholders in the education system. Workers in the Ministry of Education To be more responsive to the needs of clients than they were last year. For example, respond to queries in a timely fashion Improve the channels of communication between the Ministry and the schools Ensure transparency in decision making as regards policy implementation Try to really understand the nature of their jobs and the interrelationship of their jobs with other jobs Research the issues that come up for decision and think before they speak   Boards of Management Learn about job; learn about the education system; read and try to understand the Code of Education and its provision Hold principals acco
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Critical Thinking (Part 1)

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Photo credit: pixabay.com What is critical thinking? Let us “unpack” the meaning of this phrase by examining each word in turn. A dictionary will provide us with a number of synonyms for the word “critical”. Some of these synonyms are “significant”, “important”, “key”, “vital”, “essential” and “crucial”. These are words loaded with meaning. But what we can take from these synonyms is that if something is “critical" it demands attention. What is thinking? I will say it is a response to the stimulation of our senses. We see, we hear, we smell, we taste, and we touch “things”, not necessarily at the same time. When our senses are stimulated, impressions are left with us. These impressions are the thoughts that continuously flit through our minds. And, in engaging with these thoughts, we are in the process of thinking. How do we engage with our thoughts? Some of our thoughts are random. They pass through our minds and then we dismiss them. Other thoughts are tenacious. They
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Effective communication (writing): building bridges to understanding (Part 3)

Writing is one of the main requirements of students in the education system. Teachers require that their students write compositions/essays, responses to questions among other writing tasks. They are asking students to communicate ideas through writing. Teachers then give students grades based on how “well” they communicate their ideas on a given topic/issue/assignment. This grade is a measure of the students’ competence on this given topic/issue/assignment. However, many students find it difficult to communicate their ideas through writing. From my experience as a teacher, I have realised that many students are reluctant to do any extended piece of writing. And I have determined a number of reasons for this reluctance. One of these reasons is that many students do not have the content or the creativity to accomplish the writings tasks which teachers assign them. That is, they lack the life experiences which they can get through reading, listening to “experts” as they share their
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