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Have you ever had an idea that seems totally original and derived entirely from your own thinking, but actually turns out to have be quite well established when you look for information about it? This happened to me with evidence based education. For some time now I have applied critical thought and skepticism to all facets [...] Humans have an amazing ability to believe things in the face of overwhelming evidence against them. Frequently it seems that the more outrageous the claims made about a phenomenon or product the more people will flock to it. Such claims are often made about treatments for diseases such as homeopathy, faith healing, chiropractic or reflexology [...] The public hysteria over severe peanut allergies raised my skeptical hackles recently. Following a discussion with one of the teacher assistants at work last week, in which she tired to argue with no clear understanding of the issues or even the scantest anecdotal data, that we should ban nuts from the school, I decided to [...] Parts I and II explored the beliefs of Creationists, primarily that God created the universe, the Earth and all life upon it. Part III will examine the motives of Creationists in pursuing their agenda of embedding Intelligent Design into the public mind and mainstream science. To establish their motives we need look no further than the [...] I was listening to the Skeptic Zone podcast the other day and it featured an interview with Dr.Paul Willis, a paleontologist, discussing his experiences debating Creationists. One thing that he said resonated with me – instead of trying to defend evolution against their attacks ask for scientific evidence for their stance. To anyone familiar with creationism it [...] Creationists* are fundamentalist Christians who believe that the Earth, the universe and life on this planet were created as described in Genesis. They believe Bible to be the literal truth and therefore consider all of creation to be no more than 10000 years old. They believe, among other things that humans and dinosaurs coexisted, that [...] I went to professional development session today on the use of interactive whiteboards ran by the company that makes SMART boards. These devices have been seen as the next big thing in education for the last few years. In the place where education meets technology there is a continuously changing succession of gadgets deigned by [...] In “Apple EEE PC” I wrote about my belief that Apple might release some sort of sub-notebook, super-portable internet device. History has, of course, proven me wrong but I and the many Apple fans who see the release of such a device as one of the Holy Grails still hold out the hope that such [...] The teacher’s pay dispute in Western Australia wears on. Since the offer by the Department of Education and Training on July 21 the State School Teachers Union of Western Australia has accepted the offer “in principle” and put the matter to a vote by its members. To recap the highlights of the deal include: pay rises [...] Not two weeks ago the Department of Education and Training of Western Australia made a pay offer to teachers that was little short of insulting. In it the DET offered nothing more than the paltry 14% they had previously offered and sought to reduce conditions by foisting a one-hour compulsory, out of hours staff meeting [...] |
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