Konstantin Stansilavski is not a name you hear too often when it comes to learning, development, talent or professional training – but it should be! Stanislavski was an acclaimed character actor from Russia who went on to build a career as one of the world’s eminent theatre directors before his death in 1938. But Stanislavski is remembered…
I’m not a fan of reality TV – although I get the allure. Seeing good-looking yet otherwise ordinary folk in desperate competition for the affections of a stranger, to be trapped in starvation or to be reduced to tears by a personal trainer has just enough interest in it to have us abandon our principles.…
There’s some nonsense in the learning and development space about learning styles with as many as seven of them up for grabs. Apparently it’s useful to determine whether you’re visual (spatial) , aural (auditory-musical), verbal (linguistic), physical (kinesthetic), logical (mathematical), social (interpersonal) or solitary (intrapersonal) learner. Let me tell you right now, it’s not useful! Pigeon holing yourself as a…
I have two competing views about educational research: that we spend far too much time and money researching aspects of the educative pursuit that have little or no impact or meaning. No more studies about homework please – the truth is already known. that when we find relevant and confronting truths within our research, that…
Last week, I had the chance to share the stage with the incredible Dan Gregory (of “The Gruen Transfer” fame) at the Future Of Leadership Conferences in Brisbane and Sydney. Dan is one of those almost intimidatingly clever people who says it like it is (or even more bluntly than it really is!) and he told two…
Never … like, ever … fall for the trap of thinking that education is something that you deliver. Learning isn’t a pizza, an app, on online purchase, a new washing machine or a used car. Learning isn’t a product at all. Done right, it’s a transformational process. Through this metamorphic experience, we don’t merely acquire tools and…
Every part of my moral code tells me I shouldn’t laugh at the rude and so politically incorrect plotlines in the cartoon South Park. But I do! My favourite character is the incorrigible Eric Cartman. Click below for a little sample! Eric is enamoured with authority. The problem of course, is that his lust for…
Mindful as I am of the miniscule amount of content that any human is willing or capable of absorbing, then storing in long-term memory and then committing to a practice change from any PL day, I strive to maximise my limited opportunity. The temptation is to cover more content, to design better PowerPoint slides and to…
I’m a keen observer of people and their foibles. Even the word “foible” is kind of hard not to spend a little time observing. But what I notice even more than individual foibles is when these habits and rituals become the traits of whole staffs, and even of industries. One such foible that educators have…
I read a fabulous and somewhat confronting quote this week by Zora Neale Hurston who said that “Research is formalised curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” This got me to thinking a little about some of the verbs we use in the learning and development space and whether they have allowed us…
