Tag Archives: learning

Gulliver’s levels

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

Jonathan Swift’s ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, first published in 1726, mocks the travel journals of its day with their increasingly fantastical adventures. It is also brilliant social satire, mercilessly tearing through contemporary conventions and pretentions.   It can also be read as a thought … Continue reading →

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Learning is dialectical

Posted on April 9, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

An attempt to start from first principles… There is now, there is before and there is after. Whatever time is, our awareness of it helps us distinguish between past and future. Within our own lived experience we understand the difference … Continue reading →

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Valuing student research

Posted on March 8, 2015 by Eddie Playfair

The continuing growth of the Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) in England’s sixth forms is a sign that students, teachers, universities and employers value what it offers. However, less than 10% of advanced level sixth formers have the opportunity to achieve … Continue reading →

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The keyboard and the music

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

We spend much of our time in front of keyboards. Our computer keyboard is an essential interface with the world as it appears to us on our screen. We use keys to input letters, form our words and meanings on a virtual page which … Continue reading →

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Education as a whole and in its parts

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Creating a successful learning community Our college mission is to ‘create a successful learning community’. While this only applies to our small part of the education system it’s not a bad aspiration for the whole system. So what would be … Continue reading →

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Education without metaphors?

Posted on November 11, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

We love metaphors don’t we? They can help us to express new or complex ideas in term of more familiar ones. They can add richness and drama to our explanations. Good metaphors can help us to understand, organise and interpret … Continue reading →

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What’s wrong with bite-sized learning?

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

The phrase ‘bite-sized learning’ suggests that a substantial, chunky educational programme has been chopped up into smaller pieces which are easy to take in but have lost any sense of overall meaning; little gobbets of knowledge of no real use. … Continue reading →

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Learning and xenophilia.

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Xenophobia is the fear of difference or the dislike of foreigners. Across Europe we have seen the rise in support for parties espousing xenophobic views. In difficult times, these parties play the blame game and tap into people’s suspicion and … Continue reading →

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Mastering my Zenit

Posted on October 18, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

For my 12th birthday my dad gave me a Zenit-E single lens reflex camera. This summer, over 40 years later, I came across it while sorting through some boxes, and it all came flooding back. At the time I was … Continue reading →

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Socrate et le numerique

Posted on July 26, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Il y a 2,400 ans en Grèce antique quand le principal moyen de transmission culturelle et d’apprentissage était la langue parlée, le philosophe Socrate avait prevenu que la parole écrite posait de graves risques pour la société. Dans une culture … Continue reading →

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What is learning? Philippe Meirieu

Posted on July 23, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Philippe Meirieu is a French academic and Green party politician. His educational thinking starts from an ethical and egalitarian position and a commitment to emancipation through learning. He is actively involved in both educational and political debate and engages readily … Continue reading →

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Progs and trads: is a synthesis possible?

Posted on March 22, 2014 by Eddie Playfair

Dialectical pairings like “radical traditionalism” or “revolutionary reformism” may seem paradoxical but instead of cancelling each other out, the contradictions they contain can make us think about each idea in relation to the other. This is not just an attempt … Continue reading →

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