DEFINITIONS
ASSEMBLY-LINE LEARNING : Prescribed assembly of skills in set order [e.g. Maths 9.00-10.30; Science 11.00-12.30], division of labour, one hour lunch, premium on conformity and suspicion of originality. General concern for product rather than process. [Postman & Weingarten]
BEETLE-EATING 101 : Not looking past the minimal requirement and ignoring the consequences. Well-intentioned ‘experts’ introduced the cane toad and did not look beyond the beetle-eating stage.
BLANKET TESTING : Testing of an identifiable group using measurable items only; usually paper and pencil exercises involving lower cognitive skills. Used to promote fear of failure and to destroy curriculum spirit. A malady common in the USA, UK and [dutifully] Australia; but not used in Finland and countries who want children to achieve well at school.
BOZONE : A substance that surrounds stupid people and prevents the penetration of worthy ideas.
BUREAUCRATIC BOUNCE : Response to dictatorial pronouncements by those high in authority but low in courtesy, breadth of vision and common sense. [K. Tronc]
BUSHED : Following American ‘leaders’ too closely and causing great damage to ordinary folk.
CAMPBELL’S LAW : The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruptive pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor. [Donald T. Campbell,”social science researcher, 1976]
CREEPING EICHMANNISM: Doing what one is ordered to do because one is ordered to do it, involving suspension of professional, educative and moral beliefs [e.g. administering blanket tests].
EDUCATIONAL APOSTASY: Total desertion of belief in the face of threats or offer of rewards. [Currently shown by whimpish principals and meek education officers in the face of political threats.]
EDUCATION EXPERT : Anyone from somewhere-else, expecially one with an accent. [See Visiting Experts on side-bar.]
EDUCATIONAL NOSTRUM: Quack notions of schooling.
EDUCATIONAL REVOLUTION ; An Australian political movement that terminates with [a] a Federal take-over of State education activities, [b] controlling all schools using threats of funding diminution,[c] destruction of Australian egalitarianism, and [d] spoilation of learning achevements in schools. {The American equivalent is NCBL : “No Child Left Behind.”}
EDUCATIONAL TERMITE : Derogatory term used to describe middlemen and sciolists who comment with false erudition on schooling matters.
EDUCRAT[$]: One who assumes a knowledge base beyond personal experience. Each is surrounded by a bozone layer that stops the penetration of good or sensible ideas. When the $ is added, it refers to those who make money out of uncertain schooling occupations, such as test constructors, heads of commissions and enquiries, textbook authors.
EFFICACY HAWKS: Red-necked high flying predators who, for political reasons, exert their superiority and issue demands for efficiency at any cost.
FASCIST SHIFT : Evolution from open democratics style to a form of benevolent dictatorship. [Naomi Wolf]
FRANKENSTEIN EFFECT : The construction of a schooling-destructive monster without real purpose or concern for outcomes. The Australian Educational Revolution and the US NCLB program are ugly examples. Outcomes of the Assessment of Performance Unit in the UK at the same time as the Minimal Competency Movement in the USA [circa 1980] are examples of its application.
GLOBAL OUTREACH : Worthy social and professional activities available internationally which allow teachers to share lesson ideas, technology, pedagogy and professional development across the globe. [e.g. http://leading-learning.co.nz ; http://fasttext.com.au; http://www.forumforeducation.org ; http://network.fivefreedoms.org ; www.wholechildeducation.org ; http://www.ascd.org ] ; http://www.stopnationalstandards.org ]
KLEINGATE: Synonym for the introduction of the Australian Education Revolution that caused ill-considered and protracted educational damage to schools; named after Minister Julia Gillard’s ’eminence grise’ Joel Klein, a New York City lawyer.
KLEINISH : Use of fear to motivate learners.
LEARNACY : Learning how to learn.
MARK [=GRADE} : An inadequate report of an inaccurate judgement by a biased and variable judge, of the extent to which an undefined level of mastery of unknown proportion of an inadequate amount of material has been completed. [John Settledge]
MIDDLEMAN: A person who works in education but has little to do with teaching pupils; usually located in a position of power between the public and the teacher. [Gene Glass] See Sciolist below.
NEW MAFIA: “Hired, appointed or elected body more engrossed in Dollars and Power than in the education of children” [Horowitz] See Educrats.
PATEL SYSTEM OF SELECTION : An interview process supported by a printed curriculum vitae, and nothing else.
POL-UTION : Using schools in maverick fashion for political purposes.
PUNDICRAT : One who pretends to be an expert. [e.g. Univeristy Professor with limited schooling experience.]
PUPIL : One who learns from a teacher. c.f. STUDENT : One who learns.
PUPILLING: This involves close collaboration between a teacher and a learner. There is constant dialogue about the contract and the obligations of both towards learnacy. The insistence on learning originates more from the learner than from the teacher. The teacher sets the learning environment and the direction of the topics.
RUDDY BLUSH: Copying from elsewhere with undue haste and no regard for the consequences. [See ‘Beetle Eatng 101’]
SCIOLIST: One who has limited experience.
SHARED EVALUATION : A concept based on true learning that occurs when a pupil shares the results of effort with someone for whom the pupil has respect, usually a teacher. If a value is given, the pupil approves of it.
SPOILERS : Those who don’t hesitate to cross professional and ethical boundaries to ‘get results’ or to find favour.
