A Sage on the Stage with Michael Zwaagstra

<p>This week I am joined by Michael Zwaagstra to discuss his John Catt book - A Sage on the Stage</p> <p><br></p> <p><strong>Our discussion</strong></p> <p><br></p> <p>Could you start by giving us a brief history of your career to this point?</p> <p>&nbsp;Chapter one- &nbsp;foolish educational fads is a fantastic read and one which will chime with many of our listeners , Could you outline some of those educational fads and gimmicks and tell us why education fads do teachers and kids no favours ?&nbsp;</p> <p>• A big question in chapter 2 raising academic standards- why should schools focus on the essentials and what are the essentials?</p> <p>&nbsp;•In chapter 3 you outlined that tests are good for students could you tell us more?&nbsp;</p> <p>•Could you tell us why content knowledge is important ? (perhaps taking in the explanation of Lord of the rings from the start of the chapter and how Tolkien showed a tremendous amount of creativity and even more importantly content knowledge in his Lord of the rings trilogy)&nbsp;</p> <p>•Why does discovery maths not add up?&nbsp;</p> <p>•My favourite chapter of the book is Chapter 7- improving life for teachers and students. &nbsp;There is some fantastic common-sense advice in this chapter, firstly why is it time to call time on cell phones in school?&nbsp;</p> <p>•Will longer school days make students smarter?&nbsp;</p> <p>•Does every student deserve a personalised learning experience that matches his or her unique learning style?</p> <p>&nbsp;•Are distractions sometimes good for learning?</p> <p>&nbsp;•Is it valuable sometimes instead of bringing in a new initiative to simply stop doing things that aren't working as you put it improve teacher working conditions by dumping bad ideas?</p> <p>&nbsp;•Are gadgets in classrooms just gimmicks and should technology drive education reform?</p> <p>&nbsp;&nbsp;•Could you tell us where listeners could find out more about you and A Sage on the stage?&nbsp;</p> <p><br></p> <p>&nbsp;In podcast pedagogy , I am currently reading the rED