Don Ledingham’s Learning Log

 
I came across the concept of a social return on investment last summer when Jim Honan explained the Program Logic Model.
The model seeks to find a way in which public services can actually have a greater impact by focusing upon the things that will actually lead to a return on social investment.  The tendency in [...]

Intellectual chat - (Mark Walker is in the centre of the photo)
I received an unexpected, yet very welcome, comment on my Log today from someone I’d met at Harvard in the summer (had I mentioned I’d been in Harvard?)
Mark Walker and I had I struck up a mutually abusive friendship during the course which our [...]

It was Roland Barth who asked us to think back to an incident in our life which had been our most intense learning experience.
That’s a really interesting question to ask anyone - if you don’t believe me try it for yourself.
What emerged for me was the moment when our first child was stillborn. Gill was two weeks overdue and [...]

I find it ironic that the only training/continuous professional development (CPD) which is compulsory for educationalists in East Lothian relates to such things as Health and Safety; Recruitment and Selection; or Disciplinary and Grievance courses.
My experience at Harvard has made me question whether or not there might be a place for compulsory professional updates on new knowledge [...]

I got back to Scotland on Friday.
So what did I take from the Harvard experience?
There are ten inter-related things I’d like to do as a consequence of attending the course:

Identify and remove all things which erode or prevent a sense of belonging - in schools and the authority
Reduce the variance in the quality of learning [...]