January 2011

  • Should we promote behaviour change or encourage thinking?

    Suitably ironically, of course, this is not quite the no-brainer that it might seem, or so I argue in my latest article which was commissioned by compassionate folk at the Web of Hope taking pity on a jobbing ex-professor.   Should...

  • Another boost for liberal education

    Given how dire so many are, it is often hard to know how (or whether) to respond to a questionnaire, even when it is in your area.  A sense of responsibility says, do it; the need for quality of life...

  • The Daily Mash reports new insights into Stonehenge

    I have, rather belatedly, discovered The Daily Mash.  Google describes this as a: "British satire site offering funny stories on news, politics and sport, an agony aunt column and polls" And so it is (and does).  The temptation to make...

  • Blaming the Poor Young Consumer

    I have just reviewed a paper from the USA which describes an educational intervention aimed at persuading young people to use less water.   At the end, of what seemed a well thought through empirical study, most young people said...

  • Bill Bailey's about FACE

    If you're still not sure where your food comes from, FACE and Bill Bailey have got together to put you straight – sort of.  Satire, I think.   Enjoy, just don't think about the ethics too much.

  • LSIS, NIACE and McDonald's

    On behalf of the Learning & Skills Improvement Service (LSIS), NIACE (with others) have developed Sustaining Our Future which is a "draft framework for moving towards a sustainable learning and skills sector", and there's an online consultation on all this.  I spend more...

  • The soft bigotry of low expectations

    This, rather un-Gove, phrase stood out me as I read his speech at the Education World Forum last week in London.  Mr Gove did not attribute it, but as it seems firmly associated with one of George Bush Jnr's speechwriters (Michael...

  • World Rankings for Green Universities

    Just when you thought it was safe not to think about league tables of universities for a while, up pops another green ranking – this time an international one.  Whilst the UK has 6 out of the top 25 places,...

  • More on the Academy's linguistic contortions

    I wrote the other day [ 22 December ] about the Higher Education Academy's revision of its professional standards framework, and its attempts to add a reference to sustainability within these as a new professional value.  I noted the difficulties it...

  • Let's hear it for SusEd

    I've reviewing what I think has evolved into a rather good paper for EER.  In it, the author uses (following Stephen Sterling's lead) the phrase sustainability education as a "generic and inclusive term that can accommodate different interpretations".   Well, I...