Category: WRN General
-
Effectively Reporting Outcomes: Lessons from Mona Chalabi
In this goofy TED Talk (https://www.ted.com/speakers/mona_chalabi), Mona Chalabi focuses on finding and questioning the data used to make informed decision. Like a person adrift at sea, surrounded by water and yet perishing for lack of (fresh) water, teachers and administrators are being swamped by data and yet almost frozen in making decisions. The three significant…
-
Expectations and Prompts: Hans the Clever Horse
Although this story is well known and has led to significant advancements in the design of experimental research studies, most of this effect has been categorized as deleterious, leading to the use of double blind studies and the control of various forms of bias (e.g. observer-expectancy effects). But if this story is taken in a…
-
Accommodating Students: Individual Differences or Individual Difference
Stan Deno used this title in a journal article a number of years ago*. He was arguing that often, particularly in special education, the focus is on individual differences in which a process is started (in a referral) that relies on tests to show deficits and then affix labels (e.g., learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, etc.).…
-
Using Writing Genre to Have an Impact: More than a Noun
Alex Trebeck had died on Sunday November 8, 2020 in his home in Los Angeles. As the host of Jeopardy for decades, he became an icon by filming over 8,000 episodes of Jeopardy. The game is founded on giving an answer and then the contestant responding with a question. So, in tribute to Alex, here…
-
Words are not just words: The Professor and the Madman
In the mid 19th century, Professor James Murray was developing the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). His system for compiling words involved volunteers from around the world sending him cards with information on each word in print, where it first occurred and how it is defined. Lo and behold, he began to…
-
Writing Quantity versus Quality: The Hare and the Tortoise (Aesop Fables)
“I argue that quality and quantity are not contradictory paths you need to pick. Quantity is a pre-requisite for quality” (Bruce Flow @ https://writingcooperative.com/write-for-quantity-not-quality-29c41ea554cd). “If you want to become a better writer, it’s far more effective to do a lot of bad writing than a little perfect writing, especially since if you’re aiming for perfection,…