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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson

Times Colonist

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Geoff Johnson: Legislation alone can't tackle online harms to kids

Invasion of privacy and dignity is an ongoing problem across the country. The Canadian Centre for Child Protection says ­millions of cases of...

21.04.2024 9

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Survey fails to look more deeply at why kids feel less positive about school

There’s no question that the recently released 2023 B.C. Adolescent Health Survey administered by the McCreary Centre Society, a non-government...

07.04.2024 8

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Changing values cited as one reason for decline in PISA results

PISA, the Program for International Student ­Assessment, measures 15-year-old students’ ­reading, mathematics and science literacy in 80...

03.03.2024 7

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Has autocorrect made teaching spelling superflewus?

As a newbie teacher of Grade 11 English in 1966, I was required to teach spelling. I did this by introducing five new words each day and teaching them...

25.02.2024 5

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Studying the humanities helps foster skills that are increasingly needed

When it comes to post-secondary students majoring in fields such as history, literature or psychology, we often hear the same question from parents...

18.02.2024 7

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: No single right answer in direct instruction versus inquiry-based learning debate

You’d think that since Socrates, Plato and Aristotle sat together under the legendary plane tree in Athens around 430 BC, the debate about whether...

11.02.2024 5

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Move to ditch SATS raises concerns about relying on school transcripts

The debate about the use of standardized tests as a measure of academic performance or potential has been reinvigorated by the decision of a number of...

28.01.2024 7

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: How to develop the reading brain in a digital world

When a neuroscientist and noted psycholinguistic researcher like Maryanne Wolf says it’s important that children read printed books, not just via...

21.01.2024 7

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Aging brings new opportunities for learning

Canada’s population is aging. The proportion of seniors in Canada will rise from 16.9% to 21.0% over the next 10 years, according to the...

14.01.2024 5

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Poor behaviour at school board meetings stems from decline of deference

The new year is a good time to re-examine the roots of some frenzied group behaviours, ranging from trucker blockades to unruly disruption of school...

07.01.2024 6

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Surfing offers lessons for dealing with AI in education

I’d never considered using the words “artificial intelligence” and “surfing” in the same sentence. Having grown up in Australia, I know a...

18.12.2023 9

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Media literacy programs on rise to help young people tell fact from fiction

It has been a while since Canadian communications scholar Marshall McLuhan ignited the North American educational movement for media literacy in the...

10.12.2023 7

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Apprenticeship a solid post-secondary option

Soon-to-graduate high school students are starting to think seriously about what’s next. For many, that includes post-secondary education — within...

04.12.2023 3

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Kids need skills to separate facts from sophistry

Sophistry has gained a stronger foothold than ever before in our everyday experiences and those of our kids. Sophistry, ambiguity, equivocation,...

12.11.2023 9

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Children should be protected from frightening images of war

My oh my how the TV news channels do love a war. Brave news anchors dressed in camo gear report over explosions while tanks, armoured vehicles and men...

05.11.2023 5

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: FSA not a good way of assessing Indigenous students

In its ham-fisted rush to issue its 2022 “ranking” of B.C.’s elementary schools using only the results of the Education Ministry’s...

29.10.2023 4

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Ontario education minister's back to basics focus is all about politics

Any time the words “public school system” and “trans” anything are used in the same sentence these days, there’s a good chance raucous...

22.10.2023 8

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: A new twist on book banning — everything published before 2008 must go

My first experience with book banning came when, at the age of 15, I somewhat precociously read Irish novelist James Joyce’s Portrait of the Artist...

15.10.2023 7

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Geoff Johnson

Geoff Johnson: Giftedness isn't just being good at taking tests

In 1968/69, I taught at a “selective/regional” New South Wales public high school for “gifted” kids grades 8 to 12. Students were selected on...

08.10.2023 5

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Geoff Johnson

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