A jaundiced view of management

Source unknown. Thank you to Cas for sending this to me. I do not really know any organization quite as bad as this, but read Bob Sutton's The No Ass Hole Rule for some good examples.

Dilbert on bullshitting and (lack of) leadership

From Dilbert by Scott Adams.

CP Conference 2010 - More brain profiling nonsense

Please, not whole brain learning and brain profiling again! A paper on IQ and EQ (sigh!) turns out to be the outdated, and thoroughly discredited, ideas of whole brain learning and brain profiling. The presenter (whom I'll leave anonymous), presented as if his own research, a concoction of whole brain learning, brain profiling and Gardner's multiple intelligences. For good measure he threw in Goleman's views of emotional intelligence (the less scientific version of EI) and Rosenthal and Jacobson's research on the influence of teacher expectations on learners' performance (the Pygmalion Effect).

The only aspect of his approach that was new to me, was his attempts to localize each of Gardner's intelligences to specific brain quadrants. These brain quadrants do not make anatomical sense and localization of higher level functions is contrary to current views of brain organization.

On being challenged about the pseudoscientific nature of his approach, his predicatable response was that his approach worked. To questions about possible confirmation bias, he had no answer.

Some of my previous (extensive) posts on some of these issues were:

Left brain, right brain, whole brain:

Mind myth 2: Left brain right brain.

Brain profiling:

Mind myth 5: Brain profiling.
"Genetic" brain profiling in rugby.

Multiple intelligences and learning styles:

Mind myth 7: Learning styles and multiple intelligences

CP Conference 2010 - Dr. I.P. Desai: Inclusive Education

It's CP Conference time again, this year held in Durban and organized by the A.M. Moolla Spes Nova School. I find it hard to believe that a year has passed since the previous conference, which I (with the Gauteng Cerebral Palsy Association) organized.

The Jimmy Craig Memorial Lecture was by Dr. I.P. Desai, retired professor in Education from the University of Melbourne, Australia. It dealt with inclusive education. A somewhat jaded topic by now, but in South African circumstances still topical. Dr. Desai's conclusion from literature and experience - inclusive education works where the necessary support is given to teachers and learners with disabilities. Nothing new there.

A question I had - is there a publication bias in this field that prevents negative findings from being published? From past literature reviews this seemed to me to be the case - the evidence for the effectiveness of inclusive education seemed just too good to be true (I'm not arguing with the principle and that it's mostly the right thing to do). While it is hard to question the philosophy of and necessity for inclusive education, the difficulties in implementation seem to be glossed over. Dr. Desai agreed that such a publication bias may exist. Moral imperatives and political correctness may sometimes have precedence over scientific evidence (my interpretation, not his).