ABSTRACT
It’s time for the educational slugfest to stop. ‘Traditional’ and ‘progressive’ education are both caricatures, and bashing cartoon images of each other is unprofitable and unedifying. The search for a new model of education – one that is genuinely empowering for all young people – is serious and necessary. Some good progress has already been made, but teachers and school leaders are being held back by specious beliefs, false oppositions and the limited thinking of orthodoxy.
Drawing on recent experience in England, North America and Australasia, but applicable round the world, The Future of Teaching clears away this logjam of bad science and slack thinking and frees up the stream of much-needed innovation. This timely book aims to banish arguments based on false claims about the brain and poor understanding of cognitive science, reclaim the nuanced middle ground of teaching that develops both rigorous knowledge and ‘character’, and lay the foundations for a 21st-century education worthy of the name.
Foreword
Dylan Wiliam
Prologue
Chapter 1. Punch and Judy
Chapter 2. Values
Chapter 3. Knowledge
Chapter 4. Thinking
Chapter 5. Learning (and learning to learn)
Chapter 6. Memory: the architecture of the mind
Chapter 7. Teaching
Chapter 8. Reality: getting out more
Chapter 9. Research – but what kind?
Chapter 10. The future of teaching
Reading and references
