I had the pleasure a couple of weeks ago of attending the 2012 Graham Nuthall Annual Lecture at Canterbury University where I heard Guy Claxton present an engaging talk titled 'Can Schools Prepare You For Anything?' His abstract read:
Traditional education aims to raise standards by any means, but we are coming to see that preparing young people for tests, and preparing them for life, are different goals. How do we deepen learning so that it systematically builds the learning dispositions that the next generation will need? As work on ‘key competencies’ and ‘21st century skills’ evolves it is becoming clearer just what it takes to raise standards in a way that helps kids be ready for anything.
In Guy's typical provocative and well informed style, he challenged us to think more critically about many of the things we're carrying forward from our traditional education system, and to think more creatively about how we might conceive of and implement a truly 21st century approach where we maintain the focus on a future-focused curriculum as well as raising standards for learners.
As with all of these sorts of talks, there was so much to take in and reflect on, but thanks to the team at EdTalks we can all enjoy the change to view Guy's talk again and engage in a bit of 'rewind learning'!
Such a pleasure, listening to an educator who make perfect sense! I do tend to rabbit on in assembly about stretching your brain muscles and the students have this man to blame for it. He is brilliant!
Agreed; this lecture was one of the best I have heard in a long time. My sense is that many higher ed institutions, especially online schools, have been moving in the direction of student support and serivices not just for university readiness, but for life and 21st century readiness. There has been correlation between a student's life and technical proficiency and academic and life success.