Thesis 31 – Work Ethic

No child is too poor or of too humble birth to go to school.  An education is the right of every person; those who are less bright need instruction to lift them out of their ignorance, whilst those with an inquiring mind need the discipline of education lest they be tempted to idleness.1   As […]

Thesis 29 – Elizabethan Education

There is in education a law of delayed action, by which seed sown and long forgotten only grows in late years.  Teachers like to see results from their efforts, and direct them accordingly, but the most precious fruits of a good teacher’s work are those that he is never likely to see.1   If the […]

Thesis 10 – I Can or I.Q?

  We admire people who sense what is the right thing to do in an unfamiliar situation.  Intelligence is more than just a general capacity to learn, to reason or to understand, it is a quickness to apprehend, as distinct from ability which is the capacity to act wisely on the thing comprehended.  Intelligence is […]

Finding the missing piece

Intelligent behaviour One of the delights of Christmas is doing jigsaws.  The easy part is sorting out the straight pieces, the hard slog is working out the innumerable shades of blue in the sky, or the green and brown in the trees.   It is easy to give up, but return after a short break, and […]

School Organisation led by a Pedagogic Revolution to make Thinking Visible

Coming soon

Learning to Go with the Grain of the Brain

If young people are to be equipped effectively to meet the challenges of the 21st century it is surely prudent to seek out the very best understandings from current scientific research into the nature of how humans learn before considering further reform of the current system.

This article by John Abbott and Terence Ryan appeared in the Spring, 1999 issue of Education Canada.

Cognitive Apprenticeship: Making Thinking Visible

This article has exercised a great influence on the 21st Century Learning Initiative’s thinking. It originally appeared in the Winter, 1991 issue of American Educator, the journal of The American Federation of Teachers, and is reprinted here with permission.

American Education: An apprenticeship for the Mind

Central to the Initiative’s thinking is the concept of cognitive apprenticeship

Educating People for Change

Capturing the interest of the Head Masters’ Conference

Excerpt from Education and the Significance of Life

When one travels around the world, one notices to what an extraordinary degree human nature is the same, whether in India or America, in Europe or Australia. This is especially true in colleges and universities. We are turning out, as if through a mold, a type of human being whose chief interest, is to find security, to become somebody important, or to have a good time with as little thought as possible.