{"id":1016,"date":"2022-03-06T07:00:58","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/garthnichols\/?p=1016"},"modified":"2022-03-02T14:28:21","modified_gmt":"2022-03-02T19:28:21","slug":"book-review-the-future-of-learning-guy-claxton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cohort21.com\/garthnichols\/21st-century-skills\/book-review-the-future-of-learning-guy-claxton\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: The Future of Learning (Guy Claxton)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cSchool is an institution that is deeply, systemically, designed for compliance. The whole apparatus of rules, punishments, timetables and bells, syllabuses and set texts, marking and examination requires and rewards the disposition of diligence, obedience, conscientiousness and correctness: of willingly doing what you are told regardless of whether it seems senseless or untimely. Student choice is systematically reduced to a low level. The margins for increasing student control and responsibility for what, when, where and how and why they learn are small and countercultural\u2026\u201d (Claxton, xxix)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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This book, written by Guy Claxton<\/a>, is in response to the growing voices, in the UK at least, for DIKR, or Direct Instruction in a Knowledge Rich curriculum. He is working to refute the research and claims of those in support of this more rigid pedagogical approach. In many ways, he is preaching to the choir with me, and this book serves to remind, provoke and support a diverse pedagogical approach that respects students\u2019 and where they are at. It reminds me of all the great reasons WHY I believe in education as a force for positive change in the world.<\/p>\n

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You would be interested in this book if you were looking to:<\/strong>
\n(1) Deepen your understanding of different pedagogical approaches and their merits
\n(2) Access research on why and how education is an exercise in character, and is value laden
\n(3) Reflect on the role of an educator, in a system of education, and (as the quotation above signals) the generative tension that exists, and\u2026
\n(4) Consider the opportunities that this generative tension provides<\/p>\n

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The book is structured in a way that the author is able to take on, directly, the myths holding back the future of learning, propped up by the DIKR voices. These areas are:<\/p>\n