It’s a challenge that’s probably been around as long as education itself: despite your efforts, students sometimes seem unmotivated and disengaged. For this, different eras have deployed different tactics. Thankfully the days when discipline was the only answer are now behind us: 21st century education is all about positive and empowering solutions. Of course, there are plenty of tips to …

The modern digital, knowledge-based world in which we now exist is changing everything: from the highest level of business and commerce, to the tiniest details of everyday life. Education is part of this too. Indeed, it’s possibly one aspect of society where this is most keenly felt, and where the skills that people have now, and will need in the …

Do you ever compare your grown-up working life to your school days? If you do, you might be struck by how important teamwork is in most workplaces, compared to the ‘learn (and be tested) as an individual’ style of your student days. Over recent years, that disconnect has been diminishing. Increasingly, education is now built around the same principles of

Learning through discovery has always been fundamental to education. The best answers are, of course, those that students uncover for themselves, rather than those they memorise from others. These days, certain labels are often applied to this kind of learning, including ‘Inquiry Based’ and ‘Project Based’. While these are relatively recent, the underlying principles are much older. Indeed some in

If you sat down to eat the same meal every night of the week, you’d soon lose your appetite. Learning is just the same. If every lesson and assignment was carried out in exactly the same way, students would soon lose their appetite to learn. (And teachers would probably lose their appetite to teach, too!) Variety, change, new combinations – …

Of all the skills that we want students to gain from their educational journey, the ability to think for themselves is possibly the most important. Thinking, in its truest sense – of questioning, challenging, exploring, solving – is an indispensable life skill to take forward, for both their professional and personal futures. ‘Visible Thinking’ brings together a series of techniques …