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Bill Lucas

Ellen Spencer

In Zest for Learning: Developing curious learners who relish real-world challenges, Bill Lucas and Ellen Spencer explore the ways in which teachers can help their pupils to find their passions, develop independence and challenge themselves to become more expansive learners.
Young people need more than subject knowledge in order to thrive they need capabilities. The Pedagogy for a Changing World series details which capabilities matter and how schools can develop them.
A key capability is zest: the curiosity and desire to experience new things. Zest for Learning offers a powerful new synthesis of thinking about what it takes for young people to flourish both in education and in the wider world, especially at a time when preparing them for life beyond school often calls for brave leadership.
This could be encouraged through, for example, greater engagement with sports and the arts, by collaborating with external bodies such as the Scouts and Guides or the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme or by working with libraries, museums, faith groups and environmental associations.
In this book Bill and Ellen offer a framework for zest: a practical guide for teachers, underpinned by theory. They draw on a number of areas of knowledge and practice that each have something to contribute to the concept of zest for learning, bringing together ideas in concrete and actionable ways.
Zest for Learning connects the co-curriculum with the formal curriculum, building both theoretical and practical confidence in the kinds of pedagogies which work well. Bill and Ellen have infused the book with a wide range of ideas for getting pupils to love learning so much that they will be able to learn whatever they want to throughout their lives.
The authors also go further by presenting case studies that illustrate the successful integration of the co-curriculum with the formal curriculum at various educational institutions, and by providing an A to Z of practical ideas and activities for developing zest in young learners.
Suitable for all teachers and leaders, in both primary and secondary settings.

Crown House Publishing

Pedagogy for a Changing World

Zest for Learning: Developing curious learners who relish real-world challenges  (Pedagogy for a Changing World series)

In Teaching Creative Thinking: Developing Learners Who Generate Ideas and Can Think Critically,Bill Lucas and Ellen Spencer define and demystify the essence of creative thinking, and offer action-oriented and research-informed suggestions as to how it can best be developed in learners. Where once it was enough to know and do things, young people now need more than subject knowledge in order to thrive: they need capabilities. Teaching Creative Thinking is the first title in the three-part Pedagogy for a Changing World series, founded upon Lucas and Spencer's philosophy of dispositional teaching a pedagogical approach which aims to cultivate in learners certain dispositions that evidence suggests are going to be valuable to them both at school and in later life. A key capability is creative thinking, and, in 2021, one of the guardians of global comparative standards, PISA, is recognising its importance by making creative thinking the 'innovative assessment domain' to supplement their testing of 15-year-olds' core capabilities in English, maths and science. Creative thinkers are inquisitive, collaborative, imaginative, persistent and disciplined and schools which foster these habits of mind in learners need to be creative in engaging children and young people by embedding creativity into their everyday educational experiences. In this extensive enquiry into the nature and nurture of creative thinking,the authors explore the effectiveness of various pedagogical approaches including problem-based learning, growth mindset, playful experimentation and the classroom as a learning community and provide a wealth of tried-and-tested classroom strategies that will boost learners' critical and creative thinking skills. The book is structured in an easy-to-access format, combining a comprehensive listing of practical ideas to stimulate lesson planning with expert guidance on integrating them into your practice, followed by plenty of inventive suggestions as to how learners' progress can be assessed and tracked along the way by both the pupil and the teacher. The authors then go further to offer exemplars of success by presenting case studies of schools' innovations in adopting these approaches, and dedicate a chapter to dispelling any pressing doubts that teachers may have by exposing the potential pitfalls and offering advice on how to avoid them. Venturing beyond the classroom setting, Teaching Creative Thinkingalso delves into the ways in which a school can work towards the provision of co-curricular experiences such as partnering with a range of external community groups and better engage its leadership team and pupils' parents with the idea of creative thinking in order to support learners with opportunities to grow. The authors offer many examples which will inspire schools to do just this, and collate these ideas into building a framework for learning that equips young people in schools today with the twenty-first century skills and capabilities that will enable them to thrive in the workforce of tomorrow. Replete with research-led insight and ready-to-use strategies, Teaching Creative Thinkingis a powerful call to action and a practical handbook for all teachers and leaders, in both primary and secondary settings, who want to embed a capabilities approach in their schools.

Teaching Creative Thinking: Developing learners who generate ideas and can think critically  (Pedagogy for a Changing World series)

The UK's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Social Mobility recently proposed the adoption by schools of specific interventions in the areas of resilience and character; meanwhile, across the Atlantic, an end-of-high-school 'score' for grit is also being considered in the USA. In line with this growing consensus, an increasing body of evidence suggests that cultivating these competencies is key to success both in school and in later life. In Developing Tenacity, the second instalment in the Pedagogy for a Changing World series, Lucas and Spencer show educators how.
Delving beyond 'grit' and 'growth mindset', and encompassing more than the formal curriculum, Developing Tenacity draws on the co-authors' research at the University of Winchester's Centre for Real-World Learning to offer a powerful synthesis of what it takes for learners to persevere when confronted with challenges. The resulting analysis depicts the true value of tenacity inside and outside the educational setting and provides teachers with action-oriented strategies as to how the four key 'habits' of tenacity confidence, control, commitment and connectivity can be developed in learners.
The wealth of teaching and learning methods presented is accompanied by practical suggestions on how to embed tenacity more systematically into the curriculum, providing plenty of stimuli for lesson planning and for the drip-feeding of everyday activities which boost learners' agency and self-efficacy. The authors also investigate the effectiveness of various pedagogical approaches including developmental self-evaluation, deliberate practice and service learning and share inventive assessment methods which teachers can employ to track learners' progress along the way. Lucas and Spencer then go further by showcasing case studies that illustrate the successful adoption of a capabilities approach by various educational institutions, and offer expert advice on how teachers can overcome any potential obstacles as they journey towards cultivating a tenacious learning culture in their classrooms.
Suitable for all teachers and school leaders in both primary and secondary settings who want to instil a strong sense of tenacity in their pupils' approach to learning.
Click here to watch Prof Bill Lucas and Prof Guy Claxton's video 'Putting the heart and the hand back into schools'.
Developing Tenacity has been named a finalist in the 2018 INDIES Book of the Year Awards in the education category.

Developing Tenacity: Teaching learners how to persevere in the face of difficulty  (Pedagogy for a Changing World series)