This morning I watched another TED talk. Charles Leadbeater argues that although by 2015 all the world's children will be able to go to school, the model of schools we are "exporting" to many countries is not applicable for their needs - he is arguing for transformative new ways to learn and says that education needs to work by pull not by push. It's about the things that make a difference to them, motivation is essential and therefore education needs to be immediately relevant so that it attracts students into learning.
Charles Leadbeater discusses 4 different types of innovation: sustaining -v- distruptive and formal -v- informal. Most investment is in innovation in sustaining formal education but he argues that we need more investment in other types of innovation:
- Reinvention: innovation in distruptive but formal education, where for example learning starts from questions, not from knowledge or curriculum. These schools are highly collaborative and high tech.
- Supplementation of schools: innovation in sustaining informal settings such as the families and neighbourhoods (examples he gave included Reggio Emilia and the Harlem Children's Zone)
- Transformational innovation: getting learning to people in new ways
Charles Leadbeater has written a new book called We Think. Below is a short 4 minute movie about this: