Internal and web-based
Occasional Pieces: Too Busy to Think
We know the feeling far too well; as deadlines press upon us we fail to see a new opportunity until it’s almost slipped away. That ... Read on
No Comments »Occasional Pieces: What Schools for What Future?
The question is apparently simple – what are we educating children for? Put figuratively, is it for a future comparable to battery hens, or is ... Read on
No Comments »A Journey Towards an Understanding of Learning: A Headteacher travels with Education 2000 to the 21st Century Learning Initiative
Janet Lawley describes how her work as a Headteacher has intersected with the efforts of Education 2000 and the Initiative over the past decade.
No Comments »Component 4 : The New Economy’s Impact on Learning
Introduction The last decades of the 20th century saw countries around the world make the dramatic transition from closed, state-dominated, economies towards open, free-market, economies. ... Read on
Comments OffA ten point outline of the central issues raised by the 21st Century Learning Initiative in discussions with English political and educational leaders
1) What we mean by learning and the significance of life-long learning. A successful education involves both content and process; these are separate but inevitably ... Read on
2 Comments »Battery Hens, or Free Range Chickens: What Kind of Education for What Kind of World (Full Speech)
The following is a version of the lecture John Abbott gave to the North of England Education Conference in Sunderland on January 7, 1999. This speech is very similar to those he has given recently elsewhere. The boxes represent the slides used during the presentation.
No Comments »Policy Paper
The Initiative’s Policy Paper from November 1998 is the most detailed description of our work and is necessary reading for anyone interested the ideas and research accumulated by the Initiative. The document is available as a PDF file.
Comments OffUpside Down and Inside Out: Why good schools alone will never be good enough to meet the needs of the 21st Century
This article written by John Abbott appeared in the January 1998 issue of the House of Commons’ Parliamentary Monitor.
Comments OffThe Synthesis : Part Four
Just as we are undoubtedly on the brink of new understandings about learning, so too are we on the brink of radical developments in technology ... Read on
Comments OffThe Synthesis : Part Three
The Synthesis is based on the materials presented at the six international conferences the Initiative sponsored from 1995 to 1997. The Synthesis provides an overview of the values and main ideas that have been behind all the Initiative’s work.
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Featured publication
Overschooled but Undereducated, by John Abbott and Heather MacTaggart, was published in November, 2009 by Continuum Books.
With the publication of Overschooled but Undereducated the Initiative now has, in compact form, the most complete, persuasive and concise argument for the overhaul of current systems of education and a catalyst-in-print for the reassessment of outdated thinking that governs educational policy and attitudes towards learning and schooling in the West.