Overschooled but Undereducated

As 2006 ended I recognised the need to collect all the ideas and experiences I had gathered from research, and everything I had learnt from discussions around the world since publishing the Policy Paper (1998), by explaining what I meant by ‘overschooled but undereducated’.

Thesis 61 – Questioning Intelligence

“Am I just thick”, asked a thirteen-year-old girl, “or am I only good at those things that really interest me?”  Her friends grinned; “She’s very good at annoying the boys”.  And then, “Does my brain get better through use?”, quizzed a third.  “What sort of use?”, interjected a fourth1.   What makes us the thinkers […]

Thesis 11 – Playing to One’s Strengths

Psychologists for long pondered the question, “Which is more important — Nature or Nurture?”  It has always been an emotionally charged debate.  Political demagogues in the twentieth century incited their peoples to extremes of racialism having convinced themselves that certain cultural features ‘were there in the blood’.  This led to eugenics.  Research now shows conclusively […]

Learning to Go with the Grain of the Brain

If young people are to be equipped effectively to meet the challenges of the 21st century it is surely prudent to seek out the very best understandings from current scientific research into the nature of how humans learn before considering further reform of the current system.

This article by John Abbott and Terence Ryan appeared in the Spring, 1999 issue of Education Canada.

What the Biology of the Brain tells us about Learning

Life becomes a delicate but powerful dialogue between genetics and the environment