EBOOK: Creating Learning without Limits

"e;'Creating Learning without Limits' takes on one of the most important issues in education today. In the last decade schools in England have taken a path towards putting all children into boxes, attaching a level to their heads and deciding what they are capable of achieving. This book shows the possibility of a different educational path, one in which all students are encouraged to achieve the greatest they can. Importantly the book also documents ways in which courageous teachers can do this - promoting fair and engaging learning environments for all students. This is a must-read for educators, policy makers and parents alike."e;Jo Boaler, Professor of Mathematics Education, Stanford University, California. Formerly a teacher and researcher at the Universities of London and Sussex."e;This will undoubtedly turn out to be amongst the most important educational books of the decade. Our capacity to respond, both individually and collectively, to its key insights and messages will profoundly affect not just the quality of our schools, but of our society for years to come. Engagingly and eloquently written, it exposes the intellectual bankruptcy and human destructiveness of widely held concepts of 'ability' and offers a richly textured, practical account of how one school moved from 'failure' to OfSTED 'outstanding' by committing itself to the practicability of a morally inspiring, educationally convincing alternative.If you want to know why 'the standards agenda' must inevitably fail and what we might do instead, read this book."e;Professor Michael Fielding, Institute of Education, University of London, UK"e;This is an inspiring and reviving book. It reminds us why people come into education - to make a difference for children. To make a deep difference we have to organize education differently. It describes a school that vibrates with learning in an atmosphere of deep humanity and care. Its practices are light years away from the measuring, labelling, targeting, and testing structures that have become our recent national norm. The school as a whole community transforms people."e;Anne Watson, Professor of Mathematics Education, University of Oxford, UK"e;This book provides a grounded demonstration of the importance of educational principles, the most important of which is the understanding that each child's potential for learning is limitless. The authors describe new school and classroom practices through which learning can be transformed. Their argument has influenced government thinking on the review of the National Curriculum in England. I urge you to let it influence your thinking too!"e;Professor Andrew Pollard, Institute of Education, University of London, UK"e;This is a brilliant study of a small and very successful primary school in Hertfordshire where the teachers have rejected ideas of fixed innate ability and believe instead in the limitless potential of all young people. At a time when the Ofsted inspection process employs dubious and limited notions of 'standards' and 'achievement', it would be good to think that there could be many more schools like this one showing the way towards a new and liberating view of human development. The book deserves a really wide readership."e;Professor Clyde Chitty, Institute of Education, University of London, UK"e;This book is slim in size but hefty in significance. It tells the story of a school driven by ambition, hope and the self-confidence that comes from a profound faith in the capacity of every child to be a passionate and engaged learner. This in the face of powerful and societally dominant messages that explicitly or more insidiously tell a different and more deterministic tale: that children (and schools) are fit and proper subjects for classification, measurement and management. And there's more - the careful scholarship on which this story is based prevents this book from being merely a description of what happens when a unique constellation of propitious circumstances meets a charismatic leader: this 'other way' is open to all who will take it - but it will demand the laying of solid and value-rich foundations, the exercising of autonomy for staff and pupils, the rethinking of relationships, a focus on learning (letting performance come as a secondary gift), and the taking of collective action. It's become a clich to say of a book that it 'Should be read by every teacher (or parent, or whoever ...).' This one, and its predecessor 'Learning without Limits' merits that injunction."e; Barry Hymer, Professor of Psychology in Education, Education Faculty, University of Cumbria, UK"e;'Creating Learning without Limits' provides a welcome tonic that can help to offset the beleaguering effects of a performativity and standards agenda that reinforces the ability based practices so pervasive in schools today. Building on the compelling pedagogy first presented in 'Learning without Limits', this ins ...