S1E7: Guy Claxton on learning to learn

Professor Guy Claxton is a hugely influential academic, thinker and author of over 30 books on learning, intelligence and creativity, including Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, Wise Up, What’s the point of school, Intelligence in the flesh, Educating Ruby and the Learning Power Approach. Guy’s latest book, The future of teaching and the myths that hold it back, is a blistering critique of what is increasingly a neotraditional orthodoxy. It is scheduled for release in Spring 2021, and Guy has very kindly agreed to come back on the show when the book comes out to discuss the issues he raises in detail. In this episode, we have a much more expansive conversation about education, and about our shared passion – teaching young people how to teach themselves. Guy has an enviable knack for expressing ideas about Learning to Learn that I have thought about for years but struggled to express. To give you a flavor, I will end this introduction with a couple of short excerpts from his recent book, The Learning Powered Approach: “Schools should be preparing kids to flourish in a complicated and demanding world. Just trying to squeeze better test scores out of them is not enough. We know that, in the long run, character counts for more than examination results. To prosper – to live good lives – today’s students will need curiosity, determination, concentration, imagination, camaraderie, thoughtfulness and self-discipline as well as literacy, numeracy, general knowledge, and the best possible grades. These attributes contribute hugely to people’s success and fulfilment in life. And we also know that they are capable of being intentionally developed – or unintentionally stifled. The desire to cultivate them has to be at the heart of every school’s endeavour.” And here is the second excerpt, in which Guy suggests that the question of how to develop these character traits is cultural rather than curricular: “Such dispositions cannot be ‘taught’ directly. Of course they can be made explicit and talked about, and that helps, but merely understanding the concept of ‘resilience’, say, and even being able to write an A-grade essay about it, does not by itself make you any more resilient. Character is a constellation of habits, and habits are tendencies that are built up over time. If you regularly find yourself in a culture – a family, for example – where the people you look up to continually model, value and expect politeness, honesty or curiosity, you are likely to grow towards those qualities, as a plant grows toward the sun. Such habits begin to become part of your natural way of being.” Here are a few links to things we discuss: BOOK: On becoming a person, by Carl Rogers: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/on-becoming-a-person/9781845290573 BOOK: What’s the point of school, by Guy Claxton: https://uk.bookshop.org/books/what-s-the-point-of-school-rediscovering-the-heart-of-education/9781851686032 VIDEO: The Scary Guy Combats Bullying on Teachers TV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js8Hrqvk8QM BOOK: Fear is the Mind Killer: Why Learning to Learn deserves lesson time - and how to make it work for your pupils, by James Mannion and Kate McAllister: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fear-Mind-Killer-teaching-Learning/dp/1911382772 The Rethinking Education podcast is hosted and produced by Dr James Mannion. You can contact him at rethinking-ed.org/contact, or via @RethinkingJames on Twitter.