Reflections on #TLAB13: 5 of 6: Bill Lucas Keynote.

2013-03-16 09.04.33

This is the fourth of six posts reflecting upon the Teaching, Learning and Assessment Conference held at Berkhamsted School. This post will talk about Bill Lucas’ keynote session.

I didn’t make too many notes from the second keynote session. I have to admit to being more than a little sceptical when I’,m greeted by an ‘invite’ to sign up to a network for £500, but I kept an open mind. The session was delivered in a contrasting style to the first and focused on ‘Expansive Education’. I’m not going to talk about the network, but about the three things that I took away from the session.

1. The BayHouse educational journal

I am currently Professional Tutor and have the CPD brief. Coming across Bay House’s journal was a revelation. This is something that I am following up, not least because the school is only a short stretch of water away from my own. This could be an excellent way in which to engage and stretch teachers who are secure classroom practitioners (notice that I am trying to avoid Ofsted speak as I don’t want to be an Ofsted Whisperer!) I’m sure that I will be sharing this.

2. 21st Century Explorer

I always treat lists of traits and skills with caution as we don’t actually know what young people will need past being able to deal with what they don’t know about. More on that later. However, I found the features of 21st Century Creative Explorers put forward by Lucas (taken from work by Guy Claxton) useful to start conversations, especially within curriculum areas that are still mainly didactic and display poor achievement.

3. The 6 Rs

Again, the caveats above apply to this, but I found the following list of traits useful when thinking about curriculum design. Indeed, all three keynote speakers offered up similar models.

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