Independent Thinking
Autor Ian Gilberten Limba Engleză Paperback – 11 dec 2013
Beyond the goal of teaching children to know things, to pass exams, to get through school, to find a place in the system, we need to teach children to reflect critically on what is going on around them and to ask whether that’s the way it should be?
Society, success, morals, poverty, social mobility, happiness, values, mental health, relationships, aspirations, self-esteem, equity, opportunity, politics—all are linked to education. The education of individuals, the education of whole generations. But what do we mean by education and what should a "quality education" involve in the twenty-first century?
As one of the United Kingdom's most sought-after speakers and trainers with experience supporting schools across the world for two decades, this controversial book is Ian Gilbert telling it how it is. Drawing on his experience in the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and most recently Latin America, it is a fascinating and controversial collection of articles, reflections, and inspirations to open our eyes to what education is really all about.
Education is one of the hottest topics in the world today but, Ian warns, it is degenerating into a political football passed between politicians and big business. To address the real issues facing individuals, communities, and countries, we need to get education right. This book can help.
Ian Gilbert, award-winning author, entrepreneur, and founder of Independent Thinking, has been at the forefront of educational innovation in the United Kingdom for twenty years and has been referred to as "one of the UK's leading educational philosophers."
Society, success, morals, poverty, social mobility, happiness, values, mental health, relationships, aspirations, self-esteem, equity, opportunity, politics—all are linked to education. The education of individuals, the education of whole generations. But what do we mean by education and what should a "quality education" involve in the twenty-first century?
As one of the United Kingdom's most sought-after speakers and trainers with experience supporting schools across the world for two decades, this controversial book is Ian Gilbert telling it how it is. Drawing on his experience in the United Kingdom, the Middle East, and most recently Latin America, it is a fascinating and controversial collection of articles, reflections, and inspirations to open our eyes to what education is really all about.
Education is one of the hottest topics in the world today but, Ian warns, it is degenerating into a political football passed between politicians and big business. To address the real issues facing individuals, communities, and countries, we need to get education right. This book can help.
Ian Gilbert, award-winning author, entrepreneur, and founder of Independent Thinking, has been at the forefront of educational innovation in the United Kingdom for twenty years and has been referred to as "one of the UK's leading educational philosophers."
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Specificații
ISBN-13: 9781781350553
ISBN-10: 1781350558
Pagini: 208
Dimensiuni: 198 x 198 x 15 mm
Greutate: 0.48 kg
Editura: Crown House Publishing
ISBN-10: 1781350558
Pagini: 208
Dimensiuni: 198 x 198 x 15 mm
Greutate: 0.48 kg
Editura: Crown House Publishing
Cuprins
These Are My Thoughts – Get Your Own
Uses for This Book
Real-Time History
The Pigness of a Cow
A Ten-Step Parent Guide to Supporting a Child’s Learning in the Early Years
What’s the Point of Education?
Advice I
On Feedback
An Alternative Good School Checklist
Indignez-vous – Et Eux
How to Write a Book
Does It Know?
You Don’t Want Quits
It Will Only Take One Word to End Cake Sales for Good
Trust Your Gut
Don’t Let Them Tell You
Independent Thinking as a Refusal
On Starting a Revolution
Learning Makes Your Brain Fat
Drawing Class
Of Ducks and Lighthouses
Do You Have a Philosophy of Education?
Slow Children
If You’re Ever Thinking About Moving Abroad
On Leadership I
Seek and Ye Shall Find (and Look Cleverer Than You Really Are)
How to Make a Difference
Should We Be Teaching Children To Be Principled But Unreasonable? ...... 91
On Control
And What Do You Do?
Learning is Overrated
On Grief
The Serendipitous Benefits of Bad Taxi Drivers
How to Know Whether You’re a Humanist or a Scientist
It’s Not Succeeding That’s Hard, It’s Keeping Going
Circumspice
On Finding Things
How to Get a Job
Short Story
Whose Problem is the Future and the 100-Year Plan?
The Thing About Shelves
One Little Girl’s Story
The Difference Between Creativity and Art
The Cure
Careers Advice for Young People
Her Conversation with the Social Workers
On the Purpose of Reading
The Difference is the Size of the ‘P’
A Real-World Six-Point Noise Scale
The Eight Stages of Manhood 5
On Value
21 Ways of Knowing You Have Spent Too Long on Twitter
The Conversation Between an Angry Teenager and an Adult
Teachers – What Do You Teach?
When Bad Science Leads to Good Practice
Standing Still
Your One-Minute Three-Step MBA in Crisis Management
The Four Stages of Modern Life
The Merits of Not Having a Clue
The Intelligence of Six
The Game of Solitaire
Will Smith and the Flower Paradox
Trying To Be a Good Man
Train Your Dog Like a Child
Train Your Child Like a Dog
There’s No Such Thing as an Educational Expert
30 Things That Exams Don’t Measure
The Space between the Stars 9
Trust
Why Am I Here?
The Money-Back Guarantee
Three Questions to Ask Before Every Training Day
Three Responses That Are Worse Than Saying No
The Mirror
Things to Watch Out For When You See the Word ‘Independent’
Larks Ascending
Captain Pouch College
My Chilean Education
On Leadership II
Crowd to Brian: ‘Yes, We’re All Individuals’
Advice II
Recenzii
What an engaging read, splattered with gems which will make you think and think
again about life, living, dying and what education, teaching and schools are, and how, at their best, they might excite and influence. Idiosyncratic it is, with its Thunks and its apparent kaleidoscopic randomness, but all the more worth reading because, or despite of, all that.
Christopher Day, Professor of Education, University of Nottingham
For 20 years Ian Gilbert’s company Independent Thinking has encouraged us to think independently. Never has that been more important. His new book is a wonderful celebration of how education should be about more than value-added: it should be ‘values-added’. Ian Gilbert exudes strong values and clear principles. His writing is endlessly inventive and refreshing, and his ideas serve as an uplifting antidote to an educational world which can too often feel dispiriting, mechanical and joyless. This is a book to read and keep returning to, to rejuvenate us in the darker days of term-time. Highly recommended.
Geoff Barton, Head Teacher, King Edward VI School, Suffolk
Ian Gilbert has provided us with a wonderful, entertaining smorgasbord of a read. The author offers insights into his personal history and charts the ways in which this has influenced his own intellectual development. In doing so, he continually challenges our assumptions and delivers some perceptive comments on current educational practice. Although the book differers from conventional educational offerings, readers will undoubtedly find themselves forced to rethink their ideas about the best way to prepare today’s children for life in tomorrow’s world.
Professor Maurice Galton, Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge
I enjoyed the latest book by my namesake – but not relative I should hasten to add!
Independent Thinking is a teacher-friendly book in many ways. First, for busy classroom teachers, like me, it can be dipped in and out of and you’ll find treasure on every page: a pearl of wisdom to motivate you; a wonderful ‘Thunk’ to get you rethinking a subject with a fascinating question; a meditation upon the purpose of education to make you think about why you’re teaching; an incisive observation about young people to enable you to see them in a different light; an autobiographical reflection to help you see how we’re all connected by our common familial experiences; and points to help you be a
better parent or professional.
Second, this book is informed by a philosophy which is both coherent and creative. A unifying theme permeates it, which is possibly encapsulated by one of Gilbert’s aphorisms: ‘Creativity starts with “If only …” Mediocrity ends with it.’
Francis Gilbert, author of I’m A Teacher, Get Me Out Of Here
In the modern world of education, it has become commonplace for individuals, groups and companies to offer solutions for our every need. Education, through its obsession with data, ‘outstanding’ lessons and results, has led to the need for silver bullets and quick-fix solutions. This is what makes Ian Gilbert’s Independent Thinking such a refreshing book to read. Through an eclectic mix of stories, reflections and Thunks, the book fosters the very process which gives it its title. Reading this book will not provide any solutions but will act as fertile jump-off points to new questions and thinking as you engage with the many ideas explored here. There is a wide selection of topics, insights
and perspectives but running through them is a strong Freirean philosophy and
a belief in the goodness and potential of humanity.
This is a book which can be used in a number of different ways, from a starting point for personal reflection to a focus for collaborative discussion. One element which I find particularly positive is the lack of a simple, linear narrative; the reader can engage with as little or as much of the content as they wish, and can engage with the ideas in an order that suits them. Deleuze, the French philosopher, argues that we should think with the world rather than about it; this book, for me, embodies this ideal.
Dr Phil Wood, School of Education, University of Leicester
Independent Thinking is scattered with Ian Gilbert’s own life experiences, using them to highlight his passion about what education should be. This is a must-read for teachers, parents, students, anyone with an interest in how our children are taught, and most importantly those responsible for designing and influencing the school curriculum!
From the first page to the last page, Independent Thinking is not only easy to read, but easy to relate to, easy to agree with almost everything written on every page, easy to say ‘Yes, why isn’t that happening?’ and easy to write a list of all those you would like to read it. It isn’t easy to put down and it won’t be one of those books Ian describes in one of his bookshelf chapters, with the remark that ‘if you have a book but don’t read it within three months give it to someone else’. Number 1 in the list of 42 uses for this book is ‘To help you think’ and it does just that. Using at times personal examples from throughout his life, he questions why ‘thinking’ is not integrated into teaching as naturally as it should be, which in turn makes the reader ask the same question. The arguments made for why it should be are hard to argue against.
Latifa Hassanali, Programme Manager,
‘a prestigious international school near London’
Notă biografică
Ian Gilbert is one of the UK's leading educational innovators, speakers and writers with twenty years experience working with young people and educationalists around the world. He is the founder of Independent Thinking Ltd, the editor of the Independent Thinking Press and the author of a number of titles including Why Do I Need a Teacher When I've Got Google?. His book The Little Book of Thunks won the first education book award from the Society of Authors for 'an outstanding example of traditionally published non-fiction that enhances teaching and learning'.
www.independentthinking.com
www.independentthinking.com
Extras
These Are My Thoughts Get Your Own
I don’t believe in systems. In pre-packaged answers to everyday questions.
If you think about something long enough to come up with a response and then act on it then you have at least proven you exist, or rather made it worthwhile existing. Your response might be the same as everyone else’s, but it is still your response and has more value than the off-the-shelf answers peddled
by the people with something to sell and an army of shelf stackers.
I set up Independent Thinking in 1993 as an organisation to encourage young
people to use their thoughts to get more out of their lives. I had no idea what it would look like or where it would take me. I still don’t, 20 years later. It’s a ‘forprofit company’ but was set up, I now realise, to make a difference, not to make a profit. If the only thing it has done in 20 years is to encourage more people to think for themselves – to reflect, to think, to think deeply, to think independently and then to act in a similar spirit – then it will have been worthwhile.
The journey, like most people’s, has been a hard one. Everyone has their heartaches. Their baggage. Their story. While you cannot avoid misfortune it is particularly easy to avoid opportunity. Simply keep your head down being busy. It will soon pass on to someone else. The challenge is to create, spot and then seize the opportunities. Success isn’t the goal – it’s the process that counts. That way, every day is a success, no matter how hard it is. You can only do this, though, if you see life as an adventure. When you do it means that, no matter what happens, it is all simply ‘part of the adventure’. It is not actually anything at all to do with that so-called ‘real life’ where you have to be serious and grown up. It’s just an adventure. In fact, when nothing is real life, everything is OK.
It doesn’t make for an easy life but it does make for an interesting one. You can have one or the other but you can’t have both. You have to choose.
I was asked to write this book to capture the spirit of what independent thinking – not Independent Thinking – is all about. Which is a hard one. A book of my thoughts to encourage you to have thoughts of your own. The most I can do
is to put down in print what I think and how I think in the hope that this will
act as a stimulus to your own thinking. Some of the thoughts I have recorded
here are short one-liners. Others are longer, but that is usually because I haven’t had the time to make them shorter. Either way I hope the effect will be the same – to use my thoughts to stimulate your own.
And what is it I spend most of my time thinking about? Well, for over 20 years
it has been about education, not only what goes on in the classroom but education in its wider sense of helping the world think. If there is one idea that has informed my thinking in recent years, it is one inspired by the great Brazilian educationalist Paolo Freire who worked with illiterate farm and plantation workers in Brazil and Chile in the 1960s and 1970s. (P. Freire, Pedagogy of Hope (London: Continuum, 1992) It is that the highest goal of education is to teach people to ‘read and write the word’ so they can come to
‘re-read and re-write the world’.
We spend a great deal of effort, in the developed world at least, on the former
but we tend to overlook the latter. Yet if we teach young people that this is the way the world is and leave it there, we are supporting the status quo and making of them passive observers. The ‘object’ not the ‘subject’ of their world, as Freire would have it. To teach them, as part of the day-to-day process of educating them in a broad curriculum, that this is the way the world is currently and why that is the case, and to maintain a constant eye on helping them know that it doesn’t always have to be that way, that such a state is transitory and they can work to bring to bear an influence that will make it different if they choose to – now that’s what I call an education.
Through simple dialogue based on a position of humility, not of academic arrogance, Freire could help superstitious peasant workers move from a fatalistic stance of: ‘You’re better than I am because you’re educated and I’m not and that’s God’s way’ to: ‘No, God isn’t the cause of all this. It’s the boss!’ (Ibid) He was imprisoned as a traitor and then exiled from Brazil after the military coup in 1964. Of course he was.
In recent years, after the death of my first wife and finding new happiness and
perspectives with the lady to whom this book is dedicated, my thinking has
been further fuelled by time spent in living in the Middle East, in Latin America and now in the Far East. Despite the fact that J. S. Bach never left Germany and Immanuel Kant barely even made it out of Königsberg, they say that travel broadens the mind. Yet it’s not the travel that does it. It’s what you do with the travel. It’s about how you use it to inform, affect and influence your thinking, if you’ll let it.
So, as a result of my travels and experiences and my new life, I think about education and I think increasingly about injustice and I think about opportunity
and the planet and I think about love and loss and life, and I think that just
about covers most of what is important.
To sum up, then, this isn’t so much a book about what I think but what you
think. I hope you enjoy my thinking but please refrain from using it as a substitute for your own. Then it will all have been worthwhile.
Descriere
Think for yourself – before someone does it for you.