Wise up: the Challenge of Lifelong Learning [Paperback]

Whether it is in the home, the high school or the university much of what is taught implicitly or explicitly about learning is faulty. Guy Claxton's assertions seem to coalesce with findings in neuroscience (authors such as Stephen Pinker and Joseph LeDoux write extensively on the subject). It is essential that proper forms of learning are taught early on in life being that is when the brain is most malleable.

Much of the education system is based on rote memorization and doesn't accurately depict the realities of life. The future is less clear than ever and future success regardless of the endeavor requires life long learning. A typical topic in the university classroom is given at most several classes and taught in such isolation of other factors. Unfortunately, 'learning slow to act fast' doesn't seem to be on the agenda of many. A slow learning process cultivates intuition, which is another area that is frowned upon. If one is unable to articulate the reasons for a decision and back it up with concrete facts it is considered uninformed.

Uncertainty is a fact of life but there are many who believe every problem can be solved almost instantaneously, possibly with the help of a formula. There is no room for play, imagination and creativity.

Parents, peers, and teachers should understand that they are there to be a conduit to ignite the pupils mind in many directions. To often however, students are told 'this is how it is' and 'this is the only correct way', which serves to stifle creativity and exploration.

Expert knowledge in a particular field doesn't translate into the ability to successfully transfer that knowledge to others. Too often academics mistakenly equate their classroom knowledge and tenure with their ability to teach. Interestingly, as corporate America has evolved and the American worker no longer is guaranteed a lifetime of employment by one company, the institutions which serve as the gateways for the next generation have failed to evolve!

- "I an uncertain situation, the only useful -and defensible- thing to do is try to prepare young people to deal well with uncertainty. As John Holt said as far back as the 1960s: 'since we cannot know what knowledge will be needed in the future, it is senseless to try and teach it in advance. Instead we should try and turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned.' That has to be the central curriculum objective of the learning society, not just in rhetoric but in reality. We have to remember that the end of education is to enable young people, when they are grown up, to live happy, successful and responsible lives. If teaching them to multiply fractions is genuinely a means to that end, then let us do it. But we must not vaguely wish or hope that it is such a means; nor must we fervently believe it, for that makes the future education a battleground rather than an inquiry. The nineteenth-century American essayist Alexis de Toqueville once defined a fanatic as someone who redoubles his efforts when he has forgotten what he is fighting for. We cannot really start to decide what education should be unless we first remember what it is fundamentally for."

- "The world of work exemplifies the central theme of this book: the urgent need to recognize and develop learning power in everyday life; and the confused and sometimes subversive attitudes that may get in the way of this happening. Individuals carry forward from their childhood and schooldays outmoded assumptions that breed narrow approaches to learning, and beliefs about themselves which can turn practical uncertainty into personal insecurity and thus encourage a defensive rather than inquiring mind-set. When these assumptions are echoed in the structures and habits of a workplace culture, and modeled and purveyed by senior managers, then individuals withdraw from learning and companies become rigid and myopic. When leaders develop the insight to inspect these belief systems, and the courage to share that reflective journey of corporate self-discovery with the workforce, remarkable shifts can take place and ?true learning? organizations become a real possibility."