Sir Ken Robinson

On March 16th, 2011 Sir Ken Robinson presented a talk to the Learning Without Frontiers community followed by an audience discussion where he was joined by Mick Waters, Curriculum Foundation and Keri Facer, Professor of Education, MMU.

Here are the edited highlights of that talk:

 

And the discussion panel



Be part of the conversation and post your comments below

Get this video on iTunes, Blip.TV or YouTube

Pictures from the evening.

Comments

[Mark Emanuelson]

Sir Ken Robinson reminds us that education is more than just learning facts and feeding them back on tests, but it is about learning how to think, how to apply difficult concepts, how to create something meaningful or provocative, and how to contribute to the growth of the individual and that of society. He advocates including the arts as a core part of the academic curriculum, rather than an optional elective. If more schools applied his recommendations, we would have better performing schoolchildren, excited to perform and achieve to make a difference. Children are naturally creative, so allowing this innate talent to flourish through practice in arts would lead to more innovative, thoughtful, entrepreneurial leaders in adulthood.

[royston]

If any video needs to go viral - it's this one

[Ben Gibbs]

Thank you Graham et al for bringing Ken to this fantastic event in London, and for lining up both Keri and Mick for a fascinating panel discussion. Important reminders that we have to stay focused on the BIG PICTURE, if we are to get the detail right.

[Phil Marston]

Henry Jenkins has just posted a video of James Gee that addresses a lot of the issues raised in the discussion panel you can see it here http://henryjenkins.org/2011/03/how_learners_can_be_on_top_of.html

[Graham Brown-Martin]

Less glitzy but more detailed you may enjoy James Paul Gee's LWF Talk here:

http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/james-paul-gee

Which expands on what Gee terms "situated learning"

[Joe Whittaker]

I enjoyed the refreshing contributions from the panel. They made me appreciate just how sterile the party political debates can be when it comes to the direction of schooling. I have long taken the view that people learn despite our schooling systems. Our schools have significant learning difficulties, college have severe learning difficulties and Universities have profound and multiple learning difficulties. However, if we listen to the people who learn within and those also locked out of these organisations we will make them better places to learn more creatively and critically A major flaw with these places is that they lock out or reject a great deal of talent, restricting a diversity of participation and contributions. I have worked for many years to promote a fully inclusive education system where we welcome all and where we are prepared to learn from all through those magical connections called relationships.

Schools colleges and universities can be wonderful places where wonderful learning relationships can take place. These are such important spaces; they should be open and available 24hrs a day, 365 days a year. Create spaces where people feel welcome and safe and they will learn in different ways, in ways we can at present only imagine. At the moment the resources in schools are locked away for 2/3rds of the year, Universities more so, locking people out creates gatekeepers that inhibit learning opportunities to some, which then diminishes us all. To have these resources and spaces available to everyone, all of the time, may just give us insights into the talents and creativity that exists all around us. The academic rigour from, which we can all prosper generate such creative opportunities as opposed to the current academic rigor mortis that kills our creativity.

[Janet Rush-Morgan]

I listened with eager anticipation and hunger to the talk by Sir Ken Robinson and left alas with my belly still empty. Although the opportunity was ripe I felt Sir Ken was a disappointment, primarily because what he said was regurgitated and very much what he has said many times before through mouth or text. At times he appeared as a talking doll, a media commodity, lifeless and passionless something or someone to be wheeled out and plugged in, possibly an icon of our current education system.
Children are failing in their thousands on a daily basis, creativity has all but disappeared and ultimately we are left with a boring and trite curriculum that merely teaches our youngsters about the past and not the future. Yet children have the answers they hold the keys to all of our future, yet we stifle them and make them conform to such a degree that they become mini adults constantly worried about exam grades, results and league tables. Creativity should be nurtured, explored, exploited and ultimately worshipped, yet as educators we stamp on it, squash their efforts in order to indoctrinate them into our own ways of thinking, eventually thinking like us for us. Ultimately our world holds bright and exciting times for all of us, we cannot live in our past, hopefully some of our young people will resist our efforts and go on to change the world our world for the better. Come on Sir Ken listen to the children, connect yourself back with your passion and ultimately find your element.

[Graham Brown-Martin]

Hi Janet

Interesting perspective and perhaps your unsatisfied hunger may in part be due to our need to edit this talk from its 1 hour to 30 minutes.

Having said that I think this is a genuine challenge with the format of talks in general. Often the nature of talks encourages the speaker to make audience approval winning platitudes. This can be as a consequence of a rigid prescribed format of talks, e.g. the TED 18 minute format, or the kinds of talks we hear from policy makers at "world summit's" where they say things like "education is important". The result is that we end up with a kind of intellectual fast food that, as you say, lacks sustainable nourishment.

I would say, however, in Sir Ken's defence that whilst he quite naturally drew upon his works and publications in this area he did make the effort to customise and relate his talk to the current debate in England around the EBacc, national curriculum review and the UK governments pre-occupation with enforcing a fact-based curriculum around "academic subjects".

Far from being a talking doll, Sir Ken did expand further in the discussion that followed his talk and is made available here in its entirety. If you have not yet had the opportunity to watch this hour long discussion I would say that it is both illuminating and may go some way to satisfying your hunger or at least provide you with a filling desert.

[Toby Adams]

An inspirational and wonderfully delivered talk. Sir Ken should be an inspiration to anyone in education.

[Elaine Ely, Ph.D.]

You certainly "hit the nail on the head"-schools crush creativity and stifle success. In America, we stiil teach children the same schools were first set up to educate the population to work in factories. Little has changed since, as you point out. As an specialist in the assessment of creative thinking skills, I have spent years trying to get schools to recognize that creativity is more than a form of the arts. Rather it is a thinking process. Post-It-Notes or Velcro may not be great art, yet those humble, handy products sprang from the same creative thinking process that produced the Mona Lisa,. Just as Bloom's taxonomy is the framework for logical thinking, E.P. Torrance's taxonomy is the structure for creative thinking. To achieve the balance, as you pointed out so well, educators need to integrate the two taxonomies. Parne's Creative Problem Solving model is the easiest method that does this for teachers. Teachers are great clinicians but lack training in diagnostic skills. I set up my website www.act4me.com to help identify creative thinking skills. The revolution has started in America with Studentsfirst.org, of which, we are a local affiliate. Great presentation. Thank you!

[JT]

This is so 'nail on the head' it's amazing! It all comes together to make a bigger picture more comprehensible to the greater whole. Hope it goes viral!