The Learning Skills Foundation lecture series 2009

In association with The Independent

"How to Educate?"

at Bevan Hall, Local Government House, Smith Square, Westminster, London SW1P 3HZ

Doors: 6.00pm Lectures Start: 7.00pm

Chairman of the Lecture Series: Paul Brett

Following the successful ground-breaking series of lectures in 2008 on the theme of “Why Educate?” The Learning Skills Foundation is pleased to announce that, in association with The Independent Newspaper, it will be holding a fresh series of lectures which picks up and explores further some of the themes debated in “Why Educate?”. The new lectures are based on the question “How to Educate?”

Since the introduction of the National Curriculum, those involved in Education in whatever capacity have been bombarded with prescriptive initiatives on how to do the job of educating young people more effectively - many of these initiatives have been short-lived and regrettably have caused more heat than light. This series of lectures seeks to explore a number of intrinsic arguments and the issues surrounding them.

Click on the dates below to apply for tickets. All tickets are £12 and are only available through The Learning Skills Foundation. FOR TICKETS, CLICK HERE.

September 10th

The National Strategies: Government Sponsored Learning Difficulties and Academic Failure.

Speaker: Dr Jonathan Solity

It will be argued that the single cause of children’s literacy and general learning difficulties are the national strategies that the Labour government introduced in the late 1990s.

Dr Solity is an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London. He is a leading figure in instructional psychology, having published widely in the field and led the UK’s most detailed and extensive school-based research programmes into how best to teach reading, writing, spelling and maths. He is the author of “The Learning Revolution” (Hodder Education).

September 17th

“Rethink the Aim of Education: the Need for a Broader Vision of Learning”

Speaker: Professor Richard Pring

This lecture arises from the five year Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education and Training, Education for All: the Future of Education and Training for 14-19 Year Olds (Routledge, June 2009). This is the most comprehensive review of this phase of education since the Crowther Report in 1959.

Professor Pring is the former Head of Education at Oxford University. He is currently Lead Director of the Nuffield Review 14-19 Educational Studies. This is a £1,000,000 six year project, funded by the Nuffield Foundation

September 22nd

Technology - Do our schools understand the “Facebook” generation?

Speaker: Professor David Hargreaves

In the previous series of lectures, David Hargreaves argued that schools were failing to relate to the latest generation of schoolchildren because there is an unbridgeable divide between teachers and pupils. Has new and emerging technology got the potential to improve the learning opportunities of pupils radically? If it has what do we need to do to embed technology and its use within our schools? For more information

Professor Hargreaves is a Fellow Emeritus of Wolfson College, Cambridge. He is Associate Director for Development and Research of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) and Senior Associate of the think tank Demos, former Professor of Education at Cambridge University, Reader in Education at Oxford University and former Chief Inspector of the Inner London Education Authority.