Leading a Learning Revolution

"It is important not to think of educational change as linear or monolithic...No social change is linear, you can plan industrial processes that are linear...but as soon as you get feelings involved, as soon as you get people involved, as soon as you engage with the culture, as soon as you involve aspirations and hopes, and anxieties and uncertainties, and different ways of seeing the world, as soon as you are talking of social change it is never linear, never. It's unpredictable and it's dynamic. And this is both a challenge and also our opportunity."

"Everything we know about teaching and learning is focused on the idea that we achieve best when our expectations are raised, and we are encouraged and supported. If we are branded or stereotyped people tend to play unwittingly to the stereotype..so we need forms of assessment which are descriptive and not judgemental..empowering rather than disenfranchising..focus on the complexities of learning rather than trying to reduce them to a single number or grade."

Sir Ken Robinson is an English author, speaker, and international advisor on education in the arts to government, non-profits, education, and arts bodies.
He provides the closing statement for the LWF 12 conference under the theme "leading a learning revolution". Reforms are required for our industrial scale education systems but what forms shall they take, what will they value and what purpose shall they serve? In closing the LWF 12 conference Sir Ken Robinson reflects on what has been heard and discussed with previous speakers and offers a call to action for the delegates to look at the future with a new determination based upon the challenges that future generations face and where our education systems will need to nurture the creative innovators upon which our future well-being will be placed.
Presented at the Learning Without Frontiers Conference, London, 26th January 2012.