The Expert Learner: Challenging the Myth of Ability

What do Amadeus Mozart, David Beckham, Marie Curie and Bill Gates have in common? Answer: all excel in their diverse areas of music, sport, science and computing. The Expert Learner looks at what we know about acquiring such expertise and seeks to apply it to education, particularly to classroom teaching. Challenging the widely held belief that excellence is the result of innate ability, it shows how ability is developed through applied learning and deliberate practice. Drawing on studies about expertise The Expert Learner highlights the importance of: Providing opportunities and support to develop skills Being motivated to succeed Undergoing extensive deliberate practice Building powerful mental models to handle and organise information Receiving continuous and effective feedback to improve performance Developing self-regulation to monitor performanceThe Expert Learner takes these findings and applies them to education. What opportunities do our institutions offer to our students and how much choice do we really give them? How do we motivate the unmotivated and how do we stretch our higher achieving students? Are we helping learners to think for themselves and to make sense of what they are learning? With its rich source of ideas for expert teaching and learning, this book looks at some of the ways we can achieve 'wide-awake' thinking in the classroom.