Here is the place where pioneers offer resources for the benefit of the wider expansive education community.
April 2012: Mindset Diagram
Carol Dweck's research shows that simply changing students' belief about their ability can have a profound effect on their success. Her research on 'growth 'and' fixed mindsets is changing the way we think and talk about young people, and improving their life chances as a result. She has shown that we can, quite literally, help all young people to become smarter by persuading them to work on acquiring a growth mindset. Carol shared this tool at an expansive education event hosted by the Centre for Real-World Learning in 2010. The graphics are by Nigel Holmes. Click here to download the mindset diagram.
March 2012: CUREE Research 'Taster'
How can we use collaboration with colleagues to make the best use of research? This micro-enquiry tool helps you to investigate and collect evidence about both your pupils' and your own learning. We know that those interested in Expansive Education are committed to helping young people develop the 'habits of mind' that will enable them to become independent and successful learners, and see teacher research and enquiry as a powerful way of driving this development. This taster helps you explore both independent learning and collaboration (a key aspect of effective teacher research).
Martin Burt of Queen Elizabeth's Community College in Crediton has created a Matrix to support learning conversations with Year 7s as part of the Transition from Primary school to Secondary. It was adapted from an idea in Habits of Mind (Costa & Kallick) and Building Learning Power (Claxton). The capacities are used to help students in their journey towards achieving QE's Skills for Success which are very similar to the Personal Learning and Thinking Skills in the National Curriculum. Used in conjunction with their Learning Passport, the Matrix helps provide a language for learning that staff and students use to engage in productive learning conversations during the first term at Secondary school.
As a quick warm-up at the beginning of a lesson or to provoke more lengthy reflection and debate, these cards (inspired by Art Costa’s Habits of Mind and Guy Claxton’s Building Learning Power) provide a different way of thinking about characters in books and plays, figures in history, role models in sport and drama or people in the public eye.
Learning to Learn in Schools and Further Education
Learning to Learn in Schools Phase 4 and Learning to Learn in Further Education are two research projects coordinated by the independent UK charity, the Campaign for Learning (CfL), and facilitated by a team of researchers from the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University and colleagues from Durham and Glasgow Universities.
Download the full report.
Habits of Mind
Two handy tools related to Habits of Mind: a self report checklist your learners can use to reflect on their relative strengths across the 7 habits, and handy overview of the 16 habits of mind.
Rhetorics of Creativity
Download the Rhetorics of Creativity literature review provided by CCE.
A series of research monographs exploring key issues in current literature and summarising the latest developments in the fields of creativity and learning. This literature review is an important and original report that surveys the core concept of creativity. It aims to help all those involved in creative programmes develop a more finely nuanced and informed understanding of how we use the term and help us to plan and evaluate creative education activities in a more coherent fashion.
All you need is love
As stimuli for enquiry, both the the iconic Beatles song and the broadcast are individually rich but when combined make a very powerful resource. Here are a few questions you might like to think about.
Learn more about Philosophy for Children:
Learning Futures Publications
The Engaging School: Principles and Practicesdraws on the experience of the forty schools that have taken part in Learning Futures to take a look at what the ‘four approaches’ look like in practice. Its key finding is that young people want to be more involved with their schools, not less - but that they want to do so as partners in learning, not as consumers of learning. 'The Engaging School' presents a radical new vision for schools that are connected to the community, fuelled by enquiry, and driven by a sense of shared purpose.
Engaging Students, by Learning Futures leader David Price, makes the case for focusing on young people’s engagement in learning rather than only on their engagement in school, and identifies the characteristics of learning that fosters deep engagement.
Open Futures : openit
Download an issue of openit, the termly newspaper for the Open Futures programme. Each issue brings you creative lesson ideas, practical advice and useful information together with the latest news about Open Futures.
As a quick warm-up at the beginning of a lesson or to provoke more lengthy reflection and debate, these cards (inspired by Art Costa’s Habits of Mind and Guy Claxton’s Building Learning Power) provide a different way of thinking about characters in books and plays, figures in history, role models in sport and drama or people in the public eye.
Learning to Learn in Schools Phase 4 and Learning to Learn in Further Education are two research projects coordinated by the independent UK charity, the Campaign for Learning (CfL), and facilitated by a team of researchers from the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University and colleagues from Durham and Glasgow Universities.
Two handy tools related to Habits of Mind: a self report 
Download
Download an issue of 