My first two tweets are of articles by Prof Jonathan Mickie and Anna McKie concerning issues the UK is currently facing regarding the future of lifelong learning and the necessity of preparing our society for a future where learning from cradle to grave is the norm.
Traditional top-down approaches to learning and teaching must be reassessed and methodologies developed where students and workers of all ages are actively encouraged to learn alongside and from one another. Although this is hardly a radical suggestion, an interesting approach (Reverse Mentoring) is briefly discussed by Morris (2017) where Millennials are encouraged to act as mentors to older adults. The benefits of this approach can be seen in the presentation ‘How to Engage Millennials’ and in the webinar presented by a father and daughter. I believe that the potential inherent in such an approach merits further investigation.
But how exactly are we going to instil a lifelong commitment to learning? The Dec 2019 OECD PISA Report (2018) claims that UK pupils exhibited more negative attitudes towards reading than the OECD average? Worryingly, it also suggests that 25% of students across all OECD countries are unable to successfully complete rudimentary reading tasks. Perhaps some exposure to great works of literature might be just what the doctor ordered?
My ‘Book of the Week’ is Lampedusa’s ‘Leopard’ a classic of world literature. I chose this favourite of mine after reading excerpts from Davis’ Reading for Life (2020) in which he suggests that exposure to the type of demanding language and grammatical structures typically associated with fine literature can turbocharge the brain, boost mental health and enliven the reader