'If we want thinking children, we need thinking teachers', says Oliver Quinlan at the start of his book. He's dead right - and, systematically and skilfully, he shows us what that means. The result is a book of considerable depth, yet written with a lightness of touch that makes it eminently readable.
Geoff Barton, Head Teacher, King Edward VI School, Suffolk
Whilst good teaching is widely reported as the number one key to raising achievement in any classroom, educating teachers in the art and science of teaching is an expensive business. Simply training them to deliver a curriculum, on the other hand, is a whole lot less troublesome. But we need teachers who can think - who can reflect on the process of learning, on pedagogy, on the nature of children and on the role of the professional 21st Century educator and, in doing so, seek to improve their profession on a daily basis.
When we genuinely help our teachers develop into being better thinkers we help our children to become better thinkers too.
Quinlan gets the reader to move on from thinking of 'learning as acquiring to learning as becoming'; in other words, he is advocating a classroom based around students becoming participants in the subject rather than possessors of certain, closely defined slices of it. This shift in thinking transforms a subject from a collection of knowledge or skills to be gained to a field of discussion, a community and a space.
Dr Jacek Brant, Institute of Education
The main aim of this book is to inspire you to develop yourself as a 'thinking teacher', who will naturally help to nurture thinking children with the skills and aspirations to shape a truly successful and fulfilled future.
Helen Mulley, Editor, Teach Secondary magazine
Quinlan makes an impassioned plea in this manifesto for teachers and school leaders everywhere: don't stop thinking. He makes a convincing case that making time to think is not just the key ingredient of great learning, it's also in the make-up of our top teachers.
Ewan McIntosh, founder NoTosh.com
Oliver Quinlan is an educator with experience from Early Years and Primary to Higher Education. His background has involved developing the use of new technologies and pedagogical approaches based on authentic learning and communication for children and new and existing teachers. He has been a teacher, a Lecturer in Education and is now Programme Manager for Digital Education at Nesta, working on innovation projects in education.