The Joy of Not Knowing

Book excerpt: The Joy of Not Knowing takes every aspect of the curriculum and of school life and transforms it into a personalised, meaningful and enjoyable experience for all. It offers readers an innovative, theoretical and practical guide to establish a values-based, enquiry-led and challenge-rich learning to learn approach to teaching and learning and to school leadership. This thought-provoking guide provides the reader with a wealth of whole-class, easy-to-implement, malleable, practical ideas and case studies that can be personalised to the vision of each setting, age-group and curriculum. It brings together, as a whole-school framework, the strategies that have been shown to have the greatest impact on practitioner’s professional fulfilment and on children’s life chances, love of learning, intrinsic motivation and enthusiasm for wanting to know. The Joy of Not Knowing enables schools to launch the academic year with a bespoke JONK Learning to Learn Week that enables every student to succeed develops philosophical, creative and critical problem-solving and multi-lingual thinking skills establishes collaborative cultures of thinking, learning and leadership informs practice through active action research incorporates a values-led democratic approach to school life nurtures school-pupil-family-community partnerships Designed for school leaders and practitioners at all levels and across all ages, this practical guide shows how all students can thrive and develop the dispositions of successful lifelong learners and global citizens.