This article was prepared by John Abbott for The Independent newspaper in Great Britain. The article appeared in Information Technology and the Comprehensive Idea l published in London in 1997. Being an English academic working with researchers outside the United Kingdom offers me the opportunity to relate British events to what is happening in other countries. In a global economy knowledge is everything.
International competition is obviously intense.
We all want, it seems, the same thing. We, the English, it appears to Mr. Woodhead, know what we have to do - the only thing is we have to do it harder, more efficiently, and in a more closely prescribed manner. This is a critical question, especially as critics have seen earlier attempts to develop creativity among Primary School students as being responsible for a perceived fall in standards. He should look well beyond the box of the sociology of education at the emergent research on human learning. It's happening through synthesis.