Latest thinking

The end of an education era?

Blog

26 Jun 2009

Matthew Taylor

Next month, at the RSA, I am delivering the annual lecture of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. The speech is in draft form but it contains the observation that the framework of central prescription, repeated pupil assessment and inspection has run out of steam. So, I welcome the briefing ahead of next week’s schools white paper that the Government is moving away from the centrally prescribed literacy and numeracy strategy.

Narrative shift: telling stories about climate

Blog

24 Jun 2009

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Social capital and social networks - what are we talking about?

Blog

22 Jun 2009

The Connected Communities programme is about understanding and using social capital and social networks for social and economic development. So we’ve probably already lost most people just in saying what the programme is trying to achieve. Social capital is a term academics and policy makers are always talking about, but it is often hard to be clear what they mean by it, how you would go about measuring it, and what can (and should) be done to influence it.

Sustainable behaviour-change: after nudge, ‘tweak’

Blog

18 Jun 2009

My last post was about moving from behaviour to attitudes – coming to an informed choice through doing something and building-up the capability to see the benefits of a particular kind of activity. My example was healthy eating: I might need to actually eat healthily for a few weeks, even months, before I can properly grasp the benefits of it. When this happens my attitudes to what is desirable/good for me are partly reconfigured by my behaviour.

User-centred Design vs. Persuasive Technology?

Blog

17 Jun 2009

Just a quickie to say that it's fantastic to see some higher-profile and thoughtful conversation developing on the web about the influence that designers have in enabling and encouraging people to change behaviour. In an introduction to the concept, Robert Fabricant (VP of Creative at Frog Design) writes:

Doing and thinking: the ethics of 'nudge'

Blog

16 Jun 2009

A new school politics?

Blog

15 Jun 2009

Matthew Taylor

On 7 July, I am giving the annual lecture to the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. With the General Election looming and the likelihood of schools policy being one of the areas with clear dividing lines between the parties (as we can see this morning in relation to Michael Gove’s new proposals to move SATS tests from the final year of primary to first year of secondary schooling), I have opted to make ‘the politics of education’ my focus. I wanted to try out some of the ideas today. If the wonderful thread about ‘compare the meerkats’ is anything to go by, I will get some very interesting responses.  

The unsustainable art market bubble

Blog

19 May 2009

“The contemporary art bubble will surely go down as the vanity and folly of our age” was the concluding claim on Ben Lewis’ charming BBC4 documentary about the notoriously secretive artworld market.  But before writing about last night's TV, I want to say that the inflated bubble refers to the private international contemporary art market, not the whole of contemporary art. It is a good thing that gallery attendance is at an all time high and more people are making and creating things in their spare time. But as Lewis said, "Billionaires are effectively hijacking art history", or at least they were...

Interview with activist/video maker Leo Murray

Blog

11 May 2009

I've just posted an interview that Caleb Klaces did with Leo Murray for on the main RSA Arts & Ecology website. Murray did the clever little viral video Wake Up Freak Out - Then Get a Grip which has been doing the rounds on the net.