October 8, 2019

The Tony Little Centre: Innovation and Research in Learning

Exploring how teaching, thinking and research can work together to help learners grow with curiosity, judgement and purpose.

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What the Centre Stands For

The Tony Little Centre brings together practical innovation in classrooms and careful research into how people learn. Its work asks what education is for, and how schools and individuals can pursue those aims with honesty and care.

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Inquiry First

Questions drive the work. Ideas are tested in real settings before they are promoted as good practice.

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Teachers as Thinkers

Teachers are treated as serious contributors to knowledge, with the time and freedom to reflect on their own methods.

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Human Flourishing

Learning is judged by whether it helps people live well, think clearly and act responsibly, not only by test results.

Research That Stays Close to Practice

Research at the Centre begins with the everyday realities of teaching: the choices made in a lesson, the questions a student asks, and the moment when understanding suddenly takes shape. Studies are designed to make those moments visible and to explain why they happen.

Findings are shared in plain language so that teachers, school leaders and families can weigh them against their own experience. The aim is not to offer quick fixes but to build a shared understanding of what good learning looks like.

Classroom-based enquiry with working teachers
Clear accounts of methods and their limits
Open discussion of evidence and disagreement

Students working together on a learning project

Themes in Current Work

Several questions run through the Centre's writing and projects. Each one connects practical teaching with larger ideas about knowledge, character and society.

A teacher discussing ideas with a small group

Autonomy

Education, Autonomy and Human Flourishing

How schooling can prepare young people to make their own considered choices rather than simply follow instructions.

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Open notebook beside a window with natural light

Creativity

What Is Creativity?

A look at what creative thinking involves and the habits that help a learner become a creative thinker.

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Ideas Worth Examining

Teachers often work at the edge of their own understanding. This question explores what it means to guide learners through unfamiliar ground and how honesty about uncertainty can strengthen teaching. Continue reading.

Brain research can offer useful insights, but it is easy to overstate what it shows about classroom practice. The article considers how to use neuroscience carefully. Continue reading.

Students who can plan, question and revise their own work are better prepared for life beyond school. This piece looks at how those skills can be developed step by step. Continue reading.