1st Edition

Reinventing Education: Beyond the Knowledge Economy

By Alan Watkins, Matt Silver Copyright 2025
    296 Pages 42 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    296 Pages 42 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    The need for change in the education system is obvious and overwhelming. But each stakeholder group has their own ideas about why the system is broken and how to fix it. Competing priorities, political inertia and diminishing budgets maintain the dysfunctional status quo. This essential text examines the underlying causes behind the key challenges facing schools, and argues that we need to move from knowledge transfer systems to a deliberately developmental approach that transforms capabilities including emotional regulation, systems thinking, critical analysis, creativity, and collaborative capability.

    The chapters provide a framework for designing, constructing and implementing school systems that can transform the outcome in a classroom, school or trust. Topics covered include:

    • Why education is a ‘wicked’ problem
    • Why development must be central and sit alongside knowledge transfer (as AI takes over 'expertise’)
    • How motivation and value systems evolve and are key to change
    • How to drive behaviour change to transform outcomes
    • What human-centred means now in a reinvented system

    Offering much-needed insights, guidance and solutions for teachers, school leaders and policy-makers, this book will be valuable reading for all those interested in school improvement and education policy.

    Introduction  Part 1: The State of the Education System  1. Current Reality in Education  2. Glimmers of Change  Part 2: Diagnosis and Treatment  3. Awareness Before Change  4. Individual Development in Theory  5. Individual Development in Practise  6. Individual Development in Action  7. Collective Development in Theory  8. Collective Development in Practice  9. Collective Development in Action  10. Behaviour & Systems Development in Theory  11. Behaviour & Systems Development in Practice  12. Behaviour & Systems Development in Action  13. TKAT Case Study  Conclusion 

    Biography

    Alan Watkins is the CEO and Founder of Complete – a consultancy that specialises in developing exceptional leadership, globally, through individual and team development.

    Matt Silver is the CEO and Founder of The Glass House Leadership Lab – an educational coaching and co-consultancy group that believes the catalyst to system transformation is the personal development of leaders, teachers and learners.