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David Leat is the Executive Director of the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching (CfLaT) at Newcastle University and Professor of Curriculum Innovation. His geography school teaching career took him to Cornwall, Gloucestershire and Berkshire, before becoming a teacher training tutor at Newcastle from 1989 to 2000 and subsequently a researcher and higher degree teacher.
His research interests started with teaching thinking skills and he was author and editor of the influential Thinking Through series of books, which won two national prizes. In subsequent projects, he has been involved in research on Learning2Learn, metacognition, and teacher coaching. Between 2001 and 2004, David worked on secondment for the then Department for Education and Skills, where he wrote many national training modules for the Secondary (School Improvement) Strategy, including Explaining (Skills), Big Concepts, Thinking Skills, Reflection and Coaching. He also designed the whole school programme Leading in Learning (Thinking Skills).
His current projects revolve around Enquiry/Project Based Curriculum and Community Curriculum Making, in which teachers, students and school partners have far more control over and responsibility for the curriculum. This gives greater scope for C21st century skills and students developing greater creativity and self-regulation.
David Leat is also Deputy Director of SOLE Central, a research centre inspired by the work of Professor Sugata Mitra on Self Organised Learning Environments (SOLEs) and the School in the Cloud. In this role he is one the education leads in Newcastle University’s Digital Civics Doctoral Training Centre and the Digital Economy Research Centre both led by Open Lab. These initiatives include projects that are investigating the impact of digital technologies on education and public services and how one can blur the boundaries between formal and informal learning, unlock creativity and accredit learning more flexibly.
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