This handbook focuses on the thinking processes necessary for learning. It provides descriptions and evaluations of 42 major frameworks including Bloom's taxonomy, de Bono's lateral and parallel thinking tools, Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences and Paul's model of critical thinking. Unique in its comprehensive coverage and interdisciplinary approach, it offers easy-to-grasp summary tables for each major theorist for speedy reference. The discussion of cognitive, emotional and social aspects of thinking and the nature of classification help the reader locate theories within a broader field of knowledge. Key concepts such as critical thinking, self-regulation and metacognition are examined from a range of perspectives. The handbook offers practical advice in the form of choices and recommendations for the use of frameworks in teaching, learning and assessment. A valuable tool for students needing to understand different ways of thinking it will also be an essential resource for teachers, curriculum developers, researchers and policy-makers.

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This article details findings from a systematic review and evaluation of frameworks and taxonomies for understanding thinking, with particular reference to learning in post-16 contexts. It describes the means used to identify and evaluate 35 frameworks and identifies three that appear to be particularly useful in the context of lifelong learning. In the light of this analysis, a schematic integrated model of thinking is outlined and discussed.

* Grant £5.5Bn^£7.3Bn £8.1Bn £8.7Bn £9.3Bn £9.6Bn £10.1Bn Notes: ^ did not include 6 th form funding or capital budget * planned spending for these two years

The TLRP project reported on in this article attempts to understand how the Learning and Skills sector functions. It traces how education and training policy percolates down through many levels in the English system and how these levels interact, or fail to interact. The authors first focus upon how policy impacts upon the interests of three groups of learners: unemployed people in adult and community learning centres, adult employees in work-based learning and younger learners on Level 1 and Level 2 courses in further education. They focus next upon how professionals in these three settings struggle to cope with two sets of pressures upon them: those exerted by government and a broader set of professional, institutional and local factors. They describe in particular how managers and tutors mediate national policy and translate it (and sometimes mistranslate it) into local plans and practices. Finally, the authors criticise the new government model of public service reform for failing to harness the knowledge, good will and energy of staff working in the sector, and for ignoring what constitutes the main finding of the research: the central importance of the relationship between tutor and students.