Product reviews for Making Kids Cleverer

Making Kids Cleverer is a stimulating book which gives teachers, parents, school leaders and policy makers key insights into how to go about closing the advantage gap. In a thought-provoking introduction, Didau sets the scene for an enthralling text when he outlines a range of his personal experiences and his quest to raise children's levels of intelligence. He emphasises, however, that intelligence is not merely a measure of a person's book learning or a narrow academic skill, but rather a deeper capability for making sense of things and figuring out what to do when faced with a problem.

Didau highlights key factors that teachers and parents can address in their efforts to help their children “get cleverer”. He discusses a range of strategies to improve the performance levels of all learners and suggests effective means of support to close the advantage gap caused by family circumstances, poverty, ineffective teaching, inappropriate curricula and other issues. The emphasis is on providing an education that will benefit all children regardless of their beginnings. The author also delves into a range of key areas impacting upon performance levels and opportunities for learners. These include: using schools to promote effective social learning, addressing intelligence as the product of what we have learned, the irrelevance of potential if we don't experience the right environmental factors, raising intelligence and awareness as a social good, addressing retrieval in long-term memory, the value of knowledge which is powerful and culturally rich, and how to get from competence to mastery.

Highly recommended as a key resource for all schools, colleges, administrators and governing bodies.