1 Learning to learn Professor Steven Higgins Durham University May 2009 Introduction ―One of the core functions of 21 st century education is learning to learn in preparation for a lifetime of change‖. This vision of the future of education, which David Miliband articulated in his speech to the North of England Conference in 2003, suggests the importance of learning to learn in the politics of education. Overall his speech indicates it is an important dimension of lifelong learning and a vital strategy for the workforce to ensure the county‘s economic competitiveness. One of the purposes of education is to ensure that people are equipped for the future, both as individuals and in terms of the needs of wider society (Carr, 1991). The quotation also implies that teaching in schools needs to include learning to learn as part of the curriculum that is taught. However, this conception of learning to learn also poses some challenges. Part of the role of education is preparation for the future, but this should not be its only function (Dewey, 1916). The balance of short and long term aims of education is a distinctive challenge (Peters, 1967) and the balance of individual and collective needs are all part of the complexities involved in ‗learning to learn‘. The aim of this chapter is to provide a summary of evidence from current research in the UK and internationally about learning to learn. This is in order to identify and analyse the emerging trends in society, technology and education which might act as significant drivers of change for knowledge production, creativity and communication in education to 2025 and beyond. The chapter considers a range of ideas, strategies and interventions which the education sector might use in response to these challenges to shape the development of learning to learn in education. The chapter begins with an analysis of the concept of ‗learning to learn‘ and some of the implications for knowledge and creativity in education, with examples from learning to learn projects in the UK and internationally. Further analysis draws on ‗architecture‘ as a metaphor and includes two main dimensions. First the physical architecture of learning and learning spaces, particularly schools, and second the design of teaching and learning as a structured or purposeful form of human interaction: the pedagogical architecture. It therefore looks at