Young Learners:
Complexity and Resilience in the 21st Century
Anyone who’s spent time with young learners knows that learning isn’t linear: it’s unpredictable, full of surprises, and shaped by a web of influences that don’t follow a script. Young Learners: Complexity and Resilience in the 21st Century offers a fresh, compelling perspective on education as a complex system, one that adapts, evolves, and demands the same of those within it.
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In a complex world where change is constant and challenges are rarely straightforward, resilience becomes a vital developmental process. It grows through experience, reflection, and support, emerging as young people learn to navigate uncertainty, adapt to new situations, and make meaning from disruption. This book argues that building real resilience isn’t an add-on to education, it’s at the heart of helping young people thrive in complex, unpredictable environments.
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This book is wonderfully rich in insight, dense with practical ideas, and designed to be genuinely useful to teachers and parents. It uncovers the real forces shaping how young people learn, challenges outdated assumptions, and confronts the complex nature of knowledge, learning, and resilience. Above all, it shows what it truly takes to help young people thrive at home, in school, and in life.
"Resilience isn’t just about bouncing back — it’s about understanding yourself, adapting, and growing in a world that never stops changing"
Scott Sheppard
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Research-led design
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Ideal for young learners aged 7-18
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Adaptable to any learning context
"teaching and learning are complex systems in their truest sense."
In a world of relentless change, education stands at a crossroads: shaped by complexity, challenged by uncertainty, and alive with opportunity. Young Learners: Complexity and Resilience in the 21st Century explores learning as a dynamic system, revealing the forms of resilience young people need to flourish in an unpredictable world.
For teachers, parents, and homeschoolers wanting to know how to prepare young people to face challenge and change, the book offers a compelling, evidence-led perspective on 21st-century education. It unpacks the intricate dynamics of learning environments and supports the urgent need to foster resilience in young people, not just as a response to novel challenges, but as a foundation for growth, adaptation, and future success.
"Let’s be honest, the way we talk about education often bears little resemblance to how it actually works"
Policies and traditional practices often assume that teaching and learning follow neat, linear paths — with predictable inputs leading to predictable outcomes. But real education doesn’t work that way. It’s complex, dynamic, and deeply interconnected, shaped by countless interacting factors that give rise to new behaviours and rarely follow a straight line.
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This book challenges oversimplified views of education, revealing teaching and learning as intricate, adaptive processes. Effective education isn’t about formulas, it’s about recognising complexity, responding to it, and working with it, not against it. It makes the case for an approach that is nuanced, flexible, and grounded in the shifting realities of a world that is continually changing and unpredictable.
"From research to real life — practical strategies for educators and parents, in the classroom and at home"
This isn’t just theory. Whole chapters are dedicated to how research findings can be applied in practice - practical classroom activities, exercises, and printable handouts, all informed by the latest research on complex systems, collective adaptation, and resilience. Tackling complexity doesn’t mean having all the answers; it means learning how to think, adapt, and teach young people in a world that refuses to stand still.
free resources and practical learning, including downloadable PDFs, activities, and ideas for home and school
A standout feature of this book is Deal With It, the original discussion game created by the author. Based on real-life scenarios from UK schools, the game turns resilience-building into an active, engaging, and meaningful experience for young learners. Playful yet grounded in sound pedagogy and Dialogic Teaching, it offers a fresh, interactive way to help young people navigate challenge, uncertainty, and change — whether in the classroom, at home, or in any learning environment.
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Deal With It: a printable PDF game to help build resilience
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About the author
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Scott Sheppard was born in Middle England a surprisingly long time ago. He read Modern History and, as an undergraduate, worked on Oxford University’s British National Corpus, sparking an long fascination with language, education, and how humans wrestle with technology, only to settle, more often than not, with a losing draw.
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He went on to study postgraduate Education and Teaching at the universities of Sussex and University College London, and most recently, at Kellogg College, Oxford. His teaching career has spanned the primary, secondary, and further education sectors, as well as the world of English as a Foreign Language, both in the UK and overseas.
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​Somehow, along the way, he designed a card game, built a software system for language schools, enjoyed fleeting celebrity as a party magician for five-year-olds, and wrote a television drama script that has spent the last twenty years patiently awaiting the acclaim it so clearly deserves.
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In recent years, his interest in digital learning and technology has led him to work with organisations including Cambridge University Press, the BBC, and the British Council. He now works as a writer, technologist, and educationalist, blending years of experience in education with a long-standing interest in children’s rights, particularly how digital technology shapes the way young people learn, develop, and are heard.
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He lives happily, if often damp and windswept, in Sussex, just a teensy bit too close to the sea.