Alistair Smith's book describes where the science of learning and the art of teaching meet. It offers to teachers something rich and powerful. Not a simple blueprint, but a set of well researched guiding principles on which to build more effective learning.The theory is there to keep the practice visionary and the practice is there to keep the theory honest. It recognises that teaching is not a mechanistic process but a performing art - one that is rooted in an understanding of how learning works and the potential of the human brain to be the architect of its own intelligence. Professor John MacBeath, Director, Quality in Education Centre, University of Strathclyde