Ellen Spencer

Dr Ellen Spencer is a senior researcher at the Centre for Real-World Learning (CRL), University of Winchester. She has a PhD from the University of Warwick, where her doctoral research focused on the impact of policy on school improvement. She has been instrumental to the thinking behind expansive education, creativity, practical learning and vocational pedagogy as part of the CRL team. Ellen is the author of many published reports, papers and books.

Ellen has produced research digests for the Expansive Education Network and, with Bill Lucas and Guy Claxton, is co-author of 'Expansive Education'. She has been Senior Investigator on research projects defining creativity, developing assessment methods for tracking creativity in young people, vocational pedagogy and studio teaching.

Her work, with Professor Bill Lucas, on creative thinking has attracted international attention from the OECD, whose 14-country study continues to explore the efficacy of CRL's creativity assessment tool.