learntrepreneurs

make the most of your mind

education

How 9 of the World’s Most Innovative Schools Ignite Children’s Love for Learning

by

And equip the next generation to become changemakers.

Photo by Martino Pietropoli on Unsplash

As a teacher, I witnessed how most children lose their love for learning with every additional year of schooling.

Many schools still operate on a purpose from a century ago — mass education to produce a conforming workforce. So we batch students by age group, expect them to sit quietly for hours a day, follow the rules, and do context-switching between silo-based subjects.

But what if we reimagined schools? What would schools look like that build on a new purpose of education that supports children in keeping and fueling their innate love for learning?

In 2022, I visited classrooms in different countries, attended global education conferences, and read dozens of books on education and learning.

Below are some of the world’s most innovative schools that push the boundaries of what schools can look and feel like.

1) NuVu Innovation School — Boston, MA

At NuVu innovation school, you won’t find traditional classrooms and grades. Everything at NuVu— including the curriculum, the pedagogy, the schedule, and the assessment system — is designed around a new education paradigm.

The full-time school for students in grades 8–12 enables young people to solve open-ended problems with creativity, collaboration, communication, interdisciplinary knowledge, and empathy.

Learners spend most of their time in so-called studios, immersing themselves in interdisciplinary projects. Around 12 students work closely with their two coaches on solving open-ended problems.

Problems are not framed around subjects but themes and can include, for example, “The City of the Future,” “Storytelling”, or “Global Warming.” A student focuses on one single theme for two weeks. There is no hour-to-hour schedule. Instead, students and coaches learn and work from 9 am to 3 pm with the option to stay until 5 pm.

Within each multidisciplinary studio, coaches mentor students to develop their projects through an iterative process.

What happens inside the studios? Source: NuVu

Students develop multiple solutions to open-ended problems. They learn the relevance of moving from one solution to the next, combining, exploring and changing perspectives.

Moreover, studios are designed for a feedback-rich environment that provides learners with information and support for continuous self-evaluation, reflection, and improvement. Learners can also access resources outside the school. For example, they can ask leading thinkers and experts, present their framework and receive feedback.

NuVu doesn’t grade students but assesses through portfolios. These portfolios are meant to show the student’s growth over time.

Through real-world problems, iterative processes, and constant feedback, NuVu aims to empower the next generation of makers and inventors who will impact their communities and the world through their work and ideas.

Source: NuVu Innovation School

2) Learnlife — Barcelona, Spain

Learnlife is not just a school but a community that aims to empower children to thrive in the future. Personal learning programmes guide learners through a self-directed journey of learning and exploring their passions, skills, and needs.

Backed by science, research, and site visits to over 100 of the most innovative schools worldwide, Learnlife created a learning paradigm of 21 elements.

The elements of Learnlife’s learning paradigm. Source: Learnlife

These elements support the design of learning experiences that involve body and mind. One of the elements, for example, is ensuring the emotional, physical, social, cognitive, and digital well-being of children.

Learnlife offers year-long full-time programmes for learners aged 11–18. Individual learning paths are supported through technology, coaches, and an inspiring environment.

Students say Learnlife unleashes their creativity, makes them feel welcomed and heard, and helps them get a clear idea of who they want to be and the steps they need to take to get there.

What I love about both Learnlife and NuVu is that learning is active, not passive. Science is clear that children learn best when learning is active or “mind-on.” — focused and engaged through questions, reflection, or discussions rather than passively listening to lectures or watching videos.

LearnLife Hub Barcelona (Source: LearnLife Barcelona)

3) Prisma — Remote, online

Prisma is a personalized, full-time online school for 9–14-year-olds and aims to create the world’s most effective and inclusive connected learning network.

Prisma follows a learning paradigm that is socially connected, interest-driven, and oriented towards educational, economic, and political opportunity.

Students at Prisma learn through peer cohorts — a group to collaborate, socialize and learn with —daily learning coaching, and live workshops focusing on communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.

Similar to Learnlife, Prisma created its own learning framework that is fit for time and context and consists of the following:

  • Foundational knowledge (language literacy, numeracy, history, technology literacy, and science principles)
  • Powers (creativity, critical thinking, communication)
  • Perspectives (global perspective, empathy & compassion, mindfulness)
  • Practices (collaboration, design thinking, reflection, discussions, self-care)
  • Mindset (self-efficacy, emotional awareness, purpose, growth mindset, ownership & self-direction, love of learning).

While their site states they’re a global online school, admission is only open to anyone who can operate in US time zones. So unless parents want to mess up with their child’s sleep cycle, Prisma is instead a US online school.

The differences between Prisma and other schools. (Source: Prisma)

4) Riverside — Ahmedabad, India

Riverside school reshapes education through its student-centred learning approach, practical curriculum, and real-world opportunities.

The school emphasizes developing humane skills and helps children build a mindset rooted in compassion and purpose. For example, the school’s Design for Change program focuses on play and exploration, helping children develop 21st-century skills and become future changemakers.

The Design for Change program unlocks students’ sense of agency (Source: Riverside).

Riverside’s practices have been recognized worldwide as committed to raising changemakers willing to tackle real-world problems, including climate change.

5) Templestowe College — Melbourne, Australia

Recognized by the Australian Education Awards as a secondary school of the year and HundrED, Templestowe College offers high-quality learning experiences within an inclusive and supportive community.

Templsetow college focuses on student empowerment and unlocks students’ agency — learners can follow their interests and choose 100% of their courses from more than 150 electives.

Templsetow college also rethinks assessments. Assessment is learner-centred and designed to support young people in their work and study habits, academic achievement, and academic progress.

As one of three parts of the assessment, students receive feedback on their work and study habits from each of their teachers three times per semester against the following criteria:

  1. Readiness to learn: Do you come to class with the required materials, pre-learning completed and an open mind?
  2. Behaviour: Does your behaviour help to build a focused and inclusive environment?
  3. Participation and contribution: Do you actively engage with and contribute to classroom learning?
  4. Academic effort: Do you complete all required tasks and actively seek to extend your skills?

For each criterion, students receive a scale statement, either ‘Exemplary, Consistent, Needs Improvement or Not Yet Demonstrated’ — demonstrating that learning outcomes are not fixed but depend on the learner’s decisions and choices.

6) Agora School — Roermond, Netherlands

Agora School enables young people to lead learning. Classrooms feel like co-working spaces, kids aren’t badged by age groups but mixed through ages and backgrounds, and there’s no hour-to-hour subject change. Unlike fixed curriculums and learning objectives set by teachers, students at Agora set their learning objectives.

A student’s day starts with answering the question, “What do you want to learn today?” Other students will then help determine whether this learning goal is achievable in the set time span.

After this initial 30-minute start of the day, students follow their individual agenda. Personal coaches support and supervise the student’s learning process. The learning outcomes are assessed by coaches and presented to the student body, so everybody else can learn from them.

A school without classrooms. (Source: Agora Schools)

7) Oerestad Gymnasium —Kopenhagen, Denmark

Orestad Gymnasium built a curriculum around real-world case studies, designed and taught in collaboration with the Danish Design School and the University of Copenhagen.

“We want to have teaching where the students do research and work together in solving real problems,” principal Allan Kjær Andersen told Tech Insider. “It’s not enough to give learners knowledge; you also have to give them a way of transforming knowledge into action.”

One of the most open school architecture. (Source: Oerestad Gymnasium).

8) School 21 — London, UK

School 21 is a state-funded 4 to 18 school set up to empower young people to take on the world. The school has developed a series of pedagogies and approaches that support students in finding their voice, developing deep understanding and knowledge, and creating value in the classroom and beyond.

Focused on teaching 21st-century skills, the school has three pedagogies in its curriculum: well-being, oracy, and project-based learning. School 21’s approach also includes targeted support for vulnerable students and reinforcing well-being provisions across the school.

9) Think Global School — Four Countries a Year

Think Global School offers an unparalleled experience as students live and learn in four countries yearly. Education is place-based and project-based and organized around a changemaker curriculum.

Think Global students come from all over the world and represent various socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, gender identities, and belief systems. After graduating, learners apply their global outlook and changemaker mindset in diverse settings:

  • Ayesha Kazim worked as a photographer and recently delved into NFTs and web3. She explored how blockchain technology could digitize photography collections and create a historical record for future generations.
  • Yada Pruksachatkun became an engineer and data scientist, working on empathetic machine learning and making technology more considerate. She developed, for example, a tool which displays how well a company treats their female employees based on the pay gap, the percentage of women in the company, and reviews from women who have worked at the company.
  • Kryštof Stupka had an impact right after entering university life. As a student representative at Sciences Po Paris, he pushed for a new health centre, making all bathrooms gender-neutral and free contraception and HIV testing.

When I spoke with Russell Cailey, former Think Global principal; I was impressed by how the school changed from a more traditional curriculum to student-led learning.

“Our shift to the new model was uncomfortable. We had to unlearn our teaching practice that we were trained for at university. I learned to deliver content, and all of a sudden, I got into a project-based learning world and was more of a facilitator and a guide through the odyssey of learning. It’s like teaching architects to swim — these are two different worlds.”

— Russell Cailey, former principal of Think Global

Conclusion

Scientists agree learning works best when environments allow choice, exploration, and social interaction and where learners play an active role rather than being forced to attend and listen.

All the above schools prioritize active learning in feedback-rich environments that prioritize student agency — learners are in the driver’s seat and are supported with the tools needed to succeed on their chosen route — thereby demonstrating how schools can ignite and fuel children’s love for learning.

Want to learn more about the future of learning?

Subscribe free to my Learn Letter. Each Wednesday, you’ll get proven tools and resources that elevate your love for learning.

3 Things I Learned About Education at the United Nations in New York

by

Can this once-in-a-generation event transform education systems?

United Nations Transforming Education Summit 2022; UN Headquarters in New York (Source: Canva)

We’re in a global learning crisis that had worsened even before the pandemic.

In 2015, 53 per cent of all children in low- and middle-income countries suffered from learning poverty, unable to understand a simple written text by age 10.

In 2019, global learning poverty rose to 57 per cent.

For 2022, experts project 70 per cent of all 10-year-old children can’t understand a simple written text.

Learning Poverty Globally and by Region. (Source: The State of Global Learning Poverty by World Bank, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others)

The reasons?

Manifold and often systemic — undertrained, undervalued, and underpaid teachers, access to education, an education financing gap, a lack of early childhood education, and poverty traps perpetuating existing disparities.

And last but not least the relatively recent realization that schooling doesn’t equal learning.

Even though more and more children attend school worldwide, many go there day after day, not understanding anything. Education systems leave a lot of children behind in learning as they progress in schooling.

So, do we really need to solve another crisis?

Yes, because education is the key.

Education and learning underpin almost all individual, social, environmental, and economic goals. If we solve the education and learning crisis, we solve many other prevalent problems, such as climate change, poverty, equity, and mental health.

So how can we solve the learning crisis and create education systems that enable all children to thrive in life?

In 2022, I explored this question from different angles — I interviewed brilliant people for my work with Big Change and Teach For All, among others. I gave a TED talk on learning, visited schools in Estonia, and attended education conferences in Paris, Salzburg, and New York.

This article summarizes what I’ve learned about changing education systems. You first get a framework to think about system change and transformation, followed by three things I took away from the United Nations Transforming Education Summit.

“If you are serious about creating a safe and sustainable future for children then be serious about education.”

— Malala Yousafzai, Education Activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

1) What is Education Transformation?

To set the scene, we need to clarify two things — the difference between transformation and reform (and why it’s no contradiction) and a tool for thinking about systems change.

The difference between education transformation and reform

“A candle does not become a light bulb through many small improvements,” Dr Teresa Torzicky, from the Innovation Foundation for Education, told me during a joint project in 2020.

At that point, I didn’t grasp the complexity of her words.

As a former teacher, I felt improving what and how we teach young people is the most valuable thing to focus on.

I conceptualized and co-authored a publication on what we can learn in and from the pandemic for the foundation for innovation in education.

I co-led the Youth Entrepreneurship Weeks, an Austrian government-funded program we ran in 55 schools with 1800 students to unlock young people’s agency.

I supported the formation of a foundation that supports schools, and teachers, to enable all young people to shape the economy and society.

And while all these initiatives improved education systems, they were, as Andreas Schleicher labels efforts that don’t change systems, just the tip of the iceberg. The much larger part, he says, lies beneath the surface and concerns the interests, beliefs, motivations and fears of those involved.

Education reform often tackles the tip of the iceberg. Source: Canva

Education reform, tackling individual problems, such as teacher recruitment, or changing individual inputs, such as updating curricula, laws, and infrastructure, is often necessary and can improve education systems.

But education reform doesn’t turn a candle into a light bulb.

António Guterres, secretary-general of the United Nations, said in New York: “We will not end this crisis by simply doing more of the same, faster or better. Now is the time to transform education systems.”

In contrast to reform, transformation shifts the dominant logic of a system by revisiting its current goals and co-defining a purpose that is fit for time and context. Transformation then redesigns all system parts to coherently contribute to this collectively owned purpose.

So what are those things we need to focus on to create lightbulbs, not just better candles? What is required for education transformation?

“We will not end this crisis by simply doing more of the same, faster or better. Now is the time to transform education systems.”

— António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations

Systems Thinking for Transforming Education

Systems thinking is a set of theories, tools, and mindsets to understand complex and interconnected systems. Applied systems thinking can bridge the gap between reality and our visions.

One widely accepted theory in system thinking for change is the Leverage Points Framework by Donella Meadows. She writes about which points to focus on when aiming for sustainable intervention and action for system-level change.

Meadows describes these power points in increasing order of effectiveness. She starts with the tip of the iceberg, parameters that are easier to implement with weak leverage (infrastructure, metrics, materials). She ends with points that are harder to implement but have stronger leverage (goals, mindsets, beliefs).

Leverage Points for System Transformation (Source: A New Education Story adapted by Winthrop et al. from Meadows (1999) and conversations with Populace)

The takeaway?

Systems lead to the results they are designed to achieve. Our systems are not broken but just a result of our systems’ design. The most-effective point for change is the mental models that underpin our system.

Hence, a shared purpose, an alignment on what a system is for, is critical to system-level change that endures over time. It’s impossible to transform education unless you know where you are headed.

Hence, education transformation needs to question the purpose of a system. Such a purpose is anchored in identity, values, beliefs, interests, and fears.

But revealing, redefining, and changing the purpose of a system is easier said than done.

Different studies and research from RISE show leaders often fail to change education systems because they aim to change the visible, lower-leverage elements of a system (resource flows, regulations, metrics) without changing the invisible factors such as the purpose (mindsets, goals, beliefs, and values), and without considering the interrelations of system components.

For example, in a country, Sarah leaves school without foundational skills. To improve outcomes, people from the education ministry ask: “What needs to change in this classroom for Sarah to have foundational skills?”

If textbooks are missing, government officials might decide to provide more textbooks. If teachers are undertrained, they might introduce more teacher training.

Yet, this symptom-only thinking neglects that teachers and students are embedded in a larger system. A lack of system thinking often leads to false conclusions about the cause (something I’ve unknowingly done before).

Source: Edscyclopedia — Introduction to Systems Thinking

Programmes that fix singular elements might improve some learning outcomes, but without considering the wider system, they are likely doomed to fail.

Education transformation that leads to sustainable system change (not a better candle, but a lightbulb) needs to understand, address, and be coherent with the system’s structures.

So how to work on high-leverage points that can transform education?

“All too often, programmes are designed to address one of these symptoms (e.g.: students drop out, teacher motivation), are implemented faithfully, and yet fail to improve learning outcomes. When a programme fails to have the desired impact, it is tempting to look for a devil in the details, some aspect of programme design or execution that could be tweaked to produce better performance. But often the devil is in the system, not in the details. The programme failed not because of a design flaw, but because of its overall incoherence with the rest of the education system.”

— Marla Spivack, Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) Directorate

3 Lessons from the Transforming Education Summit

In September, world leaders, young people, and other civil society members met at the first-time-in-history United Nations General Assembly Transforming Education Summit in New York.

The Summit’s goal? Creating a global movement for education transformation that pushes policymakers to achieve sustainable development goal four (SDG4) — to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Transforming Education Summit — Source: Eva Keiffenheim
#1 A Collective Commitment and Movement

While we’re not even close to SDG4, there’s a consensus on what’s needed to progress. Education transformation requires a collective commitment and action from leaders at all levels, students, parents, teachers, policymakers and the public at large.

But how do you build a movement, a collaboration between all stakeholders, driven by the public?

In an attempt, the United Nations asked governments to host national consultations to revisit education’s purposes and develop a shared vision, commitment, and alignment of action.

The result was a statement of commitment from each country (full list of all statements here and an interactive map here).

But what’s in these statements that resulted from national consultations?

The centre for global development analysed 106 country submissions and found teaching, learning, and teachers mentioned in almost every statement; Technology (or ICT or digital) was the third most popular term.

Is creating commitments a reason enough for bringing delegations from all over the world to New York (and justifying the climate and human resource cost attached to it)? How do abstract commitments and shared intentions reach the classroom level?

Critics have long been arguing the UN is an inefficient talking shop with insufficient mechanisms to keep countries accountable for their commitments.

Whether these commitments translate to impactful action at the classroom level has yet to be shown, but I can see three benefits through the Summit itself.

First, an international organization prioritises and recognizes localisation and grassroots efforts as mandatory partners in transforming education systems.

Second, the design of the consultations acknowledges intersectionalities. Transforming education requires cross-sectoral involvement, for example, embracing public-private partnerships or learning from evidence-driven system change in health.

Third, the global convening opened the stage for countries already successfully mobilizing and including the broader public in their transformation efforts.

#2 Learning from Countries Walking the Talk

At the Transforming Education Summit, many countries such as Belize, Niger, and Malawi demonstrated transformation efforts, but one country stood out particularly — Sierra Leone.

In Sierra Leone, 80% of the population is under 35. The country faces various challenges — teacher management with significant reliance on non-government paid and unqualified teachers, narrowing persistent gender and geographic disparities, a lack of resources at organizational units, and capacity building at the staff level. And as of 2022, 64 per cent of students in grade four cannot answer a single comprehension question on a basic text.

Yet, Sierra Leone envisions becoming a nation with educated, empowered, healthy citizens capable of realizing their fullest potential by 2035.

How? By making education a top national priority, supported through financial commitment and evidence-informed interventions and innovations.

Education spending as a percentage of total government expenditures, changes from 2014–2015 to 2019–2020 Source: Education Finance Watch 2022 referring to UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Unit: US$ (2020=100)

In addition to this top-down commitment to education transformation, Sierra Leone follows a bottom-up approach and includes all members of society.

Sierra Leone was among the only countries to overcome visa and travel barriers and brought students, teachers, partners and civil society members. They all shared key insights from four years of transforming their education system at more than 19 formal events.

David Sengeh, Sierra Leone’s Minister of Education and Chief Innovation Officer, is a role model for unlocking young people’s agency, one of the key drivers for transforming education.

Sengeh shared how lucky he feels to serve the children of Sierra Leone. He even wrote a letter to all pupils in his country.

David Sengeh’s letter to all pupils in Sierra Leone. Source: David Sengeh on LinkedIn

A letter is not enough to transform education systems. But a genuine interest in listening and learning from young people can shift mindsets from resentment to hope, which can translate to action and co-creation.

Sierra Leone also led consultations with every single district and many stakeholders, including parent organizations, teachers’ associations, disabled person organizations, development and donor partners, and government personnel outside of education.

Based on these consultations, Sierra Leone’s President Bio launched the 5-Year Education Sector Plan with clear goals and broad support to improve learning outcomes for all children and youth.

The Centre for Universal Education at Brookings which works with the Sierra Leone Ministry of Education, argued that the government’s vision was well placed given it treats the essential component of foundational literacy and numeracy as a floor, from which to grow from, rather than a ceiling that limits the aspiration for children’s learning

“What do you wish for in your community, and how might you contribute to that development? What do you want your politicians to know and do?”

— David Sengeh, in a letter to all pupils of Sierra Leone
#3 The Need for Intergenerational Partnership

We live in an era of youth-directed age discrimination.

Processes in society and education ensure that people of different ages differ in their access to society’s rewards, power, and privileges. Young people are often seen as minor to older people, their ideas under-supported, and their opinions not included.

For a long time, youth have only tokenistically been included in the policy and decision-making processes. They’ve been used to demonstrate inclusiveness as a “youth voice” without really giving them a seat at the decision-making table.

But as Rebecca Winthrop said at the launch of the Big Education Conversation: “Adults do not need to give young people a voice. They already have one. Adults just need to listen to it.”

More and more power holders recognize that education transformation needs to happen with young people and for young people, and the Summit was stated to be designed around Youth Mobilization.

The United Nations even launched a new instrument, the Youth Declaration, for all stakeholders to shift power to young people and lead us to an age of intergenerational responsibility, co-creation and co-ownership in the process.

More than half a million young people from over 170 countries contributed to the Youth Declaration; through in-person and online, global, regional, national, and grassroots-level dialogues.

The first of its type, the Youth Declaration requests 25 actions by governments for fully accessible and inclusive education systems — centring on the needs of girls and young women, refugees, persons with disabilities, LGBTIQ+ persons, people of colour, indigenous peoples, and other vulnerable and marginalized groups, also emphasizing the intersectionality of these.

And while the declaration is a great sign of the UN’s efforts to include young people in the debate, it’s barely sufficient.

As Restless Development argues, Youth engagement at the Summit was not reflective of young people.

I’m 29 years old. At the Summit, I mainly met young people my age, 25–30. But where were the truly young people? The pupils?

Moreover, young people’s involvement felt gate-kept from the discussions and events attended by current power-holders. The Summit launched seven initiatives, the last being empowering young people to be influential leaders to shape education.

Alex Kent from Restless Development argued that young people don’t need further commitment from older people to be ‘empowered’. Instead, global summits such as the one in New York should acknowledge youth power and then work with young leaders to draw youth power into its core.

Intergenerational collaboration goes beyond youth voice and sees young people as collaborators, or ‘co-agents’, rather than beneficiaries.

Big Change, The Center for Universal Education at Brookings, and the Lego Foundation worked together to launch a tool for intergenerational collaboration — the Big Education Conversation.

The Big Education Conversation, available in seven languages so far, is supporting people and communities worldwide to come together to talk about what education is really for so that it can change for the future.

Source: Big Education Conversation

„We need a movement in the world that puts education front and center! That needs mobilization and voices amplified to help governments that are trying and move those that are not.“

— Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations

In Conclusion

If I had to break down everything I learned into four statements, they would be the following.

  • Do we need to build back better or new systems? Reform and transformation are no dichotomy. We need both. But we can’t misuse reform to delay transformation. Instead, we must collectively co-define and build upon new purpose(s) for education while improving the existing system.
  • Which purpose(s) to focus on? Different purposes of education don’t compete against each other. It’s not post-pandemic recovery or tackling the poor learning outcome, mental health, or girls’ education. Transformation agendas are not a contradiction but can go hand in hand and can cross-amplify progress.
  • Who is deciding the why? And which voices are not heard? Young people aged 10 to 29 need to co-lead the change. Their ideas must be included through intergenerational partnerships and alliances, supported by organizations that know how to involve young people meaningfully.
  • What’s the education equivalent to getting to net zero? We need a global metric for education transformation to hold countries and decision-makers accountable and learn along the way. A metric should be rooted in learning outcomes, as well as the health and well-being of all people involved.

“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us to radically transform education,” U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told reporters ahead of the education summit at U.N. headquarters in New York. “We owe it to the coming generation if we don’t want to witness the emergence of a generation of misfits.”

With the Transforming Education Summit over, real work starts to happen. Whether the Summit will lead to global action to recover learning losses and transform education systems has yet to be shown. But we owe it to all young people on this planet.

Do you want to read more from me on learning and education?

Subscribe free to my weekly Learn Letter, where I’ll share reflections, tools, and resources that can elevate your love for education and learning.

More Resources

3 Teaching Principles to Help Your Students Achieve More

by

Science-based strategies your students will thank you for.

Source: Canva

I worked hard when I was a teacher for 100 students in a secondary school. But I didn’t use evidence-based methods. I did what everybody else was doing, unknowingly replicating methods that don’t work.

And many popular methods don’t work.

There’s no evidence for the learning styles theory — the belief students learn better through their preference for auditory or visual material.

Eliminating fact-based learning or direct teacher instruction is one of the worst things to do. Factual learning is a precondition for acquiring twenty-first-century skills such as problem-solving, creative and critical thinking.

“When one looks at the scientific evidence about how the brain learns and at the design of our education system, one is forced to conclude that the system actively retards education.”

— Daisy Christodoulou

Evidence-based teaching strategies aren’t part of most teacher training. On the contrary, many educators rely on ineffective teaching techniques.

This is the article I wish I had read during my time as a teacher. There are two key resources I used for writing it:

  • Visible Learning, a synthesis of over 800 meta-analyses relating to achievement in school-aged students. The author is John Hattie, a distinguished education researcher, and this work is the result of 15 years of research.
  • Seven Myths About Education, a thoroughly researched book by Daisy Christodoulou, a former teacher and Head of Education Research, Ark Teacher Training.

What follows are science-based principles for teaching and increasing student achievement.

1) Give This Kind of Feedback

Since the beginning of behavioural science, we have known that feedback is vital for academic achievement. And yet, the variability of feedback effectiveness is massive.

“The key question is, does feedback help someone understand what they don’t know, what they do know, and where they go? That’s when and why feedback is so powerful, but a lot of feedback doesn’t — and doesn’t have any effect,” John Hattie said in a recent interview with EdWeek. “

So what exactly makes feedback effective?

  • Ditch lengthy, hurtful, or personal feedback. Instead, be clear about what you want your students to achieve, know and do.
  • Focus on the future. Students want to know how to improve so they can perform better the next time.
  • Provide concrete steps. Help students understand where to go next.

The following chart is a helpful template you can use. It is differentiated between three learner stages (novice, proficient, and advanced) and provides you with phrasing examples.

Source: Brooks, C., Carroll, A., Gillies, R. M., & Hattie, J. (2019). A Matrix of Feedback for Learning. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 44(4). Retrieved from https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ajte/vol44/iss4/2

2) Teach High-Impact Learning Strategies

Different meta-analytic studies (such as this one or this one) evaluate effective strategies for learning.

Researches find that learning strategies help your students achieve higher academic results. Specifically, the following three learning strategies have a high impact on student learning (high impact equals the average effect sizes across different meta-studies).

Elaboration — integrating with prior knowledge

Research shows students learn better when they connect new knowledge to what they already know. Help students link what they’re learning to prior knowledge.

For example, ask your students a couple of questions before they begin to engage with a new topic.

  • Does it confirm what you already knew?
  • Did it challenge or change what you thought you knew?
  • Is it similar to related things?

Outlining — identify key points in an organized way

Outlining supports students in organizing, clarifying, and structuring information and ideas. There are different strategies for visual, written, or combined outlines.

Source: https://www.evidencebasedteaching.org.au/learning-strategies-you-must-teach-your-students/

While many strategies have their own research behind them (e.g. mind maps), research shows the overarching strategy is impactful for student achievement.

Retrieval — cement new learning into long-term memory

Learning and memory need two components: the learned information itself and a so-called retrieval cue that helps you find the learned material.

Retrieval is a powerful learning strategy because when you recall a memory, both it and its cue are reinforced. With every additional retrieval, you strengthen the connection and can access your memory faster.

Here are two easy-accessible ways to bring retrieval into your classroom:

  • Brain Dump. Set a timer to 5–10 minutes and ask students to write down everything they know about a specific subject or concept without using any assistance. Then, ask your students to find out what their neighbour wrote down. Finally, turn it into a whole-class discussion.
  • Low-stakes quizzes. Prepare tests that won’t be graded for the start or the end of your lessons. You can also use Kahoot or Poll Everywhere.
Source: https://www.learningscientists.org/retrieval-practice

3) Harness the Power of Direct Instruction

Remembering my own school days, I demonized direct teacher instruction. It seemed passive and boring.

When I became a teacher, I thought it’d be best if students discover knowledge on their own through a learning environment that’s designed for them.

Paulo Freire, a leading advocate of critical pedagogy, talks in his widely cited book “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” about the co-construction of knowledge. Teachers are students, and students are teachers.

He writes, “Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction SO that both are simultaneously teachers and students.”

Freire goes on to explain why teaching facts to students prevents understanding. Other educationalists, such as Russeau, join his reasoning.

If you’ve read about 21st-century skills, you will likely have stumbled upon sentences such as an “education that requires you to memorize facts will prevent them from being able to work, learn and solve problems independently.”

Daisy Christodoulou analyzes that Ofsted, a school inspection service that influences teaching practice in the UK, sees “teacher-led fact-learning as highly problematic.”

But all of the above is wrong. Again Christodoulou:

“They argue, correctly, that the aim of schooling should be for pupils to be able to work, learn and solve problems independently. But they then assume, incorrectly, that the best method for achieving such independence is always to learn independently. This is not the case.”

“Teacher instruction is vitally necessary to become an independent learner.”

— Daisy Christodoulou

John Hattie’s evaluation of over 800 meta-analyses comes to the same conclusion. Teacher instruction is the third most powerful influence on achievement.

“While the final aim of education is for our pupils to be able to work independently, endlessly asking them to work independently is not an effective method for achieving this aim.”

— John Hattie

So how does direct instruction work? John Hattie explains:

“In a nutshell: The teacher decides the learning intentions and success criteria, makes them transparent to the students, demonstrates them by modelling, evaluates if they understand what they have been told by checking for understanding, and re-telling them what they have told by tying it all together with closure.”

One example I do in my writing online course is the “I-Do, We-Do, You-Do” model. I explain why we learn something and how we define success; I then model the desired skill by doing it myself, we then do it together in a plenum before students go off themselves to breakout rooms or working time and apply it for themselves.

In Conclusion

About a hundred years ago, Benjamin Franklin seemed to have said, “Tell me, and I forget. Teach me, and I remember. Involve me, and I learn.”

Hundred years later, most teachers and students are still unclear about the best learning methods.

But thanks to the science of learning, a mix of cognitive and social psychology, neuroscience, and educational sciences, we do know a lot of what works and what doesn’t. The above strategies can help your students achieve more.

Want to feel inspired and become smarter about how you learn?

Subscribe free to my Learn Letter. Each Wednesday, you’ll get proven tools and resources that elevate your love for learning.

How Change Starts Within Yourself

by

Personal transformation is systemic transformation.

Eva Keiffenheim and Romana Shaikh / Credits: Dominic Regester

Last month, I had the privilege to interview Romana Shaikh at Salzburg Global Seminar — Education Futures: Shaping A New Education Story.

Romana Shaikh is the Chief Programming Officer for Kizazi, which partners with local NGOs who work with government schools to design, implement, and codify breakthrough school models for a deeper purpose of education. Romana is committed to creating and enabling a thriving life for every child.

My questions build upon insights from the global research A New Education Story — Three Drivers to Transform Education Systems. Romana’s perspective connects to the three drivers, purpose, power, and practice, and sheds light on the mindset shifts and actions needed so that all children can thrive.

In your work as an educator and leadership developer, what have you learned about power as a lever for system change?

All systemic oppressions that exist on the outside have an impact on each of us on the inside. Even though I was a speaker at this global conference, able to talk about what I wanted to talk about, I am aware of being the minority in the room — as an Indian Muslim Woman.

A few months ago, at home, in India, “indianmuslimgenocide” was a trending hashtag on Twitter. The increasing violence against Muslims, the increasing felt sense of hate and otherness, has created a sense of powerlessness, of feeling like a victim. There is a fear in my mind, in my body. If I express my voice, what is going to be at stake? Am I going to get attacked for this? Will my family get attacked? Will I lose friends?

Even though my work has afforded me many privileges and so much power, there is this part that continues to feel powerless. Do I really have power and agency in a system that sees me through a single lens of being Muslim? A system that discriminates against this one part of my identity? That fails to see me in my wholeness.

Whatever you do in life, if some parts of your identity are those that are not the majority, you are always looked at differently. The system treats you differently.

That’s why to understand power; you need to understand identity. I saw all these different identities or parts inside me and how different identities shape my experience of the world in a particular way. Many systemic challenges stem from how we perceive our own identity. And more so from the way, others perceive us, which gets shaped by social norms and the access we have in the system we grow up in. The personal exploration of my identities, and the impact that they’ve had on me, helped me begin to see these patterns in the world more clearly.

Before, it always felt like, “oh, this is just something that happened to me”. But what I’m experiencing is not just my experience. Every other person who shares some shades of my identity, some intersections, is probably experiencing the same thing. So, “This is not just my problem. I’m not the only one who’s gone through this” was a big insight. I’m not the only one who has to fight this fight. There are other women and Muslims who’ve experienced the world the same way i have, many have experienced worse. There’s a pattern there.

And then, once you recognise this, acknowledge this, and understand this pattern exists, you begin to question, “why is it?”

When you begin to really drill it down, at one point, you will come to more universal constructs of our identity — gender, race, religion, caste, class, and sexuality. In different parts of the world, there are different constructs. Seeing these in daily interactions in life gave me a lens that helped me to see patterns in the inequity in education.

The question is, what is the rest of the world doing about it?

Can you share an example of this shift in perception?

When I was at Teach for India, I was leading our program. I saw classrooms across urban cities in India and later some rural parts of India as well. Over the years of visiting government and low-cost private schools that were all providing an English medium instruction, I recognised patterns that enable real progress for children. But there were also some schools and classrooms that were just not making the same progress. Academically these classrooms started lower than others; there was more dysregulation or ‘acting out’ of children in the classrooms. Different teachers tried and tried but still failed.

When we started looking outside the classroom, outside the school, we began to see more patterns. The poverty was more extreme, the exposure to violence was higher, the sanitation was poorer, and often there was a larger Muslim population. All this information painted a complete picture of how things are today.

As I’ve looked at data across the country, specifically for Muslims in India, I’ve begun to understand that Muslims in India have been systematically oppressed — Only 17% of Muslims complete Grade 10 compared to a 26% national average, almost one-third (31%) of the Indian Muslims are living below the poverty line, till date, Muslims are denied housing in many parts of the country furthering the geographical segregation which in turn, leads to Muslim ghettos that then continue to have limited access to healthcare, education, or government subsidy.

More recent studies have shown that the Muslim child is most marginalised because of the added political marginalisation the community experiences. So as a Muslim child, there are fewer people around you that have benefitted from education, there is more discrimination you face on a daily basis, and more of your family has been in multi-generational poverty.

You can’t just say ‘it’s a poor person’s problem. The system has made them poor and the system is maintaining that poverty.

With this acknowledgement that so much is at play when you work with children from marginalised backgrounds, the narrative about high expectations in education is one I find quite unfair today. We’re saying to children, “I have high expectations of you; you need to get here.” But then, we’re not giving children any chance to get there. And it’s not just language, it’s the way we see the world, we keep seeing the need for students to work harder than their privileged counterparts.

Anyone who is growing up marginalised knows they have to work harder. The question is, what is the rest of the world doing about it?

Romana Shaikh — Credits: Salzburg Global Seminar/Katrin Kerschbaumer

Romana, you said acknowledging the shared parts of identity started within yourself and continued through a sense of shared experience.

When you talk about ghettoised Muslim communities, it sounds as if starting on an individual level is insufficient because of a larger systemic injustice. What do you think is needed from a systems perspective to be fairer to children in these contexts?

Yes absolutely. Rising from the personal to the systemic is very important. But you can’t have systemic change without a personal change. We have to acknowledge that it’s not right to demand and expect the same things from all children. Because no child starts at the same point.

Before you replicate any school or education system, you have to contextualise. At a systemic level, we need to ask, “What’s needed here? And how does my system need to change to serve that?” And since I’m part of the system, I would need to change for my system to change.

What’s needed here? And how does my system need to change to serve that?

So let’s ask what is needed here. Let’s acknowledge that a child brings into the school and classroom their experience of marginalisation, of poverty, of oppression. A child who works to support their family needs something different from school than a child who is bullied because of her religious identity. A child who is growing up in a single-parent household has different needs from the adults in school than a child who is raising their siblings. All the intersectionalities of their identity are part of their experience which they bring into class.

Then let’s ask how my system needs to change to serve these needs. Our education system has for far too long been a “one size fits all” that focuses very narrowly on a cognitive kind of education — one that’s all about knowledge acquisition and retention. Our children need and deserve more than that. They deserve to be seen and responded to as whole human beings. So when a child doesn’t complete their homework or falls asleep in class or struggles to retain information or doesn’t believe education is important for them, we have to pause and remember everything that contributes to the life this child experiences.

And then, we will realise how the design of schools with their grading systems, their rules of discipline, the rigidity of curriculum and their notion of success need to shift to truly honour and empower each child. This requires us, as adults in the system today, to redefine the values and structures of the school system itself.

It’s acknowledging that an education system is not separate from other systems; we are human, we are whole, and we carry our whole experience with us everywhere. We learn what’s socially acceptable and how to express ourselves in school. So even education needs to see itself in relation to the whole system, in relation to the social system and to the economic system. Then you begin to see the bigger picture and what needs to shift. But this process is not easy.

It’s acknowledging that an education system is not separate from other systems, we are human, we are whole, we carry our whole experience with us everywhere.

Apart from your experience in teaching and school development, you’re also a trained psychotherapist. Based on your insights in trauma work, where do you see the need for a shift on a practice level in the classroom?

My biggest realization during trauma work is that if there’s one thing that’s universal, it’s trauma. It needs the least contextualization. I get goosebumps thinking about it.

The events that traumatize us are different across cultures — but we’re all human and how we experience trauma is very similar. What makes you sad and what makes me sad, maybe different. But sadness for you and sadness for me, feels the same. Because that’s how the body works. And the body is, again, something that’s so fundamental, which none of us learn to take care of. In most education systems — and in what I’ve seen across Africa, Armenia, and India, — you’re taught biology, but you’re not actually learning your own biology.

Our education systems need to create space for us to learn about our own human-ness. How our body works, how our mind works and how we can take care of ourselves and each other.

Trauma happens inside our bodies. It stays there and gets triggered by different incidents in our daily life. We see it playing out in our classrooms every day in the bodies and faces of teachers and children. Every time a child (or an adult) reacts in a way that feels disproportionate, or gets too confused or too scared, that is a sign for us to know there’s more going on in the body-mind than what we can see.

The high-stakes nature of examinations, the achievement orientation, the vast syllabi — we all have a childhood memory of school that has shaped some belief in our personality. At a fundamental level, the way we see children and in turn, treat children needs to shift. We need to see them as whole human beings, each unique in how they will grow and each bringing in a unique story of stress, strength and resilience. And this work needs to start with the adults in the system. They too, carry their own intersectionalities and stress, strength and resilience into the school.

Trauma is a much more prevalent experience than we’ve acknowledged in education.

Our education systems need to create space for us to learn about our own human-ness. How our body works, how our mind works and how we can take care of ourselves and each other.

So would you say a shift in practice towards more social-emotional learning can be a way to bring this knowledge about our own biology into classrooms?

Yes, and no. Much of our systemic injustice is rooted in a lack of social and emotional capacities. And while it’s great that social-emotional learning is becoming the new big thing, I worry it will be compromised into our existing assessment and curriculum structure.

Our generation today and our elders had so much trauma. They didn’t learn to love, to live, and to be healthy — They experienced war, conflict, fights for independence, fights for social justice. And those fights have not ended. We’ve inherited that trauma, it’s in our collective consciousness. There’s a reason we are so scared to share, to trust, to love freely. There’s a reason we’re asking about the cost of returns on feeding a child. No parent would do that. We are biologically wired to nurture. Something has gone terribly wrong.

Social-emotional learning and trauma informed teaching can be a part of healing and working with it. But we have to be mindful of how to integrate it.

How can we meaningfully integrate social-emotional learning into practice?

We must recognize social-emotional learning is not a subject, but a way of life. It’s not a means to an end. Education is about the present and it’s about all of us, young people and adults.

If I’m a teacher, coming to school in the morning, and having a fight with my family at home, and carrying that with me, do I have to pretend everything is fine or do I get a morning meeting to check-in?

In Seroond schools in Armenia, we’ve seen how conversations have changed. There’s no pretending anymore. Teachers take 15 minutes in the morning and start their day with a check-in: “Hey, how’s everyone doing? Let’s check in with each other and with ourselves.” We need to give ourselves that permission to be human.

To include social-emotional learning in pedagogy and practice, it has to be done together and for everyone. In India, the Simple Education Foundation learned this quickly during the pandemic. They started wellbeing circles for their teachers and their families. In a regular virtual gathering, each person shared how they are and give and receive support from each other. The teachers didn’t need training on how to care for children. They needed the space to receive care for themselves.

In Sierra Leone, one of the most important things our local partner National Youth Awareness Forum has done is bringing families to the school. There are school management committees with families to co-determine the purpose and practice of schools. They’ve asked families “What do you want the school to do?”They’ve shared responsibilities of managing the school with families.

Initiating a dialogue within communities is a powerful lever for change. Because we’re in this together. We’re all doing this for our space. This is our planet, our country, whatever that unit is. And so social-emotional learning is about really integrating it into the way we live, into the way we relate.

You’re the chief program officer at Kizazi and you work with local partners around the world to catalyze innovation in school design to increase opportunities for all children. In addition to India, Armenia and Sierra Leone, where do you see community-inclusive education transformation?

One really good example is the Aspire Connect Transform microschools from Egypt. The school’s founders created a network of microschools that strives to create young ACTors throughout the continent who transform their communities for the better.

They have a very strong inclusion policy. Moreover, they’ve broken age barriers and taught in a small group, multi-age, and in multigrade settings. Curriculums are designed around cultural and national identities and a sense of belonging. Another example in this school in the US that has redesigned itself around the whole child. –

Another excellent example is Dream a Dream, an organisation that empowers children and young people from vulnerable backgrounds to overcome adversity and thrive in a fast-changing world.

In India, an organisation that focuses on social — emotional learning in government schools — Apni Shaala and supports teachers, families as well as children in developing practices that support wellbeing. There is a school network — Akanksha Schools that has a holistic vision for children, it puts values and character education at the heart of their work.

There’s work that I haven’t seen myself, but I’m aware of through the trauma studies that can be a real resource for us to begin to integrate into our work with teachers and families — Some excellent networks offer resources and trainings for parents & educators — The Attachment and Trauma Network, for example, places a great focus on the role of attachment and the quality of relationships a child experiences with the adults in their lives.

Touch the future, though created for parents, has great resources and insights for educators. Especially the resources that talk about the critical role of play in a child’s development.

Thank you, Romana, for taking the time and for sharing your perspective.

3 Things I Learned from the Country with Europe’s Best Schools

by

You’ll marvel at Estonia’s education system.

Tallinn, Estonia’s capital. (Source: Jaanus Jagomägi on Unsplash)

“At our schools, we don’t have homework,” 11-year old Ulvar told me during a school visit to Tallinn. I chuckled.

Estonian students outperform all other European countries in PISA results — by not having homework?

Ulvar wasn’t joking.

Compared to other PISA participating countries, Estonian students have short school days and spend little time on homework or 1-on-1 tutoring.

While many other high-performing PISA countries, like Singapore or Korea, achieve high learning outcomes through volume, Estonian students learn a lot in little time.

Productivity = Learning gains per hour of instruction. (Source: Andreas Schleicher, OECD)

And learning productivity is just one of the impressive things about Estonian schools.

Thanks to Teach For Austria alumni and very welcoming Teach For Estonia staff, I spent four days in Tallinn to learn more about the Estonian education system.

This article distils the key lessons I learned from students, teachers, school principals, Teach For Estonia, the University of Tallinn, NGOs, and the Estonian Ministry of Education.

After reading this article, you’ll have a system overview and know what contributes to Estonia’s education excellence.

Estonia’s Education System at a Glance

“Estonia has become a successful role model in education worldwide. According to PISA 2018 Estonian general education is 1st in Europe and among the best in the world.”

— Government of Estonia

Three-year-old children can attend pre-school. At age seven, children start basic school and finish at age 16. Students then take a standardised examination and choose between high school and vocational school.

What’s interesting: While early childhood education is not compulsory, 95% of three to seven-year-olds attend it. Parents have the right to affordable childcare and education starting at three years old. There’s a national curriculum for early childhood education that includes reading, mathematical, and motor skills.

How education is organised in Estonia. (Source: Education Estonia)

Estonia’s education system is known for its excellent PISA scores: 1st in the world of financial literacy, 1st in digital learning, 4th in science, 5th in reading, and 8th in Math.

And when you dive deeper into OECD’s report, you find more exciting facts:

  1. Educational equity: Students’ socio-economic background has the lowest impact on reading performance in the OECD.
  2. System efficiency: Estonia outperforms other countries in overall PISA performance despite relatively low expenditure on education.
  3. Mindset: Estonian students rank first in growth mindset — the belief that success comes from effort instead of inherited intelligence.

But what contributes to these outcomes? Let’s take a look at three powerful factors of high-performing education systems.

1) Data Transparency and Feedback Loops

“Missing feedback is one of the most common causes of a system malfunction.”

— Donella Meadows

Data is power. Who does and who doesn’t have access to it makes all the difference. Neither parents nor teachers nor policymakers can make well-informed decisions without data.

Yet, most countries don’t offer access to education data. System thinker Donella Meadows reveals why:

“There is a systematic tendency on the part of human beings to avoid accountability for their own decisions. That’s why there are so many missing feedback loops — and why this kind of leverage point is so often popular with the masses, unpopular with the powers that be, and effective if you can get the powers that be to permit it to happen (or go around them and make it happen anyway).”

Estonian power-holders embrace transparency and accountability.

The state uses internal and external evaluations to offer the publically available Education Statistics Portal, which compiles information on basic, general, secondary, vocational and higher education.

For each school, you can find data about student satisfaction, bullying rates, sick days, high-stakes testing results, government spending per student, and much more.

Example of Estonia’s data transparency: Government spending per student from 2015 to 2022. (Source: Education Statistics Portal)

In addition to this dashboard, the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research publishes an annual review.

The government uses the analysis for developing policies through an evidence-based approach (something even enshrined in their 2035 strategy).

But what happens to low-performing schools?

Neither finger-pointing nor closure.

The Ministry of Education and schools collaborate for improvement.

Specific support programs offer guidance, chief analyst Sandra Fomotškin from the Education Ministry of Education told us. And as the next section will reveal, principals have a scope of action to transform their schools.

2) Agency for Teachers and School Principals

“Agency is defined as the capacity to set a goal, reflect and act responsibly to effect change. It is about acting rather than being acted upon; shaping rather than being shaped; and making responsible decisions and choices rather than accepting those determined by others.”

— OECD

Agency for learners and educators is the greatest opportunity to transform learning institutions. And Estonian schools have the autonomy to affect change.

For example, school principals have decision-power about:

  • Assessments (many schools don’t grade their students until the age of 12 but provide qualitative feedback as a guide and motivational tool for learning).
  • Staffing decisions (headteachers can hire and fire teachers).
  • The school’s curriculum (within the learning goals of a national curriculum).
  • Teacher’s role and salary (while there is a fixed based, there’s to up it by 17% depending on teachers’ responsibility, e.g. as math coordinator or school developer).
  • The lesson length (e.g., having fewer but longer lessons).
  • The distribution between presence and home learning (e.g. kids spend four days at school and have one independent learning day at home).

We witnessed in two schools how these levels of autonomy translate into action.

At Pelgulinna Gümnaasium the school initiated and implemented a CBAM change process for implementing a learner-centric approach. Teachers see themselves as lifelong learners. “Students are not learning” translates to teachers being required (and supported) to improve their teaching.

Another example of autonomy is Avatud Kool, which was founded to bring the best pedagogical practices, such as language immersion, into schools. The school accepts 50% Russian-Speaking and 50% Estonian-speaking students, and both groups are taught in Russian, Estonian, and English.

“It is imperative to allow autonomy at every level in the education system to change it from an administrative institution to a learning institution.”

— Nadiem Makarim

3) Evidence-based Teaching and Learning

“When one looks at the scientific evidence about how the brain learns and at the design of our education system, one is forced to conclude that the system actively retards education”

— Daisy Christodoulou

Most teachers nor students across the globe know how to learn. While learning science offers clear guidance, people continue to use ineffective teaching and learning techniques.

For example, students often continue to reread or highlight, even though we know it’s a fruitless strategy.

The problem? A missing link between research and teaching practice. Most teacher-training programs are not informed by evidence.

And if teachers don’t learn how to learn, how can we expect them to teach it to their students?

Estonia has recognised the potential of integrating learning science for a long time. As a result, metacognition and learning are enshrined in teaching curricula and applied in praxis.

For example, Pelgulinna Gümnaasium’s key goal is that every student becomes a self-directed learner. There’s a subject called “learning how to learn”, where students learn how to set goals, plan time, as well as strategies for reading, memorising, and writing.

Learning about Estonia’s education system. (Source: Mona Mägi Soomer)

Key Challenges & Caveats

While Estonia does a lot of things right, some challenges remain:

  • Teacher recruitment and retention. There’s a teacher shortage, and every fourth teacher quits school after the first year.
  • Segregation between Russian- and Estonian-speaking schools. Russian-speaking students are often disadvantaged compared to their peers.
  • Drop-out rates. 17% drop out of the system after nine years of compulsory education.

Moreover, there are two important caveats to keep in mind.

Estonia is a small country with 1.33 inhabitants. In one of the conversations, I heard the Minister of Education is Facebook friends with most school principals — which decreases friction and enables direct and open communication but is challenging to scale.

Plus, Estonia has a relatively homogenous student body. For example, in 2017, there were only 59 refugees in Estonia. In contrast, in my class as a middle school teacher in Vienna, there were 25 students from 13 different nationalities (and mother tongues).

Final Thoughts

Education is the most powerful tool to change our societies for the better, something Estonia has realised for a very long time.

The country is a forerunner on the students, institution and system level by enabling data-driven decision making, equipping educators with agency, and including science-based principles in teaching and learning.

If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that education systems are not fixed. They can be redesigned and transformed for the better by all of us.

Sign up for my free weekly Learn Letter to receive inspiring, applicable, science-based content about education and learning.

This is How The E-Learning Future Can Actually Look Like

by

Welcome to the post-pandemic reality of online learning.

The Future of E-Learning (Source: Canva)

Ten years from now, we’ll grimace at how we used to learn. While the past years have accelerated change, we’re still in the early days of a global learning revolution.

In the next six years, analysts expect the global e-learning market to double, from $253 billion now to $522 billion in 2027.

I’ve been working in education and learning for a decade, and this article is based on recent conversations with EdTech founders, online learners, and research from industry analytics, VC reports, and scenario predictions.

This article has three sections:

  1. The rise of outcome-based education
  2. The evolution of learning management systems
  3. The integration of immersive technologies

Read the whole thing, or jump to the part most relevant for you. Either way, you’ll have a better understanding of how you might learn in 2030.

1) The rise of outcome-based education

In 2015, policy analyst Kevin Carey predicted the end of universities. His key argument: colleges are expensive and ineffective.

Carey mentioned a study with 2,300 undergrad students at 24 institutions across the US. After four college years, 45% of the students had made no statistically significant progress in a range of skills.

Are trillions of student loan debts for higher ed worth it?

Carey, among others, anticipated the rise of MOOCs (massive open online courses). A decade ago, people believed massive open online courses would revolutionize higher ed and potentially even replace universities.

And while online platforms such as EdX and Udemy removed the geographical and financial barriers to learning, we now know that copying traditional curricula and pasting them into online videos doesn’t solve the underlying learning problem.

Data from Harvard University and MIT revealed three devastating data points against MOOCs:

  • Completion rates. Only three to four per cent complete self-paced courses, a rate that hasn’t improved in the past seven years.
  • Retention. Only seven per cent of MOOC learners start another course after their first year.
  • Accessibility. While MOOCs promised to bring high-quality education to all corners of the world, only 1.43 per cent come from countries classified as “low” on the Human Development Index.

MOOCs don’t work, but what does the future hold instead?

Cohort-based courses for outcome-focused learning experiences

In Cohort Based Courses, so-called CBCs, a student group moves at the same pace through the same curriculum.

Here are six features that distinguish CBCs from MOOCs and improve learners’ outcomes:

  1. Interactive live sessions instead of listening to self-paced monologues.
  2. Real-time feedback on learning progress instead of missing accountability.
  3. Assignments linked to your desired skill instead of no real outcome.
  4. Structured access to a subject-specific community instead of inactive support forums.
  5. No room for bullshit; instructors focus on the how instead of the why.
  6. Regular touch points with instructors and coaches to help learners follow through when things get hard.

Moreover, cohort-based courses can adjust their curricula faster than any university ever will. In fast-moving environments, technology or design offers an attractive alternative that can ensure employment.

Take the example of 10K Designers. They teach students state-of-the-art design skills for $1000 while working with recruiters from companies to ensure students are learning the relevant skills to land jobs.

This brings us to the second evolvement in outcome-focused education:

Learning paths to maximize your return on time investment

Lifelong learning will enable employees to keep thriving at their work. Companies will bridge the skill gap through enabling learning environments.

Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera, writes in the most recent impact report that offering flexible pathways to skills and credentials that prepare people for remote and digital jobs can pave the way for talent to rise from anywhere in the world.

But what do flexible pathways to skills actually mean?

Imagine every skill as a tree, comprised of several branches. Each brunch has even smaller units. You need all branches to master a specific skill.

Let’s take an example from one of my favourite writers Danny Forest:

Source: Danny Forest in “Use skill trees to learn new skills in a fun and painless way.”

Similarly, eLearning providers will offer a comprehensive overview of neccessary subskills and routes to acquire them, similar to Tim Ferriss’ DSSS model:

  • Deconstruction: What are the minimal learnable units to start with?
  • Selection: What are the necessary blocks to master the skill?
  • Sequencing: In what order should you learn the blocks?
  • Stakes: How do you set up stakes to create real consequences and guarantee you follow the program?

Hence, learning providers will not only offer the infrastructure and environment but also curate the sources of knowledge and any subskills necessary.

Learning providers as curators and creators

Both universities and learning platforms will not function as a single source of knowledge but rather filter content and resources for learners to design the best learning paths.

Viriti Saraf, Teach for America alumna and founder of K20 educators, explains in an interview:

“Universities are curators of content. I had to go through Harvard; I couldn’t just go straight to a professor. In the future, Harvard could still be curating classes of professors, but it’s not Harvard’s intellectual property.”

Studytube, a company that recently secured $30m funding, utilizes the same concept of decentralized knowledge. Unlike Coursera or Skillshare, Studytube doesn’t believe one provider has the perfect collection of relevant courses. Instead, Studytube mix and matches several course libraries to meet the learners’ needs.

A more junior company striving in a similar direction is Beeline. When I talked with Peter Turner and his team, I was excited to hear they’re utilizing learning science to help learners take the direct path to their learning goals.

Beelines are built by aggregating multiple learning sources (blogs, videos, images, online courses, audio etc.) into one consolidated location, with supplementary note-taking and learning tool functionality.

“What lies ahead is a growing recognition that the workforce can be remote, productive, and easily skilled if the corporation can articulate what skills they are targeting.”

— Lee Rubenstein, VP of Business Development at EdX

2) The evolution of Learning Management Systems

A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software or web-based app to implement, plan, and access learning processes. Universities, schools, corporates, and many other learning providers use it.

Features often include learning assessment, user feedback, course management, and delivery. If you recently studied at a university, you’ve likely used one of the biggest providers: Moodle, Canvas, or Blackboard.

LMS Market Share for US & Canadian Higher Ed Institutions (Source: PhilonEdTech).

In the next six years, the LMS segment is expected to dominate the eLearning market. Analysts predict LMS will account for a market share of 40.1% by the end of 2031.

How Learning Management Systems will change in the future

Predictions vary but revolve around four trends:

  1. AI-powered LMS that predict the user’s next steps and include personalized eLearning content, curriculum automation, real-time feedback, and improved learning outcomes.
  2. A shift from LMS to LXP (Learning Experience Platform), a learner-focused software, solves the shortcomings of LMS. LXP incorporate learner-led content creation and curation, gamification, customized learning paths, chatbots, and integrations to other learning platforms such as Coursera or Dawrat.
  3. Gamification integration through leaderboards, badges, and other incentive systems to improve retention rates, collaboration, and learner motivation.
  4. Enhanced integration of learning analytics such as course completion rates, learner progress, feedback, and knowledge retention, to help students reach their learning goals.

The biggest challenge for LMS and EdTech providers

Many EdTech companies don’t know whether what they’re doing is effective. And neither know learners.

eLearning providers have no incentive to conduct independent third-party efficacy research, as it might harm their business (similar incentive asymmetries exist for digital health applications).

“The market is completely opaque,” explains Sierra Noakes, project director of Digital Promise, in an interview with EdSurge. The eLearning market will need a global certification to certify products’ efficacy.

Enter learning sciences.

The science of learning combines social and cognitive psychology, brain research, and neuroscience. Integrating research in product development would create a win-win situation for providers and learners, as research by Digital Promise reveals:

“We heard resoundingly that the use of learning sciences research enables EdTech tools to more clearly name the expected impact on learning and more easily evaluate the product’s impact on learning.”

3) The integration of immersive technologies

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) will shape future learning environments.

VR is a fully computer-generated environment through which you can immerse yourself in artificially constructed realities. The technology allows learners to get hands-on experience and move through different scenarios.

In contrast to VR, AR works like Pokémon GO. You are enriching the real world in front of you with new objects, for example, through your smartphone.

Market analysts forecast a rapid expenditure growth on AR and VR in education, from $1.8 Billion in 2018 to $12.6 Billion in 2025.

Forecasted growth in advanced technology expenditure in global education (2018–2025) Source: EdTechX Europe

Since October 2021, when Zuckerberg introduced the Metaverse, learning providers have explored how learning can become more immersive and interactive.

Nikhil Kaitwade from Future Market Insights writes:

“Facebook Reality labs will be investing $150m for educational programs to improvise training and tech development. The company is partnering with Coursera and EdX for leveraging learning by offering the Spark AR curriculum of META that will use virtual reality and augmentation.”

Microsoft launched Microsoft Mesh, a mixed reality platform for digital collaboration. Through Holoportation, you can project yourself as your photorealistic self and move through a fluid, digital reality.

You can train together anywhere.

But how exactly will technologies like VR and AR shape future learning environments?

“You could learn to do firefighting, skiing, etc from anywhere/time in the world and in a safe way”

— Gisel Armando CTO of Anything World

How Virtual Reality (VR) will change learning

A very likely application of VR for learning is guided simulations. They offer new ways of delivering scenario-based learning experiences.

Workers can practice in a risk-free environment close to the real scenario. Use cases include sales training, public speaking, surgery training, and much more.

Talespin is an example of a well-funded, following-worthy company that is developing immersive learning content. A short video shows what this currently looks like:

Source: Talespin Example: develop crucial softs skills through role-play with virtual human characters.

Immersive VR experiences are exhilarating for learners with disabilities or special needs as it allows them to explore situations and worlds that might otherwise be inaccessible.

How Augmented Reality (AR) will change learning

AR can be applied in kindergarten, schools settings, and corporate training environments.

In essence, AR content enriches the physical learning experience. Consider these examples, which likely will further improve their features:

  • Google Expeditions allows learners to explore 3D nature phenomena.
  • NASA’s Sidekick helps astronauts practice real-case scenarios.
  • SkyView creates overlays for the night sky that allows learners to explore the universe and identify stars, planets, and satellites.
  • NeoBear develops AR learning toys and materials for children.
Interactive AR 3D flashcards for children by NeoBear. (Source: NeoBear)

In Conclusion

We’re still at the beginning of a global e-learning revolution. The change will happen gradually, and based on what I’ve read for my research, this is what the future of eLearning might look like:

Stage Zero (present)

While digital usage is expected to drop post-pandemic, a hybrid education model will likely remain. Video-based learning has not reached its peak yet (people will stream 3 trillion minutes of video content each month). We’ll continue learning through ineffective online lectures, but cohort-based courses will see broader adaption.

Stage One (2024)

Further development of virtual classrooms that include enhanced features for online whiteboards, streaming opportunities, and interactive videos and presentations. Most LMS incorporate learning analytics. A global coalition for independent efficacy certification for eLearning products emerges.

Stage Two (2026)

Broader application of immersive technologies. AR will be adopted faster than VR, as it can be accessed through mobile devices. Active, scenario-based learning in reality like environments will become the new norm for corporate training.

Stage Three (2030)

From Web3 to Ed3. Ed1 was about knowledge transfer through traditional institutions. Ed2 about centralized learning platforms such as Udemy or Coursera. Ed3 will enable individuals to learn decentralized with IP ownership, knowledge validation through wallets, and blockchain credentials.

And while designing effective learning experiences will remain a key challenge, the future of education and learning looks exciting. Hopefully, it will contribute to high-quality education that sets up all children and learners to thrive.

Sign up for my free weekly Learn Letter to receive inspiring, science-based content around education and the future of learning.

A Conversation with Ken Robinson’s Daughter about Their New Book on Transforming Education

by

Kate Robinson and Co-Author of Imagine if — Creating a Future for us All

Source: Canva

“As we face an increasingly febrile future, the answer is not to do better what we’ve done before. We have to do something else . . . We must urgently re-imagine education and schools.”

— Ken & Kate Robinson in “Imagine if…”

You might know Sir Ken Robinson from his TED Talk Do Schools Kill Creativity, which has been viewed 72 million times and is the most-watched talk of all time.

He dedicated his entire life to transforming education systems and remains the education role model I most look up to.

In this interview, his daughter Kate shares more about their new book “Imagine If… Creating a Future for Us All.”

You co-wrote Imagine if… with your father, Sir Ken Robinson. What do you think he wanted to accomplish with this book?

Imagine if… is designed to be a short manifesto of my father’s core messages and beliefs, as well as a rallying cry for the education revolution he advocated for. In his own words, it is a “distilled view of the challenges we face, the changes that are needed and the practical steps we can take.”

In your Foreword, you say you made a promise to continue your dad’s work. What made you want to do this?

There were a number of reasons.

Dad and I had worked closely together for several years before he passed away. My background is also in the creative revolution in education, and I have written and spoken about it for a long time. I was founding Editor in Chief of HundrED, a Finnish initiative that shares global innovations that are already changing the face of education, and my company Nevergrey operated as Dad’s global head office for the past several years.

I had worked with Dad on many of his previous books, as well as several campaigns such as the “Dirt is Good” campaign for real play led by Edelman and Unilever, and The World’s Largest Lesson, which is part of Richard Curtis’ initiative “Project Everyone” for the SDGs. So, in many ways continuing his work is continuing the work I have been doing and that we were doing together for all these years.

Another reason is that he had such an impact on the world. He changed the lives of millions of people, and in doing, so created a legacy that deserves to be honored and to be continued. His message is too important on a societal level to just let go.

Millions of people have been touched by his work, and there are millions more who will be. There are still so many people who need the support and the confidence that he gave: that they are not broken but that the system is.

And a more personal reason is that it was important to him- his work was a fundamental part of who he was. He lived and breathed it, and the best way to honor his memory is to continue it.

In keeping his work alive, I can keep a part of him alive. We sat together and talked about it a lot in his final days, particularly about his manifesto…, and that brought him comfort. It brings me comfort when all I want in the world is for him to still be here.

Dad once wrote that “What you do for yourself dies with you when you leave this world, what you do for others lives on forever.” He dedicated his life to helping others, and the ripples of that will live on forever. He was a shining light for so many people, and it is my privilege to be able to keep that light shining.

Dad once wrote that “What you do for yourself dies with you when you leave this world, what you do for others lives on forever.”

Your dad devoted his life’s work to education and fixing broken education systems. He became the Pied Piper, leading millions of followers along the way. In fact, his TED talk is still the most viewed in TED history, still watched on average over 17,000 times per day. To what do you attribute his enormous impact and popularity?

This is a question that I have thought about a lot in mapping out Dad’s legacy, and I think there are three reasons for his enormous impact and popularity.

The first is that his message resonates. As he says in his first TED Talk (he did three full TED Talks and several smaller TED Events), if you tell someone you work in education you can see the blood run from their face, but if you get them talking about their own education they pin you to the wall.

Education runs deep with people — most people spend at least 22,000 hours in formal education, and so naturally it has a big impact on each of us. For far too many people, the impact isn’t as positive as it should be.

When people first saw that TED Talk, it gave voice to something they knew deep down but perhaps couldn’t name — that it wasn’t them or their children or their loved ones who were broken, it was the system.

It lit a fire because the issue is so universal and yet so deeply personal.

One of the first activities Nevergrey did was a campaign called “10 years on” to mark the 10th anniversary of that first TED Talk. We asked people to send in what the talk had meant to them, and we received thousands of messages. One of my favorite quotes was from a woman in Germany who said, “I felt heard even though I hadn’t spoken.”

The second reason is that he was so wonderful, and I say that with as little bias as humanly possible! Dad was funny, he was kind, and he was affable. He had a unique style of public speaking that wasn’t overly polished or rehearsed, that didn’t rely on visual support or excessive moving across the stage.

When he spoke, he connected with people on a human level. It shouldn’t stand out as being a unique approach, but these days it does. He also made people laugh — someone once said that listening to him felt like listening to a friend tell funny stories, and it was only when you walked away at the end that you realized you’d actually been told something deeply profound.

While I was finishing Imagine if… I read a number of books that had been influential to Dad, and while they are brilliant books, they’re also dense and difficult to get through. I found myself re-reading paragraphs multiple times to make sure I understood what they were saying.

Dad had an incredible gift for being succinct, he took big concepts and translated them in ways that were understandable to anyone. He took the very complicated topics of the education system, of the human brain, of intelligence and creativity, and made them digestible.

And the final reason is that he was authentic. He didn’t have a stage persona or an act. The man people saw on stage was the same man I saw at the breakfast table. In the “10 Years On” campaign many people referred to the first time they watched the TED talk as being the first time they “met” Dad.

They may never have met him in person, and yet they felt they had through the video. In being authentic, he connected with people around the world in a way that made them feel as though they knew him, and they were right to feel that way.

According to Imagine if…, the future will be grim unless we take action to change the course where we’re heading. What actions need to be taken and what needs to be done and how? Where do we start?

The first and most important step is to embrace a richer conception of human intelligence. Like any ecosystem, our cultural ecosystems depend on a wide variety of talents, interests, and capabilities to thrive. Therefore, we must actively encourage each person to connect with and make the most of their own abilities and passions.

Imagine if… is Sir Ken Robinson’s manifesto, summarizing his key points and passions. What are some of the bigger ones and why were they important to Sir Ken?

At its core, Dad’s work was a love letter to human potential. It was a celebration of what we as a species are capable of achieving in the right conditions. In writing the book, we highlighted ten “Manifesto Statements” that really summarize the key points the book is making.

The main themes of them are:

  • we are all born with immense creative capacities
  • our incredible powers of imagination are what separates us from the rest of life on Earth
  • Education systems are based on conformity
  • real life thrives on diversity
  • we are in the midst of two climate crises: the crisis of the Earth’s natural resources, and the crisis of our human resources
  • and no matter who you are, you are the system — if you change your behavior, you have changed the system, and when enough people commit to changing the system, we have a revolution that will change the world.

No matter who you are, you are the system — if you change your behavior, you have changed the system, and when enough people commit to changing the system, we have a revolution that will change the world.

The relationship between intelligence and creativity is raised a few times. What is this relationship and how is it applied? What are some of the myths surrounding both intelligence and creativity?

Dad said that creativity and intelligence are blood relatives: you can’t be creative without using your intelligence, and the highest form of intelligence is creativity. We have perpetrated several myths around both.

We confuse “intelligence” with academics and IQ. Academic work is one way to use our intelligence, which primarily focuses on facts, critical analysis, and desk studies. We can experience anything from mathematics to theater in a purely academic way, it just describes one way of looking at something.

The idea of an IQ assumes that we are each born with a certain amount of intelligence that there is not much we can do about it. We know much more about how the brain works than we did in the early 1900s, when the IQ test was developed, especially about the plasticity of the brain and how it strengthens and adapts depending on how we use it.

Intelligence is far richer than the concept of IQ can begin to grasp.

There are certain myths surrounding creativity, including: only certain people are creative; only certain subjects are creative; and you’re either creative or you’re not.

In reality: we all have immense capacities for creativity; you can be creative in absolutely anything, and many subjects that are traditionally thought of as being not creative, like mathematics, actually require huge amounts of creative thinking; and like intelligence, we aren’t each born with a set amount of creativity — if we neglect our creative capacities, they lie dormant, but we can grow and develop them through proper use.

What would Ken say is the core purpose of education and what would he include under this umbrella?

We each live in two worlds: the world around us — the physical world that we were born into, which was there before you were born and will be here (we hope) after you die; and the world within us — the world of our inner thoughts and emotions, our beliefs, and values, that came into being only because you were born and that will end or change when you die (depending on your beliefs).

These two worlds are intimately connected — how we relate to the world around us is constantly affected by our inner world, and who we are on the inside is shaped by our experience of the world around us.

Dad’s contention was that the core purpose of education is to help children and young people understand each of these worlds and the relationship between the two.

To do that, education should expand their consciousness, capabilities, sensitivities and cultural understanding. He also strongly felt that there is a new and urgent challenge to provide forms of education that engage young people with the global economic issues of environmental well-being.

Your dad compares traditional methods of formal education to an industrial factory/industrial farm. What did he mean by this?

Comparing traditional methods of education to industrial factories is a common analogy and one that makes sense. Education systems as we recognize them today were born out of the industrial revolution, to suit the requirements of that time.

Both industrial factories and formal education systems focus on yield and depend on standardized processes to develop standardized output. There is a fundamental difference between the two, however, which is that factories produce inanimate objects, whereas schools do not. Screws and bolts do not have opinions on what is happening to them during production, children and young people do.

Dad made the case that the more accurate metaphor is an industrial farm. Industrial farms also focus on yield and create unnatural conditions to create their products, but unlike factories, they are concerned with the production of living things.

Both industrial farms and industrial methods of education have success in their pursuit of uniform outcomes, but with hazardous repercussions. As Industrial farms are stripping the Earth of its diversity of natural resources, our education systems are stripping our children of their diversity of human resources.

What does he mean by rewilding education? What does this entail?

The process of rewilding focuses on creating the conditions for natural ecosystems to thrive and then stepping back as they do. The promise of rewilding offers hope in the battle for the Earth’s natural resources.

To rewild education we must create the circumstances for our human ecosystems to thrive. As the natural world depends upon diversity to flourish, so do our cultures, including our education systems.

Dad often said that great gardeners know they do not make flowers grow, they create the conditions for flowers to grow themselves. In the same way, great educators know they don’t make children learn, they create the conditions for learning to happen.

Rewilding education means focusing on creating these conditions. To do that we must reinvigorate the living culture of schools themselves. Imagine if… explores how best to achieve that in detail.

Imagine if… asks, so what does a thriving school ecosystem look like? What is the answer? What would his ideal education system and school look like?

It would be counter-intuitive to be overly prescriptive in what an ideal school looks like — as a school is made up of unique individuals and circumstances, each school as a whole is naturally unique.

That said, there are certain attributes that they may have in common. An education system is not successful because of tests and output-driven hurdles, it is successful when individuals are recognised, and diversity of talent is celebrated.

It is successful when students are fulfilled. To do that it must encourage a mixed culture within schools — of disciplines, of individual passions and the unique pathways they each determine, of the circumstances, each school is situated within. At its core, a successful education system celebrates and values the interconnectedness of our human ecosystems.

At its core, a successful education system celebrates and values the interconnectedness of our human ecosystems.

In Imagine if… you argue that it is possible to personalize education for every student, much like we do with cars, diets, and phones. Can you expand on this idea?

The first thing to say is that education IS personal for every person involved in it, in particular for students. Arguing against personalized learning is to argue against the very essence of education and learning.

Any educator knows that you cannot force a person to learn, they must learn for themselves. One of the primary arguments against personalized learning is that it is too expensive. In Imagine if… we make the case that it is an investment rather than a cost. T

he price of rehabilitation programs, re-engagement programs, and alternative education programs is sky high, and most of them rely on personalised approaches to re-engage young people with their education. If education was personalised to begin with, far fewer students would dis-engage in the first place.

There are many programs (such as Big Picture Learning, amongst others) that have been creating the conditions for personalised learning for a very long time. They are easily incorporated into school models and are highly effective.

Advanced technologies have made it even easier and have created more options and pathways. This isn’t a pipe dream — there are brilliant schools all around the world implementing techniques to personalise learning every single day — even within rigidly traditional models. It just takes the drive to do things differently.

Your dad was an environmentalist and naturalist. He had a deep respect for the planet and its delicate balance. Can you speak to this passion of his?

Dad often said that when we talk about saving the planet, what we mean is that we have to save our own existence on it. The Earth still has a long time to go before it crashes into the sun, but in the meantime, it might decide to shake the human race off like a rash. He had great faith in humanity and what we are capable of as a species.

I think a big part of his love for the planet stemmed from his love of people, but he also recognised the damage we are causing with our self-centeredness. He was a believer in Holism — that we are all interconnected and while we each exist independently, we depend upon the health of the whole. In order for life to thrive on Earth we have to take care of it.

In 2016 he contributed to a book by the Genius 100 Foundation celebrating 100 years of Einstein’s theory of relativity. It features 100 living geniuses, of which he was one (he is now a “Genius Inspiratus,” which I think is beautiful).

He wrote: “The lesson we most need to learn is that there is more to life on Earth than human beings, and more to being human than self-interest. Our futures all depend on learning this lesson by heart.”

The lesson we most need to learn is that there is more to life on Earth than human beings, and more to being human than self-interest. Our futures all depend on learning this lesson by heart.

Imagine if… is a call to arms for a revolution for a global reset of our social systems. How can this be accomplished?

The systems we often take for granted: political systems, education systems, healthcare systems, how we structure our companies, the way our cities are designed, etc. — are all human made systems.

Over centuries we have created them to suit our purposes, to solve our problems or facilitate advancements. The problem is that as a species we have progressed to the point that many of our systems are now outdated or obsolete entirely.

The good news about human systems is that because we created them, we can re-create them, and at this point in our evolution we urgently need to. To do this we have to harness our creativity to a more compassionate and sustainable vision of the world we want to live in, and the lives we hope to lead.

The beauty of the phrase “imagine if…” is that it is open ended. It is provocative rather than prescriptive, and endlessly adaptable. A primary goal of the book is to empower people to re-imagine our world for the better, so that we can begin to create a future for us all.

Imagine if… says that education must be revolutionized from the ground up and there is a natural ecosystem of responsibilities in creating change and identifies teachers, principals, policy makers, children and young people, and parents as the frontline. Is there a way for these sometimes-divergent groups with different goals to work together?

Absolutely, and they must work together. Education is a complex, adaptive system — there are multiple systems within the system, which constantly interact with each other. Without this communication, the system breaks down.

A big step in creating a healthy dynamic between groups is to align, so that they all share a common goal– and ultimately the primary goal of an education system must be to enable its students to understand the world around them and the talents within them, so that they can become fulfilled individuals and active, compassionate citizens.

Real power is with the people. By recognising that and by nurturing compassionate collaboration, we can redesign and rebuild our ‘normal’ in a way that is fit for purpose — for both our wellbeing as a species, and the wellbeing of the planet we call home.

Imagine If…

Get the book, Imagine If . . .: Creating a Future for Us All by Sir Ken Robinson PhD and Kate Robinson. Published by Penguin Books, March 1, 2022.

Most Online Courses Are a Waste of Your Time — Here’s How You Know

by

A quick guide that helps you find the worthy ones.

Picture bought by the author via Canva.

This year I spent around $5000 on online courses.

Warren Buffet said, “the best investment you can make is an investment in yourself. The more you learn, the more you’ll earn.”

But his statement is flawed.

Not all learning investments are created equal. People who’ve excelled at their craft are often not the best teachers. Likewise, creators who write the best sales copy don’t offer the most value.

Here’s precisely how you can spot bad online courses so that you won’t waste your time and money.

1) They Tell But Don’t Show

Most online courses are useless because they focus on the why and what instead of the how.

In a Medium writer’s online course, for example, the instructors spend 90% of the time exploring what writing consists of. They have an hour-long conversation about the importance of consistency. Yet, they don’t show the students how they can write consistently.

The medium star could’ve talked about the roadblocks and how he overcame them. He could’ve shared his calendar or accountability system. He could’ve shared strategies for when you’re struggling to get started. But he didn’t. For me, the course felt like a time-waster.

“Never tell us a thing if you can show us, instead.”

— Steven King

What to look out for instead:

Look for how material instead of endless talks on the why and what. Valuable things often include templates, tutorials, spreadsheets, and screen-sharings.

Here are some examples, so you know how to tell the difference:

Source: Created by Eva Keiffenheim.

2) Instructors Teach in One Direction

“Active learning works, and social learning works,” said Anant Agarwal, founder and chief executive of edX, in an interview with the New York Times. To back this up, a recent study suggests social learning helps you complete online courses.

Yet, most online course creators choose alow-maintenance model. They pre-record videos so you can watch them at your own pace.

But what’s scalable for the instructors isn’t the best for you. Data from Harvard University and MIT shows only three to four percent complete self-paced online courses.

To increase your chances of success, you need a community.

I love Cam Houser’s comment in a joint Slack channel: “People don’t take courses for information. That’s what google and youtube are for. They take courses for outcomes, accountability, process, community.”

What to look out for instead:

A slack channel or Facebook group isn’t enough. Great courses offer structured space for social learning. You have an accountability group, comment on each other’s work, and have regular live touchpoints with your instructors or coaches.

Source: Created by Eva Keiffenheim.

3) They Ignore the Principle of Directness

Online courses are often distant from the actual application. You watch videos about your desired skill, but you never actually practice.

Let’s consider one of my favorite examples.

Imagine you’re a frequent flier. Before every start, you watch the video of a flight attendant putting on the life vest. You watch the video again and again.

But as this study shows, actually putting on the inflatable life vest a single time would be more valuable than repeatedly watching another person doing it. You acquire true mastery by performing the procedure yourself.

The author of ‘Ultralearning’ calls this principle directness. It is essential for mastering any skill. Yet, most online courses teach skills far from direct.

What to look out for instead:

You don’t learn by watching things. You learn by doing them. So the more you engage with the content, the likelier it will stick with you.

What’s your desired outcome behind taking the course? Check whether you have assignments that are directly linked to your desired skill. Pick a class as close to your end goal as possible.

If you take a course on e-mail newsletters, write your e-mail and ask for feedback. If you take a drawing class, do your first drawing. If you take a course on online writing, write your first article.

Just like the minimum viable product, find a minimum viable action. What is the simplest thing you can do based on what you’ve just learned?

Foster a bias towards action. You learn best when you do the work.

“Just keep working at it, and you’ll get there is wrong. The right sort of practice carried out over a sufficient period of time leads to improvement. Nothing else.”

— Anders Ericsson

4) They Don’t Understand the Science of Learning

Masters might not be the best teachers. More likely, they’re beginners when it comes to instructional design and the science of learning.

Most online courses are built on the assumption that our brains work like recording devices. But students don’t acquire their desired skills by consuming content. Instead, learning is at least a three-step process — we acquire, encode, and retrieve.

Learning scientist Roediger writes: “Learning that’s easy is like writing in sand, here today and gone tomorrow. Learning is deeper and more durable when it’s effortful.”

Learning through passive content consumption isn’t effortful. That’s why most online courses are a mere form of entertainment.

What to look out for instead:

Look out for active learning elements. Check whether the course uses evidence-based learning strategies such as:

  • retrieval practice ⇾ recall something you’ve learned in the past from your memory
  • spaced repetition ⇾ repeat the same piece of information across increasing intervals
  • interleaving ⇾ alternating before each practice is complete
  • elaboration ⇾ rephrasing new knowledge and connecting it with existing insights
  • reflection ⇾ synthesize, abstract, and articulate key lessons taught by experience
  • self-testing & calibration ⇾ answer a question or solve a problem before looking at the answer and identify knowledge gaps

“Mastery, especially of complex ideas, skills and processes, is a quest. Don’t assume you’re doing something wrong if learning feels hard.”

— Roediger et al.

Conclusion

Most online courses don’t help you reach your desired outcome. You can spend thousands of dollars and hours without learning anything at all.

Learning doesn’t help you per se — it’s taking the right courses that can make all the difference:

  • Check whether the course curriculum goes beyond why and what and teaches the how to do stuff.
  • Evaluate whether you’ve got regular touchpoints with your instructor and learning opportunities with fellow students.
  • Understand whether you’ll practice your desired skill.
  • Look out for evidence-based learning elements such as spacing, retrieval, or reflection.

I’m building a course on how to write online based on evidence-based practices to make the most of your time. You won’t sit in front of pre-recorded videos and struggle to stick with them. If you’re interested in joining a group of 25 people, you can pre-register here.

The 5 Best Platforms to Create Your Cohort Based Online Course

by

Teachable & Co belong to the past. Here’s what’s next.

Photo by ConvertKit on Unsplash

Whether you’re a serial course creator or entertaining, the thought of launching your first online course — cohort-based courses will likely disrupt the way you teach.

Platforms like Teachable, Podia, and Kajabi belong to the past. Say goodbye to course design that ignores social and active learning.

Your (future) customers don’t acquire new skills by consuming pre-recorded content. Learning is at least a three-step process: acquisition, encoding, and retrieval.

That’s why learning by doing is much more powerful than learning by watching. These platforms will help you create and sell learner-centric courses that help your customers master the skill you teach.

1) Teachfloor

Teachfloor combines all the tools you need to build a cohort base course. The platform equips you with a curriculum builder, Zoom and Stripe integrations, e-mail automation, a course landing page, calendar scheduling, on-demand videos, and peer-review opportunities.

Teachfloor offers a vast course creator academy with 24/7 support in 50+ countries. With more than 3,000 clients, Teachfloor belongs to the more seasoned platforms.

After a 14-day free trial, pricing starts at $49 a month (billed annually).

Screenshot of Teachfloor’s landing page by the author.

2) Maven

Maven is a very new cohort-based course platform started by the founders of Udemy, altMBA, and Socratic.

In a podcast interview, Maven co-founder Gagan Biyani shared how they aim to revolutionize education and replace universities with a more individualized approach to education.

Pricing is not displayed on their website. If you want to create a cohort-based course on their platform, you must apply to their course accelerator. In an intense 3-week program, you build and get feedback from a cohort of top-notch instructors and coaches.

Screenshot of Maven’s landing page by the author.

3) Virtually

Virtually provides all tools you need to run your online learning program in a single place.

Features include analytics, life conferencing, payment processing, calendar management, auto-attendance tracking, assignments and grading, student records, and content libraries. Plus, Virtually has integrations with Zoom, Slack, Stripe, Google Sheets, Airtable, Circle, Zapier, and Google Calendar.

According to their website, creators such as Ali Abdaal and Tiago Forte built their courses with Virtually.

If you join the beta, pricing is $50 a month for your first 250 students and $0.25/month for each additional learner.

Screenshot of Virtually’s landing page by the author.

4) Graphy

Similar to Teachfloor, Graphy is an all-in-one platform to help you set up your live courses, grow your community, and monetize your knowledge without any barriers.

Yet, Graphy doesn’t include features or integrations for asynchronous communication. Instead, they built a tool similar to Zoom that can be used for online live teaching.

The platform doesn’t charge upfront. They make money only when you make money with a flat 5% platform fee only on successful enrolments in your courses.

Screenshot of Graphy’s landing page by the author.

5) Classcamp

Classcamp is a mobile-first, interactive learning platform for creators. Unlike the other platforms, your brand will serve as the center for the learning experience.

Features include the option for pre-recorded or live lessons, fan assignments, submissions, and reaction videos.

The platform launches in September, but you can already sign up on their website.

Screenshot of Classcamp’s landing page by the author.

Excluded Platforms

While researching this article, I stumbled upon a few sites that were recommended as cohort-based-course platforms. Yet, upon further review, I found these sites to be misleading.

Airschool

Airschool is a course creation tool. As a creator, you start a landing page and launch with them, then share the link with your community. Initially, I found their claim to “Sell Courses, Make Money!” a bit sketchy, but the team reached out and clarified all my doubts. The tool is free to use but charges 9.90% of the product’s price if it’s priced higher than $30.

Airtribe

Airtribe aims to help the world’s top instructors start cohort-based courses which are live, engaging, and community-driven. While the claim sounds promising, the platform is very early-stage, and it’s not clear how Airtribe intends to achieve its goal.

Disco

Founded in 2020, Disco helps creators build live learning experiences. It comes with integrations to Stripe, Mailchimp, and Zoom. From their website, the exact features and the pricing are not listed yet. Similar to Maven, you can apply to get creator access to build your own course.

Eduflow

Eduflow is a well-established collaborative learning platform. I didn’t include their solution in the list, as they targeted higher education and corporate training. For example, they don’t have payment provider integrations, and you’d have to go with the $400/mo subscription to add your personal branding to the course.

TopHat

Founded in 2009, TopHat provides an all-in-one teaching platform purpose-built to motivate, engage and connect with students. TopHat offers interesting features (e.g., interactive textbooks, simulations, testing as a tool) but is targeted at higher education institutions.

Conclusion

Most educational video content is available free — learners watch content on YouTube 500 million times every day. But while the means for learning online are abundant, community-based experiences are scarce.

The list of online creators who successfully scaled their business by running cohort-based courses is long:

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

How Cohort Based Courses Can Help You Master Any Skill You Want

by

MOOCs are dead. Here’s what’s next.

Photo by Joshua Sortino on Unsplash

Having access to content is not enough to master a subject. Learners ace a skill via direct practice of the skill they’re trying to master.

In 2011, people believed massive open online courses, so-called MOOCs, would revolutionize online learning.

Yet, data from Harvard University and MIT revealed three devastating data points against these courses:

  1. Completion rates. Only three to four percent complete MOOCs — a rate that hasn’t improved in the past six years.
  2. Retention. Only seven percent of MOOC learners start another course after their first year.
  3. Accessibility. While MOOCs promised to bring high-quality education to all corners of the world, only 1.43 percent come from countries classified as “low” in the Human Development Index.

As a result, the future of education doesn’t belong to MOOCs any longer. Instead, a new model emerged. Whether you’re a content creator or a lifelong learner — here’s how Cohort-Based Courses can help you master any skill.

What are Cohort-Based Courses?

In Cohort Based Courses, so-called CBCs, a student group moves at the same pace through the same curriculum. Typically, CBCs include a mix of life lessons, remote assignments, and peer learning.

If you ever attended school, you’re familiar with cohort-based education. Schools and universities rely on cohort learning models — students take the same lecture, assignments, and tests simultaneously.

Both have in common that you don’t pay for the content’s quality. Studying with free videos can teach you as much as attending universities or CBCs. What you pay for is the likelihood of completing the learning track and achieving the desired outcome (e.g., land a job or acquire a specific skill).

Why CBCs Are Better Than MOOCs

Socrates tutored two learners at a time; a MOOC scaled learning up to 100,000. With CBCs, the teacher-student ratio increases, and relationships are at the core of the learning process again.

If you want to master a skill, access to instructors will help you stick with the course.

A study found interaction with instructors affects MOOC learner retention directly. CBCs use online tools like Zoom or Slack to give feedback and help students complete the course.

“Active learning works, and social learning works,” said Anant Agarwal, founder, and chief executive of edX, in an interview with the New York Times.

Seth Godin’s altMBA, a cohort-based online MBA, supports this fact with a completion rate of 96%. Other CBCs report, the completion rate is up to 85%.

Building relationships with instructors and peers, plus the limited time factor, is a way to force yourself to complete a course. Through more teacher-student and student-student touchpoints, you’re more likely to hold yourself accountable.

The Distinctive Learning Features

There’s more to CBCs than the tutoring and completion ratio: collaboration and community.

While you go through the course, you interact with your peers. Thus, learning is not one-directional (teacher to student) but also bi-directional (student to student).

Through regular collaboration, you form a community. You network with like-minded people from across the globe. As you follow the same learning goal, these relationships can be very powerful.

If you join a community of future data scientists, this network can give you access to opportunities and resources in the future that will enhance your career.

How You Can Distinguish Average from Great

You don’t absorb information and knowledge by consuming content. Instead, learning is at least a three-step process — you acquire, encode, and retrieve.

Learning by doing is much more powerful than learning by watching. When you pick a course, evaluate whether the curriculum design will help you achieve your desired outcome. Here are key features to look out for:

  • Real-time feedback on learning progress.
  • Assignments that are directly linked to your desired skill.
  • Structured access to a subject-specific community.
  • Evidence-based learning design, e.g., spaced repetition features and testing mechanisms.

7 Promising Cohort-Based-Courses

Here are seven courses you might want to consider:

  1. Career Advancement
    Reforge teaches the systems and frameworks that help you take the next step in your career. CBCs include product management, marketing, and growth strategies.
  2. Writing (Beginner level)
    Ship 30 for 30 teaches online writing through active learning. You will establish a writing and publishing routine with 500+ other writers.
  3. Writing (Advanced level)
    Write of Passage helps you develop a process for cultivating ideas and distilling them into writing.
  4. Knowledge Management
    Building your Second Brain can support you in saving your best ideas, organizing your learning, and expanding your creative output.
  5. Video Creation
    Minimum Viable Video is a 5-week live cohort that helps you creating and publishing professional videos that move the needle.
  6. EdTech, NoCode, Deep Tech, Scale, and More
    In 2021 Be On Deck launches 120 cohorts of 25 programs. They attract top talent to accelerate your ideas and careers, surrounded by a world-class community.
  7. Youtube
    The Part-Time YouTuber Academy teaches you how to grow your YouTube channel from 0 to 100,000+ subscribers and transform it into a sustainable, income-generating machine while keeping your day job.

In Conclusion

In a podcast interview on the future of education, Udemy founder Gagan Biyani stated how in 2009, nobody believed in online learning. Since then, everything has changed.

Apart from MOOCs, like EdX or Coursera, other EdTech solutions emerged. Platforms like Udemy or Skillshare created marketplaces for online education. Teachers competed with keywords and content and shared their earnings with the platform.

Then followed a third iteration: direct-to-customer solutions, such as Teachable, Kajabi, and Podia. On these platforms, online educators bring their own audience while keeping most of the revenue.

The new iteration towards CBCs is more student-focused than any previous solution, and it’s one of the most effective ways to master skills online:

  • Accountability through communities and instructors helps learners follow through when things get hard.
  • Because CBCs are outcome-focused (e.g., mastering a skill, landing a job, growing an audience) instructors focus on the how instead of the why.
  • CBCs help learners build skill-relevant communities that will support them in their future endeavors.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

3 Promising Opportunities to Teach Your Kids From Home

by

These organizations innovate homeschooling.

Photo by Marga Santoso on Unsplash

“What is most important and valuable about the home as a base for children’s growth into the world is not that it is a better school than the schools,” educational theorist John Holt said, “but that it isn’t a school at all.”

Holt argued schools work as oppressive environments and turned kids into compliant employees. And that’s how in the 1970s, the modern homeschooling movement began.

The debate is still ongoing, and many people argue schools enforce and prioritize compliance and consumption over critical thinking and creativity.

Learning in home education is often less formal and more personalized than school education — ranging from traditional school lessons to free forms such as unschooling.

Reasons for homeschooling vary from better educational opportunities, a healthier learning environment, special needs, or being the only option in remote areas.

Homeschooling is legal in many countries (e.g., Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States) but outlawed by others (e.g., Germany, Japan, Brazil).

Homeschooling legality Source: Fobos92 and Svenskbygderna

What follows are three organizations that rethink the way children learn from home.

1) Primer — A home for ambitious kids.

Primer is the world’s first community built for curious and ambitious kids to find and explore their interests together. Their goal is to “free the next generation of kids to be more ambitious, more creative, and to think for themselves.”

Unlike connected learning networks that replace core curricula, Primer is supplemental. To foster kid’s curiosity, the team offers various learning formats:

  • Clubs. Students collaborate on projects such as writing, storytelling, coding, inventing machines, music, or nature.
  • Rooms. Live audio chat spaces allow students to experiment with new ideas, solve problems, and tap into their interests (e.g., debating, writing, puzzling, coding, starting a business).
  • Journals. In journals, kids can document their projects by creating and organizing blocks of text, images, videos, and links.

There is no set schedule for a day with Primer, as all their activities happen in addition to set curricula.

After a free trial month, Primer is $49 a month for the first child and $19 a month for each additional child.

Primer was founded by Ryan Delk and Maksim Stepanenko, who both have been homeschooled. Previously, they helped build companies like SpaceX, Square, Gumroad, Lyft, and Coinbase.

“We studied the American Revolution by driving to historic locations in the original 13 colonies and crawled through cardboard tubes to learn how the digestive system works.”

— Ryan Delk, Co-Founder of Primer

Screenshot of Primer Landing Page

2) Outschool — Where kids love learning.

Outschool online marketplace of virtual classes for children aged 3–18. Outschool’s goal is to engage and inspire learning through various classes and subjects.

The platform offers kids the opportunity to explore their interests in-depth with interactive classes taught via live video by experienced, independent teachers.

Like Primer, Outschool doesn’t suggest a fully-fledged curriculum. Instead, the platform offers more than 100,000 live lessons to more than 900,000 learners in 174 countries.

Pricing starts with $10 a course, and the most expensive multi-week course I found on the platform costs about $75.

The platform was founded by Amir Nathoo, who is a former investor and holds various patents.

“If we just stick to the core curriculum, then it is very difficult for kids to develop differentiated skills. More of the school day needs to be spent on kids pursuing their interests with the benefit of increased autonomy and self-direction — with this, kids’ motivation to learn can increase. There’s going to be so much change in technology and society in the next 10 years, I think we will head in a direction of hybrid core + self-directed.”

— Amir Nathoo, Founder of Outschool

Screenshot of Outschool Landing Page

3) Synthesis — Where kids become
problem-solvers.

Synthesis started as a school spin-off from Elon Musk’s AdAstra school. As of now, it’s a weekly, 1-hour enrichment program for students who want to learn how to build the future.

They offer a simulation-based learning experience built around complex team games. Students work through case studies, simulations, and game-based challenges.

Synthesis doesn’t design simulations for content but the experience. Simulations are complex and have no right answers. For example, 18–20 kids work in groups with one facilitator. But facilitators don’t lecture. Instead, the student groups explore and learn game rules on their own.

The idea of the simulations is to change the way kids approach real-life problems and prepare them to navigate the complexity and chaos that comes with life.

While playing, kids teach themselves how to win. In the process, they learn new problem-solving skills. Here are two game examples:

  • Art for All. Students compete in an auction game for the best art exhibits. The simulation covers negotiation and covers mental models such as auction theory and the winner’s curse.
  • Fire! In this collaborative game, students fight forest fires with varying conditions. It covers mental models such as positive-sum vs. zero-sum games.

Pricing is $180 per month, and a sibling discount is available.

Synthesis is led by Chrisman Frank. On a visit to Elon Musk’s AdAstra school, he fell in love with Synthesis.

In 2020, Frank convinced the AdAstra principal and his former colleague Josh Dahn to spin-off Synthesis as a for-profit company. Frank’s vision was to scale the learning software and develop a generation of super thinkers.

“When mistakes are not penalized, people are more likely to just keep trying. And if you keep trying, then naturally, you have more chances of eventually succeeding.”

— Ana Fabrega, Chief Evangelist at Synthesis

Screenshot of Synthesis Landing Page

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

9 Influencers Worth Following That Tweet About the Future of Learning

by

A curated list of inspiring edupreneurs.

Created by the author via Canva.

Anything you read, watch or listen to shapes your thoughts. Hence, it’s worth paying attention to what you consume online.

I left teaching in Summer 2020 to make education fairer and better for as many learners as possible. Parts of what I do now includes connecting and reporting about education transformation.

Here’s a selection of thinkers who inspire me through their thoughts and projects on the future of learning.

1) Salman Khan

Salman Khan is the American educator who founded Khan Academy. His online education videos have been viewed more than 1.8 billion times. On Twitter, he shares ideas about bridging the digital divide and education transformation.

“Shying away from something where you are well suited to make a positive impact — especially because it is risky or can draw criticism or unwanted attention — is just as damaging as not realizing areas where your actions are counterproductive.”

— Salman Khan

2) Alain Chuard

Alain is the Founder & CEO of Prisma, a connected learning network that fully replaces regular school. Prisma didn’t transfer the core curriculum to the online world but created its own learning framework. On Twitter, Alain shares ideas on how to create learner-centric online schools./media/4dc1ab9cd7b5e747464e2f6d1a17abea

3) Richard Culatta

Richard is the CEO of ISTE — a community of global educators who believe in the power of technology to transform teaching & learning. He recently published the book ‘Digital for Good: Raising Kids to Thrive in an Online World’ and is a popular speaker on EdTech and innovation. On Twitter, he shares opinions on the digital divine and responsible device usage.

4) Ana Lorena Fabrega

Ana Lorena left teaching in 2019 to explore alternatives to traditional education. She’s now the Chief Evangelist at Synthesis, an online program partly initiated by Elon Musk. I love her Fab Friday newsletter, where she explores the future of education./media/57742cf1e5f6d6fdf684a7ed93cf0da0

5) Jelmer Evers

Jelmer is a history teacher, author and was nominated twice for the Global Teacher Prize. He is currently building an international teacher leadership network. If you understand Dutch, you can follow him on Twitter. Alternatively, watch his TEDx talk on flipping the education system.

6) Vlad Stan

Vlad is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of Galileo — a global learning community for 8 to 18-year-olds. At its core, Galileo strives for self-directed (the freedom to choose what you want to learn) and self-organized (the freedom to design your daily schedule) education. Vlad tweets about homeschooling and EdTech./media/90cc016a4213594bfd498a8af5345e52

7) Saku Tuominen

Saku is the founder of HundrED — a not-for-profit organization that seeks and shares innovations in K12 education. I love to be inspired through their yearly global collection. Saku isn’t very active on Twitter, so instead, you might want to explore innovations curated by his company.

8) Wes Kao

Wes co-founded Maven, a platform for cohort-based courses. While MOOCs completion rate is just 3 to 6 percent, CBCs aim to improve completion rates through active, synchronous, hands-on learning. Wes published an excellent article on a16z and tweets about learning and thinking./media/98a3c16f3957046274b53bcbe649d16d

9) Jo Boaler

Jo is a professor of Mathematics education at the Standford Graduate School of Education and co-founder of youcubed. During my two years as a full-time Math teacher, her books drastically improved my teaching. On Twitter Jo shares insights on the growth mindset and mathematics.

“A lot of scientific evidence suggests that the difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is not the brains they were born with, but their approach to life, the messages they receive about their potential, and the opportunities they have to learn.”

— Jo Boaler

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

How Connected Learning Networks Shape the Future of Education

by

Learning innovation with Sora, Galileo, and Prisma.

Image created by Eva Keiffenheim via Canva.

Education visionary Sir Ken Robinson once said:

“Our task is to educate their (our students) whole being so they can face the future. We may not see the future, but they will and our job is to help them make something of it.”

Yet, many kids grow up in an education system that stems from the industrialized age. Most schools batch children by age and expect them to learn at the same speed with the same means.

Connected Learning Networks follow a new paradigm. The approach to learning is defined as “learning that is socially connected, interest-driven, and oriented towards educational, economic, or political opportunity.”

Here are three schools that build on Connected Learning Networks and how they might shape the future of education:

1) Sora — High school built for you

Sora is a virtual high school that aims to accelerate students toward their wildest dreams.

Teachers are no longer teachers who deliver lectures but so-called guides who challenge students, structure individual curricula, and facilitate learning.

Sora offers various learning formats:

  • Independent projects. Students follow their learning interests (e.g., computer science or 18th-century Victorian fashion) and work towards their project goal.
  • Learning expeditions. Live learning sessions (e.g., saving the coral reef and shellfish industry) happen three days a week. These expeditions have deliverables, and students are assessed based on a mastery scale.
  • Career tracks. Learning advisors help students design their school experience around their desired career track, e.g., engineering, design, or health sciences.

Here’s what a typical schedule at Sora looks like:

A Day at Sora
9:30am daily standup on discord
10:00am project work (e.g. programming a game or writing a book) 
11:00am first learning expedition (e.g. history of buddhism)
12:00pm lunch break
12:45pm second learning expedition (e.g. saving the coral reef)
3:00pm afternoon checkpoint
4:30pm 1-on-1 check-in with experts to work through questions
5:00pm virtual club (e.g. movie club, school feedback sessions)

Tuition is $3,600 to $9,600 per year with flexible tuition options for families with a non-working parent or any extenuating circumstances.

The school was founded by Wesley Samples, Indra Sofian, and Garrett Smiley. They have work experience in venture capital, content marketing, as well as financial and entrepreneurship education.

Screenshot of Sora’s landing page.

I rate this approach 2/5 — Here’s why:

I love how Sora rethought curricula and moved away from a factory schedule. Their learning design can indeed foster self-directed learning enthusiasts.

What’s also great is the mastery-based curriculum where skill levels go along with learning science (e.g., 0 for exposure, 1 for recognition and recall, 2 for elaboration, 3 for application, and 4 for transfer).

Moreover, I like is their student focus. They state: “Schools suck because they are so far removed from the students that they serve. Our students know that we hear them, and though we make mistakes, they know that we all can learn from them.”

Yet, there are a few aspects that make me question Sora schools. First, their curriculum isn’t holistic. I can’t see subjects that focus on relationships, physical education, or arts.

Their site says, “relationships are one of the most important aspects of an education.” But a virtual book club isn’t enough to reinforce social skills.

Sora also lacks a clear roadmap to physical education. There’s the subject on an exemplary grade certificate. Yet, there’s neither a sports teacher on the team list nor a subject in their curriculum.

The online school doesn’t seem to offer art classes. It’d be great to take a more open approach to career tracks. Next generations need more than engineers, designers, and health scientists.

Sora seems like is the perfect school for parents who can’t wait for their students to join the high-achieving workforce.

2) Galileo — Online self-directed global school

Galileo is a global learning community for 8 to 18-year-olds. They offer live learning experiences and online courses.

At its core, Galileo strives for self-directed (the freedom to choose what you want to learn) and self-organized (the freedom to design your daily schedule) education.

Their mission is to improve the way we learn. Here’s how they do it:

  • Clubs such as Minecraft education, history clubs, coding, or theater clubs. These are ongoing teacher-led experiences where students connect and collaborate on topics of their interest. Students may join clubs on a week-to-week basis.
  • Nanocourses such as Logo design, artificial intelligence, space exploration, food innovation, or photography. They are 1-month project-based courses where the students learn a new skill. Students present their products during the final week of the course.
  • Bootcamps on game development, anthropology, or documentary making. There are two or three-month-long project-based learning experiences to inspire and give students a jump start on topics they want to learn about.

The school states the schedule looks different for every student, but here’s an example of how it might look like:

A Day at Galileo
9:00am daily check-in
9:30am 3D modeling club
11:00am Spanish club
1:00pm psychology crash course YT
3:00pm Math Khan - decimals
5:00pm Dance ballet

Their curriculum builds on existing solutions like Khan Academy, BrainPop, CodeCombat, Coursera, CrashCourse, or Duolingo. In addition, they invite mentors for inspirational speeches.

Tuition is $300 per student per month or $2000 per student a year (with a 20% siblings discount).

Kelly Davis and Vlad Stan founded Galileo. Kelly has taught in various countries throughout Asia, and Vlad is a serial entrepreneur.

Screenshot of Galileo’s landing page.

I rate this approach 3/5 — Here’s why:

The school’s founders share a noble motivation: “ We want you to be obsessed — or at least passionate — about the topic you are teaching, no matter if your passion is related to the core curricula or it’s just something completely different you pursued on your own.”

Galileo offers a holistic curriculum that includes dancing, singing, writing, languages, coding, maths, books, science. In addition, they provide more than 70 live learning experiences that go beyond economics and business skills.

Unlike Sora, they add a personal layer to online learning. They have student-led check-ins and local dojos — small, local, in-person learning experiences. So far, these local communities exist in Romania, Japan, the USA, Kenya, and Portugal.

They give people the opportunity to individualize their kids’ curriculum, and their team shares a passion for lifelong learning.

Yet, I’m not sure whether un- and deschooling with local dojos encompass the future of education is. So, while Galileo is an interesting niche product, I can’t see how this solution would work at scale.

Galileo seems like is the perfect school for world travelers and digital nomads who want to offer their kids connected, self-directed, world-class education.

“We have to personalize education, not standardize it.”

— Sir Ken Robinson

3) Prisma — The world’s first connected learning network

Prisma is a personalized, full-time online school for 9–14-year-olds. They reinvent learning.

Their vision is to create the world’s most effective and inclusive Connected Learning Network dedicated to preparing millions of kids for life and work in the 21st century.

Prisma offers various formats to their students:

  • Peer cohorts. A group that meets daily to collaborate, socialize, and learn with.
  • Coaching. Learning coaches meet and assist with learning on a daily basis.
  • Live workshops. A selection of virtual workshops that focus on communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. According to their website, these workshops are optimized for engagement.

For students, a typical schedule looks like this:

A Day at Prisma
10:00am standup
10:30am independent learning routines (e.g. math, English, arts)
12:00pm lunch
1:00pm live workshops (e.g. debates, strategy simulation, writing)
3:00pm projects
3:30pm coach-learner 1-on-1 (once a week)

Prisma didn’t copy and paste a bricks & mortar curriculum to online videos. Instead, they’ve custom-designed their learning content.

Unlike other programs, this school places a focus on inclusion: “Each learner, regardless of disability status, develops an individualized learning plan along with their Learning Coach and family.”

They do so by adjusting individual learning plans, for example, through more structure or learning accessibility.

The school enrollment works in 6 x 5-week learning cycles per year and costs $7415 a year. In addition, Prisma offers financial support options to support 40% of learners in each cohort.

Prisma was founded by serial entrepreneurs and parents Victoria Ransom and Alain Chuard. They built Prisma as a quest to reimagine school and for their children.

Screenshot of Prisma’s landing page.

I rate this approach 4/5 — Here’s why:

Prisma mastered many aspects I missed at Sora and Galileo.

Most importantly, their curriculum is holistic. They didn’t transfer the core curriculum to the online world but created their own learning framework consisting of:

  • Foundational knowledge (language literacy, numeracy, history, technology literacy, and science principles)
  • Powers (creativity, critical thinking, communication)
  • Perspectives (global perspective, empathy & compassion, mindfulness)
  • Practices (collaboration, design thinking, reflection, discussions, self-care)
  • Mindset (self-efficacy, emotional awareness, purpose, growth mindset, ownership & self-direction, love of learning).

Prisma also mastered to include physical education in a virtual learning environment. They acknowledge the difficulty of physical online education but have found three solutions that seem to work for their students:

  1. Live dance, yoga, and fitness instructors
  2. Fitness and other off-screen breaks that encourage movement
  3. Fitness badges by joining athletic endeavors in their local community

Moreover, they relied on learning evidence and eliminated grading: “There has been considerable research showing that grades reduce kids’ intrinsic motivation and encourage them to do ‘just enough’ rather than their best.”

I’d be curious what students say about the rather big group size with 50–70 learners per cohort and 12–18 learners per coach. In an online setting, this appears to make personalization difficult.

While their site states they’re a global online school, admission is only open to anyone who can operate in US time zones. So unless parents want to mess up with their child’s sleep cycle, Prisma is instead a US online school.

Prisma is the ideal online school for US homeschoolers and kids who don’t like traditional schooling.

In Conclusion

The application of Connected Learning Networks is still very young. Sora and Galileo started in 2018, Prisma in 2020.

These three online schools point us towards the future of education — personalized, global, and student-centered.

Yet, we mustn’t forget the entry barriers. To provide fair innovative learning experiences, all students need equitable access to devices, reliable wifi, and a safe place to learn.

Unless we focus on providing these resources to all students, Connected Learning Networks will further increase the digital gap among income levels.

Want to feel inspired and improve your learning?

Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. I read a book and 50 articles a week, and each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

Elon Musk Disliked His Kids’ Schools — So He Started His Own

by

Is he quietly revolutionizing education?

Image edited by the author (Source: Duncan.Hull — CC BY-SA 4.0)

“So you want to keep your kids away from regular schools?” a reporter asked Elon Musk in an interview.

You know Musk’s mindset: If he doesn’t like something, he builds his own versions — cars, rockets, highways, energy companies.

Musk replied: “I just didn’t see the regular schools weren’t doing the things I thought should be done. I thought, let’s see what we can do. Maybe creating a school would be better.”

In 2014, Elon Musk asked Josh Dahn, a former Teach for All Fellow and his kid’s teacher at the time, if he’d start a better school with him at SpaceX. Dahn agreed. The school Ad Astra, Latin for ‘to the stars,’ was born.

Ad Astra School’s Two Core Principles

Musk reimagined education on First Principles thinking: boil things down to their fundamental truths and reason up from there instead of reasoning by analogy.

Instead of accepting the prices of rockets, Musk asked himself, “What’s a rocket made of?” He listed the components and calculated the costs. He found that raw materials were nearly 100 times cheaper. He decided to build his own rockets instead of buying some.

For education, Musk came up with these two principles.

1) Batch children by ability instead of age.

Regular schools batch children by age, assuming it’s is the most important denominator. Traditional school systems expect students of the same age to learn at the same speed. Musk disagrees with age segregation:

“Kids have different abilities at different times. It makes more sense to cater the education to match their aptitudes and abilities.”

2) Don’t teach to the tool. Teach to the problem.

Ever asked a teacher why you learn something? Most answers don’t go beyond you’ll need this..someday. If the relevance isn’t clear, learning feels irrelevant.

Learning to use tools is pointless and boring unless those tools help you solve a real problem. Listing the tools you need to take an engine apart isn’t the same as trying to disassemble the engine yourself. By doing the work, you see the tool’s relevance as you go.

This EdTech Startup Scales Musk’s Ad Astra School

A few years later, Chrisman Frank, Dahn’s former colleague at ClassDojo, visited Ad Astra. He fell in love with one part of the school — Synthesis.

In 2020, Frank convinced Dahn to spin off Synthesis as a for-profit company. Frank’s vision was to scale the learning software and develop a generation of super thinkers. Here’s how it works.

Synthesis is a simulation-based learning experience built around complex team games. Students work through case studies, simulations, and game-based challenges.

While playing, kids teach themselves how to win. In the process, they learn new problem-solving skills. Two game examples:

  • Art for All. Students compete in an auction game for the best art exhibits. The simulation covers negotiation and covers mental models such as auction theory and the winner’s curse.
  • Fire! In this collaborative game, students fight forest fires with varying conditions. It covers mental models such as positive-sum vs. zero-sum games.

In a recent podcast episode Chrisman Frank, Synthesis CEO, and Ana Fabrega, Chief Evangelist, shared details about ‘the most innovative learning experience.’

Replacing Lectures and Books with Software and Games

Lectures remain the dominant teaching method in most schools. But they don’t allow for dialogue, discussions, and disagreement. Instead of training students to become active thinkers, schools train them to become passive listeners.

Books don’t train for problem-solving. From my time as a Maths teacher, I remember ‘real-world’ textbook examples. But students knew I had the right solution in my teacher’s book. Reality is more complex than right or wrong. Most schools teach students to follow the rules as opposed to thinking for themselves.

Synthesis doesn’t design simulations for content but for the experience. Simulations are complex and have no right answers. 18–20 kids work in groups with one facilitator. But facilitators don’t lecture. The student groups explore and learn game rules on their own.

The idea of the simulations is to change the way kids approach real-life problems and prepare them to navigate the complexity and chaos that comes with life.

Students make decisions that have consequences and meaning. They have to understand trade-offs and analyze their choices where there is no binary answer — and the teacher doesn’t have it either.

Expectations Outside Students’ Comfort Zones

Fleas can jump 8 inches high, but when put in a closed jar for three days, they will never again jump higher than the lid’s height. Their offspring mimics their parents and settles on the same height.

A school system’s low expectations are like flea training. Low expectations are a glass ceiling for children and one of the fastest ways to fail them.

Synthesis claims to have in-built high expectations that make kids step outside of their comfort zone.

At Synthesis, there is no teacher to ask for the correct answer when things don’t work. The students know the teaching team trusts to solve these challenges.

Fabrega says children crave complexity. She describes after a while; kids feel comfortable with all the uncertainty. Synthesis teaches kids to feel comfortable being uncomfortable.

Using the Super Mario Effect for Faster Learning

As a teacher, I fostered my student’s growth mindset. I planned entire lessons around it and focused on praising efforts instead of outcomes. I showed my students mistakes help us learn.

Yet, the system beat me. When a kid received a bad grade, they felt demotivated. When mistakes mean you get a worse grade I can’t blame children for trying to avoid them.

The question is: How can you frame a learning process so you’re not obsessed with failure?

Mark Rober, a former NASA engineer turned Youtube star, explored this question and says games are the answer: “The focus and obsession are about beating the game, not about how dumb you might look. And as a direct result of that attitude — of learning from but not being focused on the failures — we got really good, and we learned a ton in a really short amount of time.”

Rober continues: “It feels natural to ignore the failures and try again in the same way a toddler will want to get up and try to walk again or in the same way you want to keep playing Super Mario Brothers.”

Other research attests to the power of game-based learning. Synthesis applied this insight. They reframed the learning process and created game-based learning experiences.

The result: fear of failure isn’t a problem anymore.

Fabrega says: “When mistakes are not penalized, people are more likely to just keep trying. And if you keep trying, then naturally, you have more chances of eventually succeeding.”

“The more we can gamify the process of learning, the better.” — Elon Musk

Did Elon Musk Quietly Revolutionize Education?

Elon Musk did his thing again. He saw something that didn’t work well and changed it. From being unhappy with his kid’s obsolete education, he planted a seed to innovate the education sector.

The idea that our school system was built for the industrial age and the need for a paradigm shift isn’t new. Schools teach to follow instructions when reality has changed. Yet, systemic change is slow.

Musk’s assets and influence enabled people to rethink and rebuild learning environments. Their aspiration to put students’ learning experience front and center is great. If only half of what the kids say is true, Musk’s initiative is doing a great job on this.

Ad Astra recently changed into Astra Nova. Their philosophy is honorable: student centricity, a value for individual abilities, praising curiosity, and encouraging problem-solving and critical thinking:

“What if students were taken seriously and their time well spent? Astra Nova believes in meaningful student experiences across age levels and domains.”

I couldn’t agree more — there’s no reason any child should not enjoy learning.

Want to join a community of lifelong learners? Subscribe free to The Learn Letter. Each Wednesday, you’ll receive the best in your inbox. This newsletter will make you find tools and resources that help you on your path to health, wealth, and wisdom.

How to Start an NGO from Home

by

An actionable guide for purpose-driven businesses

Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels

In December 2019, we couldn’t have known that founding a remote NGO would turn out to be the only way to bring an idea to life in 2020.

What started with a social media post from one of our co-founders turned into a fast-growing nonprofit organization with a 20 people team and a 28% user growth rate.

As we’re a digital match-making platform for equal educational opportunity, the pandemic didn’t harm us. On the contrary, we have a strong, growing demand from students with non-academic families and an even faster-growing supply of supporting mentors.

Our world needs more purpose-driven businesses tackling education, climate change, or other social challenges. And as this story will reveal, starting from home can be a great opportunity to found an NGO.

I’m one of the co-founders, and I’ve been working on the core-team since day one. Together with the other founders, we analyzed our story and came up with an actionable guide on how to remotely start and scale a purpose-driven idea.

1. Sharing the ‘Why’ and ‘What’ on LinkedIn

To start an NGO, other people first need to know about the idea. Simon Sinek’s classic golden circle is a great way to structure the initial social media post.

In this manner, our co-founder Kevin articulated his idea on LinkedIn. A post that eventually would reach more than 234.000 people.

“Being the first in my family to go to uni, I faced multiple headwinds as higher education was not considered to be something one should aim for and could afford. What started as an experiment ended up in six years full of studying and working in Cologne, Shanghai, Frankfurt, Bangkok, Munich, Lisbon, and Milan.”

After empathetically sharing the why — his personal, educational path — he stated what he plans to do to tackle the problem:

“In 2020, I want to further work on a platform that aims at building a community to connect those who want to study as the first in their family with those who already did it. Your family background should not predetermine your educational path!”

I asked Kevin how much time it took him to craft this post and whether he expected virality. “I thought back and forth how exactly I’d write what I mean,” he said, “but I didn’t expect to recruit an entire team for my idea.”

So while one can never plan the effects of a social media post, this example demonstrates the importance of clear communication. By putting some hours into crafting a meaningful, personal post with a clear why and an achievable what, it’s likely one finds people who want to join forces.

The quality of a post often increases in direct proportion to how much time we spend crafting it. That’s why it makes sense to put work into the initial message.

2. Gathering A Group of Like-minded People

A shareable and likable post is a great lever to recruit people who want to work on a solution. After his post, Kevin received countless comments and messages from people who wanted to support or team-up.

To capture the momentum, he created a closed LinkedIn group and added all people who expressed interest. In retrospect, this move was genius. The group formation turned passive bystanders into direct idea stakeholders.

Once in the group, I felt I was part of meaningful creation. And many others must have felt the same way. When Kevin suggested doodling a kick-off call, 30 people joined.

To structure the conversation, we used a collaboration tool like Miro. As the picture shows, we wrote down the vision, the required task forces, and a rough timeline.

Screenshot of Miro Board by Author

With a protocol follow-up in the LinkedIn group and the opportunity to contribute to the Miro board, all idea stakeholders started with equal alignment. Plus, the transparent co-creation set the tone for the next steps.

3. Building a Self-Selected Core Team

After forming a common understanding within the LinkedIn group, it soon became clear we couldn’t effectively work on a 150 people team. Kevin could have started a formal selection process. But he didn’t. Instead, the core team formed through self-selection.

In Germany, one needs 7 founders to register an NGO officially. But instead of starting a competition, the communication was clear: Those who have time, and the drive, will become part of the core team. Those who don’t will remain supports and receive regular updates within the LinkedIn group.

When I asked Kevin about the selection process, he said: “I think there were 3–4 people who didn’t end up in the core team. Not because we pushed them out, but rather because they didn’t want to or didn’t have the drive themselves.” Reflecting on the formation, he concluded: “Self-selection is really the crucial point.”

Self-selection made our team diverse. Since the core team formation, it’s been a key asset to have a lawyer, a techie, an HR expert, a visual wizard, a sales guru, students, business developers, and process and strategy consultants in our team. What unites us is the joint mission to tackle education equality by creating a scalable product for students with non-academic backgrounds.

Within the first 11 months since our launch, we bootstrapped the business. We didn’t need to pay for external services. Remote founding has the benefits of large network effects. As we bring 12 different circles of friends, there’s always somebody who knows a person with the skills required to solve our next problem.

4. Setting a Launch Date for the MVP

Once the founding team was set, and we settled on communication tools and regular touchpoints. We had a bi-weekly Saturday morning call to discuss our progress. Yet, three months in, we got off-track.

“We were in a phase where things got vague,” my co-founder describes. “We always tried to develop further, to improve processes, but at the same time, many people lost their motivation because we had been working for long without visible results.”

To regain our drive, Kevin set a launch date for our minimum viable product. With a clear going-life date in mind, our team got back on track. We launched a website, set up a mentoring process, developed marketing strategies, created content, and built a community.

Today, three months after our launch date, we’ve more than 200 mentors, 80 mentees, and crossed the 50 match mark.

Number of mentees, mentors, and total matches; Screenshot by Author

Struggles Along The Way

While many things went smoothly, there were three key obstacles along the way. Here are the things only hindsight can reveal.

#1 Implement Slack as a Communication Platform

For most of the early days, we had all of our discussions on WhatsApp. Many ideas were lost. We should have switched to Slack earlier.

#2 Protocols and To-Do Lists

As within many organizations, many of our meetings were unproductive. While the talk time felt nice, we struggled (and still do) to have a team-wide agenda, protocol, and to-do list system.

#3 Expectation Management

As there was no formal recruiting process, and all of us work voluntarily, we never discussed how much time we expect each team member to contribute.

Key Takeaways

Starting from home can be an advantage for building an NGO. It helps you find and team with people you didn’t even know existed.

It forces you to focus on finding a vision worth building instead of fantasizing about vague ideas on societal improvements.

After all, your idea takes off or sinks. To increase your chances of success, remember:

  1. A well-crafted LinkedIn Post (including why and what).
  2. The formation of a large pool of like-minded people.
  3. Building a driven, self-selected core team.
  4. Setting an MVP launch date to increase team motivation.

Starting and building an NGO from home can work. Yet, it also takes work.

But who’s gonna make it work, if not you?

8 Books Written by Thought Leaders Every Educator Should Read

by

“The skill I was learning was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand.” — Tara Westover

Photo by Joyce McCown on Unsplash

In early 2018, I started asking every educator I met for book recommendations. It’s one of the habits that has changed my mind. Since March 2018, I’ve read 116 books.

This list portraits my eight favorite education books. For each book, I included my favorite quote, a one-sentence summary, three key lessons, and reasons why you might be interested in reading each book.

Table of Contents
Inspiring Stories
1. Educated by Tara Westover
2. I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Rethinking Education
3. Prepared: What Kids need for a fulfilled Life by Diane Tavenner
4. Creative Schools by Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica
5. Mindset by Carol Dweck
6. How Children Succeed by Paul Tough
For Educators 
7. Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov
8. Mathematical Mindsets by Joe Boaler

1. Educated by Tara Westover

“The skill I was learning was a crucial one, the patience to read things I could not yet understand.”

— Tara Westover

The Book in One Sentence

An unforgettable memoir about a woman who was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom and, despite her extremely difficult family circumstances, managed to earn a Ph.D. from an elite university.

Key Takeaways

  1. Education can be a way out of the most difficult situations
  2. Whatever learning challenge you face, you can do it
  3. Life is a quest for learning; one is never done with it.

Why should you read it?

This book is not only beautifully written, but it’s also one of the most powerful success stories about higher education. You’ll peek inside a Mormon family and off-grit Idaho life. Tara’s story will motivate and stick with you long after reading.

2. I am Mala by Malala Yousafzai

“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”
― Malala Yousafzai

The Book in One Sentence

I Am Malala celebrates the importance of girl’s education and portraits of brave parents who fight for their daughter’s rights in a society that favors men.

Key Takeaways

  1. The more you learn, the more you recognize the value of learning
  2. Education empowers people to have confidence in themselves
  3. All of us should stand up for the importance of education

Why should you read it?

This is one of the books that might end up changing the way you think and feel. Malala will put your life into perspective and will make you feel grateful for the rights you already have. Moreover, you’ll feel the importance of global (women) education from the first to the last scene.

3. Prepared: What Kids Need for a Fulfilled Life by Diane Tavenner

“Mastery is when you become good at something, autonomy is when you have some measure of control, and purpose is when you’re doing something for a reason that is authentic to you.”

— Diane Tavenner

The Book in One Sentence

This book is Diane’s story about designing innovative charter schools, so-called Summit schools, that focus on the ambitious goal to teach kids what they need to live a good life.

Key Takeaways

  1. Summit schools build on the three key elements: Self-directed learning, project-based learning and mentoring
  2. Summit schools make use of technology to enable personalized-learning experiences
  3. Besides reading, writing, and maths, the school teaches skills like self-confidence, the ability to learn, ability to manage their time, and a sense of direction

Why should you read it?

Diane dares to rethink our current education model by asking questions like “What is best for our kids?” and “What should I be doing now for my kids?”. Exploring these questions, she draws on stories of her troubled childhood. With hands-on advice, this story has the power to inspire teachers, parents, and decision-makers.

4. Creative Schools by Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica

“Education thrives on partnership and collaboration — within schools, between schools, and with other groups and organizations.”

— Ken Robinson

The Book in One Sentence

A guide for transforming education so that kids receive state-of-the-art training and develop the skills they need to excel in our transforming world.

Key Takeaways

  1. Several elements of our education system are based in the industrial period, like batching children by age group, fixed teaching periods, sharp subject divisions, and linear assessment methods
  2. Creative schools cultivate curiosity, creativity, criticism, communication, collaboration, compassion, composure, and citizenship.
  3. In a new environment, expert teachers fulfill four roles: engage, enable, expect, and empower.

Why should you read it?

This book highlights not only current flaws in our education systems but also provides concrete solutions, like child-centered learning and real-world curricula. After reading, you’ll know what parents, teachers, administrators, and policy-makers can do to change our outdated system.

Pictured by Author

5. Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol S. Dweck

“No matter what your ability is, effort is what ignites that ability and turns it into accomplishment.”
― Carol S. Dweck

The Book in One Sentence

By distinguishing between a fixed and a growth mindset, the author demonstrates how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor is influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities.

Key Takeaways

  1. Mindsets shape whether we believe we can or can’t learn, change and grow
  2. People with a fixed mindset seek approval while those with a growth mindset seek development
  3. Role models from our childhood strongly influence our attitudes and ideas, yet we can change our mindset even in adulthood

Why should you read it?

This book is a must-read for every person looking for growth. After reading this book, you’ll be able to integrate a growth mindset into your life. For example, you’ll see mistakes as valuable learning opportunities. Studying this book can empower any educator to make positive changes in the classroom environment.

6. How Children Succeed by Paul Tough

““What matters, instead (of cognitive intelligence), is whether we are able to help her develop a very different set of qualities, a list that includes persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit, and self-confidence. Economists refer to these as noncognitive skills, psychologists call them personality traits, and the rest of us sometimes think of them as character.”
― Paul Tough

The Book in One Sentence

Based on scientific studies and data from existing schools, this book explores factors that affect the success of children and proposes a new way of thinking about how children learn.

Key Takeaways

  1. “Executive Function” is a set of cognitive processes that drive and develop persistence, self-control, curiosity, motivation, determination, and confidence
  2. Executive Function Matters More To Academic Achievement as it begets character and character begets success
  3. Stress, in the form of a traumatic childhood experience, has a bigger impact on education than poverty

Why should you read it?

How children succeed has been described as “essential reading for anyone who cares about childhood in America.” It’s not only great for educators, but also parents as it explores traits like perseverance, conscientiousness, and self-discipline as ways to succeed in life. After reading this book, you’ll critically question the “intelligence theory” and understand why some people struggle in school and later in life while others thrive and prosper.

7. Teach Like a Champion by Doug Lemov

“Teach students how to do things right, don’t just establish consequences for doing them wrong.”
― Doug Lemov

The Book in One Sentence

A hands-on description of actual techniques and tools teachers can use for classroom management and attention encouragement.

Key Takeaways

  1. Effective educators have a large variety of techniques at their disposal
  2. Structure and deliver lessons with hooks, check for understandings, exit tickets, and reflection
  3. Create strong classroom cultures with entry routines, do now’s and non-verbal signaling

Why should you read it?

While this book is rather classic in terms of endorsing teaching to the test, the techniques work. In my first year of teaching, many tools helped me creating a constructive learning environment and designing engaging lessons. Doug Lemov gives countless useful, concrete tips for beginning teachers in elementary and middle-school classes. If you want to get a glimpse of the content, take a look at this well-structured summary.

8. Mathematical Mindsets: Unleashing Student’s Potential Through Creative Math, Inspiring Messages and Innovative Teaching by Jo Boaler

““Mathematics is at the center of thinking about how to spend the day, how many events and jobs can fit into the day, what size of space can be used to fit equipment or turn a car around, how likely events are to happen, knowing how tweets are amplified and how many people they reach.”
― Jo Boaler

The Book in One Sentence

Mathematical Mindsets puts Dweck’s mindset research into practice by offering strategies and activities that show every child can enjoy and succeed in math.

Key Takeaways

  1. Quality questions, described as low floor — heigh ceiling activities, are a simple and effective tool for self-differentiation
  2. Encourage students to make and learn from mistakes, as errors are a necessary precondition for learning.
  3. Focus on progress instead of performance, place effort before talent.

Why should you read it?

This book is great for pre-service teachers, as well as experienced educators who want to encourage their student’s growth mindsets. I read many book books on teaching maths, but this actionable advice has affected my teaching in the most profound way. Jo Boaler offers more practical information than Dweck’s “mindest” and is explicitly focused on teaching and learning.

Do you want to stay in touch? Join my E-Mail List.