Rethinking Education

Episode 1 of the Rethinking Education Campfire Conversations. A series of fortnightly fireside chats spontaneous, unplanned group conversations to run alongside the podcast. Today's episode features a conversation between James Mannion, Kate McAllister, Kath Pratt, Sarah Fraser, Grace McAllister and Natalie Rothwell-Warn. To view the video, visit: https://youtu.be/13Isyk_MzgA To join the Rethinkin...

Professor Guy Claxton is a hugely influential academic, thinker and author of over 30 books on learning, intelligence and creativity, including Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, Wise Up, What’s the point of school, Intelligence in the flesh, Educating Ruby and The Learning Power Approach. Guy previously appeared on the Rethinking Education podcast, an episode you can access here: https://soundcloud.com/r...

Kath Murdoch is a well known and hugely popular teacher, writer, university lecturer and consultant who has worked for many years with teachers and students in schools all over the planet. The author of 15 books and numerous articles for teachers – including the best selling ‘The Power of Inquiry’ (2015) - Kath is widely respected for her work in the field of inquiry-based learning in which she ha...

Rachel Macfarlane is the Director of Education Services at Herts for Learning, providing the strategic lead for all education services to schools across all phases. Prior to joining Herts for Learning, Rachel was the Principal of Isaac Newton Academy in Ilford, in the London borough of Redbridge. She opened this non-selective all-through academy for 4-18 year olds in 2012, the school was rated Out...

Ian Gilbert is a globally renowned educational thinker, innovator, entrepreneur, speaker and award-winning editor and writer, who was listed by the IB magazine as one of their top 15 ‘educational visionaries’. Ian has authored many brilliant books including the Little Book of Thunks, Independent Thinking and Why do I need a teacher when I’ve got Google? - all three of which we discuss in this conv...

Adam Boxer is Head of Science at what he describes as a “great” secondary comprehensive school in North London, and a prolific tweeter and blogger. His blog, A Chemical Orthodoxy, recently tipped over a million readers, and considering Adam only joined the fold of bloggers fairly recently, that’s really quite impressive. As you will hear, this is the thin end of the wedge of Adam’s prodigious outp...

Ross McGill really needs no introduction. Through his alter ego Teacher Toolkit, Ross is something of a publishing powerhouse, with a quarter of a million followers on Twitter - by far the biggest following of anyone in education. A teacher and school leader with decades of experience, Ross now works as a consultant and has worked in over 200 schools, colleges and universities across the UK and ar...

Tim Taylor is a writer and freelance teacher who works on promoting and developing innovative practices in primary schools. He is also the author of 'A Beginner's Guide to Mantle of the Expert', an approach to teaching and learning that involves engaging the children in a process of what Tim describes as ‘imaginative enquiry’. Working with Luke Abbott and others, Tim has helped grow a sizeable com...

Kate McAllister is a force of nature, and a dear friend of the Rethinking Education podcast. Kate worked as a French teacher for 14 years, and has over 10 years’ experience in school leadership roles. She first worked on creating a Learning to Learn curriculum in 2005, with the aim of helping pupils develop the knowledge and skills they need to navigate the often-difficult transition from primary...

Priya Lakhani, OBE, is the founder and CEO of Century Tech, an award-winning Artificial Intelligence Ed Tech company. Century is the global leader in AI-powered learning tools for schools and families, working in dozens of countries across the world. She is also the author of a book called INADEQUATE: THE SYSTEM FAILING OUR TEACHERS AND YOUR CHILDREN, recently published by John Catt. Reviewing the...

Professor Guy Claxton is a hugely influential academic, thinker and author of over 30 books on learning, intelligence and creativity, including Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind, Wise Up, What’s the point of school, Intelligence in the flesh, Educating Ruby and the Learning Power Approach. Guy’s latest book, The future of teaching and the myths that hold it back, is a blistering critique of what is increa...

Kulvarn Atwal is the headteacher - or rather, head learning leader - of two schools in Essex, and the author of The Thinking School. Kulvarn completed his doctorate in 2016, His thesis focuses on the factors that impact upon teacher engagement in professional learning activities, with a particular focus on action research - a topic close to my heart that we barely even touch upon in this conversat...

The first part of James's interview with Ross McGill, aka @TeacherToolkit. Ross has worked in over 200 schools, colleges and universities across the UK, including schools in Belarus, Canada, Cyprus, China, Germany, Malaysia, Spain, Switzerland and the UAE. Known online as @TeacherToolkit, the ‘most followed educator on social media in the UK’, Ross has built one the most influential education webs...

Dr Ian Cunningham has published seven books and over 120 articles and papers on topics relating to education, learning, leadership and organisational change. His latest book is ‘Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm’ (2020, Routledge). Ian is the founder, and chair of governors, of the Self Managed Learning College in Brighton, a democratic educational community for young people a...

In this episode, James shares two excerpts from 'On becoming a person' by the pioneer of person-centred psychotherapy, Carl Rogers. The first is a definition of 'significant learning', a concept at the heart of the Rethinking Education podcast, and the second is an explosive speech Rogers gave at Harvard University in 1952, entitled 'Personal thoughts on teaching and learning'. A transcript of thi...

Dr Ian Cunningham has published seven books and over 120 articles and papers on topics relating to education, learning, leadership and organisational change. His latest book is ‘Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm’ (2020, Routledge). Ian is the founder, and chair of governors, of the Self Managed Learning College in Brighton, a democratic educational community for young people a...

Dr Debra Kidd is an experienced educator and a truly original thinker with some fascinating insights into what great education looks like, where things are going wrong currently, and how teachers and school leaders can work together to create a more hopeful, equitable future. She has taught in a range of settings across the sector, from primary schools to universities, for almost three decades. Sh...