Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath is an award-winning cognitive neuroscientist, best-selling author and renowned keynote speaker with an expertise in human learning, memory, and brain stimulation. 

Jared has published 6 books, including most recently with co-author David Bott: 10 THINGS SCHOOLS GET WRONG (and how we can get them right)

Other books include:

⁠Stop Talking, Start Influencing: 12 Insights From Brain Science to Make Your Message Stick⁠

From the Laboratory to the Classroom with Jason Lodge and John Hattie 

Jared is the Director of LME Global, host of the popular Youtube channel, From Theory to Practice, and previously honorary researcher at the University of Melbourne and St. Vincent's Hospital in Melbourne.

Jared’s research has been featured in The New York Times, WIRED, BBC, The Economist, PBS's Nova and ABC’s Catalyst.

Social Links

LinkedIn: @jared-cooney-horvath

Instagram: @jared.cooney.horvath

It is increasingly clear that recruiting, developing and retaining teachers is a very real issue around the world. Dr. Rachel Lofthouse is at the forefront of thinking through how we might be able to address some of these challenges.

Rachel is the Professor of Teacher Education in the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University. She has established the Research and Practice hub, CollectivED: Centre for Coaching, Mentoring and Professional Learning.

Rachel’s research interests focuses on the transformation of professional learning through partnerships of scholarship and practice development. She is keen to find out how educational workplaces can both offer, and constrain, professional learning, with a current focus on coaching and lesson study and the inter-relationships between practice, well-being, professional learning and leadership. 

We also talk about Rachel's recent involvement in the Reimagining A Positive Direction for Education (RAPIDE) project designed to understand through narratives underline the enormous energy of educators to adapt to external disruptions.

Social Links

X: @DrRLofthouse

LinkedIn: ⁠@rachel-lofthouse⁠

As an elementary teacher by training, Dr. Gary Stager has taught students from preschool through doctoral studies. In 1990, Gary led professional development in the world’s first laptop schools and played a major role in the early days of online education. Gary is the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute for educators.

Gary is co-author of Invent To Learn – Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, called the “bible of the maker movement in schools,” by Larry Magid of CBS and The San Jose Mercury News. Invent To Learn has been translated into nine languages. Gary’s most recent book is Twenty Things to Do with a Computer Forward 50: Future Visions of Education Inspired by Seymour Papert and Cynthia Solomon’s Seminal Work.

When Jean Piaget wanted to better understand how children learn mathematics, he hired Seymour Papert. When Dr. Papert wanted to create a high-tech alternative learning environment for incarcerated at-risk teens, he hired Gary Stager. This work was the basis for Gary’s doctoral dissertation and documented Papert’s most-recent institutional research project.

Gary’s work has earned a Ph.D. in Science and Mathematics Education and he collaborated on a project that won a Grammy Award. Recently, Gary was invited by Fondazione Reggio Children to lead public seminars, and even teach children, in Reggio Emilia, Italy.

Gary was also on the advisory board of the NSF-funded project, BJC4NYC: Bringing a Rigorous Computer Science Principles Course to the Largest School System in the US. Gary also maintains the world’s largest archive of text and multimedia by Seymour Papert at The Daily Papert.

X: @garystager

Today’s guest has been doing amazing work in this areas alongside Peter Senge, Daniel Goleman and colleagues at the IB, through the Center for Systems Awareness at MIT. Dr Mette Miriam Böll is the is the Co-founder and Executive Director of the centre, as well as the co-founded of The MIT Systems Awareness Lab with Peter Senge. 

Her academic background is as a biologist specialized in the evolution of complex social systems, mammalian play behavior and philosophy of nature. Mette has a Ph.D. in organizational ethology and holds additional degrees in contemplative leadership and the philosophy and history of science. 

She uses her training in these diverse areas to research how emotions and feelings are transmitted in social relations and how the resulting relational fields in turn shape the larger systems human beings are parts of, with a particular focus on education.

Mette previously held a position as head of research at Metropol University College, a teachers’ college in Copenhagen and before that she taught neuroscience of emotions.

You can find out more about the Compassionate Systems Framework and upcoming trainings here: https://systemsawareness.org/introduction-to-compassionate-systems-framework-in-schools/

Social Links

LinkedIn: @mette-miriam-rakel-böll

Instagram: @centerforsystemsawareness

Professor Barbara Oakley is a Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Oakland University. Barbara’s research has been described as “revolutionary” in the Wall Street Journal. She is New York Times best-selling author who has published in outlets as varied as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Her book A Mind for Numbers, on effective learning in STEM disciplines, has sold over a million copies worldwide.

Together with Terrence Sejnowski, the Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute, Barbara co-teaches Coursera’s “Learning How to Learn,” one of the world’s most popular massive open online courses with some four million registered students, along with a number of other leading MOOCs.

Barbara has adventured widely through her lifetime. She rose from the ranks of Private to Captain in the U.S. Army, during which time she was recognized as a Distinguished Military Scholar. She also worked as a communications expert at the South Pole Station in Antarctica, and has served as a Russian translator on board Soviet trawlers on the Bering Sea.

Barbara's latest books:

Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn

Learn Like a Pro: Science-Based Tools to Become Better at Anything

Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens

You can find others here: https://barbaraoakley.com/books/

Social Links

LinkedIn: @barbaraoakley

Instagram: @barb_oakley

Nicole Dyson is a multi-award-winning educator and entrepreneur, and a global authority on project-based learning and youth entrepreneurship. With an extensive background in school teaching and leadership in the public education system in Australia, she is the founder of Future Anything, an award-winning education provider that works with 15000+ young people (and their educators) each year. Nicole also founded YouthX, Australia’s only startup accelerator program for school-aged entrepreneurs, and Catapult Cards, a design thinking toolkit for classrooms and corporates that donates 50% of its profits back to providing micro-grants for youth-led startups.

Future Anything was the winner of the Xero Outstanding Micro-Business Award at the 2021 Lord Mayor’s Business Awards and was listed as one of only ten initiatives around the globe realizing the employment and entrepreneurship ambitions of young people in the Prince’s Trust Group’s Report (2021) on The Future of Work. Future Anything was also the winner in the 2023 Business Champion Awards for Oustanding Education Services.

Nicole was listed in the inaugural 40 Under 40 for Queensland in 2023, as well as winning the ‘Gamechanger Award’, recognizing a person who has “re-written the rules of business to challenge, inspire and spark significant change.” She was also recognized in The Educator’s “Most Influential” list for 2023, acknowledging 45 educators significantly influencing culture and reform within Australia’s education sector, and was the recipient of SBE’s ‘Unsung Hero’ Award in 2022.

Social Links

LinkedIn: @nicdyson

Instagram: @nicdyso_ / @Future_Anything

X: @nicoledyson

Formerly Principal of an award-winning international school in the Middle East, and with a long and varied career in school leadership both in the UK and internationally, Matthew Savage now works closely with premium schools and school groups worldwide, helping them to use data wisely and well.

In recent years, he has worked face-to-face or remotely with thousands of educators across hundreds of schools in more than 60 countries, exploring the intersection of wellbeing and DEIJ through the prism of triangulated, "warm" and "street" data.

His keynotes and workshops have featured in educational conferences worldwide, including for COBIS, BSME, ECIS, TAISI, 21st Century Learning and Outstanding Schools.

He writes regularly for numerous, international magazines and blogs, including for Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine, International School Leader, School Management Plus, International Teacher Magazine, SchoolRubric, the International Schools Network, Diverse Educators, Teach Middle East and CIS.

He has been interviewed for numerous podcasts, including Teach Middle East, Flourishing at School, WISEducation, ISC Research, and Noonchi, for which he is a Thought Partner. He is also the host of The Data Conversation and Jack and Me podcasts himself.

Matthew is proud to be an Associate Consultant for LSC Education, in which role he coaches senior leaders in the UK and internationally, and also leads governance training with international school boards.

He is also fortunate to be one of the Editors of InterACT magazine, in which role he aims to be a lightning rod for the most valuable and least heard voices in the sector.

In addition, for the past ten years, he has loved being a trainer for GL Education globally, both face-to-face and online, through which work he continues to make and build connections worldwide.

Matthew is a passionate advocate for and ally of DEIJ worldwide, and member of ECIS’ DEIJ team and the Global Equality Collective; a member of the Diverse Educators network, and contributor to their 2022 book.

In this work, he helps schools both in the UK and around the world review their intersectional #DEIJ journey through the personal lenses of gender identity and disability.

Social Links

LinkedIn: @savageeducation

Web: https://monalisaeffect.me/

Email: [email protected]

It’s hard to disagree that critical thinking is an essential skill for young people faced with a complex and uncertain future. And yet, everyone from everywhere on the pedagogical spectrum says that they’re developing it in their students! 

So are they all succeeding?

What are the specific and explicit thinking moves that you are asking and guiding your learners to make? 

How does this also develop metacognition and self-regulation?

Roger is one of the world’s leading authorities on Philosophy for Children (P4C) and philosophical education. Roger trained under Professor Matthew Lipman, the pioneer of Philosophy for Children (P4C), and @DialogueWorks with Nick Chandley to provide P4C training around the world, and developing Philosophical Teaching and Learning. https://dialogueworks.co.uk/philosophical-teaching-and-learning-ptl-pedagogy-for-the-21st-century/

He was a founder and President of SAPERE, the UK charity promoting P4C, and President of the International Council for Philosophical Inquiry with Children. He graduated in Philosophy and Modern Languages at Oxford, and has taught at primary and secondary level.

Roger has spent the last decade developing Thinking Moves A-Z www.thinking-moves.com, a transformative scheme scaffolding critical thinking for both teachers and students.

Contacts

Email: [email protected]

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roger-sutcliffe-9557b817/  

Odunayo Aliu is an Education Specialist and Development Practitioner with experience in transforming the education landscape in rural and marginalized communities. She is the Founder of Bramble Network, a nonprofit organization that provides equitable educational opportunities to children and youth in rural and marginalized communities. Through her leadership, Odunayo has also been instrumental in the establishment and management of several EdTech and social enterprise initiatives, utilizing cutting-edge technology and community organizing to influence mindsets and cause societal change. Her ultimate aim is to democratise access to learning and transform education for millions of young people across Africa.

Social Links

LinkedIn: @odunayoaliu

Instagram: @odunayoaliu / @bramblenetwork

Dor Abrahamson is Professor of Secondary Mathematics Education in the area of Cognition and Development at University of California, Berkeley and a member of faculty at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Education. Dor has been pioneering a design-based approach to research called embodied design. In his Embodied Design Research Laboratory (https://edrl.berkeley.edu ) Dor and his team look at cognition and learning of mathematics through the body. As one of his fascinating articles from 2016 is entitled, Learning is Moving in New Ways. 

A recent book summarising research in this exciting area of embodied cognition to which Dor has contributed is linked here: Macrine, S. L., & Fugate, J. M. (Eds.). (2022) Movement Matters: How Embodied Cognition Informs Teaching and Learning: https://edrl.berkeley.edu/lab-blog-posts/macrine-s-l-fugate-j-m-eds-2022-movement-matters-how-embodied-cognition-informs-teaching-and-learning/ 

Social Links

LinkedIn: @dor-abrahamson