By John Helmer
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The podcast currently has 42 episodes available.
Deconstructing Continental Philosophy's Impact on Modern Education.
At the end of the 19th Century, a split in Philosophy emerged that persists today. The Analytic tradition, led by Frege, Russell, and Wittgenstein, emphasized clarity, logical rigour, and formal methods in language analysis. By contrast, Continental theorists such as Husserl and Heidegger went to a very different place. They focused on human experience and took on broader cultural and political themes, giving us terms like existentialism, structuralism, post-structuralism, and postmodernism. In this final episode of the season, we explore the impact of Continental Theorists. What influence have these radical thinkers, whose writings often seem almost wilfully obscure, had on education and learning?
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Learning in the post-Freudian age
At the beginning of the 20th Century, fundamental assumptions about the nature of the mind and how it learns were completely overturned by a new set of ideas. Pre-eminent among the thinkers and practitioners who spearheaded a new field of study called psychoanalysis was the Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud. Following his death in 1939, Freud’s followers continued and developed his ideas, and psychoanalysis grew ever more influential, not just in the treatment of mental illness, but in government, business, philosophy and education. Though most of Freud’s theories have since been discredited, he casts a long shadow. But what do the psychoanalysts have to say to our own time about the mind and learning?
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Is the mind flatter than we thought?
This episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the ‘Performance Journey Goes Dutch’ conference in Ermelo, The Netherlands, organised by Xpertise Learning. Donald and John explore a group of theorists who are giving us a new picture of how we think and learn that is distinctively different from what came before. They’re the Connectionists, and they see the brain as flatter than was previously thought, constantly trying to predict what will happen next, and to improvise a response. But what are the implications for learning of this New Psychology?
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Second of a two-part series on the invention of writing and the impact of literacy on learning.
Last time, Donald and John discussed how writing was invented in the ancient world. This time the focus moves to the 20th Century, and thinkers such as Walter Ong and Eric Havelock who revived interest in the pre-literate world of oral culture. Their work raised themes that were to become ever more resonant with the rise of the internet and AI.
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First of a two-part series on the invention of writing and the impact of literacy on learning.
Our ability to learn from written texts is something we take for granted. But like every other technology that humans use, writing had to be invented. Notational signs used next to images of animals are seen in cave paintings from as early as 35,000 BCE. Actual writing is first recorded in Uruk (modern day Iraq), at the end of the 4th millennium BCE, but seems to have been independently invented in at least three other places; Egypt, China and Mesoamerica. It proved a pivotal moment in human history, marking the transition from prehistory to the historical record. In the centuries that followed, writing was to become central to learning. But the earliest uses to which it was put might be very different to what you would expect.
The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html Contact Donald
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Theories and critiques of leadership learning: the attribution problem and its consequences.
This episode, the first of a new season, our sixth, focuses on leadership. Leadership, thought since ancient times to be critical to the destiny of nations, has long been a feature of military training and elite education. But its arrival as a staple of workplace training was relatively recent. Donald and John explore the work of the thinkers who, from the middle of the Twentieth Century onwards, developed theories and critiques of leadership learning.
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John and Donald preview the upcoming season of Great Mind on Learning.
The sixth season of Great Minds on Learning begins on Monday 15th April 2024. Ahead of the first episode, John and Donald preview the treats in store!
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The theory behind generative AI as a transformational tool for learning.
This episode, the last in the current season, was recorded at the Online Educa conference in Berlin and focuses on Generative AI. Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, the learning world has been mesmerized by the potential benefits and dangers of this new form of AI. Unlike other forms, it can be accessed by non-technical people, in natural language conversations. Donald and John explore its roots in neuro-biological research, as well as the learning theory underpinning Donald's belief that it is potentially the most powerful technology invented so far for learning.
00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:00 - Introducing Generative AI 00:11:30 - Dialogue & Conversation 00:24:59 - Language & Learning 00:37:33 - Interface 00:51:31 - Engagement & Personalization 00:54:36 - Delivery of Learning 01:01:00 - Q&A
The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html Contact Donald X: @DonaldClark LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/ Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/ Contact John Helmer X: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack/
We don't need no education?
This episode explores the transformative ideas of three influential late 20th-century educational theorists. Each began with a flourishing career in teaching but ultimately left the classroom behind, driven by a growing disenchantment with the educational system. Their collective experiences culminated in an incisive critique of conventional schooling, sparking calls in some quarters for comprehensive educational reform. But compelling as their arguments were, did they achieve any enduring impact on the landscape of education?
The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html
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The pioneers of alternative education systems.
This episode covers a group of 20th Century thinkers and educationalists in both Northern and Southern hemispheres who developed a variety of alternative visions for schools. Inspired by enlightenment figures like Rousseau, and the German Idealists who came after them, they nevertheless reacted against the strict and regimented so-called ‘Prussian’ system of education that had become the mainstream. They incorporated ideas from the burgeoning field of psychology, and also, in the case of Rudolph Steiner, a strong element of mysticism.
00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:56 - Introducing Schools 00:11:30 - Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925) 00:28:48 - Maria Montessori (1870-1952) 00:47:08 - Alexander Sutherland Neill (1883 – 1973) 01:00:50 - Vicky Colbert (1948/9 –) 01:13:44 - Martin Burt (1957 –) 01:20:39 - Summing up
The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html Montessori bit.ly/38s6CiM Steiner bit.ly/2uMqkaj Neill bit.ly/2SSEv5A Colbert bit.ly/2wgY4wO Burt bit.ly/39FAHLU Contact Donald X: @DonaldClark LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/ Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/ Contact John Helmer X: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack/
The podcast currently has 42 episodes available.
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