Season 5 Premiere: Youth Perspectives — Laura Schroeder on Grades, AI, and Learning in Action
Laura doesn't hold back on what's broken — grades that serve comparison over learning, pressure that turns curiosity into performance, a system that asks students to wait until a doctoral thesis to rediscover the curiosity they were born with. But she doesn't stop at the critique. She offers alternatives: portfolios, rubrics, project-based learning, and AI used as a creative tool rather than a shortcut. She also makes a case for why student voices are the missing perspective in education conversations — and she's right.
- Personalization as a spectrum, not a switch
- The Knowledge Society: what happens when you give curious teens real problems
- Why grades exist — and who they really serve
- AI in the classroom: cheating tool or creative engine?
- Passion Fruit and the case for student-built solutions
- Laura's closing message: just talk to students
Guest bio: Laura Schroeder is a 12th-grade student in Bavaria, Germany, and a member of The Knowledge Society (TKS), a 10-month global innovation accelerator for teens aged 13–17. She writes about education on Medium and is currently building “Passion Fruit”, a platform to help students start their own projects. She has studied in both Germany and the United States.
EIP is now one of the top education podcasts in Asia and features conversations with educators, students, founders, and innovators from all over the world who are reimagining how we teach and learn. Host Eric Byron explores practical ideas and real-world examples from schools, startups, and learning environments — from AI in the classroom to project-based learning, student voice, and the future of assessment. If you care about where education is heading, this is your show.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/laura-schroeder07/
The Knowledge Society (TKS):
The Education Innovators Podcast Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551034804742
The Education Innovators Podcast YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLru4kYugzLerU1S8mQu2Jo2-jX6H_3kd3
The Human Intelligence movement:
https://www.humanintelligencemovement.org/
This podcast is produced entirely by Eric Byron.
You can contact Eric at [email protected]