Great Minds on Learning

In this final episode before the summer break, Donald Clark and John Helmer explore the rise of happiness and wellbeing as central themes in psychology, education, and policy. From Seligman’s Positi…

Learning at Scale, from Theory to Action.

This episode explores the thinkers who shaped organizational learning—how institutions learn, adapt, and evolve. From Herbert Simon’s decision theory to Argy…

The surprising modernity of medieval minds.

This episode explores the medieval thinkers known as the Schoolmen—philosophers who fused logic, faith, and classical learning to shape what would become t…

In this episode of Great Minds on Learning, John Helmer and Donald Clark examine prominent critics of higher education. Economist Bryan Caplan, linguist and ac…

Education's Ideological Battleground. Education is never entirely neutral. In our own time it has been increasingly seen as deeply ideological. However, whose ideology is being promoted – and does un…

From Babbage to Turing: the roots of AI. 

In this first episode of Season 7, Donald Clark and John Helmer trace the roots of modern computing and AI through six foundational figures—Babbage, Lovelac…

Revisiting Learning Theories: Insights and Challenges for the Future

In this special live episode of Great Minds on Learning, recorded at Online Educa Berlin 2024, Donald Clark and John Helmer tackle…

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, a…

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-em…

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 Learnin…

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 focu…

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 technolo…

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 anci…

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 previe…

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…

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 ultimat…

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 alternati…

Marxism and education.

This episode examines the impact on learning of a thinker, Karl Marx, who had a revolutionary effect on the world in general. In the name of Marx and his collaborator Engels, p…

THE FULL EPISODE DROPS ON 30/10/23

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