Coconut Thinking

In this episode, I speak with John Watkins. John has over thirty years experience in consulting, coaching, designing, facilitating, researching, and evaluating in school and school district improvement efforts. Currently, he is Co-Director with Jal Mehta, Professor at Harvard, of the Deeper Learning Dozen, creating a community of practice for superintendents who are committed to the transformation of their districts to support equitable access to deeper learning. In this conversation, we discuss:Creating learning environments based on biodiversity, replicating nature to bring out our uniqueness and strengths;How learning is an embodied experience that requires action to be deep, because without action, learning dissipates;Ways we can go beyond the system we know, beyond school to liberate possibilities for learning as individuals and as a collective.Check out this episode and visit website on www.coconut-thinking.design, where you'll find our blog, articles, resources, and links.You can also find our articles and podcasts as well as those of several wonderful authors on www.intrepidednews.com

This is a special episode of the Coconut Thinking podcast ahead of the World Education Summit, which will be held 21-24 March 2022. Charlotte Hankin interviews Benjamin Freud ahead of the 2 presentations he shares with Joanne McEachen on Contributive Learning and Curricula of Contribution, as well as the other presentation he will give on Portfolios of Impact and Contribution. In this episode, Benjamin speaks also about:How school is reaching the end of its life cycle;How learning does not exist without action and how we might want to direct action toward good;How ethics that contribute to a thriving ecosystem can bring us together in spite of our individual inner work.Join us for this special episode. The complete schedule for the World Education Summit can be found here.

In this episode, I speak with Jordi Diaz Gibson, co-Founder of the NetEduProject, which is an international interconnected community of leaders, educators and researchers that is growing, aiming to cultivate and weave local learning ecosystems to effectively respond to our social and planet challenges. Jordi himself is a system change leader, researcher, professor and weaver, committed to accelerating the transition into a more equitable and sustainable planet. In this episode, we discuss:How a collective consciousness emerges from our connection with othersHow social networks are important because they provide opportunities to belong and grow togetherHow the system hampers the uniqueness of the individual and the collectiveJoin us for another episode and check out our articles on https://coconut-thinking.design and Intrepid Ed News on www.intrepidednews.com

In this episode, I speak with Adriano Di Prato, founding partner of a School for tomorrow, a globally recognised educational network supporting students, teachers, and school leaders to thrive in a new world environment. Adriano is also the co-host of the popular podcast Game Changers. Throughout his work, he continues to commit to the emergence of young people under his care, actively promoting inclusion and learner agency, self-determined learning, growth mindset and holistic wellness of all students. In this episode we discuss: How we can consider the whole world a classroom, no longer tied to the physical space of the room itself; How every person, community, and organization (including schools) has is on its own journey, with its own essence; How we can continue to challenge a system in a world that has evolved and keeps evolving.Check out our articles and resources on https://coconut-thinking.design and also be sure to go to Intrepid Ed News on www.intrepidednews.com, where you will find articles from amazing educators and thinkers.

In this episode, I speak with Dwayne Matthews, who makes his second appearance on the podcast. Dwayne is a Chief Innovation Evangelist and Future of Education Strategist. He helps school boards, educators and parents understand new and evolving themes in the 21st century, the future of work and how to help prepare children to thrive in a rapidly evolving digital information driven world. I have thought about and written on the possibilities of the Metaverse and wanted to speak with Dwayne about his experiences and insights. He brings a richness to the conversation that is unparalleled and I'm hope this opens up more conversations about possible futures, which don't have to be dystopian. In this episode, we discuss: How the Metaverse and other technologies might put school as we know it out of business;How Dwayne and younger learners from around the world co-creates a (proto-)Metaverse learning experience.How being underwhelmed by what we buy (including tech) and do may be the way out of climate disaster.We hope you enjoy this episode and leave us your comments and read our blog on https://coconut.thinking.design.We are in collaboration with Intrepid Ed News. Read our articles and those of amazing educators and change makers on www.intrepidednews.com

In this episode, I speak with Ulcca Joshi Hansen, author, educational thought leader and social change advocate with a twenty-year career dedicated to shifting the foundational values and approaches that undergird America’s education system. She currently serves as the Chief Program Officer for Grantmakers for Education, a member organization that serves as a trusted partner for education philanthropists as they adapt to the changes impacting our world. Her latest book is The Future of Smart and she has a couple TEDx talks that are well worth a listen. We discuss: How this is the first time that employers want the skills that human liberatory models claim to provide (and Ulcca also defines what human liberatory models are!);How the thinking that got us here won't get us out of here: mechanistic/Newtonian thinking needing to make way for quantum thinking/ancient wisdoms; How blockchain and other emerging technologies are tools that might help us get to where we want to go, but they aren't the destination. Check out our blog on www.coconut-thinking.design and also on www.intrepidednews.com

In this episode, I speak with Dave Strudwick, Principal of REAL School Budapest. REAL School is an independent, not-for-profit international learning environment that educates for sustainability, primarily through real-life, entrepreneurial learning. Their mission is to raise a new generation who can dream and build a more beautiful, equitable and sustainable world for themselves and for all living beings. Dave's background has a strong Arts component to it and his insights on learning and how to set creativity free are rich and provocative. We discuss:How questions are more important than answers in nurturing curiosity;How learners of all ages can work together to contribute to the community and learn through these experiences;How transforming learning means working with, not against, the tensions in education.Check out our blog on www.coconut-thinking.design and Intrepid Ed News on www.intrepidednews.com

In this episode, I speak to Yong Zhao, Foundations Distinguished Professor in the School of Education with an appointment in the School of Business at the University of Kansas. He is also the Global Chair Professor of Education at East China Normal University, a global chair professor at the University of Bath in the U.K., and a Professorial Fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Education Policy at Victoria University, Australia.Yong Zhao has published over 100 articles and 30 books, including Reach for Greatness: Personalizable Education for all Children (2018), Counting What Counts: Reframing Education Outcomes(2016), and Never Send a Human to Do a Machine's Job: Correcting Top 5 Ed Tech Mistakes (2015).In this episode, we discuss: The need to cultivate every child's uniqueness and define success based on that uniqueness, not some external standard;How to convert our uniqueness into valuable contributions, which doesn't happen in most school systems—contributions go beyond compliance; How Entrepreneurial Product-Oriented Learning is the specificity that that might take PBL farther and deeper.If you like this episode, subscribe, leave us a rating and check us out on www.coconut-thinking.design.

In this episode, I speak with Ginny Whitelaw. Ginny is the founder of the Institute for Zen Leadership, a Zen Master in the Chozen-ji line of Rinzai Zen, as well as President of Focus Leadership. She is a recognized expert in leadership development and executive coaching and has authored 4 books, including The Zen Leader. A biophysicist by training, she combines a rich scientific background with senior leadership experience at NASA, and more than 20 years developing global leaders. Ginny brings ancient wisdoms and contemporary science together to make us question the dominant narrative of control in schools, the one that is built on cause and effect to reach outcomes. We discuss:How quantum physics and Zen wisdoms share the same understandings of an interconnected universe;How the mechanistic views upon which our schools depend are losing their legitimacy opening doors for regenerative, ecosystemic perspectives;How learning is a shared experience built on dynamic relationships, not just with each other, but with the natural world, through capacity building. Join us for this episode and check out our blog on www.coconut-thinking.design.The Coconut Thinking podcast is made in partnership with Intrepid Ed News (www.intrepidednews.com) and you can find Ginny and more information on Zen leader on on https://zenleader.global

In this episode of the Coconut Thinking Podcast, I speak with Andres Roberts, Founding Partner at The Bio-Leadership Project and Way of Nature UK. The Mission of the Bio-Leadership Project is to change the story of leadership by working with nature. Much of Andrés's work is around asking the question "How would nature change leadership?" This question is pertinent to all corners of society, but more and more so as learners become leaders. In this episode, we discuss:• How the mechanistic, reductionist narrative is become outdated;• What is it to connect to something more than ourselves, to do good for the whole?• Changing our definitions of success and progress by finding inspiration from nature.If you like this podcast, subscribe, leave a review... and check us out on www.coconut-thinking.design.This podcast is in partnership with Intrepid Ed News (www.intrepidednews.com)