: Unlearning the Rescue The next instinct is to rescue. A child struggles to solve a puzzle, or stumbles, and we step in to …
: Teaching tip: when planning lessons or activities, rather than starting with an explanation, think …
: We can start with a subtle but fundamental shift in how we plan our lessons. Instead of asking, “How …
: Unlearning the Urge to Talk To many educators teaching means telling. So we explain — and we work hard to explain well. David …
: What ties Paul’s thinking together is constructivist psychology: the idea that children build their …
: A Mentor and a Habit of Unlearning On the topic of student-centered learning, let’s shift to young learners. I first learned about the …
: Parkhurst in 1922. Minerva in 2012. Dalton X in 2027. Each asked the same question: what does …
: The Minerva Baccalaureate builds transferable skills across everything. The A-Levels build mastery …
: A-Levels have no required subjects. As a result, students are able to specialize in what aligns with …
: The IB and MBacc ask: can learners think across everything? The A-Levels ask: how deep can learners …
: The A-Levels are taken by 175,000+ students in 160 countries. Recognised by the Ivy League, Russell …
: Not every 16-year-old is still figuring out what they love. Some already know. For them, the IGSCE …
: We’re not just designing a school. We’re asking: what does a 15-year-old need to become someone who …
: Dalton X in one sentence: take Parkhurst’s freedom and responsibility, layer on Minerva’s learning …
: Year 2 at Dalton X: students participate in four three-month rotations at hubs around Japan and …
: Dalton X High School opens April 2027. The “X” stands for the unknown — variables, possibility, the …
: Kawaijuku — the group behind Dalton X — partnered with the Dalton School New York in 1976 to open …
: The History of Dalton Schools The Netherlands has over 400 Dalton schools — the highest density in the world. A century-old …
: Freedom isn’t permission to do nothing. Dutch educator Hans Wenke reframed Parkhurst’s first …
: The Dalton Plan has three parts: the House (community), the Assignment (a contract between student …
: Helen Parkhurst’s insight: give children real responsibility for their learning and they …
: “Let us think of a school as a social laboratory where pupils themselves are the experimenters, not …
: Ben Nelson: “We designed the curriculum, the pedagogy, the technology, the global orientation… to …
: Fully active learning works because it mirrors how understanding actually develops — through …
: The API feature of OpenAlex looks particularly interesting: developers.openalex.org
: New Research Tool: OpenAlex After years of development, this highly useful research tool has just been released: openalex.org It …
: I’ve outlined the basic components of each of the four core competencies. These are further broken …
: Most schools innovate by adding technology onto old pedagogy. Minerva went with first principles …
: Effective interaction, the fourth core competency, is how you negotiate, mediate, and persuade. Also …
: The third Minerva core competency is effective communication. Learning to think and write clearly or …
: The second core competency in the Minerva curriculum is creative thinking. Creative thinking …
: Attended my first international school event yesterday. It was an interesting experience. Over 4,000 …
: The first of Minerva’s four core competencies is critical thinking, which involves evaluating …
: Jensen Huang’s “task and purpose” framework: reduce or automate routine tasks like coding; humans …
: “The purpose of a software engineer is to solve known problems and to find new problems to solve. …
: How can we help students develop into leaders, innovators, and adaptive learners? Kosslyn and Nelson …
: In a fully active learning, radically flipped classroom, valuable and limited class time can shift …
: How is such a high engagement level attained? In short, via a “radically flipped classroom”. In a …
: What does fully active learning look like? We are all familiar with active learning. Fully active …
: Minerva students scored in the 99th percentile on critical thinking tests after just 8 months — …
: Differentiated Instruction in the Language Classroom My posts for Nat Geo Learning’s InFocus blog are up now: infocus.eltngl.com/2026/04/1… …
: A fundamental challenge in education: students learn content in one place and skills somewhere else, …
: Kosslyn’s diagnosis: higher education is too expensive, too ineffective, too entrenched to change in …
: Building something new What would a school look like if it were designed around how people actually learn? That’s the heart …
: Currently reading: Building the Intentional University Minerva and the Future of Higher Education by …