Living to Learn: transforming education with Rachel Musson of ThoughtBox
12/16/20 • 62 min
How can we make learning a genuinely transformational experience? One that's fun, and inspiring and that teaches us HOW to think, not WHAT to think? Rachel Musson had given her life to asking this question and ThoughtBox is her answer.
Suppose we all learned three things at school: empathy, critical thinking and systems thinking... imagine how different the world would be. Suppose we learned how to think clearly, how to communicate, how to understand our own feelings and express them without feeling the need to trash other people just because we were hurt, or angry.
Rachel Musson, founder and educational director of ThoughtBox, a radical, new co-learning programme speaks of her journey to create the system, and how it's working - in over a thousand schools and fifty four nations across the world. Rachel believes in co-learning: no more lesson plans, but a classroom of peers who take the core of a topic and build on it together. The result is a flexible learning environment where everyone thrives, where each individual is given space and encouragement to grow to be the best of themselves.
Imagine a world where this is possible. Where it is happening. Where it is growing...
About Rachel
Rachel Musson is a teacher, trainer, writer and thought-leader on
sustainable education and wellbeing in schools.
Working for 13 years as a Secondary English teacher, Rachel has taught
students and trained teachers in schools across the world including the UK,
Ireland, Australia, Nepal and Tanzania. She is the Founding Director of
ThoughtBox Education – a social enterprise fostering triple wellbeing by
helping young people deepen relationships with themselves, society and the
natural world. She is the pioneer behind Changing Climates: a free climate
change curriculum currently being used in 1500+ schools across 56 countries.
Rachel is currently working with industry leaders on education reform policy
and standing as an international thought-leader on climate-change education
and triple-wellbeing in schools.
ThoughtBox: https://www.thoughtboxeducation.com
ThoughtBox Community Network: www.thoughtboxeducation.com/community
New free membership for global educators: https://www.thoughtboxeducation.com/teaching-for-a-better-world
Freedom to Think: Blog on the new anti-capitalist ban in UK schools: https://www.thoughtboxeducation.com/blog/freedom-to-think
How can we make learning a genuinely transformational experience? One that's fun, and inspiring and that teaches us HOW to think, not WHAT to think? Rachel Musson had given her life to asking this question and ThoughtBox is her answer.
Suppose we all learned three things at school: empathy, critical thinking and systems thinking... imagine how different the world would be. Suppose we learned how to think clearly, how to communicate, how to understand our own feelings and express them without feeling the need to trash other people just because we were hurt, or angry.
Rachel Musson, founder and educational director of ThoughtBox, a radical, new co-learning programme speaks of her journey to create the system, and how it's working - in over a thousand schools and fifty four nations across the world. Rachel believes in co-learning: no more lesson plans, but a classroom of peers who take the core of a topic and build on it together. The result is a flexible learning environment where everyone thrives, where each individual is given space and encouragement to grow to be the best of themselves.
Imagine a world where this is possible. Where it is happening. Where it is growing...
About Rachel
Rachel Musson is a teacher, trainer, writer and thought-leader on
sustainable education and wellbeing in schools.
Working for 13 years as a Secondary English teacher, Rachel has taught
students and trained teachers in schools across the world including the UK,
Ireland, Australia, Nepal and Tanzania. She is the Founding Director of
ThoughtBox Education – a social enterprise fostering triple wellbeing by
helping young people deepen relationships with themselves, society and the
natural world. She is the pioneer behind Changing Climates: a free climate
change curriculum currently being used in 1500+ schools across 56 countries.
Rachel is currently working with industry leaders on education reform policy
and standing as an international thought-leader on climate-change education
and triple-wellbeing in schools.
ThoughtBox: https://www.thoughtboxeducation.com
ThoughtBox Community Network: www.thoughtboxeducation.com/community
New free membership for global educators: https://www.thoughtboxeducation.com/teaching-for-a-better-world
Freedom to Think: Blog on the new anti-capitalist ban in UK schools: https://www.thoughtboxeducation.com/blog/freedom-to-think
Previous Episode
The Best of Times, The Worst of Times: Responding to Climate Change with Dr Paul Behrens
How bad are things really? Is it too late to avert the climate and ecological catastrophe? And if not, how do we pull ourselves back from the brink? Exploring answers with Paul Behrens, author of 'The Best of Times, The Worst of Times'.
We live on the edge of change - the facts can be terrifying, but the creative potential of our times is inspiring and just as jaw-dropping as the horrors of the reality we inhabit.
Paul Behrens is Assistant Professor of Energy and Environmental Change at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He has advised governments and his work on climate change has appeared in leading scientific journals, as well as on the BBC, in the New York Times and Scientific American. He's got a clear, un-sensational view of the way things are - and how we can bring ourselves back from the brink.
In our conversation, we explore the realities and the possibilities - and where we might go from here.
Next Episode
Birthday/Solstice Celebration: a new Anniversary tradition, with Della Duncan and Nathalie Nahai
It's our Birthday... and it's the December Solstice, the time of transition and potential transformation . In honour of which, we are crafting a new tradition: a PodBoom shared with Della Duncan of UPSTREAM podcast and Nathalie Nahai of THE HIVE.
So, it's our Birthday - and it's that time of year when every pundit endeavours to look back at the year just gone and ahead to the one that is coming. And we thought we'd like to establish a parallel tradition, where we bring together our favourite podcasting-friends and explore the ways we think. So we set up a structure that will be repeatable in future years... where we give each other gifts of a book, podcast or something else that has brought us real insight, and then we explore each other's existential questions. And we have fun. So that you can have fun too.
Della Duncan is a Renegade Economist who hosts the UPSTREAM podcast challenging traditional economic thinking and uplifting stories of sustainable, just, and equitable economic systems-change around the world. Della is also a Right Livelihood Coach, a Senior Fellow of Social and Economic Equity at the International Inequalities Institute in the London School of Economics, the Course Development Manager of Fritjof Capra’s Capra Course on the Systems View of Life, and an Alternative Economics Consultant.
Nathalie Nahai is host of THE HIVE podcast. Nathalie is an international speaker and author of the best-selling book, Webs of Influence: The Psychology of Online Persuasion, which has been translated into seven languages.
Her work explores the intersection between persuasive technology, ethics and the psychology of online behaviour, and clients include Google, Accenture, Unilever and Harvard Business Review, among others.
Nathalie gives keynotes, workshops and webinars on the psychological dynamics behind evolving consumer behaviours, teaching people how to ethically apply behavioural science principles to enhance their website, content marketing, product design and customer experience.
A member of the BIMA Human Insights Council, she also hosts The Hive Podcast, Seeking The Self and several Guardian podcasts, and contributes to national publications, television (BBC, Sky, CNN), and radio (BBC Radio 4) on the impact of technology in our lives.
From Nathalie:
Books
- Braiding Sweetgrass - Robin Wall Kimmerer
- Women Who Run with the Wolves - Clarissa Pinkola Estés
- Foxfire Wolfskin - Sharon Blackie
- The Abundant Earth - Eileen Crist
- Podcast: Eco Civ Podcast
From Della:
Books
- The Dangerous Old Woman: Myths and Stories of the Wise Woman Archetype - Clarissa Pinkola Estés
- Building Bridges, Not Walking on Backs: A Feminist Economic Recovery Plan for COVID-19 - Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women
- The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself - Richard Wolff
Podcast: Upstream Conversations that I mentioned
From Manda:
Books
- English Pastoral - James Rebanks
- Less i...
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/accidental-gods-95024/living-to-learn-transforming-education-with-rachel-musson-of-thoughtbo-10429841"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to living to learn: transforming education with rachel musson of thoughtbox on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy