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Natural Born Learners

Our Incredible Capacity to Learn and How We Can Harness It

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Natural Born Learners

By: Alex Beard
Narrated by: Alex Beard, Mike Grady
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Learning is the soul of our species. From our first steps to our last words, we are what we learn. Our education predicts how much we'll earn, how content we will be, even how long we'll live. But for all its obvious importance, learning has lost touch with human progress. We live in an information age, work in a knowledge economy, yet our schools are relics of an industrial era.

In Natural Born Learners, education insider Alex Beard takes us on a dazzling tour of the future of learning to show how we can - and why we must - do better. Weaving together expert insight, entertaining anecdote and intelligent research, Beard leads us from the crowded corridors of a London comprehensive to the high-tech halls of Silicon Valley, through the exam factories of South Korea to the inclusive classrooms of Finland to reveal that today we stand on the cusp of a learning revolution.

Tackling everything from artificial intelligence to our growing understanding of the infant brain, from the roots of creativity to the way classrooms can be unwitting engines of extremism, this book is a user's guide to transforming learning in the twenty-first century and roadmap to accessing our better future selves.
Read by Mike Grady and Introduced by Alex Beard
(p) Orion Publishing Group 2018 Education History & Philosophy Philosophy Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Social Sciences Computer Science
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Critic reviews

Readers should accompany Beard on his travels - not only because the subject of his inquiry is so important, but because after myriad engaging anecdotes and encounters, he arrives at some conclusions with universal relevance (Miranda Green)
Invigorating...one of the most optimistic, thought-provoking and ambitious educational books of recent years. Natural Born Learners is audacious, sassy, unafraid of big questions about what our children deserve and what our culture needs from education...bold and exuberant (Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders)
In this vital and vitalising exploration of the future of education, Alex Beard has written a compelling work of non-fiction. A meditation, a rallying cry and an inspirational call to cut a new educational path, this is an incredibly important book. As Beard powerfully illustrates, if we get education right for everyone then we'll be well on the way to solving so many of our other problems (Owen Sheers)
A timely and passionate book on the need for a global educational renaissance (Jane Shilling)
Lively and provocative ... Beard is inspirational on the capabilities of the brain. Fizzing through the neuroscience he encourages readers to admire the potential for learning in even a lowly slug, and makes a powerful case against the old ideas of fixed or hereditary intelligence (Helen Brown)
Fascinating (Fiona Millar)
A grand tour, looking for what works in an era in which traditional educational models bump up against acute societal change
A dazzlingly fast-paced journey through the classrooms and laboratories of the globe in an attempt to tackle the Big Questions of our age . . . This is a book that sets out to explore our deepest dreams and most profound possibilities (Melissa Benn)
Wide-ranging, often humorous and consistently fascinating, this is a book for all those interested in learning - a process that, as the author stresses, should be lifelong (Stephanie Cross)
By learning from educators on the vanguard all over the world, Alex Beard helps us understand what we need to do to ensure that today's children can shape a better future for themselves and all of us. We must prioritise and approach education in a totally different way to achieve this end, and Natural Born Learners helps us see the path forward
All stars
Most relevant
This books brings together the diverse education systems from around the world, making non-judgemental comment about the positive and negative impact each has on countries and communities.

Many people read this book twice as it is such a useful compilation of what works and what effects this has. As an educator for 25 years I suddenly realised where different styles and snippets that are put forward as best practice have come from.

The author makes the point, quite correctly, that there is no ‘silver bullet’ for learning; but that what matters are teachers who care.

I cannot recommend this book enough.

A fascinating tour of the world’s most impactful education systems.

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This book should be mandatory reading for any parent, teacher, pupil, politician and business man. Highly inspiring.

Amazing Book, should be mandatory reading

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This book begins with the philosophical Aristotle tale about the idea of people living in a cave who develop an understanding of their world through the limited experiences of a cave and how your world can expand through leaving the cave into the daylight and how our perceptions of reality and truth change beyond the limited understanding of shadows, fire and rock. This book that explains our understanding of education using a hierarchical model of learnt facts is similar to the model of the world seen in a cave and then looking at how we can change learning to becoming more in line with our modern world. This book fizzes with a wealth of ideas to support the notion that children are natural born learners who are inquisitive and want to explore the world. And learning begins from the very beginning and is an ongoing cycle. Then we go to school and the author plays with the famous quote that “man is born free and yet everywhere he lives his life in chains“ to “kids are born free, but everywhere they are in schools.“. However, our models of education are limited to another time, but we need to value our schools and teachers because we seem to give them little value at this time. This book rallies with the cry teachers are a very important part of our society and we need to value them as such. The book also wonderfully looks at new ways of teaching and is one of the best books on education I have ever read. Alex Beard goes around the world looking for different methods people are using that can be useful to all children. These include ideas such as building on teamwork, supporting well-being such as developing resilience and being aware of critical thinking and instead of just learning stuff, to understand how we think about learning and the world around us. At the end of the book Beard brings everything together with a number of beautifully observed observations and points including the following:
– we need to be creative
– we should develop teamwork
– keep an open mind and develop tools for critical thinking rather than just accepting any piece of misinformation going on around us
– Learning begins earlier than we think and we should foster that inquisitive nature that exists in all babies and young children
– learning goes on forever
– we need to use technology wisely and think about how we can develop our teachers to harness the natural born learning within all children (and adults).
I wasn’t very good at school but I had begun to learn once I left and haven’t stopped. It’s a wonderful gift and we should value our teachers and schools and education as one of the most important things we can give as a gift to both our society, world, future and children. As it says in the book “‘A society that doesn’t love its teachers, doesn’t love its children.’ What kind of society would ever say it didn’t care about its kids?
An excellent and recommended book to support learning from an author who is travelled the world looking at different institutions and come to some really interesting conclusions.

How we could learn

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This book has so much information and so many different examples and sources from a huge variety of educat systems! Very good and interesting read that displays many systems objectively with accounts from people involved with them, extracts from classes, and results.

Full of content!!

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