Keynote speakers

When instant answers are at our fingertips, are we simply trading long term skills for short term efficiency? In this keynote, Barbara Oakley takes audiences inside both the learning brain and AI to reveal a paradox at the heart of modern education, exploring:

• How the brain builds knowledge through neural connections and retrieval practice – and why the shift from conscious, effortful learning to automatic expertise is the key to genuine understanding.
• The cognitive offloading trap – how well-intentioned approaches, from AI-assisted learning to the “activity ratchet” in student-centred teaching, can create illusions of helping while undermining the deep practice students actually need.
• Lessons from around the world – including dramatic case studies from Taiwan, New Zealand and Singapore – showing what happens when education systems align with the brain’s architecture, and what happens when they don’t.

Childhood environments are changing rapidly. Compared with previous generations, many children now grow up in environments that are faster-paced, more information-rich and less predictable. From busy classrooms and crowded homes to the rapid tempo of digital media, children are surrounded by a constant stream of sights and sounds competing for their attention. Neuroscience suggests that these changes are not only shaping the environments children learn in but also how their attentional systems develop. Professor Sam Wass’s keynote explores what modern neuroscience reveals about how children pay attention and why their attention systems operate differently from those of adults.

Drawing on the latest findings, Professor Wass explains how learning environments can be designed to better match the attentional systems of modern children. He highlights the role of classroom design, and of teaching practice – emphasising the importance of repetition, rhythm and predictable interaction patterns in helping children sustain attention, regulate arousal and build strong learning foundations.

The session will equip participants with evidence-informed strategies to create calmer, more effective learning environments that support diverse learners.

AI can write essays, solve complex problems and generate lesson plans in seconds. So where does that leave the focus of education for our learners?

Professor Rose Luckin argues that we are asking the wrong question. Rather than worrying about what AI can do, we should be asking what kind of human intelligence we want to nurture alongside it. Drawing on three decades of research into AI and education, Rose introduces her framework of seven types of human intelligence and explains why most education systems focus far too narrowly on just one.

She explores why emotional intelligence, self-directed learning and thinking about how you learn, are not merely desirable extras but essential capabilities that determine whether learners can truly thrive in a rapidly changing world. With practical examples from diverse education systems worldwide, Rose makes the case for whole-person development, examines the challenges we must confront, and offers a purpose-driven approach to technology that enhances human capability rather than replacing it.