Melissa Leighty, MEd
Melissa is an education content specialist with over 15 years of experience as a classroom teacher and deep expertise in education research and leadership. She holds two postgraduate degrees in education, including a Master’s in Educational Leadership. As Content Marketing Specialist at Learnlife, she writes about learner autonomy, wellbeing, and meaningful learning experience design.
The Future School: A thinkpiece summary
We recently posted about a hugely influential thinkpiece published by the UCL Centre for Educational Leadership, in which Valerie Hannon discusses the nature of "The Future School". Learnlife was included as a reference point in this study, but we found the overall approach to be of great interest and provocation for discussion.
Reimagining 2050: the learning environment in a VUCA world
Future skills and 21st century learning for a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world. In education, we are immersed in such framing and terminology as we develop learner-directed and purposeful learning approaches to support the emergence of a new generation who can actually thrive in the future.
Nature-based learning for literacy and numeracy
We have lost connection with our natural world, and taken a wrong turn somewhere. But for our children, we can begin to repair this and retake our place as part of the living world. And you know what? We can learn a lot of great stuff along the way. Here’s how we do it.
What Is Learner Autonomy — and Why Does It Matter for Your Child’s Future?
Why does learner autonomy matter in today’s world? Discover how building confidence, resilience, and self-direction prepares young people not just for exams — but for life.
Why we talk about learning methodologies
In discussions with our learning community we often hear the phrases “learning styles” and “teaching methodologies” used almost interchangeably with “learning methodologies”. These are not the same, though they can sound similar. Here’s why we talk about learning methodologies and why the difference really matters.
The neuroscience of unlearning
We had a lot of comments and discussion around our article on learn, unlearn and relearn. It seems that many in our community have personal experience around this process, and the diversity of these experiences fascinates us. So what is unlearning really about and why do we need to talk about it with learners?
As Learning Guides, are we truly ready for personal learning?
Psychotherapists go to therapy and surgeons rarely operate on themselves. As Learning Guides, should we not be asking ourselves whether we are truly ready to support personal learning? Just how deep does that role take us into our own sense of place and purpose?
Cultural diversity and the gap between schools and learners
Kristin Leong’s Roll Call project in 2017 was a stark statement on the diversity gap between learners and teachers. Conducted in the USA, the project looked at the differences between public school teachers and learners, and asked two questions.
Bringing Learner Agency into the Spanish Curriculum: A Case Study with Acesco
How can a school working within the Spanish state curriculum increase learner autonomy? This case study explores how a concertada school near Barcelona introduced project-based learning and maker spaces without changing the official curriculum.