Give curiosity a reason to stay.

What we work on

Start with a learner’s question. Give it a worthwhile challenge. Offer the right support. Find out what the learner can now do.

• Begin with the learner’s questions. Connect the subject to something worth finding out, then help curiosity develop into deeper understanding.
• Give learners meaningful choices. Make room to choose an approach, set a goal and explain why the work matters to them. Some useful practice will be difficult; its purpose should still make sense.
• Stretch with support. Choose questions, examples, feedback or explanations around the next learning step. Teachers, classmates and AI can contribute different kinds of help.
• Create and explain. Make something, test it and learn from what fails. Use CEEL and the Pearl Necklace to explain the reasoning, and check what the learner can now do or understand.
• Learn with others. Build shared projects where people need one another’s ideas, practise communication and contribute to something beyond their own result.
• Make room for the whole child. Welcome difficult questions about emotions, conflict and the world. Help learners explore them responsibly and find ways to act without harming others.

Who it is for

Teachers, school leaders, teacher-training programmes and education NGOs.

Format

From a 60-minute lecture to a training programme over several days, in person or online. Our senior lecturers at the Academy of Critical Thinking (AKM) tailor the work to your setting and learners.

The thinking behind the workshop

What would learning look like if children arrived with questions they wanted to pursue, understood why the work mattered and could feel themselves becoming more capable?

That is the vision behind my Manifesto of a Curious Child. Drawing on my experience as a Montessori teacher and co-founder of the Academy of Critical Thinking, we turn it into practical choices about lessons, assignments and the role of AI. We make room for the learner’s initiative, purposeful effort and relationships with others.

What makes a child want to learn when a machine can do the assignment? Drawing on Montessori teaching and the Manifesto of a Curious Child, we explore learning driven by questions, meaningful choices and the pleasure of becoming more capable together.