Heuristic Systems
Voices on learning

Every claim about how we learn has been made before.

Adaptive learning did not begin with software. It began with a century and a half of educators arguing about what it means to understand something. apto is built on that argument, not in spite of it. These are the voices we stand on.

Each line paraphrases the thinker’s core contribution: an idea, not a verbatim quotation.

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Schools too often educate creativity out of children. Real learning should grow it, not drill it away.

Sir Ken Robinson·Creativity in education·Today
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Contemporary voicesThe educators and researchers shaping the conversation now.15

  • Sir Ken Robinson

    Creativity in education

    Schools too often educate creativity out of children. Real learning should grow it, not drill it away.

  • Carol Dweck

    Mindset

    Believing ability can grow changes how a learner meets difficulty, far more than fixed talent does.

  • John Hattie

    Visible Learning

    Across thousands of studies almost everything helps a little. What matters is knowing which influences help most.

  • Dylan Wiliam

    Formative assessment

    Assessment should feed learning while it is happening, not just measure it once it is over.

  • Sugata Mitra

    Self-organised learning

    Given access, a good question, and the freedom to explore together, children can teach themselves a great deal.

  • Sal Khan

    Mastery learning, Khan Academy

    Let learners move at their own pace and master each step before the next, with free material open to anyone.

  • Angela Duckworth

    Grit

    Sustained passion and perseverance toward a long-term goal often predicts achievement better than raw talent.

  • Linda Darling-Hammond

    Equity and teacher quality

    Deep, fair learning depends on how well we prepare and support teachers and design the system around them.

  • Jo Boaler

    Mathematical mindsets

    Maths is for everyone. The belief that some people just cannot do it is taught, and it can be untaught.

  • Eric Mazur

    Peer instruction

    Students often learn more by reasoning a problem through with each other than by listening to a lecture.

  • Yong Zhao

    Creativity and autonomy

    Standardisation can crush the curious, entrepreneurial strengths that education should be growing.

  • Daniel Willingham

    Cognitive science of learning

    Memory is the residue of thought. We remember what we think about, so design carefully what students think about.

  • Rose Luckin

    AI in education

    AI should make human thinking and self-awareness more visible to the learner, not stand in for the teacher.

  • Neil Selwyn

    Critical view of edtech

    Technology in education is never neutral. Ask who benefits before asking whether it works.

  • Mitchel Resnick

    Creative learning, Scratch

    Learning runs deepest when people design, build, and tinker with things that matter to them.

Paraphrased positions, not verbatim quotations.

By school of thought

64 ideas · 1890–2025