People-Based Learning
A book about how we learn best- with and through one another.
We’ve learned more about how people learn in the past 20 years than in the previous 200. Yet the systems meant to help us grow - schools, work, even communities- often forget what our biology remembers: that we are wired for connection.
People-Based Learning (Routledge, 2026) is a guide, a gathering, and a gentle rebellion. It invites educators, leaders and life long learners to design for what truly lasts - moments between us, that relationships that shape us, and the learning that gets under our skin, engages our emotions and fuels our purpose.
People-Based Learning shows what happens when we act on what we now know about the brain, about belonging, and about what makes learning last.
About the Book
The science of connection meets the art of learning.
At its heart, People-Based Learning is about translating what we know into what we do.
Drawing on neuroscience, social research, and lived stories, it reveals how belonging fuels understanding, how reflection deepens wisdom, and how shared experience becomes the most durable kind of knowledge.
Why It Matters.
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The Meaning
What if learning began with people, not programs?
For too long, we’ve tried to improve schools, workplaces, and communities
by focusing on systems instead of relationships.But humans are social learners.
Connection is not a soft skill—it’s the source of curiosity, trust, and growth.When we learn through people,
we remember longer, think deeper, and act together.Learning is not only an individual act. It’s also a shared one.
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The Model
At the heart of People-Based Learning are three guiding elements—
Connect, Reflect, and Affect.
Together, they form a cycle of relational learning that sparks both meaning and movement.Alongside them are five concentric circles—
the Circles of Connection Framework—
mapping how people move from first encounters to sustained community. -
The Movement
The ideas behind People-Based Learning are alive in classrooms, teams, and communities everywhere.
They show up in conversation circles, community design, and new ways of leading with empathy and evidence.Through School of Thought, you can explore stories, visuals, and experiments in real time—
a growing library of how learning happens between us.
