Education By Design
The Education by Design podcast explores the architecture of learning environments—how schools are designed, not just operated—how culture is disrupted to make way for innovation and reaching potential. Your host, Phil Evans is a career educator and creative. His guests bring inspirational and practical ideas into classrooms, all over the world. Join him as he engages with innovators who untangle the complexity of educational systems to align with shared values, common practices, and a common language to create powerful, human-centered learning experiences. For any formal schooling system to have an impact, the central focus must be on learning. Let's learn together. Dive deeper on the EduByDesign Blog: https://edubydesign.com/blog
Episodes
FIRST THREE EPISODES MAY 5, 2025
Education by Design is a podcast for educators, school leaders, and changemakers who believe that learning should be more than compliant—it should be empowering. Hosted by educator and storyteller Phil Evans, this series explores how schools can be redesigned from the inside out, featuring conversations and reflections that challenge outdated systems and celebrate bold ideas. Each ...
"Igniting Joy in Learning” dives deep into the strategies education leaders crave: practical ways to spark teacher inspiration, student engagement, and inquiry‑based learning that lasts. In this episode, veteran IB educator and professional‑development facilitator Richard Hood reveals how shifting from content delivery to joy‑centered, student‑agency‑driven classrooms transforms outcomes—especially in today’...
Discover how to transform school culture, boost student agency, and advance equity in this episode of the Education by Design Podcast featuring researcher Dr. Heather Michael. Phil Evans explores Michael’s groundbreaking use of spatial theory to reveal why many learners view school as irrelevant—and how educators, principals, and district leaders can disrupt limiting narratives, redesign course‑selection processe...
In this episode of Education by Design, host Phil Evans speaks with Dr. John Falino, principal of Dobbs Ferry High School, about the transformative power of systems thinking in schools.
Designed for education leaders seeking practical strategies to empower teachers, this episode explores how shared vision, teacher agency, and systematic design can raise expectations and engagement for all students. Learn how to b...
In this episode of Education by Design, Trevor MacKenzie explores the transformative power of curiosity in the classroom. Learn how inquiry-based learning fosters self-directed students who take ownership of their education. Discover practical strategies for nurturing curiosity, developing question competence, and creating environments where students are not just taught, but encouraged to think critically and ind...
What if the best learning isn’t the most polished—but the most meaningful?
In this inspiring episode, Dr. John Spencer—educator, author, and host of The Creative Classroom—sat down with Phil to explore how project-based learning, design thinking, and creative risk-taking help students master academic content and build the core competencies they need for life. From the messy middle of learning to the power of stude...
What does it mean to build a classroom where students learn with AI instead of just from it? In this bonus episode, Dr. John Spencer presents ideas to explore how human-centered teaching strategies can help students reflect more deeply, think more critically, and engage more creatively—even as AI tools become part of everyday learning. We talk about project-based learning, prompt engineering, and what happens whe...
In this episode of Education by Design, we explore how innovative assessment can transform learning engagement and outcomes. Join me as I chat with my friend Dr. Andy Scahill, a professor at the University of Colorado, Denver, as he shares his radical approach to assessment that moves beyond traditional tests and term papers. In an effort to disrupt behaviors cultivated by compliance, Andy empowers students to de...
Why do so many education reforms fall short of their promise? In this powerful and wide-ranging conversation, Dr. Joshua Glazer of George Washington University unpacks what it really takes to improve schools — not through shortcuts or silver bullets, but through the slow, steady work of building coherent, community-anchored systems.
Drawing on years of research into efforts like Tennessee’s iZone and ASD, Josh hel...
When Markus Reneau asked his eighth-grade teacher if she thought he should apply for the one of the most rigorous educational programmes available to him, she looked him in the eye and said, “No.” Her reason? “It won’t be fun.” In a room full of Black and Hispanic students, the message was clear—academic challenge wasn’t for them.
But Markus had other plans.
In this episode of Education by Design, we follow Markus...
What does it take to shift a school system from standardization to innovation? In this thought-provoking episode of Education by Design, host Phil Evans is joined by Dr. Jared DuPree for a conversation that challenges the boundaries of what public education can be.
Together, they explore the promise of challenge-based learning—an approach that connects students with real-world problems and invites them to design s...
Join me as I dive into the future of education with Jenny Gillett, the lead architect of the International Baccalaureate's groundbreaking Systems Transformation pilot. In this episode, Jenny reveals how she and United World College communities co-create a two-year, transdisciplinary learning journey—tackling global challenges from biodiversity to river pollution—through systems thinking, design sprints, and ...
In Indiana, a bold experiment is reshaping how students learn. Through the i-Lab, more than 150 leaders have joined forces to design a statewide apprenticeship model — one that connects high schools, employers, and higher education in new ways. At the center of this work is a breakthrough partnership with IU Health, which not only trains students but guarantees them employment upon graduation.
But the real story g...
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