Learning is the soul of our species. From our first steps to our last words, we are what we learn. Our education predicts our earnings, our contentment, even how long we'll live. But for all its obvious importance, learning has lost touch with human progress. We live in an information age, work in a knowledge economy, yet our schools remain relics of an industrial era. No more. 

In Natural Born Learners, Alex Beard takes us on a dazzling tour of the future of learning to show how today we can - and must - do better. Combining expert insight, entertaining anecdote and intelligent research, Beard leads us from the crowded corridors of a South London comprehensive to the high-tech halls of Silicon Valley, through the exam factories of South Korea to the inclusive classrooms of Finland. 

Tackling everything from artificial intelligence to our growing understanding of the infant brain, and from the content of our character to the way classrooms are unwitting engines of extremism, Beard shows that we're on the cusp of a revolution - and that learning in the 21st century must change in order for us to access our better future selves.