Education expert, bestselling author and creator of the Learning Pit, helping educators turn research into outstanding classroom practice.
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Top rated!5 of 5
Thank you so much for a fantastic Keynote speech at our conference yesterday, it was the perfect way to start a conference titled #BeInspired. The feedback from delegates has been fantastic and so many forms refer to your inspirational speech and workshop.
Kylie Spark
Head Teacher| UK
James Nottingham is one of the most respected voices in education, known for transforming research into practical strategies that improve teaching and learning. With more than 30 years of classroom experience, collaborations with leading researchers including Carol Dweck and John Hattie, and as the creator of the internationally recognised Learning Pit, he delivers inspiring keynotes that combine evidence, experience and immediately applicable ideas. Still teaching alongside his consultancy work, James brings authentic classroom credibility to every event.
James Nottingham is recognised by many as one of the world's most engaging and thought-provoking education speakers. Described by The Observer as "one of the UK's most forward-thinking innovators", he has dedicated his career to helping educators bridge the gap between educational research and everyday classroom practice.
His work is grounded in a simple principle: educational improvement should be evidence-informed, practical and sustainable. Rather than promoting short-lived trends, James focuses on strategies that genuinely improve learning while respecting the realities teachers and school leaders face every day.
Today, he divides his time equally between teaching and consultancy, ensuring every keynote and workshop reflects the realities of modern classrooms.
James has taught learners across every stage of education, from children aged three through to 19-year-olds, as well as college and university students. His career began as a teaching assistant in a special school before progressing through primary education, secondary teaching and senior leadership roles.
Alongside his teaching career, James has held a range of leadership roles, including senior school leader and deputy headteacher. He also directed an award-winning social regeneration project before founding seven education companies across seven countries. This breadth of experience enables him to connect with teachers, school leaders, policymakers and education organisations alike.
When the Covid pandemic disrupted education worldwide, James returned to full-time teaching. Since then, he has continued balancing classroom practice with keynote speaking, leadership development and school consultancy, ensuring that every recommendation he shares has been tested in real educational settings.
James is best known as the creator of the Learning Pit, one of the most recognised educational frameworks developed over the past two decades. Referenced more than 200 million times online and throughout educational literature, the Learning Pit has become a powerful illustration of how challenge, struggle and reflection contribute to meaningful learning.
His influence extends well beyond this internationally recognised model.
James has collaborated extensively with Professor Carol Dweck, delivering more than 30 conferences focused on Growth Mindset, and worked alongside Professor John Hattie as the exclusive Visible Learning partner for the Nordic countries between 2013 and 2020.
He also designed the Challenging Learning Process, a whole-school improvement approach independently evaluated by researchers from the Universities of Oslo, Uppsala, Helsinki and Melbourne Graduate School of Education. These studies found the programme to be among the strongest value-for-money approaches for improving student achievement, with participating students improving by an average of one grade.
James is a highly sought-after keynote speaker whose presentations consistently receive outstanding feedback from audiences around the world. Delegates describe his sessions as engaging, optimistic, practical and thought-provoking, combining academic rigour with authentic classroom experience.
He carefully tailors every keynote to the audience, using examples that reflect their educational phase, context and challenges. His presentations avoid educational fads, instead focusing on approaches supported by trustworthy research and proven classroom success.
Recent keynote engagements include:
In 2024, James was commissioned by the International Baccalaureate to film classroom teaching that would be shared with more than 5,000 IB schools worldwide. Following the overwhelmingly positive response, he is now developing a library of more than 100 teaching videos to support educators working with students from PK–12.
Across twelve published books, many of them international bestsellers, James explores teaching approaches that improve learning outcomes across every age group. While two books focus on supporting parents, the remainder are written for educators seeking practical methods that strengthen learning, engagement and achievement.
Rather than concentrating on individual curriculum subjects, James focuses on universal teaching approaches that benefit all learners.
Every recommendation James makes is filtered through three essential questions:
This balanced philosophy has earned him international recognition, including Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts and inclusion in the prestigious Future 500, recognising the UK's most forward-thinking innovators.
For schools, conferences and education organisations seeking an inspiring speaker who combines research excellence with genuine classroom credibility, James Nottingham delivers presentations that continue to influence educators long after the event has finished.
5 of 5
Thank you so much for a fantastic Keynote speech at our conference yesterday, it was the perfect way to start a conference titled #BeInspired. The feedback from delegates has been fantastic and so many forms refer to your inspirational speech and workshop.
Kylie Spark Head Teacher| UK
5 of 5
I thought it was an inspiring lecture by James Nottingham. I wish everyone in education could hear these important messages.
Alexandra Sundelin Pre-School Leader| Denmark
5 of 5
I attended the Mindset congress because of James Nottingham and wow, I was blown away. I enjoyed his presentations so much! I shared his ideas with my secondary school colleagues and they were so enthusiastic.
Monica Blankestijn Teacher| Netherlands
Keynote by James Nottingham:
It is through a challenge that we are able to move students out of their comfort zone and into their learning zone (or zone of proximal development) And yet, so many students actively avoid challenges for fear of getting something wrong, falling behind, or simply because they don’t see the point in putting any effort in.
Added to this is the need for differentiation to ensure all students are challenged appropriately – not so much that they can’t access the learning and not so little that they end up repeating things they already know how to do.
Audience takeaways:
Keynote by James Nottingham:
Thousands of teachers around the world have introduced a growth mindset to their students in the expectation that it will enhance learning and build resilience. However, the two meta-analyses examining the impact of growth mindset show a disappointingly low effect (0.1 to 0.19, less than half of the typical effect). The main cause of this is that too many schools have a performance focus and are therefore unable to make the most of growth mindset; indeed, growth mindset might be contradictory and therefore an unhelpful distraction in these circumstances.
However, as a vehicle for creating and enhancing a learning-focused environment, a growth mindset can have a very significant effect. Drawing on our many speaking tours as well as our deep understanding of the mindset research, James will show you how to take the best steps towards a learning-focus that uses a growth mindset to maximum effect.
Audience takeaways:
Keynote by James Nottingham:
Developing the leadership and coaching skills of all staff is vital for building capacity, these skills and their supporting attitudes can play a dramatic role in the success of student learning. As Viviane Robinson (2007) showed from her meta-analyses when staff focus on five leadership dimensions then student learning (both academic and ‘non-academic’) is enhanced. These are: providing ‘big picture’ goals of learning; aligning towards these goals; learning how to learn together; engaging in analysis; and selecting/developing the ‘tools’ needed to reach the holistic goals.
Audience takeaways:
Keynote by James Nottingham:
Philosophy for Children (P4C) develops critical, creative, caring and collaborative thinking. It is practiced in over 60 countries around the world and has a history stretching back over 40 years. The underlying principle is for children and young people to experience rational and reasonable dialogue about things that matter to them and their teachers. All participants work together in a Community of Inquiry.
The aim for each participant is to become clearer, more accurate, less self-contradictory and more aware of other arguments and values before reaching a conclusion.
Audience takeaways:
Keynote by James Nottingham:
Prizes and praise are offered to those who perform best. Recognition is given to the most impressive talents within any given cohort. Everyone knows who is the best and who is the worst in each subject. Ability grouping is used to separate out those who do well and those who don’t. In these kinds of environments, the emphasis is placed on a performance-orientation; one in which the most important aspect of learning is to out-perform your peers.
The alternative is much more engaging and, despite assumptions to the contrary, can also lead to improved grades for all concerned: a learning-orientation. With its focus on progress, a learning-orientation can help all students (and staff) to thrive. No matter the starting point, the emphasis becomes outperforming yourself rather than outperforming others. Pleasure (and, if needed, praise) comes from the love of learning rather than the love of beating others. This, in turn, leads to improved grades for everyone because when everyone beats their personal best, then ‘real-life’ grades are improved for all.
Audience takeaways:
Keynote by James Nottingham:
Many people use the SOLO Taxonomy to describe a learner’s progress from surface-level knowledge through to a deep, contextual understanding.SOLO stands for the Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes.
It is a model first proposed by John Biggs and Kevin Collis (1982) in Evaluating the Quality of Learning: The SOLO Taxonomy. It has strong parallels with James Nottingham’s Learning Pit® and can help guide the feedback process.
Audience takeaways:
Keynote by James Nottingham:
The Visible Learning® database was built by John Hattie. It represents Hattie’s synthesis of more than 1600 meta-analyses, covering 95,000 studies and 300 million students. This makes it the world’s largest evidence base on what works best in schools to improve student learning. From that research, Hattie has identified more than 250 factors that have an impact on student achievement.
Hattie’s synthesis shows that when staff use strategies with higher effects (greater than an effect size of 0.4), there is an increased likelihood that student learning will accelerate. Thus, the effectiveness of Visible Learning® comes from helping leaders and teachers make strategic decisions about how best to use their time, energy, and resources to maximize impact.
Audience takeaways:
Watch James Nottingham in Action
Watch Speaker James Nottingham in action!
Watch Speaker James Nottingham in action!
