Join us at the house of a committee member in Moseley/Balsall Heath border as we get together to watch and discuss the livestream of Humanists UK’s 2025 Blackham lecture, which will be broadcast live online.

The annual Blackham Lecture is an important event for us, because Harold J Blackham had a strong association with Birmingham Humanists. The lecture explores an aspect of education, childhood, or lifelong development, either philosophical, practical, or social, that relates to humanism. This year’s topic is neuroscience and teaching practices. Recent breakthroughs in science’s understanding of the human brain offer an exciting prospect for education. However, the appeal of neuroscience has given rise to a host of pervasive and misleading ‘neuromyths’ that can undermine learning.

This year’s lecturer, Paul Howard-Jones, is Professor of Neuroscience at the School of Education at the University of Bristol. He was a teacher before becoming a trainer of primary and secondary school teachers and an inspector of schools. His research has focused on issues at the interface of cognitive neuroscience and educational theory, practice, and policy. He applies diverse research methods, from neurocomputational imaging studies to classroom observations, to understand learning processes. He is particularly interested in addressing neuromyths, understanding the creative brain and how games and learning games engage their players, and exploring how insights from the science of learning can inform climate change education.

The lecture will be chaired by the science writer and presenter Dr Ginny Smith, who has expertise in psychoology and neuroscience.

Please RSVP by filling in the form below if you plan to attend, as the address will be emailed only to those who reply.

This sounds like an interesting and thought-provoking subject, so do come and join us. Please note the earlier start time – the lecture itself starts at 7.30pm, but you are welcome to arrive from 7.00pm onwards, to get set up and to chat and socialise beforehand.

If you’d like to come, please use the form below to book your place.

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