Author list

Since establishing Independent Thinking over 30 years ago, Ian Gilbert has made a name for himself across the world as a highly original writer, editor, speaker, practitioner and thinker, and is someone who the IB World magazine has referred to as one of the world's leading educational visionaries.

The author of several books, including Essential Motivation in the Classroom and Why Do I Need a Teacher When I've Got Google? and the editor of many more, Ian is known by thousands of teachers and young people across the world for his award-winning Thunks books. Thunks grew out of Ian's work with Philosophy for Children (P4C), and are beguiling yet deceptively powerful little philosophical questions that he has created to make children's – as well as their teachers' – brains hurt.

Ian's growing collection of bestselling books has a more serious side too, without ever losing sight of his trademark wit and straight-talking style. The Little Book of Bereavement for Schools, born from personal family experience, is finding a home in schools across the world, and The Working Class – a massive collaborative effort he instigated and edited – is making a genuine difference to the lives of young people from some of the poorest backgrounds.

A unique writer and editor, there is no other voice like Ian Gilbert's in education today.

See for yourself.

Ian was winner of The Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society's inaugural Educational Writers Award (Nov 2008) for 'The Little Book of Thunks' - Click here for more information on the book.

Re-framing the Education Debate with Independent Thinker, Ian Gilbert.

Click here to read Ian Gilbert’s blog.

Click here to read Ian's article in International Teacher Magazine.

Andy Gilbert developed the acclaimed Go MAD (Make A Difference) thinking system which is used by people in over 40 countries. He is passionate about helping people develop their ability to think in a solution focused way and spends most of his time facilitating leadership and results acceleration programmes.

Stephen Gilligan PhD, has become a leading figure in Ericksonian hypnotherapy. He is the developer of the Generative Self approach to personal growth. A licensed psychologist, Stephen maintains a private practice in Encinitas, California.

Click here to read Stephen Gilligan’s blog.

Critically acclaimed from 1968 to the present time, guitarist Gordon Giltrap has released 22 albums plus numerous compilations. He has collaborated with such diverse names as the London Symphony Orchestra, Brian May, Midge Ure and Cliff Richard.

Dr. Carol Ginandes is an internationally recognized health psychologist practicing in the Boston area. She holds staff affiliations at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Her clinical focus is in the area of using hypnosis for mind/body problems, and she has done cutting-edge research in the area of hypnotically accelerated healing.

Sharon has been teaching and training for 30 years. She provides workshops, courses, demonstrations and presentations to primary schools around the world, encouraging them to adopt creative approaches to the curriculum.

In particular, she promotes stories as contexts for deep, cross-curricular learning. By using dramatic scenarios, with teachers and students working together in role, levels of engagement, enquiry and independence increase. Children become driven to research, think, collaborate, read and write as they excitedly seek to resolve dilemmas. Her work is rich in literacy and is regarded as providing a lively and essential complement to the more technical approaches that abound.

Currently keeping her feet on the ground by working as Subject Leader for the Arts within Stoke-on-Trent's Adult and Community Education Service, and by teaching in local primary schools, Sharon has in the past been an Advisory Teacher for Drama in Birmingham, a Senior Further Education Staff Development Co-ordinator, a national Inclusion Adviser and an Associate Tutor of the University of Cumbria. In all her roles, across all phases of education, Sharon seeks to demonstrate the power of the creative process in raising achievement for all.

Her freelance work has taken her to China, Peru, the Caribbean, the Middle East, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, Indonesia, Thailand and Austria. She emphasises pedagogy that transcends cultures and ethnicities because it is rooted in universal aspects of human nature: curiosity; creativity; the love of fiction; the desire to play; along with the instinct to solve problems and rise to challenges.

Two cats, a dog, a grandchild, a love of films, a passion for sci-fi and sneaking off to make her own art whenever she can, keep Sharon busy.

Paul was one of the UK's oldest-established independent trainers, having started down that path in 1992. He worked in over 4500 primary, secondary and special schools in the UK and in 70 or so international schools in the Middle East, Far East, North and South America, The Caribbean and Europe. He also supported the introduction of a new Junior Cycle curriculum in Ireland. All his ideas were forged at the chalkface but they were inspired by some of the world's leading educational thinkers.

First and foremost, Paul was a practitioner (having started his teaching career in 1979), not a researcher or academic. He sought to model the way in which current teaching imperatives and modern learning insights could be translated into workable classroom strategies, and to achieve that with a bit of fun along the way.

Even in an aggressive educational world driven by political, inspection and PISA priorities, he believed that it was possible to proceed with integrity, courage and wisdom. To do so, teachers needed a few truths about the learning process to guide their creative planning and a good number of proven strategies to set them on their way. From his books and workshops Paul wanted people to take away teaching ideas that would turn passive pupils into active students and consequently result in deep learning, modern skills, essential dispositions, good progress and great results.

Of his many publications, The Teacher's Toolkit is the most well-known, having been reprinted 15 times and translated into Arabic, Indonesian, Hungarian, Slovenian and Spanish. It is one of the UK's bestselling books for teachers and is required reading on most teacher training courses.



Paul died suddenly on 30th January 2015. He had three grown-up children and was a Stoke City FC season ticket holder and a self-confessed vinyl junkie. He was also a driver and roadie for The Zombies on their 2009 Odessey and Oracle' national tour - making his adolescent rock n' roll dream come true! He lived near Stoke-on Trent with his wife Sharon, two cats, one dog and a jukebox.

Vic Goddard is the Principal of Passmores Academy and star of the BAFTA nominated Channel 4 documentary Educating Essex. He is a proud South Londoner, having been raised on a council estate then going on to train as a PE teacher and eventually becoming the nation's best-loved Headmaster thanks to his undeniable dedication to his school and the young people inside it.

Watch Vic Goddard on Channel 4 - Educating Essex.

Read Vic's article Is your leadership child-centred?' on SecEd's website.

Vic Goddard's Teacher Blog for The Guardian Online.

Read Vic's interview with The Guardian Education April 2014.

Read Vic's interview with The Sunday Telegraph May 2014.

Read Vic's profile from Schools Week.

Vic Goddard on How to Educate Essex, Ofsted, Overtesting'and more!

Seth Godin is the author of 19 international bestsellers that have been translated into 35 languages. He's the founder of several companies, a member of the Direct Marketing Hall of Fame and an influential speaker around the world. He writes about treating people with respect, the changing economy and ideas that spread.

Gemma Goldenberg is a former assistant head teacher who led on curriculum design and professional development at Sandringham Primary School in Newham, East London. She is currently studying for a PhD, investigating the influence of the environment on how children learn, play, and interact.

Dr Andy Goldhawk teaches on various postgraduate programmes at the University of the West of England, Bristol, including the MA in Education Leadership (which he co-leads), the PG Cert (teaching and learning in Higher Education), and the Doctorate in Education. He was previously an adult ESOL lecturer for fifteen years. During that period, he was also programme lead and a teaching and learning coach.

Currently researching a PhD, psychologist Martin Goodyer has a fascinating and unique background. As well as managing international hotels, coaching executives in global boardrooms and writing books and papers on coaching, Martin has appeared on ITV's Jack Osbourne: Adrenaline Junkie, Channel 4's The Fit Farm and BBC radio in between.

Click here to listen in to Martin on The Extraordinary Business Book Club podcast.