The Society That Learns
Paulo Blikstein and Deborah Fields on how Thailand transformed itself through constructionism
What happens when a whole nation decides learning is the way through its hardest problems? In the late 1990s, amid economic crisis, Thai leaders invited Seymour Papert to help rethink learning. He refused to give them a formula. Instead, farmers, factory technicians, and teachers built their own Thai constructionism and kept at it for nearly 30 years. We talk about the cages people build for themselves, why real stakes change how we learn, and what Thailand added to Papert’s ideas.
In this episode
00:22 Formative learning experiences
05:07 How Paulo and Debbie came to tell this story
09:43 What constructionism is
22:42 From Papert’s lab to a nation’s problems
30:35 “People build cages for themselves”
36:43 Khit-pen, Buddhism, and Thai constructionism
51:03 Hope, failure, and what the world can learn
Paulo Blikstein is a Professor of Education and an Affiliate Associate Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University, where he directs the Transformative Learning Technologies Lab and the Paulo Freire Initiative. Blikstein’s main research, inspired by Freire’s critical pedagogy, focuses on how new technologies can transform the learning of science, engineering, AI, and computation. In 2010, he created the FabLearn program, the first academic initiative to bring maker education to schools. A recipient of the National Science Foundation Early Career Award and the AERA Jan Hawkins Early Career Award, Paulo has published in venues such as the Journal of the Learning Sciences, Nature Biotech, the Journal of Engineering Education, and the Journal of Learning Analytics. He holds two patents for developing Google Bloks, a tangible programming toolkit for preschool children, and is the co-inventor of the GoGo Board, the first open-source robotics platform for education. As a child, Paulo spent 8 years at the lab school Madalena Freire (Paulo Freire’s daughter) created in São Paulo. He earned his Ph.D. from Northwestern University, following an MSc. from the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.Eng. and B.Eng. from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. Paulo is the co-author of The Society That Learns: Constructionism and Lifelong Learning in Thailand (MIT Press, 2026).
Deborah A. Fields is a research professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences at Utah State University. In her boundary-crossing research, she inspires and advocates for learners making connections of identity and learning across institutional and everyday spaces. This includes designing spaces for learners’ creative expression with digital media, coding, and everyday craft materials. She was the lead developer of the e-textiles Exploring Computer Science curricular unit and has been a part of training many teachers to support kids’ designing and coding in creative ways, most recently with AI auditing. Her work has appeared in journals such as Mind, Culture and Activity, the International Journal of Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, and the Harvard Educational Review. She is a fellow of the International Society of Design and Development in Education. Deborah is the co-author of two MIT Press books: The Society That Learns: Constructionism and Lifelong Learning in Thailand (2026) and Connected Play: Tween Life in a Virtual World (2013).
Links
The Society That Learns (MIT Press), including the free PDF: https://thesocietythatlearns.com/
All book proceeds support the Suksapattana Foundation’s educational work in Thailand.
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