Richard Noss Lecture 2025: Learning Through Productive Failure

Richard Noss Lecture 2025

Professor Manu Kapur

Learning Through Productive Failure In The GenAI Age

If learning from failure is intuitively compelling, why do we wait for it to happen. Why don’t we intentionally design for it, and harness it for deep learning? In his talk, Prof. Kapur will describe what Productive Failure is, how, when and why intentionally designing for failure in a safe way can lead to deep learning, and its implications for how we can design powerful learning environments for developing conceptual understanding, creativity, and transfer.

Biography: Prof. Manu Kapur is currently the Director of the Singapore-ETH Centre, and a Professor of Learning Sciences and Higher Education at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. With a strong technical background in engineering and statistics as well as doctoral training in the learning sciences, Prof. Kapur brings a unique interdisciplinary skill set to the study of human learning, both in terms of the fundamental mechanisms of human learning as well as developing applications for translating these mechanisms for teaching and learning. Prof. Kapur is widely known mainly for his research on learning from Productive Failure, is a sought-after keynote speaker, and has delivered two TEDx talks. His contributions extend across high-profile journals and conferences, influencing educational policies and practices internationally. For more information, visit www.manukapur.com

Prof. Manu Kapur's lecture will be followed by a panel discussion:

Panel Title: Human Learning and Generative AI: Neurocognitive Foundations, Pedagogical Innovation, & Technical Frontiers

This panel will examine how generative AI is impacting higher education by interrogating the neurocognitive mechanisms underpinning learning, exploring genAI as a catalyst for learning and metacognition, and addressing the technical and research challenges in designing GenAI systems for nuanced pedagogical support for learning. Drawing on research and practice examples from UCL, ETH and beyond, panellists will debate what higher education should emphasise, how we scaffold learning, and what innovations are still needed.

Panel Members:

Prof Steve Fleming - https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/28069-steve-fleming

Prof Manu Kapur - https://lse.ethz.ch/people/prof-manu-kapur.html

Prof Yvonne Rogers - https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/33314-yvonne-rogers

Prof David Shanks - https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/2667-david-shanks

The UCL Knowledge Lab is an interdisciplinary centre for research, teaching and enterprise in digital media and technologies, based in Bloomsbury and UCL East. It is home to over 50 research staff, four PGT programmes, and one undergraduate programme. The Knowledge Lab holds a large portfolio of funded research projects on a range of different topics from Media, to Creative AI, AI for Education, social semiotics and critical studies of technologies for education. It was originally founded in 2004 by Prof. Richard Noss and Prof. Alex Poulovassilis.

The Director of the UCL Knowledge Lab is Professor Kaśka Porayska-Pomsta.

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