What if learners had a user’s manual for their minds?
Project Description
What if learners had a user’s manual for their minds? How might it change their learning and performance—in life, at school, and on the job? What if they could modify these contexts to support their best learning? This project seeks to help learners, as embodied in social and emotional beings, understand the cognitive architecture of their minds to bring their learning and work to the next level and to function effectively in a dynamic and complex workforce landscape. Research has demonstrated persuasively that effective thinking can be taught. However, the teaching of thinking has failed to produce the broad benefits to society that one might expect. This work seeks to align the skills of thinking with cognitive neuroscience findings and to make the resulting approaches more accessible and relevant to the most vulnerable populations.
The NLL Moves Project is developing and testing moves that Next Level Learners can engage in to support their most effective learning and work performance. Using a mixed methods approach, we are studying pre- to post-intervention changes in how learners frame and process tasks involved in thinking, learning, and workforce performance. For instance, in one study, we designed two versions of a reflection survey to be used as part of a summer internship program for opportunity youth at a large consulting firm. We are examining how the interns’ reflections changed over time and how their reflections varied depending on whether their version of the survey explicitly emphasized elements of contextualized agency.
Publications
Teaching Times Articles:
Grotzer, T. (2021). From engaged to agentive: Why is it time to raise learning to the next level? – PDF
Cuzzolino, M. (2021). Leveraging epistemic emotions to cultivate intrinsic motivation. – PDF
Grotzer, T. (2021). Deeper learning towards what?: The nature of deep understanding. – PDF
Cuzzolino, M. & Grotzer, T. (2022). The icing on the cake: How metacognition enhances learning. – PDF
Xu, J. & Grotzer, T. (2022). Leveraging learners’ agency for enhancing the process of feedback. – PDF
Blog Posts:
Resources
Developing Fast Fish Learners: A New Way to Think About the Teaching of Thinking and Learning
This session overview from the Project Zero Classroom Summer Institute presents a new way of conceptualizing the teaching of thinking and what it means to be a Next Level Learner.
How the Amygdala Hijack Hurts Vulnerable Workers: What Can We Do to Support Them?
This learning module for workforce development practitioners invites you to participate in a self-guided introduction, read a set of three case studies, and consider a set of guiding questions.
Avoiding Amygdala Hijack: How it Hurts Learning and Performance and What Fast Fish Learners Can Do
This learning module for K-16 educators invites you to consider the experience of amygdala hijack, what it is, and research on what is known about why it happens.
Harnessing the Power of Reflection for Learning in the Workplace
This learning module presents early findings from an NLL study that infused a reflection exercise into an existing internship program, inviting you into the research process and asking you to consider the implications for engaging learners in the workplace.
Allocating for Attentional Blink
This learning module for K-16 educators offers an overview of the nature of attention and dispels common myths to help you manage what you do and the contexts around you.
News
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Insights from Accenture’s Learning Design Team
The Next Level Lab (NLL) had the privilege of hosting an event on October 4th with our collaborators from Accenture for HGSE’s Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology master’s program. NLL Doctoral Researcher Tessa Forshaw facilitated a conversation with Dana Koch, the Team Lead for Accenture’s Institute for the Applied Learning Sciences, and Ben Dyer, who…Continue…
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Workshop Materials Available from the Project Zero Classroom Summer Institute
Recently, Tina Grotzer and Lydia Cao presented at the Project Zero Classroom (PZC) Summer Institute. The PZC draws educators from all over the world to Cambridge to spend a week learning about emerging ideas to support the best learning and performance. This year, Grotzer gave a plenary session on educating for climate change. She stressed…Continue…
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What’s Missing from a Skills-Only Approach to Workforce Development?
In a new piece for The EvoLLLution, NLL researchers Tessa Forshaw, Rodrigo Madeiros, and Dr. Eileen McGivney argue that Next Level Learning requires changing how workforce challenges are approached, from looking only at skills to a triadic approach that looks at the learner’s skills, identity and context. You can read the full article at this…Continue…