Sessions

Session 1. How People Learn: Introduction to Learning Theory
This program introduces the main themes of the course. Teacher interviews and classroom footage illustrate why learning theory is at the core of good classroom instruction and demonstrate the broad spectrum of theoretical knowledge available for use in classroom practice.

Session 2. Learning As We Grow: Development and Learning
This program examines the concept of readiness for learning and illustrates how developmental pathways — including physical, cognitive, and linguistic — all play a part in students’ learning. Featured are a first-grade teacher, a seventh- and eighth-grade science teacher, and a senior physics teacher, with expert commentary from University of California at Santa Cruz professor Roland Tharp and Yale University professor James P. Comer.

Session 3. Building on What We Know: Cognitive Processing
This program covers how prior knowledge, expectations, context, and practice affect processing and using information and making connections. Featured are a first-grade teacher, a ninth- and 10th-grade mathematics teacher, and a special education teacher, with expert commentary from Stanford University professor Roy Pea.

Session 4. Different Kinds of Smart: Multiple Intelligences
This program delves into Harvard University professor Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, describing how people have learning skills that differ in significant ways. Featured are teachers who share a class of five- through eight-year-olds, including several mainstreamed special needs students, and a ninth- and 10th-grade social studies teacher, with expert commentary from Howard Gardner.

Session 5. Feelings Count: Emotions and Learning
This program introduces ways to create an emotionally safe classroom to foster learning and to deal effectively with emotions and conflicts that can be obstacles. Featured are a fifth-grade teacher and an eighth-grade band teacher, with expert commentary from Daniel B. Goleman, author of the book Emotional Intelligence, and Yale University Professor James P. Comer.

Session 6. The Classroom Mosaic: Culture and Learning
This program discusses how culturally responsive teaching enables students to create connections, access prior knowledge and experience, and develop competence. Featured are a sixth-grade teacher and two ninth-grade teachers, with expert commentary from University of Wisconsin professor Gloria Ladson-Billings and University of Arizona professor Luis Moll.

Session 7. Learning From Others: Learning in a Social Context
Based on Lev Vygotsky’s work, this program explores how learning relies on communication and interaction with others as communities of learners. The program features a fifth-grade teacher and a ninth- through 12-grade teacher, with expert commentary from Tufts University professor David Elkind, Yale University professor James P. Comer, and University of California at Santa Cruz professor Roland Tharp. Moderated by Vance

Session 8. Watch It, Do It, Know It: Cognitive Apprenticeship
This program demonstrates how teachers help their students develop expertise and accomplish complex tasks by modeling, assisted performance, scaffolding, coaching, and feedback. It features a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher and an 11th- and 12th-grade English and social studies teacher, with expert commentary from University of Michigan professor Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar.

Session 9. Thinking About Thinking: Metacognition
This program explores how thinking about thinking helps students better manage their own learning and learn difficult concepts deeply. The program features a senior English teacher and a sixth-grade teacher, with expert commentary from University of Michigan professor Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar and Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Session 10. How We Organize Knowledge: The Structure of the Disciplines
This program covers the ways in which the organization of knowledge and understanding can influence learning. It also introduces Bruner’s and Schwab’s ideas about the structure of the disciplines. Featured are a fourth-grade teacher, a 10th-grade biology teacher, and a ninth- through 12th-grade teacher, with expert commentary from Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Moderated by Renata

Session 11. Lessons for Life: Learning and Transfer
This program describes what conditions are needed for knowledge and skills learned in one context to be retrieved and applied to a novel situation, and how different teaching strategies can increase the possibilities for transfer. The program features a fourth-grade teacher and a seventh- and eighth-grade teacher, with expert commentary from Lee S. Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Session 12. Expectations for Success: Motivation and Learning
Teachers can enhance their students’ motivation by encouraging them to be thoughtfully and critically engaged in the learning process, by supporting their drive for mastery and understanding, and by helping them become self-confident. This program takes a second look at classrooms seen previously to show how motivational techniques work in concert with other learning theories. Stanford University School of Education Dean Deborah Stipek adds her insight to this program.

Session 13. Pulling It All Together: Creating Classrooms and Schools That Support Learning
This program discusses how schools can organize for powerful learning through a coherent, connected approach to teaching and learning that is reinforced and supported by structural features. This session features the staff and students of two schools: a public school in Michigan serving grades three through eight and a first-year charter school in California. Host Linda Darling-Hammond provides expert commentary.