The myth of learning styles is a hindrance to deep and durable learning. It plays right into the myth of... more

The cognitive power tools of the well-taught beginner create increasingly useful knowledge as the learner's skill level increases through practice... more

"Drill and kill," the mindless and seemingly endless repetition of facts, kills motivation to learn. "Repetition aids learning" is only... more

How can you help your child move from being absorbed with taking in information in the classroom to a fixation... more

Many parents and children view their inability to memorize as their greatest educational weakness. Learning is more than remembering, but... more

Most schools design curriculum around a fact forward approach. Facts are always in the foreground while ideas lurk in the... more

Children are all born learners—at least until they go to school. Many children and their parents are frustrated and mystified... more

Worldview is the key grid through which we filter and formulate ideas, yet it is not systematically developed in most... more

No one wants to kill the joy of learning in a young child, but that's likely with the majority of... more

Attempting to read the Bible through each year is a source of frustration and guilt to many as they repeatedly... more

The church is not immune to polarity that all too often leads to contention and division—the opposite of biblical unity.... more

Transformational discipleship is redundant. Discipleship is intrinsically transformation into increasing Christlikeness. This is a case study of Ephesians that speaks... more

Discipleship is more than a targeted learning process, but it is not less. Deep and durable learning of scripture results... more

What does wisdom say about beverage alcohol consumption? I cut through the cultural cachet of alcohol and look objectively at... more

Daniel L. Smith, Professor of Nutrition Sciences, is a self-professed skeptic about nutritional science. He takes us on a journey... more

The elusive teachable moment is not endangered. In this episode we talk about how to orchestrate and leverage teachable moments... more

Young learners are motivated by curiosity and wonder. This generates "why" questions that are answered by looking for patterns in... more

Many people feel stuck in their careers. At the root this is because they lack clarity about who they are... more

Vocation should not be chosen pragmatically based merely on opportunity. Vocation is literally a calling to use your unique giftedness... more

Ideals are commendable but how we implement ideals can corrupt our true identity. Susanna Hindman shares her story of life... more

Healthcare is better at treating disease than at creating and maintaining health. Dr. Daniel Hindman of the Johns Hopkins hospital... more

Dr. Valerie Coffman shares her personal struggles with infertility and loss and reflects on the opportunities for growth through profound... more

Cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Nathan Smith, as a college sophomore experienced the liberation that comes with transformational learning. In this podcast... more

Pediatrician & internal medicine practioner, teacher of medical residents, and homeschool mom, Dr. Joy Smith reflects on an early experience... more

Lifelong learning is not necessarily deep. Here we chronicle such a learner as she allows herself to be challenged to... more

Success in business comes through embracing "a way of thinking" that seeks to answer compelling questions using a complex interdisciplinary... more

Sam Saldivar grew up in a migrant farm worker's large family but went on an educational journey leading to a... more

Harmonizing personal freedom and the biblical law of love through the discipline of public health.

Public health has extended life spans in the U.S. by 30 years over the past 125 years through things like... more

History is misunderstood and often maligned by outsiders as trivia collection. Learn what motivates historians and how the questions they... more

History seems to be something you either love or hate with almost no middle ground. Names, dates, events—trivial pursuit.... more

Pedagogy is often viewed as a personal choice and untouchable—a kind of third rail. The SITS model aims to transform... more

The 3-legged stool is the compact embodiment of a comprehensive model of teaching and learning. In this episode we explore... more

The 3-legged stool view of teaching and learning has become three intensive summers of faculty development in the Summer Institute... more

Three university faculty began a quest to reform teaching and learning at their institution. The result was a three-legged ... more

Answering a question isn’t complete until there is a thorough questioning of the near-term implications and the long-term consequences. Deep... more

The most powerful strategy for answering questions is asking questions. This query approach especially probes assumptions, ideas, and the relevant... more

Nothing is more fundamental to deep and durable learning than compelling questions. In this episode I’ll show you how to... more

Questions are the engines that drive thinking. The better the question the deeper the resultant learning because you really care... more

Real thinking involves chewing on a compelling question. Powerful answers invoke cause and effect. Those answers have immediate implications as... more

Thinking is driven by questions. Questions are answered through the interaction of necessary assumptions, a fact base to which thinking... more

Every area of human endeavor is an outworking of a way of thinking. We all default to a particular way... more

Great conversations are driven by empathetic listening thatresults in good questions. Good questions encourage the other person to open up... more

Principles are the power tools of thinking. Learn how to construct principles that satisfy your need for things to make... more

Patterns don’t simply emerge on their own. They are the fruit of “creative scrabbling” through Subsidiary-Focal Integration (SFI). This episode... more

"Creativity is just connecting things" was Steve Jobs summary. Learn how to create transformative patterns through connecting concepts.

Finding a pattern in a collection of specifics through induction is the essence of the transformative insight that we call... more

Pattern-recognition is the most extraordinary capability of the human brain. We use induction to formulate these regularities as our concept... more

The inability to remember much of anything before our third year of life shows us what must happen to enable... more

The purpose of exploration is to shake things up—to encounter new ideas which may initially be puzzling but which may... more

Focused exploration is the third disposition of Learner's Mind. Exploration need not be time inefficient. We explore the story of... more

Developing Learner's Mind requires an openness to and a curiosity about the world around you. Curiosity is manifested by a... more

Learner's mind begins with curiosity and curiosity begins with paying attention to the world around you. Paying attention broadens options... more

Caring about students means prioritizing their needs as learners. This includes centering courses on a manageable number of core concepts... more

Great courses are designed to engage the curiosity of students. In this episode Dr. David Gardenghi explains how he roots... more

Dr. Amy Tuck teaches the functioning of the human immune system through a logically connected narrative. Immunity is due to... more

The Summer Institute in Teaching Science (SITS) is a four summer program of ten weeks per summer. The aim of... more

The 7C's of Cognition: Curiosity, Conceptualization, Connectivity, Constrained Capacity, Chunking, Consolidation, and Creativity. Creating Coherence.

Your brain is never off duty. While your body sleeps your brain actively and purposefully retrieves prior knowledge to sharpen... more

Learning is sabotaged when the cognitive load of the task is too high as well as when it is too... more

Chunking removes the obstacle of our extremely limited working memory by leveraging the hard-wired pattern making of the brain to... more

The brain ruthlessly discards information, but relentless forgetting allows us to remain flexible as learners.

New concepts don’t float around but are logically negotiated into an appropriate place in our mental framework of concepts.

The process of concept (idea) formation in the brain is the universal mechanism for learning with understanding.

Curiosity is essential and is the foundation of learning.

Knowledge of the human brain enables us to optimize learning. Exploring the 7 C's of Cognition.

There is currently a mood of dismissal and even denigration of experts. "Strongly held opinions should be granted the status... more

Educational curricula are obsessed with information. Rigor means more information is covered. Learn how to overcome the systemic prioritization of... more

Knowledge requires a human knower. A person can be said to know something when they believe it to be true... more