How Youth Learn
How Youth Learn

The recent explosion of research on how children and adolescents learn — helped with advances in brain imaging — has upturned long-held assumptions about the mind, the brain, motivation, the role of emotions in learning, and more. What does the “science of learning” have to do with teaching and learning? It is core knowledge to inform our work.

At WKCD, we’ve been following the research for years, becoming students of learning — and then comparing what we read with what we hear and see in our work with students and teachers. Each of the research highlights below includes a brief summary of what the experts say, along with a short video (such as a whiteboard animation, a TED Talk, an interview) that brings the topic to life.

There are many ways to slice the research on how youth learn. We offer our list here, aware that all its topics necessarily — and richly — intertwine.

CONDITIONS OF LEARNING
What research says about the conditions that best support learning during the high school years. (Don’t miss Ned Cephalus, a hand-drawn adolescent brain whose “Gr8 8” boils them down in a few hilarious minutes.)

MIND, BRAIN, AND EDUCATION
What brain research tells us about how we learn and how learning, in turn, shapes the architecture of the brain — and should shape the design of schooling.

THE TEENAGE BRAIN
What’s unique about the adolescent brain and why it matters to adults; the impact of stress on learning.

ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT
How learning in this stage of life is shaped by growth and change in young people’s identity and autonomy, social roles and responsibilities, belief systems and values, and relationships with family and peers.

MINDSETS
What mindsets have to do with learning. Why a “growth mindset” is so important. How an “academic mindset” shapes student performance. Why young people need to develop "agency."

MOTIVATION AND MASTERY
The factors affecting student motivation are less an input-output model than a dynamic balance of forces. Rooted in value-expectancy research, the Motivation Equation offers a simple way to design (or diagnose) a learning challenge.

SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL LEARNING
Why social and emotional habits and skills — such as self-regulation, agency, collaborative learning, perspective-taking, persistence, and citizenship — fuel cognition and create learning that lasts.