Engage in intensive training on the topics of attention, retention, and learning that have applications in classrooms.

Cost: $1,695 per person through May 23, 2025 and $1,795 per person after May 23, 2025
Save $100 per person when registering a group of 3 or more.

Join Us This Summer in Boston for a Hands-on Workshop

How can we shape lessons that foster learning, engagement, focus, and deep knowledge? This lively and interactive institute explores current brain research through four essential topics: attention, working memory, long-term memory, and schema theory. You will begin with the little-recognized goal of all schooling, called schema formation: a concept crucial for understanding optimal teaching. With this goal in mind, you will dive into a scientific understanding of attention. A research-informed perspective of attention will help teachers rethink old assumptions and create more motivating lesson plans. Next, you will explore the core functions of working memory: the brain’s construction site that assembles small pieces into larger mental structures. You will then explore the cognitive steps essential to long-term memory: specifically, the encoding and retrieval strategies that best consolidate learning and overcome prior misconceptions. With all these topics, we balance an in-depth exploration of research with practical and flexible classroom strategies. This institute is hands-on and is limited to 50 participants.

The Summer Institute Is for:

• K-16 Teachers and Academic Administrators
• School Psychologists, Learning Specialists, and Counselors
• Academic Support Staff
• Independent Learning Consultants

At This Institute, You Will:

• Understand and apply the core concept of “schema formation” at the heart of learning
• Develop insights and strategies to anticipate, identify, and mitigate working memory overload
• Nurture long-term memory formation—that is, learning—with research on encoding, retrieval, and consolidation
• Explore the science of attention to focus on alertness, orienting, and executive attention
• Apply these concepts to your own professional work
• Understand psychology and neuroscience research articles, with a particular focus on developing effective and informed skepticism
   

About the Institute

This Learning & the Brain Summer Institute will be led by Andrew Watson. The program translates well-established psychology and neuroscience findings into specific classroom strategies. We will especially emphasize the practical teaching application of brain research, with a consistent focus on healthy skepticism. The program offers participants frequent opportunities to discuss their own teaching practices, and to apply research findings to their lesson-plans, syllabi, assessments, and classroom practices. Active participation is expected throughout this Institute through group discussion. Participants will be expected to bring in material and questions from their own experiences to share with the group, and to share brief presentations on the final day of the institute.

Attendees will be housed and all sessions will take place at the Sierra Madre complex on the Goleta, CA side of the UC Santa Barbara campus. Lodging, some meals, and course materials are provided. See the online schedule for meals provided.

About Andrew Watson

Andrew C. Watson, MA, EdM, began teaching in 1988, studying psychology and neuroscience in 2008, and combining those interests in 2012. He currently works as a high-school teacher and as a consultant—explaining the classroom implications of brain science to teachers, students, administrators, and parents. Since 2016, Andrew has written and edited the Learning & the Brain blog. He has also written 3 books: The Goldilocks Map, Learning Begins, and Learning Grows.