The Future of Learning

A series from ‘After the Fact,’ Pew’s podcast

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The Future of Learning

In a four-part series, Pew’s “After the Fact” podcast asks a question at the heart of the human experience—how do we learn? And as we continue to live longer than previous generations, what are we discovering to help increase lifelong learning and prepare the workforce of the future?

Listen in as guest host Ray Suarez examines the latest developments in neuroscience and cognitive psychology, delves into workplace trends, and shares inspiring stories from people on the journey to becoming lifelong learners:

Ray Suarez, left, the guest host of the Future of Learning series, poses with engAGE Project’s study participants in the digital photography course. One of the participants, 75-year-old Charles Hickox, center, talks about his experience in the program, as well as lifelong learning, on the podcast.
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Students review photography portfolios with their instructor. Their 14-week course is part of the engAGE Project at the Center for Vital Longevity at the University of Texas at Dallas, which hopes to find enhanced cognitive function in adults ages 65 and older after studying an intense subject, such as digital photography.
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Chef Emily Phillips, who teaches JobTrain’s culinary class, prepares her hands-on lesson. “As long as you can cook, you can find a job,” she says.
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Chef Emily Phillips demonstrates how to properly cut carrots in the kitchen classroom at JobTrain. “Kitchens are like life,” she says. “They’re hot, dangerous places!” She teaches her adult students that dealing with different personalities is one of the most important aspects of working in a cooking environment. “Everyone has a knife,” she says. “You have to be aware.”
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A professional kitchen serves as both cooking space and classroom at JobTrain in Menlo Park, California. Adult students of all ages and backgrounds learn kitchen etiquette, food safety, and knife skills before mastering stocks and sauces, soups, vegetables, meat, and baked goods in the 11-week program. After their training, the students receive certification to handle food, a requirement in most states, and will be able to work at a small restaurant, in a cafeteria setting, or in fine dining. “There’s almost nothing they wouldn’t be able to do,” says Chef Emily Phillips, who teaches the course.
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Second-grade teacher Emily Hood incorporates science-backed learning techniques into an exercise called “Mini Math” at Walkersville Elementary School in Frederick, Maryland. Hood is part of a movement across the globe to bring the science of learning into the classroom. Says Meg Lee, who directs professional development at Frederick County Public Schools, “It’s … been very powerful for our teachers to realize that they are brain changers, and the work that they do opens doors for students.”
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A second-grade student’s illustration answers “What’s in your brain?”, a question posed by teacher Emily Hood, who encourages her students to think about how they learn. Pooja Agarwal, a cognitive scientist, says putting educational neuroscience in the hands of teachers will transform classrooms, saying she welcomes the fact that this neuroscience is “starting to shift from research sitting in academic journals to actually making a difference in everyday life with learners.”
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A second-grader ponders the learning process at Walkersville Elementary School in Maryland. The class, and the teachers, are beginning to understand that struggling is part of the process as the brain grows new connections, a key concept in learning science. Says Meg Lee, director of organizational development for Frederick County Public Schools, “We’re going to fuel achievement for everyone through the understanding of how the brain learns, grows, works, and thrives.”
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Podcast host Ray Suarez wears an EEG cap for Stanford researcher Elizabeth Toomarian [left] and her research assistant Cha Cha Pillai [right] at the Brainwave Learning Center at Synapse School in Menlo Park, California, a partnership with Stanford University. Sensors on the cap measure how brain waves change as the subject processes information. Toomarian directs the Brainwave Learning Center for the Stanford Graduate School of Education’s Educational Neuroscience Initiative, one of the leading research programs studying how the brain changes as we learn. Data gathered from the sensor caps may lead to insights about how learners react to different teaching methods—and may eventually be applied in classrooms around the world.
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The brain waves of podcast host Ray Suarez appear on a screen as he interacts with words, allowing neuroscientists at the Stanford Graduate School of Education to see how he processes information. Says Bruce McCandliss, head of Stanford’s Educational Neuroscience Initiative, “As we get more and more precise insights into brain networks, we'll start to be able to answer the question of how some educational supports, or some educational interventions, have a really big impact on some children more than others.”
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On a brain board, students stretched rubber bands across pegs to show how the brain makes new connections as we learn. Stanford researchers engage students with interactive lessons to help familiarize them with basic neuroscience concepts. The Brainwave Learning Center, a Stanford University-Synapse School partnership, has a lab with researchers on-site, giving them the opportunity to study young learners over the course of a school day.
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Attaching an EEG cap to a stuffed bear is one way that Stanford researchers help students understand neuroscience and get comfortable with research at the Brainwave Learning Center at Synapse School. “We feel like embedding this research in a school is going to have an impact on how children perceive their own education,” says Bruce McCandliss, head of Stanford’s Educational Neuroscience Initiative. “It might change the way they conceive of their own learning and their own brain as they start to see these changes unfold over the course of the school year.”
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