The Science of Learning

In this episode of The Science of Learning , Keith Sawyer talks with Dr. Rogers Hall, a pioneering learning scientist whose research has transformed our understanding of how people learn through social interaction and collaboration. You can watch the complete video version of this interview on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/B5509ZjZVaU   Hall explains why learning isn't simply about people storing...

What if struggling with a problem before you know how to solve it actually helps you learn? My guest is Manu Kapur , the learning scientist who developed the influential concept of  productive failure . His research challenges one of our most common assumptions about teaching: that the best way to help students learn something new is to explain it clearly first, and then have them practice it, rep...

Are computers ruining childhood? It seems to get worse every day. Students are using AI to write all of their homework. Children spend hundreds of hours playing videogames. And then there are cell phones and social media! It seems that with AI, people stop using their creativity. If people no longer make things on their own, then how will they learn to be creative? In this episode, you'll hear abo...

What would it mean for an entire society to learn? Most research on learning focuses on individuals—students learning in classrooms, employees learning at work, or people learning new skills. But learning scientists Paulo Blikstein and Deborah Fields have spent years documenting something much more ambitious: a 25-year experiment in Thailand that brought new ideas about learning into schools, vill...

Artificial intelligence is transforming education—but can an AI tutor really help students learn? In this episode of The Science of Learning , Keith Sawyer talks with learning scientist Roger Azevedo, one of the world's leading researchers in artificial intelligence, metacognition, and self-regulated learning. Watch the video interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/wYQ3r6iE-l0 Roger explains why si...

How did the learning sciences become a distinct field of research? What inspired scholars from psychology, education, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence to create an entirely new discipline devoted to understanding how people learn? In this episode of The Science of Learning , host Keith Sawyer talks with Janet Kolodner , one of the founders of the learning sciences. Watch the video in...

In this special documentary episode of The Science of Learning , I take you inside the 2026 International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) conference at the University of California, Irvine. Watch the full video documentary on YouTube  at this link Rather than focusing on technical research presentations, this documentary explores the human side of science—the conversations, friendships, cr...

Why do students find learning so difficult? According to cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham, it's because the human mind isn't designed for thinking. Instead, our brains are designed to avoid thinking whenever possible by relying on memory, routines, and past experience. And yet, true learning requires and deep and effortful thinking. Watch the video interview on YouTube: https://youtu.be/DW...

How do students learn without the teacher simply giving them the answer? In this episode of The Science of Learning , Keith Sawyer talks with learning scientist Joe Krajcik about project-based learning, scientific modeling, curiosity, and the role of productive struggle in deep understanding. Watch the video interview on YouTube   Krajcik explains why lasting learning happens when students activel...

Howard Gardner is one of the most influential educational psychologists of the past half century. Best known for his theory of Multiple Intelligences, Gardner has transformed how educators think about intelligence, learning, creativity, and human potential. Watch the YouTube video interview: https://youtu.be/DX9811c4lJI Subscribe to the Substack newsletter: https://keithsawyer.substack.com In this...

Why do we forget so much of what we try to learn? Why do techniques like rereading, highlighting, and cramming often fail? And what does cognitive science tell us about how learning really works? In this episode of The Science of Learning , Keith Sawyer talks with cognitive psychologist Henry Roediger, co-author of the million-selling book Make It Stick . Roediger explains one of the most importan...

We often think of learning as something that happens entirely in the mind. But according to learning scientist Mitchell Nathan, learning is fundamentally grounded in the body. In this episode of The Science of Learning, Dr. Keith Sawyer talks with Mitchell Nathan about embodied cognition—the idea that thinking and learning are deeply connected to physical experience. From simple everyday actions t...

What can schools learn from the ways people learn outside of school? In this episode of The Science of Learning , Keith Sawyer talks with developmental psychologist and learning scientist Barbara Rogoff about the sociocultural approach to learning and development—one of the most influential perspectives in the learning sciences. Rogoff's research emphasizes that learning is fundamentally social an...

Why haven't computers transformed education the way people expected? In this episode of The Science of Learning , Keith Sawyer talks with Harvard professor and learning scientist Chris Dede about why technology has so often failed to improve schools—and what educational technology looks like when it is aligned with the science of learning. Chris argues that schools have largely used computers to r...

What does science reveal about how people actually learn? Learning is one of the most important things human beings do—but it's also widely misunderstood. Popular culture is filled with myths, trends, and folk wisdom about teaching and learning, much of it unsupported by research. In The Science of Learning , Dr. Keith Sawyer talks with leading researchers about memory, attention, creativity, coll...