Emotions & Engagement
Learning requires engagement, which is often elusive. In this course, educators will learn what research reveals about the most effective ways for teachers to encourage student motivation and engagement in the classroom.
In addition, educators will learn how to foster the positive emotions and behaviors that increase student engagement, effort, and learning outcomes and gain insight into the interdependencies between cognition, emotion, and behaviors in order to better understand a student’s root causes.
The role of negative and positive emotions in learning will also be explored in this course. Educators will discover tools to help minimize the emotions that hinder learning and maximize those that enable successful learning.
Course Modules
This course consists of ~15 hours of self-led asynchronous e-learning, which are complemented with live synchronous office hours to support learners. Learners are encouraged to maintain a pace of one module per week to be in sync with each other to promote meaningful peer discussion and collaboration and to benefit from scheduled office hours and webinars.
Professional Development on the Science of Learning delivered by top learning scientists online to educators anywhere in the world
To learn more about the course download our brochure:
To learn about our upcoming enrollment dates and register:
For group (50+), request a call to discuss custom enrollment options:
COGx is the finest example I've encountered of cutting edge research on learning sciences applied to educational methodology. All educators should be required to learn effective strategies to develop the foundational cognitive skills students need to engage in the critical thinking and creative problem solving that 21st century demands
Guest Lecturers
Global experts on human learning provide the scientific base of our content, while course facilitators and subject matter experts translate the science and guide application to your classroom.
Steve Joordens Professor of Psychology, University of Toronto, Scarborough, Department of Psychology
Areas of Expertise: Consciousness, Memory, & Attention Education: PhD in Psychology, University of Waterloo
Melanie Hayes Founder of Big Minds Unschool, serving Twice Exceptional (2e) students.
Areas of Expertise: Twenty years of experience teaching, mentoring, coaching, and advocating for 2e children. Education: Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, focus on giftedness and twice exceptionality
David Bott Leads teacher training in designing, implementing and sustaining individual and whole-school approaches to wellbeing.
Area of Expertise: Associate Director of the Institute of Positive Education at Geelong Grammar School, Australia. Education: MA, Psychology & Education, University of Melbourne; BA Psychology, Monash University
Ned Johnson Author & Educator
Relevant Affiliation: Founder of PrepMatters and Author of A Sense of Control Areas of Expertise: Adolescence & Academic Performance Education: BA Economics & Political Science, Williams College
Asynchronous Course Elements
Synchronous Course Elements
Laerning Outcomes
Educators will be able to:
* Summarize the most effective ways to foster student motivation and engagement in their classroom.
* Design an instructional activity to promote student engagement based on their conclusions.
* Identify ways to foster positive emotions and behaviors in the classroom to increase your students’ engagement and learning outcomes.
* Analyze the adverse effects of emotions and misbehaviors on cognition and learning.
Course Facilitators
Carmen Constantinescu
PhD Special Education Policy, University of Maryland; Universal Design for Learning. Instructional Design & Teacher Training
Areas of Expertise:
Cognitive development, teacher training, instructional accommodations and best teaching practices for students with disabilities.
Peling Li
Ed.D. Special Education, Johns Hopkins University; MA International Education Development, Columbia University
Areas of Expertise:
Teacher training and development, and special education. Experienced educator and coach to teachers; professor of graduate courses at Urban Teachers, Johns Hopkins University.
Javier Arguello
MPA, Harvard University; MBA, Yale University; Graduate Fellow Cognitive Science, MIT
Areas of Expertise:
Research translation in cognitive science; development of programs to enhance learning outcomes.
We Practice What We Teach: Professional Development Designed Around the Science of Learning
Our Professional Development (PD) on the Science of Learning democratizes access to decades of research on human learning. It also incorporates the scientific principles of human learning to how deliver the course.
Learning through our PD is active, engaging, collaborative, and application-based. Our course will invigorate your lesson planning with science-based tools that will enable your students to master what you teach.
12 Modules | 12 Weeks | 24 Hours of PD
Testimonials From Teachers at COGx Partner Schools
Without the ability to remember definitions, facts, or details, students are stranded at the most basic level of understanding. The COGx methodology gives me the tools to train my students, to strengthen their memory through direct instruction of activities that build visualization, strengthen comprehension as ideas are linked through meaningful connections, and efficiently organize information that can be easily retrieved.
A wide range of information on brain function and how understanding brain function can aid teaching and learning. I appreciated having the video lesson as a follow up to the readings.
I really like how the course was set up. I also liked the questions from priming quizzes. The questions cause you to exercise your critical thinking skills. The topic was always great! I learned a lot about how I process information... it literally helped me personally as well as to become a better teacher!
I think the topics of this course should be given as teacher training for all teachers. This was the first time I had had any type of training on how to work with students who may have different roadblocks to attention, working memory and processing speed. This training helped me to understand my students much better