There are at least three distinct ways of thinking about mindset. All are bound up with emotion, and each has its own implications for learning and development. — Even the most cursory exploration of the mindset literature quickly reveals that mindset is not a single, unified construct. In this article, I lay out three common ways of thinking about “mindset,” and explore their implications for learning and development.

On metrics and virtuous cycles of learning I recently sat down for a conversation with Tim Logan, from the Future learning design podcast series. It was a wonderful opportunity to describe Lectica’s mission, learning model, and approach to assessment. Here is a synopsis of what Tim had to say about the podcast: With trillions of public money…

In horticulture, there is an oft-repeated bit of advice given to new gardeners, “Right plant, right place.” It’s pure wisdom. When we choose a location that naturally provides the right environment for a given plant, that plant is likely to thrive with minimal care. The same plant, placed in a…

Back in 1996, after many years of bemoaning the state of modern education, I set out to see if it was possible to create a new educational assessment technology focused on measuring and supporting optimal mental development. In addition to being accurate and richly formative (supportive of learning and development)…

Do feelings drive learning? If so, what are they and where do they come from? — For many years, I’ve drawn attention to the dangers of treating cognition and emotion as though they are (or ought to be) independent of one another—especially when it comes to mental development. Like many scholars working within the Piagetian paradigm, including luminaries like Lawrence Kohlberg and Kurt Fischer, I view…

At Lectica (the nonprofit that owns me), we create formative developmental assessments that are scored for developmental level (Lectical Level) with CLAS—our computerized developmental scoring system. CLAS relies upon a large curated developmental dictionary—the Lectical Dictionary—in which meaning chunks, which we call items, are assigned to developmental phases to create…

As you may know, my colleagues and I are on a mission to change the focus of education from learning for correctness to building robust and agile minds. The key to making this shift is building curricula and learning tools that allow students to learn the way the brain is…

Well, maybe not so simple… — Mental illness is at an all-time high. For example, according to the CDC, the national rate of Major Depressive Episodes (MDE) in youth has doubled since 2011. In 2023, 17% of 12 to 17-year-olds had experienced at least one Major Depressive Episode during the previous 12 months. In fact, all…

This year (2023–2024), Lectica (the nonprofit that owns me) is offering a celebratory edition of our post-graduate-level course, Foundations of Lectical Assessment. In essence, this course is the long academic answer to the question, “What are the origins of the mighty micro-VCoL?” Since few of my readers will be able…