2026-2027 First Year Fellow Info
2026-2027 Second Year Fellow Info
yeager and teachers

Your teachers are the single most crucial factor in your students' success. But even the most dedicated teacher rarely has the time, resources, or collaborative network to learn and apply the science of engagement in ways that actually work for their classroom.

FUSE changes that. The fellowship gives teachers a library of research-backed practices, a network of colleagues, and dedicated time to think carefully about how to use motivational and cognitive science with their students — without replacing a single thing in your existing curriculum.

— Dr. David Yeager, University of Texas at Austin

Teacher Practices

The FUSE Library of Practices is the curriculum at the center of the fellowship — a set of evidence-based strategies Fellows return to, deepen, and make their own over two years of practice. Here's a short synopsis of each one:

The Science of Memory

This module examines the cognitive science behind how students retain information — and why so many of them don't.

  1. Examining the science behind the three stages of memory: how encoding, storage, and retrieval each relate to learning.
  2. Leveraging cognitive science to maximize student learning through retrieval practices that increase engagement and information retention.
  3. Adapting these insights for your students: designing retrieval practices that work in your specific classroom.
Culture of Learning Speech

This module guides teachers in developing a speech that communicates their teaching philosophy and belief in every student's potential.

  1. Reflecting on why students rarely recognize the good intentions behind our teaching methods — and how a speech can make our culture of learning visible to them.
  2. Reviewing effective speeches from previous FUSE fellows and drawing on them to begin drafting your own.
  3. Writing your culture of learning speech, ready to deliver at the start of the year and revisit throughout.
Engaged Retrieval Practices

This module builds on the Science of Memory to explore why standard teaching strategies fall short — and what to do instead.

  1. Revealing why massed practice is ineffective: examining the standard teaching and learning strategy and its limitations.
  2. Examining how engaged retrieval practices trigger focused engagement and why they work better than massed practice.
  3. Adapting these insights for your students: incorporating engaged retrieval practices in the way that fits your classroom best.
Retesting & Revision Policies

This module examines how teachers can use developmental science to design revision and retesting policies that maximize student learning.

  1. Examining why students don't revisit missed problems — and the under-appreciated developmental reasons behind it.
  2. Applying developmental science to create policies that build a culture where students willingly correct their own misunderstandings.
  3. Adapting these insights for your students: writing a retesting and revision policy that works in your district.
Optimizing Memory Encoding

This module focuses on the first stage of memory — encoding — and how strengthening it sets the foundation for better retention.

  1. Exploring how the brain encodes information and the cognitive science behind different encoding pathways.
  2. Examining the foundation of memory encoding — understanding — and how genuine comprehension improves memory from simple sentences to complex math concepts.
  3. Adapting strategies to support better encoding: incorporating evidence-based encoding practices in the way that fits your students best.
Spaced Practice: A Closer Look

This module addresses the "illusion of competence" — the gap between how confident students feel right after learning something and how well they actually retain it.

  1. Understanding the illusion of competence: the cognitive and developmental science behind why students overestimate their own learning.
  2. Examining how spaced practice combats this illusion, including how to determine optimal spacing intervals without overhauling your curriculum.
  3. Exploring strategies students can use on their own to recognize when they don't know as much as they think — and take charge of their own learning.
Mining for Mistakes: A Collaborative Troubleshooting Routine

This module gives teachers tools to challenge harmful cultural beliefs about mistakes and help students engage with learning free from the fear of getting things wrong.

  1. Examining where the culture of fearing mistakes comes from and how it takes hold in classrooms.
  2. Applying research on adolescent development to reframe mistakes as essential to the learning process.
  3. Adapting a collaborative troubleshooting approach that works for your students and your classroom culture.
Exam Speeches

This module helps teachers use key moments around exams to reinforce a culture of learning and improve student outcomes.

  1. Before the exam: what to say while students are preparing to reduce anxiety and set the right mindset.
  2. On the day of the exam: how to address stress in the moment so it doesn't get in the way of performance.
  3. After the exam: how to help students process grades, learn from mistakes, and plan their next steps.
Reframing Mistakes

This module examines how our society's culture of fearing mistakes undermines student engagement — and what teachers can do to counteract it.

  1. Examining the culture of fearing mistakes: how students absorb this culture and why it causes disengagement.
  2. Leveraging developmental science to shift what students believe about mistakes and improve their willingness to engage.
  3. Adapting these insights for your students: practical strategies to help your class develop a healthier relationship with getting things wrong.
Engaging Brains with Prediction

This module introduces prediction as a research-backed strategy for combating information decay and promoting long-term learning.

  1. Revisiting why massed practice is ineffective and what cognitive science tells us about focused engagement.
  2. Examining the science behind prediction as a learning strategy and why it works where standard approaches fall short.
  3. Adapting prediction-based practices for your classroom, drawing on examples from FUSE fellows.

Student Engagement Modules

 

Across six research-based modules, students encounter science that changes how they think about themselves as learners. They discover that the brain grows stronger through hard work, that their teenage years represent a uniquely powerful window for that growth, and that the stress they feel during a difficult assignment isn't a warning sign — it's the feeling of their brains actually getting stronger. They also learn how memory works at the level of neurons and neural connections, why common habits like highlighting and re-reading tend to fail them, and how to replace those habits with strategies that research has shown actually work: self-testing, spaced practice, and focused retrieval. Taken together, the modules shift how students interpret struggle — from evidence that they don't belong, to evidence that they're growing.

For teachers, these modules close a loop that usually stays open. After each module, Fellows receive a personalized data report showing how their students are experiencing the classroom — whether students feel respected, whether mistakes feel safe, whether they believe their teacher thinks everyone can succeed, and whether the practices they're implementing are registering as meaningful to students. Those reports connect classroom culture directly to measurable outcomes: math anxiety, interest, and confidence.  

Sample Teacher Report #1   Sample Teacher Report #2