Using Thinking Routines Effectively

Try out a selection of thinking routines and learn how to effectively implement them across age groups, subjects, and settings. Through exploration of research and hands-on practice, you'll discover how thinking routines are powerful tools and structures for developing students’ patterns of thinking behavior.

Course Designers & Instructor

Co-Designer & Instructor: Mark Church works throughout the world with schools that wish to create cultures of thinking in their classrooms. He believes in the difference teachers can make for students when they strive to make thinking visible, valued, and actively promoted as part of the day-to-day experience of their learners. Mark encourages teachers to become students of their students, and more broadly, students of themselves and the choices they make to leverage the power of making thinking visible. Mark is currently a consultant with Harvard Project Zero's Making Thinking Visible and Cultures of Thinking initiatives, drawing upon his own classroom teaching experience and the perspectives he has gained working with educators across grade levels and content areas. Together with Ron Ritchhart, Mark is co-author of the book Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners (co-authored with Ron Ritchhart and Karin Morrison, 2011) and The Power of Making Thinking Visible: Practices to Engage and Empower All Learners (co-authored with Ron Ritchhart, 2020).

Online Course Schedule

Orientation and course site introduction for the mini courses is available no later than two days prior to the course launch.

• All participants will receive email invitations to the course site three days prior to the course start. The required review of the course policies assignment is available during the “Getting Ready” self-guided orientation to the site.
• Remember, if you joined the course as an individual and not as a member of an already formed team, you will be placed on a virtual team and will be sent an email introducing you to your virtual team members no later than 4 days prior to the course launch.
• We strongly recommend all teams schedule their weekly, required 60- 90 minute team meetings prior to the start of the course. Usually scheduling team meetings toward the end of each week is most helpful so all members have time to complete assignments in advance of the meeting.

Using Thinking Routines Effectively

Sessions open on Mondays and close on Sundays, but you do not have to work on Mondays; within each session, you work on your own time.

• Week 1: Opens Monday, September 15
• Week 2: Opens Monday, September 22
• Week 3: Opens Monday, September 29
• Week 4: Opens Monday, October 6
• Course Closes: Sunday, October 12

Who Should Participate

• Teachers, Teacher Leaders, and School Administrators and Leaders
• Museum Educators and educators working in informal learning environments
• Facilitators of Pre-K to Adult Learning

Required Course Textbook

The following textbook is required for participants in this course, and is not included in the course tuition. The textbook is available for purchase on Amazon or through the publisher Jossey-Bass — in both paper and digital format.

• Making Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement, Understanding, and Independence for All Learners. Ron Ritchhart, Mark Church, and Karin Morrison. (Jossey-Bass/Wiley, 2011)

Tuition, Discounts, and Scholarships

Tuition

• For Mini Courses (4 sessions, 4 weeks), tuition is
  • $355 for educators joining as part of a team (3-6 members from the same organization)
  • $385 for educators joining as part of a team of 2 (from the same organization) who will be placed on a virtual team with other teams of 2 (as attendance allows)
  • $399 for educators joining as individuals to be placed on a virtual team
     

Scholarships

PZ professional learning scholarships cover 50-70% of a course’s tuition for eligible educators. Scholarship applications must be submitted and accepted prior to registration; if you would like to apply for a scholarship, please do NOT register for the online course until you have been approved for a scholarship. Please note: Scholarships are limited and awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.

To review scholarship criteria and apply for a scholarship, please use the Scholarship Application link.

Registration

Confirmation and Payment

Registration confirmations are sent automatically from the registration software. Please keep these emails as they include your receipt of payment for documentation as well as your confirmation number should you need to access your registration in the future.

Payments are accepted via credit card or invoice for payment by check or wire transfer. Confirmation of registration does not confirm full payment if participants selected to pay other than by a credit card. All required paperwork and payments must be completed (or evidence provided of payments in process) by the registration deadline. For participants whose required paperwork and/or payments are not finalized at the registration deadline, they will be removed from the course roster and placed on a wait list.

Deadline for Registration

For Using Thinking Routines Effectively starting in September 2025, the deadline for registration is September 5, 2025 at 11:59 pm Boston time.

Please note: Space is limited. The courses may fill prior to the registration deadline.

Refund Request and Participant Substitution Deadlines

Requests for refunds and participant substitutions for the Using Thinking Routines Effectively course starting in September 2025 must be submitted by September 5, 2025 at 11:59 pm Boston time.

To request a refund, submit a participant substitution, or to ask questions, please email pzlearn@gse.harvard.edu.