TIEL Institute
Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning
Connecting Thinking and Social Emotional Learning
to Prepare Students to Create a Better World
Teaching and learning are under attack. Teachers need support to help students develop the intellectual skills and qualities of character needed to be thoughtful, active citizens of the world.
What is Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning?
Just as GPS provides direction to drivers, the TIEL Curriculum Design Model is a map that makes intellectual skills and social-emotional characteristics more visible to educators, students, and parents. Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning (TIEL) opens new possibilities for planning deeper and more balanced learning experiences for students.
The lower half of the TIEL Wheel focuses on the intellectual components of learning and teaching, while the upper half focuses on social-emotional characteristics. Color coding highlights the relationships between each thinking operation and its corresponding quality of character.
Understanding Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning
Discover how the intellectual components of the TIEL Wheel connect and coordinate with the
social emotional characteristics to guide teachers in designing curriculum that engages
students and deepens their learning.
Cognition & Reflection
Students learn through a blend of Cognition and Reflection. Cognition involves thinking processes that include observation, listening, and naming which help in acquiring and processing information. Reflection, on the other hand, is where this information is connected and organized, deepening self-knowledge. It prompts students to ask, "What insights have I gained? What have I learned about myself?" This interplay between thinking and self-awareness fosters a deeper understanding and personal growth.
Memory & Empathy
Memory and Empathy are linked through the connection between personal experiences and our feelings for others. Memory goes beyond simple recall of facts; it helps us connect old and new information and stores social-emotional experiences that shape our capacity for Empathy. By remembering experiences of caring, whether directly or indirectly, we learn to be compassionate individuals. Recalling how we felt deepens our ability to empathize with others.
Evaluation &
Ethical Reasoning
Life is shaped by decisions, plans, and projects, making Evaluation and Ethical Reasoning central to the TIEL Wheel. Both involve self-regulatory skills like planning, decision-making, and evaluation, which are best taught through real experiences and project work. Ethical Reasoning infuses the processes of Evaluation with empathy, appreciation, and reflection ensuring that decisions are made with integrity. While these skills are challenging to teach and learn, they are crucial for developing ethical leadership.
Convergent Thinking
& Mastery
Convergent Thinking and Mastery focus on finding the right answer, following instructions, and meeting external standards—key aspects of traditional school instruction. Students who struggle to meet these expectations often experience negative impacts on their well-being and learning capacity. Similarly, students who need more challenging instruction can feel frustrated and discouraged. Effective teaching must offer diverse thinking opportunities that both support and challenge students as they make progress toward mastery.
Divergent Thinking
& Appreciation
Divergent Thinking enhances one's capacity for Appreciation. It involves creativity, fluency, flexibility, originality, and imagination, skills that are nurtured through engagement with the arts and nature. Divergent Thinking encourages an open mind that leads to a deeper Appreciation of the diverse experiences of others. Like Evaluation and Ethical Reasoning, these skills are best learned through creative, student-managed projects. Mastering both Divergent Thinking and Evaluation equips students with strong leadership abilities, empowering them to approach challenges with insight and empathy.
Our Services
Consultation
In an initial consultation with your leadership team we will determine the needs of your faculty, select workshop topics, schedule workshops and follow-up sessions, and the budget.
Workshops
Workshops can be in-person or online held on days set aside for professional development before or during the school year. Workshops include time for participants to plan how to apply new strategies within their own curriculum.
Follow-Up Coaching
The most effective learning is achieved when workshops are followed by in-classroom or online coaching. Coaching includes classroom visits and focused conversations with individual participants or small groups.
Tutoring
In working individually with students, the TIEL Wheel helps students understand their own learning, what is expected from school assignments, how to build self-confidence, and how to advocate for themselves as learners.
Who Uses TIEL
Let’s Work Together
Get The Book
Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning (TIEL): A Model for Creating Powerful Curriculum addresses the challenges of cultivating responsibility, compassion, integrity, and resilience in the post-pandemic era. Students struggle with focus and motivation, while technologies like ChatGPT may impact learning. This book presents the TIEL Curriculum Design model, which helps educators create engaging lessons that teach content while enhancing executive functioning skills through project-based learning. It showcases how four New York City teachers applied the TIEL model in grades two to five, integrating content with social-emotional learning, ensuring a balanced and holistic learning experience for students.
Our Clients Say
Dr. Christy Folsom's TIEL method has transformed my teaching career. Initially, I dismissed it as just another edu-speak buzzword. However, since embracing TIEL, it has become central to my planning, pedagogy, student assessment, self-evaluation, and communication with students, colleagues, and parents. While many educational buzzwords have come and gone, TIEL's power remains evident. It has profoundly enhanced my ability to help students understand their strengths and weaknesses, becoming more effective learners, thinkers, and global citizens. Nothing has matched TIEL's impact on my teaching and its ability to foster student growth and understanding.
John Leistler, Faculty Member Deerfield Academy, Deerfield, Massachusetts
About Us
The TIEL Curriculum Design model originated from a question posed by Dr. Christy Folsom: how can the teaching of thinking and the social-emotional aspects of learning be integrated? As a teacher in a talented and gifted program, she noticed these elements were often taught separately. During her doctoral work at Teachers College, Columbia University, she developed Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning (TIEL) to address this gap.
Her research with four New York City elementary teachers demonstrated that the TIEL Curriculum Design Wheel is a powerful planning tool. It helps both teachers and students become aware of the diverse thinking and social-emotional processes crucial for 21st-century learning. The TIEL model enables students to understand their own learning, fostering self-directed and compassionate thinkers. Teachers enhanced their instruction by designing student-managed, project-based learning experiences that taught decision-making, planning, and self-evaluation.
Dr. Folsom has a broad and deep background in education, working with students from preschool to university, including deaf, gifted, and general K-12 education. Her experience includes staff development, school administration, and university teaching. She taught in the Department of Childhood Education at Lehman College, CUNY, in the Bronx, NY, for 16 years. Additionally, she has worked with teachers and administrators in the Philippines on curriculum design and national certification and served as an Instructional Coach and English teacher at King’s Academy near Amman, Jordan.
She has tutored students from elementary to master’s level and presented the TIEL Curriculum Design model at numerous national and international conferences. Her book, Teaching for Intellectual and Emotional Learning: A Model for Creating Powerful Curriculum, shares case studies of four New York City teachers who transformed their teaching using the TIEL model. Dr. Folsom resides in New York City.