Trauma-Informed Learning Experience Design
The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. Despite this, people who develop disorders or illnesses that originate in the brain are often not taken seriously. They are frequently told “it’s all in your head,” and physical symptoms are regularly dismissed as figments of the imagination. Disorders, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), not only alter peoples’ emotional and mental wellbeing, but change the physical chemistry of their brains. Trauma occurs when people experience or witness a severely distressing and/or harmful event or repeated events, such as a car crash or having an abusive parent or partner (TEDx Talks, 2023). Because trauma changes how the brain functions, it changes the way people think, perceive, process, and learn information. Learners who have endured trauma need additional care and empathy from the educator or learning experience designer to engage with learning and not further experience harm or retraumatization (Charr-Chellman & Bogard, 2023).
The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. Despite this, people who develop disorders or illnesses that originate in the brain are often not taken seriously. They are frequently told “it’s all in your head,” and physical symptoms are regularly dismissed as figments of the imagination. Disorders, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), not only alter peoples’ emotional and mental wellbeing, but change the physical chemistry of their brains. Trauma occurs when people experience or witness a severely distressing and/or harmful event or repeated events, such as a car crash or having an abusive parent or partner (TEDx Talks, 2023). Because trauma changes how the brain functions, it changes the way people think, perceive, process, and learn information. Learners who have endured trauma need additional care and empathy from the educator or learning experience designer to engage with learning and not further experience harm or retraumatization (Charr-Chellman & Bogard, 2023).
Prior to trauma, the prefrontal cortex, or the personality center that plays a critical role in complex thinking, self-control, and initiation of behavior, has top-down control over other regions of the brain (TEDx Talks, 2023). This includes the amygdala, which is crucial in processing emotions, linking emotions to memory, and sensing and communicating a threat (TEDx Talks, 2023). The prefrontal cortex ultimately decides if the threat is harmless and then inhibits the amygdala or the threat is a danger and commands the amygdala to release stress hormones and enact the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn behavioral response (TEDx Talks, 2023). The hippocampus processes, organizes, and encodes the information, and the body will return to a resting state (TEDx Talks, 2023).
This process changes when the brain endures traumatic events. The amygdala regularly floods the brain with stress hormones and weakens the prefrontal cortex (TEDx Talks, 2023). The prefrontal cortex becomes smaller and hypoactive, while the amygdala becomes hyperactive and remains in an activated sympathetic state (Therapy in a Nutshell, 2022). When the amygdala becomes dominant over the prefrontal cortex, this is called amygdala hijack (TEDx Talks, 2023). The hippocampus works on overdrive to process all memories associated with the traumatic event, while also being constantly flooded with stress hormones (TEDx Talks, 2023). This results in volume change and remodeling, and causes the shortening of dendritic branches, loss in dendritic spines, and impairment of neurogenesis (TEDx Talks, 2023). Neural functioning, connectivity, and the ability to grow new neurons is compromised. The connection between the amygdala and hippocampus becomes stronger, maintaining the fear response over time (Therapy in a Nutshell, 2022). As problematic as this process can be, it is reversible. Through practices and treatments such as cognitive therapy, medication, Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR), and caring for oneself, a person who endured a single or recurring traumatic event can heal (TEDx Talks, 2023). This is because the brain has neuroplasticity, or the ability to grow and reorganize neural networks and pathways (TEDx Talks, 2023).
While neuro-healing after trauma is possible, learning after trauma is also possible and careful considerations of designing spaces will support learning. Since learning occurs in a safe and comfortable environment, educators and learning experience designers should consider the experience, environment, and content. Trauma-informed instructional design and trauma-informed teaching are pathways utilized by educators to support learners who have experienced trauma (MALXD, 2025). The Trauma-Informed Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation (TI-ADDIE ) model (Charr-Chellman & Bogard, 2023) is a strategy that centers care, communication, community, and conversation to support learning.
Analysis is required to understand specific populations and their emotional needs, sense of belongingness, and the handling of anticipated trauma barriers within learning environments (Charr-Chellman & Bogard, 2023).
Trauma informed instructional design requires the foundational principles of learning experience design, but changes logic, and requires additional guiding principles such as attending to resilience, empowerment, agency, decreasing stressors, and increasing cognitive support (Charr-Chellman & Bogard, 2023).
Implementation relies on tools embedded within the learning environment that reduce barriers to learning and requires mindfulness of barriers to learning. It references Sociocultural theory (Vygotsky, 1979) and recognizes the primacy of relationships, values in-person contact, and encourages relationship-building in learners within the Zone of Proximal Development (Charr-Chellman & Bogard, 2023).
Trauma-informed evaluation encourages stress-reducing approaches for determining student achievement and should accommodate the learning moment and emotions that emotions learners are experiencing (Charr-Chellman & Bogard, 2023).
The revised ADDIE model incorporates recursion into its model because trauma-informed learning does not happen in a vacuum and encourages learning designers to revisit earlier decisions and builds a closer approximation to an ideal final design through small steps (Charr-Chellman & Bogard, 2023).
References
Charr-Chellman, A. & Bogard, T. (2023, May 25). TI-ADDIE: A trauma-informed model of instructional design. Educause Review. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2023/5/ti-addie-a-trauma-informed-model-of-instructional-design
Master of Arts in Learning Experience Design Program. (2025.) Explore trauma-informed learning. CEP 800 Psychology of Learning in School and Other Settings. D2L.
Therapy in a Nutshell. (2022, April 14). How trauma and PTSD change the brain [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdUR69J2u6c
TEDx Talks. (2023, December 15). Trauma on the brain: The neurobiological effects of PTSD. Daisy Payton. TEDxMeritAcademy [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BThqIwhqxA
L. S. Vygotsky (1979). Consciousness as a problem in the psychology of behavior, 47-79. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/RSS1061-1428200447
Learning In Museums
Museums are a crucial part of our society and play a key role in creating meaningful out-of-school learning experiences. Museums are spaces where visitors can create, share, and connect with their community through the content (King & Lord, 2015). They are also increasingly becoming more accessible through online exhibitions and digital learning. Museums are affective learning spaces with a focus on feelings, attitudes, interests, appreciations, beliefs, and/or values (King & Lord, 2015). This intrinsically relates to the learner’s motivation to learn and engage in content.
My most impactful learning experience was during my undergraduate program at Moore College of Art and Design. In the 3D Applications in Design course, we worked on large-scale projects including a self-directed museum exhibition, but our designs mostly lived behind our screens. One day, we took a field trip to the Franklin Institute and we saw an exhibition on moon jellyfish that was not, yet, open to the public. In the classroom, my peers and I only engaged in symbolic thinking about exhibition design, but this field trip was an opportunity to directly engage with the physical space and practical context of the subject matter (Resnick, 1987). We moved beyond the computer screen into a world of experiential learning and experienced how exhibition design could be applied within a real-world space. My professor, the exhibition designer, and the docent gave us a guided tour through the experience and acted as facilitators by asking open-ended questions related to content and design concepts, encouraged us to make observations, and stimulated discussion about the topic (Vadeboncoeur, 2006). The learning experience also included real-life moon jellyfish, informational walls, compelling design, and the use of technology through an educational movie. This moment inspired me to become not only an exhibition designer, but also a lifelong learner.
Museums are a crucial part of our society and play a key role in creating meaningful out-of-school learning experiences. Museums are spaces where visitors can create, share, and connect with their community through the content (King & Lord, 2015). They are also increasingly becoming more accessible through online exhibitions and digital learning. Museums are affective learning spaces with a focus on feelings, attitudes, interests, appreciations, beliefs, and/or values (King & Lord, 2015). This intrinsically relates to the learner’s motivation to learn and engage in content.
The moon jellyfish exhibit was just one example from the Franklin Institute, and museums like it, that curate fun, interactive, and meaningful experiences. They incorporate constructionist theories into the framework of the exhibitions through activities, games, and experiments. Constructionists believe that people–in this case, museum visitors–learn through consciously engaging with and building physical objects which impact their mental schema (Harel & Papert, 1991). In Sir Isaac's Loft, learners can “enter the playground of experimentation and discover falling objects, chain reactions, and optical illusions that bring Newton's laws to life” (The Franklin Institute, n.d., para. 1). The interaction with physical objects, similarly to my interaction with exhibition design in practice, relates the subject matter to the learner’s real-world experiences. It helps learners develop understanding beyond the symbolic thinking they experience when confined to a classroom. The learners also engage with tools to help them understand the materials. These tools could include a multitude of things that assist the learner in their learning. In Sir Issac’s Loft, museum visitors used pulley systems, pendulums, and the “Astro Blaster” to aid their learning and connect Newton’s theories with concrete experiences (The Franklin Institute, n.d.). Both of these are crucial to consider when planning informal learning experiences, such as museums (Resnick, 1987).
Museums also integrate sociocultural theory when planning museums (Vygotsky, 1979). Museum designers consider how the visitors learn through dynamic interactions with others and their community (Cherry, 2024). Museums foster this social element by collaborating with schools to encourage field trips, becoming invaluable resources within communities (King & Lord, 2015), and promoting shared cognition where learners can share their knowledge within their social circle (Resnick, 1987).
With the COVID-19 pandemic and the ever-evolving technological advancements, museum exhibitions are becoming more widely available on online platforms. Ranging from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 360° Project that features a collection of videos touring the museum (Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2025), to the interactive digital experiences of the Louvre (Louvre, 2025), museums are utilizing technology to make the exhibitions more accessible. In these virtual tours and online exhibitions, visitors use technology as cognitive tools to aid in their learning experience (Resnick, 1987).
Museum spaces rely on the intrinsic motivation of the visitors and interest in the exhibition’s content. Museum exhibition designers consider changes in the learner’s attitudes and evaluations and focus on feelings, beliefs and values (King & Lord, 2015). When I visited the Poster House’s exhibition on the Black Panther Party and their use of graphic design to share their message of liberation, I was already interested both in social liberation and graphic design, and therefore I was more motivated to learn. The exhibition encouraged me to engage critically with the content and challenged my pre-existing beliefs. Museum exhibitions, such as this one, are powerful resources that can challenge pre-existing beliefs, offer a new perspective, and educate learners about society and the world as a whole.
References
Cherry, K. (2024). What is sociocultural theory?. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-sociocultural-theory-2795088
Harel, I. E., & Papert, S. E. (1991). Situating constructionism, Constructionism. 1-11. https://hcs64.com/teaching%20CS/papert-situating_constructionism.pdf
King, B., & Lord, B. (Eds.). (2015). The manual of museum learning. Rowman & Littlefield. https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Manual_of_Museum_Learning/grxnCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=shared%20cognition
Louvre. (2025). Virtual Tours. https://www.louvre.fr/en/online-tours
Metropolitan Museum of Art. (2025). The Met 360° Project. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/online-features/met-360-project
Moore, A. (2023). The image of Black America [Photographs]. Poster House.
Resnick, L. B. (1987). The 1987 Presidential address learning in school and out. 13-20. https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/doi/epdf/10.3102/0013189X016009013
The Franklin Institute. (2025). Sir Issac’s Loft. https://fi.edu/en/exhibits-and-experiences/sir-isaacs-loft
Vadeboncoeur, J. A. (2006). Engaging young people: Learning in informal contexts, 239-278. https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/doi/epdf/10.3102/0091732X030001239
L. S. Vygotsky (1979). Consciousness as a problem in the psychology of behavior, 47-79. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2753/RSS1061-1428200447
Redefining Learning in the Classroom
The truth is, I love learning. I want to spend the rest of my life learning new things about the world and about myself. I believe humans have the potential for growth through learning, and ultimately, we can make society better. But this requires radical change in our current classrooms. I define learning as a change in thinking, deep cognitive understanding, and the ability to engage in critical reflection. My personal learning philosophy for the classroom entails a collage of ideas from Constructivism, Situative Perspective, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, and Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I aim to take pieces of each of these concepts to formulate my own personal theory of learning and discuss how it can be applied in classroom settings.
When asked to consider and reflect on learning, I think back to my time in school. From elementary to undergraduate, I consider the approaches that either helped or hindered my learning. School was a difficult time for me. I struggled with personal issues and undiagnosed Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). However, none of this showed up on paper. Let me be clear, I was a bad student. I never studied but somehow managed to get good grades on tests and quizzes. I only ever read book summaries and could still write half-decent reflections. I calculated how many times I could get away with not doing homework before my average fell below a B. I never paid attention in class, and I always started large projects the night before (including this blog post, which was started six hours before it was due.) The most prevalent thing I learned in school was how to get away with not having to learn a thing.
School was a job, and I did what was needed to get through the work day. This is primarily due to the traditional learning environment called banking education, which is a phenomenon where teachers act as commanding officers, rather than the learner’s equal (Freire, 2009). Learners are stripped of respect and autonomy, and are expected to be obedient soldiers. The classroom did not prepare me for lifelong learning, it prepared me for life as a worker and a cog in the capitalistic machine. Intelligence - the supposed result of learning - is often defined by one’s ability to follow commands. A clear example of this is the use of operant conditioning within the classroom. Students receive positive reinforcement when they are able to regurgitate memorized facts and formulas through good grades and pizza parties (Cherry, 2024). If they do not or cannot exemplify the desired behaviors, they are met with scolding, bad report cards, and write-ups, what behaviorists call positive punishments. This is not learning; this is control.
The truth is, I love learning. I want to spend the rest of my life learning new things about the world and about myself. I believe humans have the potential for growth through learning, and ultimately, we can make society better. But this requires radical change in our current classrooms. I define learning as a change in thinking, deep cognitive understanding, and the ability to engage in critical reflection. My personal learning philosophy for the classroom entails a collage of ideas from Constructivism, Situative Perspective, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, and Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I aim to take pieces of each of these concepts to formulate my own personal theory of learning and discuss how it can be applied in classroom settings.
Piaget’s Constructivism centers past experiences and prior knowledge (Cherry, 2023). Imagine the human brain is a fancy Lego set–one of those complicated ones that are almost $1000. The individual Lego pieces are schema. Like constructivists, I believe learners use schema-like building blocks or Lego pieces–to expand upon past experiences (previous builds) and further develop knowledge and understanding (new creations). I notice powerful connections of constructivism’s knowledge building with Ladson-Billings’s (1995) deep consideration of learners’ experiences, background, heritage, and culture. Similarly to constructivist theories, Culturally Relevant Pedagogy builds upon past experiences as it relates to their culture and encourages educators to embrace their students’ differences within the classroom setting. Learning in classrooms is when students experience academic success, maintain cultural competence, and “develop a critical consciousness through which they challenge the status quo of the current social order” (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p. 160). Ladson-Billings (1995) studied teachers across the country and cited examples of how they incorporated learning into the learners’ culture, rather than their culture into learning. One example includes a teacher named Patricia Hilliard and her love of poetry. She encouraged her predominantly African American students to bring in excerpts from their favorite rap music and perform them. Hilliard utilized this culturally-significant art form as a vehicle for learning language arts and literary techniques. In my vision of education, educators create inclusive learning environments where students can engage in content in ways that are true to their identities.
I also draw from the Situative Perspective in my vision for classroom learning. From this perspective, students learn from one another just as much as they learn from their teacher by building the foundation of learning through community (Lave & Wenger, 1991). A way to incorporate this into learning experience design would be to lean heavily on group projects. And, if teachers engage in learning from their students, as opposed to the traditional banking education method (Freire, 2009), the learning has an increased potential to be mutually beneficial for all parties, from the individual students, to groups of students, to the teacher themself. Community-centering learning theories support impactful learning experiences that resonate with students throughout their lifetime.
Through critical consideration and reflection, society must fundamentally change what it means to learn within a classroom environment. Learning experience designers need to implement new strategies that encourage changes in deep cognitive understanding, rather than just obedience. They must inspire students to explore the world around them rather than try to control them through strict and outdated behavioralist theories. Learners must leave the classroom with something more than just memorized facts and formulas; learning experience designers must give them something more meaningful to better the society and help them better themselves by giving them the ability to engage in critical reflection and cognitive understanding of the world around them.
References
Cherry, Kendra. (2023). Jean Piaget Biography (1896-1980). https://www.verywellmind.com/jean-piaget-biography-1896-1980-2795549
Cherry, Kendra. (2024). Operant conditioning in psychology: Why being rewarded or punished affects how you behave. https://www.verywellmind.com/operant-conditioning-a2-2794863
Freire, P. (2009). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts 2(2), 163-174. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/266914.
Ladson-Billings, Gloria. (1995). But that's just good teaching! The case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, 159-165. https://www-jstor-org.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/stable/1476635?seq=2
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. https://bibliotecadigital.mineduc.cl/bitstream/handle/20.500.12365/17387/cb419d882cd5bb5286069675b449da38.pdf?sequence=1