About Terry Heick
Director of TeachThought · Educator · Creator of the TeachThought Learning Taxonomy
My work focuses on developing conceptual frameworks that help educators make sense of learning, teaching, and knowledge in a changing world. Rather than producing curriculum or instructional programs, I focus on building models, taxonomies, and shared language that clarify how ideas like critical thinking, learning environments, technology, and human development relate to one another.
TeachThought exists as a space to explore, test, and publish that work. The frameworks I develop are not ends in themselves, but tools for thinking—ways to reason more clearly about teaching, learning, and educational design.
I spent ten years in the classroom before founding TeachThought in 2012, but my work has increasingly focused on theory-building, synthesis, and sense-making across domains such as critical thinking, educational technology, learning theory, and, more recently, artificial intelligence in education.
“Terry Heick has an amazing knack of being able to take complex ideas and make them easily understood without losing their integrity. I also appreciate the work he does to keep students at the center of the learning process.”
Examples of Recent Work
TeachThought Learning Taxonomy | Teaching Content vs Teaching Thought | Question-Based Learning
Terry Heick’s framework-based work informed elements of the Thinking Schools approach, a whole-school model associated with the University of Exeter that emphasizes shared language, thinking tools, and instructional coherence. His synthesis and classroom articulation of thinking strategies—such as structured questioning, visual mapping, and approaches including Habits of Mind—helped shape how thinking tools were translated into school-wide practice.
You can reach me at [email protected] .