Dual language programs provide a local opportunity for students to get closer to an immersive experience learning a language directly within their school community. However, we read research on the barriers to providing multilingual instruction that fosters racial literacy within a similarly multilingual context. Later, we look at the positive impact of high quality instructional… Read More »

Team teaching is increasing in popularity among schools to help educators work together in their daily practice. We read about different models for team teaching and think about how it maps to our past experiences in a wide variety of teaming approaches from our own careers. Later, we reflect on how to develop epistemic empathy…. Read More »

Professional Learning Communities, or PLCs, provide a collegial network for educators to reflect on and improve their practice. We look at an evaluation of a pre-packaged PLC program that did not improve PLCs in schools, and wonder how we can support educators at the building level instead. Later, we look at how very early math… Read More »

Edutopia did another review of the best research of 2024, and we are here to talk about it. First, discussion of student errors can lead to big gains in student learning. However, those gains only come in an interactive, collaborative class culture. Later, the remembered success effect shows that ending challenging learning experiences with clear… Read More »

Teachers may give lectures or create videos to provide information to students, and the speed of information delivery affects the cognitive load of students. We read a study of video playback speed and support materials that shows speeding up the videos may not be particularly harmful to their usefulness, and that other supportive elements are… Read More »

This month is our official “AI episode.” We are joined by Ben Riley, who wrote a guide for considering the use of AI for education. Our discussion considers the tasks for which AI might be useful, and the multiple concerns we have for its use as a substitute for thinking. Later, we read a study… Read More »

Effective statistics instruction – like many other disciplines – should empower students to ask questions and interrogate data to answer questions. We look at research evaluating the impact of an inquiry-focused statistics curriculum that showed very large gains for student learning by emphasizing statistical practice rather than mathematical routines. Later, we read a review of… Read More »

We start Season 8 in a tempestuous election cycle in the United States. We are joined by guest host Chris Carter to discuss an approach to civic education in today’s political landscape, with a focus on grounded discussions based on essential anchor questions. Later, we look at the absence of state standards for media literacy… Read More »

This month we reflect on our year of reading scholarship and growing as humans. First we’ll return to the segments we felt had the greatest impact on our practice and our thinking from the research we read. Later, we’ll reflect specifically on our praxis. We share some of the changes we’re making in our classroom… Read More »

Many curriculum decisions are made at the district-level, but each classroom teacher must figure out how to implement those decisions for themselves. We read a study showing how “philosophical fidelity” is far more important than “mechanical fidelity” to the success of district efforts to improve instruction. Later, we read a study of required behavior grades… Read More »