Field trips to the theater can be memorable opportunities for students to engage in community-based performing arts. Dr. Goldstein joins us to talk about how even a single theater experience can have an impact on socio-emotional outcomes like empathy and perspective-taking for students. Later, we discuss the intersection of cognitive load theory and motivation. Their… Read More »

Student underachievement occurs when students’ day-to-day class performance is lower than their test scores predict it should be. We read a review of research that shows the causes of underachievement can vary widely. Still, it gives teachers some useful starting points when trying to help a student reach their full potential. Later, we discuss some… Read More »

This month is a collaborative episode with the hosts of the School Spirits podcast. We read a study of pigeon working memory that indicates complex visuals activate substantially more of our brains than simple ones, which can help with memory and processing of information. Later, we discuss new data that shows how common caregiving responsibilities… Read More »

Researchers measured the impact of student-directed project weeks on their sense of motivation over the course of a school year. We reflect on the importance of consistently prioritizing learner agency throughout the year, rather than sequestering it to a single week of freedom. Later, we read a review of research on learning math in bilingual… Read More »

This month we talk with Dr. Elisabeth Tipton about the research support for growth mindset interventions, and the flaws in last month’s meta-analysis. Together we consider how growth mindset should be part of a more comprehensive approach to helping students improve. Later, we read how listening to music reduces our ability to use our working… Read More »

A meta-analysis of co-teaching showed that it benefits students to have more than one adult in the classroom, regardless of the specifics. We reflect on what it could mean to successfully build a co-teaching classroom based on trust among the teachers and students. Later, we read another meta-analysis that is sharply critical of the current… 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 »

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a framework being adopted by many schools, and some claim it can integrate trauma-informed pedagogies. However, we read scholarship that shows how PBIS is fundamentally incompatible with trauma-informed education. Later, we discuss a large-scale reciprocal reading study with significant impacts for some students is still not effective for… Read More »

Many schools have adopted new instructional standards in recent years, but some schools have struggled in helping teachers align their instruction. We talk with author Morgan Polikoff about his team’s work studying why flexible specificity is so important for success. Later, we look at a very large study of a belonging intervention that helps students… Read More »

Feedback is an essential component of professional growth, and teacher evaluation has changed in most places across the US over the last 15 years. What do we actually know about how those changes impacted school performance? Later, we read a study that showed retrieval practice is only beneficial when we have working memory resources to… Read More »