The theories about teaching students according to learning styles have been debunked in research, but the idea has been difficult to interrupt in practice. We read a new paper focused on helping teachers move on from old thinking related to learning styles with more productive contemporary research. Later, we look at a listener recommendation focused… Read More »

Staffing challenges in districts across the United States are fueling a narrative of a nationwide teacher shortage. However, Paul Bruno joins us to talk about his recent work showing there may not be a “national” shortage… or national anything. Later, we read a paper showing some of the inequitable impacts of math homework, and the… 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 »

As the summer of 2022 wanes, we will spend some time looking at the bigger picture of how education has been affected by COVID-19 these past few years. We read reviews of the current research on COVID impacts on mental health and academic outcomes, with thoughts on how it may impact our prep for the… Read More »

Why are people so influenced by false information, even when they know better? We are joined by researcher Nikita Antonia Salovich to discuss her recent work on evaluative mindsets, and how we can apply on-going work to how we handle information in the classroom. Later, we discuss Culturally Responsive Science Teaching – and how teachers… Read More »

When professional development programs conflict with overemphasis on test scores, teachers face a precarious tension between their growth and the ever present threat of dubious evaluations. We read about an effort to sustain professional development in writing instruction amid a high-stakes testing environment. Later, we look at the correlation between increasing cultural socialization and reductions… Read More »

The routines, rewards, and incentives we use in the classroom can help students build productive habits they use throughout their lives. We read about a series of studies that found how rewarding cognitive effort can lead to greater intrinsic motivation for participants… even after the rewards. We think about how this could apply in classrooms…. Read More »

Retrieval practice has a ton of research support, but we’re still figuring out the when and how of its effective use in instruction. We read a series of studies comparing the impacts of post-testing and pre-testing on measures of learning, with the results showing tremendous power in pre-tests. Later, we read a study showing how… Read More »

Technology has taken a prominent position in many schools as we have taught these past few years, yet we need to look at who is using what technological tools… and why? We read how technology manifests and reproduces categorical inequalities in education, with some lessons on how to disrupt those means of sorting students. Later,… Read More »

Universal Design for Learning is an exciting framework to improve accessibility of instruction. However, Dr. Guy Boysen joins us to discuss his critiques of the existing research to support UDL and how future work could improve confidence among scholars. Later, Lali DeRosier returns to the show to share a paper on science discourse in urban… Read More »