We must balance teaching content knowledge and professional skills. Will Dunn joins as a guest host on an episode dedicated to exploring how we pursue this balance throughout educational practice. We start with a discussion of how we should situate competencies in standards.   Later, we read about the theory of embodied cognition. This theory… Read More »

Retrieval of information is a demanding cognitive process, and teachers must find instructional approaches that improve later retrieval of learned material. We discuss how different student experiences lead to varied success in retrieval, and how it might affect our choices for the experiences we provide in our classroom.   Later, we read an updated analysis… Read More »

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are an emerging alternative to commercial textbooks, but how do new technologies compare to traditional options? Dr. Virginia Clinton joins us to discuss her recent papers “Savings without sacrifice: a case report on open-source textbook adoption” and “Reading from paper compared to screens: A systematic review and meta‐analysis”.   Later, we… Read More »

Problems in education are often a complex mix of social, cognitive, and historical processes. Dr. Beth Holland, author of a recent Education Week piece we read, joins us to talk about education perspective.   Later, Dr. Holland shares her expertise in studying school networks as we discuss how we can get more from our efforts… Read More »

The notion that “schools are designed like a factory” is a pernicious myth in education. Jenn Binis, host of the podcast Ed History 101, joins us to discuss why this narrative is so prevalent and how the myth ends up hurting teachers.   Later, we read a paper on how teachers build social capital in… Read More »

Good teaching requires creativity, but how do we create a supportive environment for innovative teaching? We read an article that lays out how an “innovation commons” allows people to innovate, and we discuss how we could build an innovation commons in education.   Later, Youki Terada joins us for an extended Peer Review. Youki has… Read More »

Algorithms that effectively guide instruction are the dream of some people… but the reality of what instructional programs can do right now is something else entirely. Shane Lawrence guest hosts this month as we discuss a recent study on how computer-assisted instruction compared to human teachers.   Later, we look at some urban planning research… Read More »

Building culture has a tremendous impact on teacher satisfaction, student engagement, and the daily education experience. This month’s article shows us how social contagion can cause teacher stress to burden students, teacher enthusiasm to excite students, and more!   Later, Laurence responds to a listener request with details on how he builds his classroom culture… Read More »

Teachers must build student relationships despite the great breadth in their cultural backgrounds. Dolores Greenawalt, a professor at Carroll University in Wisconsin, joins us to discuss her recent writing on building positive relationships… even when it seems impossible.   Later, we look at research data produced by the non-profit TNTP on the inequity of instructional… Read More »

Technology seems to be everywhere, and it is tempting to imagine children grow up with expertise through familiarity. The research paints a vastly different picture, and we discuss one of the top read articles of 2017 that deconstructs the myth of the digital native and the costly habit of multitasking.   Later, we take a… Read More »