We read a longitudinal study examining US gifted systems failing to identify students with spatial aptitude over the past 60 years. We search for the causes and consequences of undervaluing spatial reasoning, and identify classroom practices that support those students in our schools. Later, we discuss ways to get the benefits of peer observation for… Read More »

Grading always occurs in a social context. We’ll examine a study that measured how weight bias manifested when scoring writing samples. Work from overweight students was scored lower in some categories, but teachers believed bias was far less of an issue than their scoring revealed. Later, we unpack research on the impact of subtle changes… Read More »

The push for data-driven instruction can sometimes feel at odds with empowering educators to exercise their professional judgement. We read the story of one Kansas district that attempted to implement a new system for helping students. A push for data and numbers seemed to push out all the other sources of information, undermining their ability… Read More »

In our increasingly globalized world, ever more students are growing up immersed in multiple cultures throughout their childhood. These children can become “third culture kids”, young people who identify with a hybrid culture that is distinct from any of the places they’ve lived. We consider how teachers can be sensitive to their experience and supportive… Read More »

Every student deserves an equitable opportunity to learn in our classroom. Jennifer Pusateri joins us to share how her work with universal design for learning (UDL) helps remove barriers to learning for students. We re-examine our assumptions for how a classroom must run and find ways to provide options for each learner in our room…. Read More »

Research on growth mindset took the education world by storm in the 2000’s, prompting excitement and criticism. We read a large scale expansion of the growth mindset research that addresses some of the most common criticisms of past work and provides actionable guidance for classroom teachers. Later, we look at how different forms of feedback… Read More »

Even young students can begin to understand abstract topics like quantum mechanics, if given the chance. Nahuel Acosta and Auriana Anderson join us to discuss their research related to delivering guest lessons on quantum mechanics in K-12 classrooms. We learn why teaching quantum mechanics concepts early is useful, what their research revealed about their students’… Read More »

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 »