In classrooms, we observe teaching and learning. We expect these two activities are closely and positively related. The more and the better we teach, we reason, the more and the better students will learn. After more than 30 years in classrooms in a range of roles (some which have allowed me to be to proverbial “fly on the wall” who observed teaching at its Read More
In their 2010 book Change, Chip Heath and Dan Heath, scholars and business leader who study change, attributed resistance to change to three factors. These are observed regardless of the type of change. First, until new practices become habit, people must exert self-control to adopt them; this self-control is necessary to continue using the new Read More
I started my career in education in the late 1980’s. To increase my salary, I enrolled in graduate courses and the I could take a purchase order from the school when I enrolled. My principal or department head needed to “approve” the course, but it was informal. When I started I was in control of Read More
Much of my work supporting online teaching and learning is listening to faculty (and students) “complain” about discussions. Students find them to be “hoops” to jump through, and faculty do not spend much time improving them because students do not engage with them in the manner they hope. Emerging learning science is confirming that interaction Read More
While some associate instruction with the leaners as a passive recipient of information, Burton, Moore, and Magliaro (2004) suggest this is an inaccurate conclusion, and they suggest instruction can provide a structure for approaching a complex body of knowledge and also for maintaining knowledge. Reif (2008) identified several factors that make instruction effective including articulating Read More
Some educators accept the invitation to learn about an innovative pedagogy being introduced to a school. These individuals tend to receive extra training, lead planning and implementation meetings, and deliver professional development to colleagues. In my experience, those who become local advocates of these innovations tend to be less experienced teachers and educators who do Read More
The global computer networks that we have at our finger tips in the third decade of the 21st century have been attributed with creating a “global village,” and that seems a appropriate metaphor as many have had the experience of communicating with individual at the next seat or thousands of miles away using ICT. The Read More
There can be little question that characteristics of our brains differentiate humans from other creatures. Increasingly, cognitive scientists recognize our brains are designed for the social interactions that have allowed humans to cooperate, and this cooperation has enabled our species to avoid extinction. Cognitive and developmental psychologist Michael Tomassello (2014) described the importance of social Read More
The schools I attended (and that my children attended and that I still see) appear to be grounded int he assumption that learning is about information. “If students have the information,” it is reasoned, “they will now it and be able to use it.” Further, it is assumed that performance on tests and other assignments, Read More
Schools are unusual organizations. They are political. Especially in those areas where schools are funded by the public, bureaucrats and the governments that direct them exert string influences on what happens within them. They are hierarchical. In an extension of the political nature of schools, schools are operated by administrators who are more powerful than Read More