As we return to “normal,” teachers will be building classrooms in which teaching and learning happens in both physical places and online spaces. Until now, most educators have perceived clear boundaries between online teaching and face-to-face teaching. That separation is no longer tenable. For decades, educators have heard “the jobs your students will have do not exist yet.” Until recently that has not been true; as we Read More
Merrill (2002) placed real-word problems at the center of effective teaching. The problems, however, must be judged “interesting, relevant, and engaging” (p. 46) to the lead to learners so they have a sense of caring that was labeled “ownership.” Such problems are also selected so that students understand the problems, care the problem be solved, Read More
209: On Not Being Taught How to Teach I left high school as a 17-year-old (yes, I am old enough that they let me start school a few weeks before my fifth birthday) who knew that he wanted to become a science teacher. My path to my undergraduate as not as circuitous as many, so Read More
What exactly does it mean that “students learn?” For many generations, student learning in classrooms has been focused on their ability to remember information. If students could accurately recall what they were taught for a long time after they were taught it, then we assumed they had learned it well. That concept of learning seems inadequate today. In recent decades, scholars have detailed the Read More
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
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 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
I’ve written about this in the past on the blog, but the topic has come back into my professional thinking, so I’ve capturing it again. In 2008, I have a stroke and spent the summer learning to walk again. For the 20 years of my career in education until then, I had rejected the “back Read More