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The Benefits of Direct Instruction: Balancing Theory with Practice
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
January-02-2022

The Benefits of Direct Instruction: Balancing Theory with Practice

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When teachers hear that “research shows we should do X,” we have at least two broad questions:

First Question: what’s the research?

Second Question: what EXACTLY does X look like in the classroom?

People who have the expertise to answer the first question (researchers) might not have the K-12 classroom experience to answer the second question.

And, of course, people who can make it work in the classroom (teachers) might not know or understand the research.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could find one book that answers both sets of questions?

In fact, it would be especially great if that book focused on a controversial topic. In that case, we could see a complete argument – both the why and the how – before we make a judgment about the controversy.

Does that sound tempting? I have good news…

Embracing Controversy

A feisty battle has raged in edu-circles for many years now: “direct instruction” vs. “constructivist pedagogy.” *

In one corner, “constructivists” argue that problems or projects or independent inquiries help students discover and build enduring understanding. And, such exploration fosters authentic motivation as well.

In the other corner, “direct instruction” advocates argue that working memory limitations sharply constrain students’ cognitive workspace. For that reason, teachers must explicitly shape learning experiences with small steps and carefully-designed practice.

Both approaches can be – and frequently are – parodied, misunderstood, and badly practiced. So, a book explaining the WHY (research) and the HOW (classroom practice) would be greatly helpful.

Sage on the Page

Adam Boxer teaches chemistry at a school in London, and has been blogging about his work for some time now. (If you follow our twitter account, @LearningandtheB, you’ve seen links to his work before.)

In his book Explicit & Direct Instruction: An Evidence-Informed Guide for Teachers, Boxer gathers eleven essays that explain the research background and then then get SUPER specific with classroom suggestions.

In the first chapter, Kris Boulton tells the history of “Project Follow Through,” a multi-decade program to discover the best way of teaching children.

Researchers tracked more than 200,000 children in 13 different programs over several years, and compared their learning across three dimensions: basic skills, cognitive skills, and affective skills.

Which approach proved most effective?

Direct Instruction, created by Siegfried Engelmann.** It was, in fact, the only program of the 13 that benefitted students in all three dimensions.

When advocates of Direct Instruction (and direct instruction) insist that research shows its effectiveness, they reasonably enough point to Project Follow Through. (Can others critique this study? Of course…)

Both Boulton and Greg Ashman (in the second chapter) then emphasize the alignment of direct instruction with psychology models: cognitive load theory, schema theory, and so forth.

In brief: we’ve got LOTS of research explaining why direct instruction should work, and showing that it does work.

Let’s Get Practical

After Boulton and Ashman explain the why, the next several chapters deliver on the classroom how.

For me, the book’s great success lies in the number, variety, and specificity of these chapters.

What does direct instruction look like for teaching math?

How about science?

How about writing?

What’s the best number of examples to use?

And so forth.

I especially enjoyed Sarah Cullen’s chapter on fading. Cullen begins with an important question/critique:

How, then, can a teaching method that so depends on instruction – on teachers leading learning and controlling the content to which pupils are exposed – foster autonomy?

Her answer focuses on having scaffolds and removing scaffolds – aka, “fading.”

In particular, Cullen wisely conceptualizes fading over many different time spans: fading across grades (which requires planning across years), fading within a term’s curriculum (requiring planning across months), and fading within a lesson (requiring skill, insight, and practice).

Like the book’s other chapters, Cullen’s offers many specific examples for each of her categories. In other words, she ground theoretical understanding with highly specific classroom realities.

In Brief

If you already think direct instruction sounds right, you’ll be glad to have a how-to guide.

If you think it sounds suspect (or even oppressive), you’ll be glad to read a straightforward explanation of the research behind the approach. (You might not be persuaded, but you’ll understand both sides of the argument more clearly.)

And, if you want realistic classroom examples explained with loving detail, this book will launch 2022 just right.

* I’ve put those labels in quotation marks because both are familiar, but neither one really works.

** Direct Instruction (with capital letters) is the name of Engelmann’s specific program. On the other hand, direct instruction (without capital letters) is a broader approach to thinking about teaching and learning.

Learning Science for Instructional Designers by Clark Quinn
Erik Jahner, PhD
Erik Jahner, PhD
December-17-2021

Learning Science for Instructional Designers by Clark Quinn

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Learning Science for Instructional Designers: From Cognition to Application is a wonderful synthesis of the learning sciences for those who would like to engage in purposeful reflection and make design choices in their practice. Clark Quinn takes the perspective that the professional educator is most effective when they have built an internal model of the learner. When they understand why they are making instructional choices, the educators can adjust material or practices to adapt to a variety of learners and the contexts.

Having the professional facility to rapidly adjust to changing circumstances has been highlighted in recent years as the context of teaching has been transient at best: in-person, online, hybrid, and the “new normal.” It is difficult to find a constant approach that will work, but the principles introduced here apply across circumstances. Remember, however, that the current situation is not unique; student populations, culture, content, and policy have always been in flux. Some have said this has been an opportunity to reimagine education. Moreover, without reflecting on practice, we have sometimes become complacent and have gone through the motions without considering or affecting the desired outcome. This book offers guides for this reimagining.

Educators entered the field because of an amazement with learning, and this book offers a refreshing lens with which to engage and adapt. Readers will be engaged with ideas of how to think about existing materials and a desire to exercise instructional creativity. But this book is not a set of instructions; Quinn does not take you by the hand and tell you what to do. Instead, he empowers you to make those creative leaps guided by principled reasoning from decades of scientific research. He asks what you will do with the compendium knowledge he has synthesized for you.

The book is loaded with great nuggets of information that bring one to pause throughout and consider implications of the well-presented ideas, covering topics from creating diagrams that minimize cognitive load, to learning through reinforcement schedules, and productively using collaboration for learning. He even offers basic scaffolds for the reader to hang these ideas on. Moreover, even though the book has been marketed for instructional design, the principles apply to learning in general, allowing the reader to consider their own habit formation, problem solving skills, personal motivation, and self-improvement. This makes the text not only professionally informative but also personally valuable.

The structure of the book also makes it a great book for the busy person who can only secure small free moments or even for those of us with an attention span to short to return to tomes of theory. Each section is concise and stands alone allowing the reader to engage in small bursts of interest. Additionally, for those that prefer reading with strategic use of visuals the text also has plenty of diagrams that scaffold and ground the ideas presented.

While written to be accessible to the novice, it is technical enough to be a useful reminder to the expert instructor or researcher who will also find some utility in the clear and concise writing style. I even found quite a few familiar ideas presented in new ways that inspired me to rethink old problems. Although this is not a theory laden book, Quinn brings the theory alive, not with overwhelming narratives, but through reflective questions at the end of each section that inspire and generate curiosity. I believe he will reinvigorate the sense of adventure and experimentation that led the educator to the field in the first place and can return us to a state of wide-eyed engagement with learning as a science.

Learning Without Borders: New Learning Pathways for all Students by Yong Zhao
Erik Jahner, PhD
Erik Jahner, PhD
November-17-2021

Learning Without Borders: New Learning Pathways for all Students by Yong Zhao

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In Learning Without Borders: New Learning Pathways for all Students, Yong Zhao outlines an ongoing and necessary paradigm shift in education, offering new ways of thinking and examples from the frontier of this trend. This is a timely piece that highlights the changes that were forced upon us by the pandemic but have been in the works for a long time. The pandemic exacerbated existing cracks in the system but also spotlighted new opportunities. The old boundaries and structures of education need to be transformed if we truly want to create pathways for the success of all students.

This book asks us to fundamentally reorganize our thinking about school and to make it genuinely student-centered. Putting the student at the center of education is a relatively common idea in education, but Yong gives a contemporary angle enabling the reader to systematically build an understanding of emerging roles teachers and students will play in this new education. His book challenges the way we think about pedagogy by integrating discussions of learning pathways, curriculum design, self-directed learning, and existing technology.

At the core of the discussion is an education system that is built around student needs that are determined in partnership with students. But before we can challenge the practices of the system, flawed mindsets are challenged: schools do not prepare students for life — students are already living full lives full of formative experiences, and schools do not transmit knowledge to students — students have unprecedented access to knowledge and are learning all the time without direct instruction.

Along with a changing mindset comes a need for an evaluation of the paths we offer, schools do much more than prepare students for college. Schooling should dynamically align with the individual student pathways, not group students onto the same path. The current structured form of education focuses on curriculum design without students; to support student development, students need to be co-owners of curriculum design. The curriculum should support the students in following their passions and endeavors not in satisfying a list of government determined metrics. Learning needs to be meaningful and Yong helps us ask the right questions to direct our practice.

These changes are not only theoretical but are ready to implement now more than ever before. They are scaffolded by ripening technology that has enabled students to truly take the reins. This has led some to fear a replacement of teachers, but the challenge in education he [proposes is not how technology might replace teachers, but to understand what aspects of learning will be done through technology and what aspects have to be done directly by teachers. He helps the reader find their role in this shift by asking us to question our widely held beliefs and adopt new roles. Students have taken charge of their own learning and we as educators need to gain comfort and facility in acting as life coaches, resource curators, community leaders, and project managers. The challenge is to find the new emerging roles for teachers and students in this new educational ecology.

While Yong critiques ways of thinking he also challenges established and accepted norms. We have new types of students who are often enabled by technology engaging the world in new innovative ways. We are completely ignoring the student entrepreneur in our education approaches, for example. We send these students the message that school does not fit them rather than integrating their skills into the system. In another example, he points out structural flaws in student groupings. We currently ignore basic principles of development by grouping students by age not developmental level or passions. And while the classroom has been seen as a fundamental unit within a school, the new classrooms can span the globe. The book is filled with ideas that help us consider the development of current systems.

One may initially think such a book is only for the progressive school and the changes discussed are above the level of the teacher. However, the attentive reader will notice suggestions for small and large changes that teachers can make in their practice. It is not always about creating a new way, it is often about accepting and becoming aware of the ways that are already practiced in the world around us. Educators can use the principles outlined here to empower students, design classrooms, and engage in ways of practicing education that can affect change.

The crux of this argument is that the system is not addressing student needs and radical redesign is necessary to align with systems of learning that are already taking place.  This book helps the reader see and become part of a new education without borders.

Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion by Wendy Suzuki
Erik Jahner, PhD
Erik Jahner, PhD
October-19-2021

Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion by Wendy Suzuki

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Good Anxiety: Harnessing the Power of the Most Misunderstood Emotion takes a refreshing look at an emotional state, anxiety, that is often seen as a problem to be avoided and kept at bay; but here, Wendy Suzuki asks us to honor this aspect of our lives, understand it, and even embrace it. She asks that we interpret feelings of anxiety as useful indicators of the way we are framing contexts. We can use that information to adjust our perspectives so that anxiety can be a potential source of positive personal energy.

While emphasizing that anxiety falls along a spectrum, she does not minimize the clinical conditions of anxiety that are debilitating to the lives of many. Her descriptions are helpful heuristics to assist us in understanding what aspects of our anxiety may benefit from professional help. But, her approaches throughout the book may be applied anywhere along the spectrum from these severe situations to everyday anxieties. The framing of our events that lead to anxiety is flexible and can be tweaked offering us a reprieve from the perpetual anticipation of what could go wrong and even pave the way toward a more actualized self.

As educators our focus is too often on getting through a long list of endless tasks: grading, preparing, going to meetings, attending to parents, and of course still mindfully attending to students. But all these tasks bring with them some degree of uncertainty and anxiety: Will I get it done? What will they think? Do I know how to run a zoom call? Am I doing my job effectively? But we still push through, dismissing these emotions in favor of checking off another task as done. We imagine that getting tasks done will make us feel better, but things are never really ‘done.’

Suzuki recognizes that while we all experience anxiety, we seldom take the time to engage the emotion and give it the respect it deserves. Ignoring anxiety does not make it go away; it compounds until we fight, flee, or freeze – are we attending to these adaptive responses that tell us something is wrong? Even a persistent low level of anxiety has deleterious effects on our body and mind. If we do not respect anxiety, we virtually guarantee that we will not be performing at our best which can further drive rumination and further deleterious anxiety. This book is a guide on a journey to building a healthier relationship with our anxiety and incorporating our knowledge into our lives for our benefit.

Through her engaging and scientifically accurate descriptions of the physiological processes, she helps us see anxiety as a biological system that has evolved for our protection but is flexibly under our influence. Bringing together an array of up-to-date research, she integrates the neuropsychology of both top-down and bottom-up processes into a set of practices that allow us to take advantage of the neuroplasticity of the system: relaxing the body, calming the mind, redirecting and reappraising, monitoring responses, and learning to tolerate the uncomfortable.

Authentic personal and third-person narratives illustrate the lessons in this book in an accessible and engaging way. You will see yourself in the various scenarios having made similar choices increasing your understanding of your past and future actions, but also giving you insight into the actions of others, helping improve our lives and the lives of our students. The narratives clearly illustrate how, when harnessed, anxiety may help you achieve your goals if you listen and engage this emotion appropriately.

The final portion of the book gives us some valuable assessment tools to help us gain a more mindful awareness of our mental state. Reading this book gently brings anxieties into view, affording us the opportunity during its reading to work with our anxiety. These assessment tools take us full circle back to the contents of the book and the menu of strategies we can draw from to address our evolving processing of anxiety.

Over the last few years, but not isolated to them, anxiety has been on the rise: the pandemic, elections, tense race relations, changing political landscapes, and further global catastrophes. This barrage is complemented by our unfortunate practice of ‘doom scrolling’ generating a feedback loop that seems like an endless drive toward harmful anxiety. What will the world throw at me next, and will I be able to cope? Students, parents, and teachers are doing their best to work through this moment, but we have been ill-equipped. When reading this book, fill it with sticky notes and bookmarks encouraging a return to strategies for checking, evaluating, and adapting your relationship with anxiety. Suzuki offers a useful tool to help us all on the road to recovery and prepare our minds and bodies for challenges yet unknown.

The Power of Making Thinking Visible: Practice to Engage and Empower all Learners by Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
September-22-2021

The Power of Making Thinking Visible: Practice to Engage and Empower all Learners by Ron Ritchhart and Mark Church

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Imagine how schools might be different if educators focused on the process rather than product of students’ thinking and tried to support students’ disposition to think. Ron Ritchhart, Senior Research Associate and Principal Investigator at Harvard Project Zero, and Mark Church, consultant with Harvard Project Zero, argue for this shift in The Power of Making Thinking Visible: Practice to Engage and Empower all Learners. This book offers innovative teaching practices, each illustrated with real world examples, for supporting students’ deep learning and cultivating habits of mind for productive engagement with other people, ideas, and actions.

Ritchhart and Church make a compelling case that teaching with a focus on making thinking visible can transform students’ learning experience by giving them more agency and thus greater feelings of engagement, deepening their understanding (measured in both standard and non-standard ways), enhancing formative assessment, and ultimately supporting their intellectual character so that they will be lifelong learners, prepared for all they will encounter beyond school.

There are many tools that teachers can use to make thinking visible, and part of teachers’ and students’ task is to develop skill in understanding which thinking tools are appropriate for a given context. The authors focus on 18 routines for making thinking visible.  They explain the purpose of the routine, the contexts in which it is appropriate to use the routine, steps to implementation and possible variations, and how to assess students’ use of the thinking routine. They also offer compelling and informative examples of the use of the routine in diverse classroom settings. Routines are aimed at increasing questioning, noticing, empathic listening, perspective taking, observing, documenting, and planning. Some routines seek to support students in reasoning with evidence, synthesizing, reflecting, identifying core concepts, considering possibilities, exchanging ideas, receiving feedback, and appreciating truth and beauty.

It is possible to make thinking visible across all academic subjects and domains. Advancing students’ thinking skills in a domain can help students master curricular content more efficiently.

Especially with the examples and instructions provided in this book it can be easy to implement these thinking routines, but doing so well can remain a challenge. Teachers benefit from developing an understanding of when and where deep thinking is needed, noticing it as it emerges, cultivating students’ thinking when they are doing it, and reflecting on how to embed more deep thinking opportunities into the learning experiences of students. Teachers who are skilled at supporting thinking set long-term learning goals for students, listen and respond to students, remain flexible, set high expectations, and believe in the transformative power of teaching thinking skills. Focusing too much on a short-term daily agenda or scheduling class time too densely can be counterproductive. Given the difficulty associated with teaching to make thinking visible and the fact that teachers’ own growth and development as educators takes time and experience, it is important for educators to support one another in the process of making thinking visible. Ritchhart and Church suggest ways to facilitate teachers in supporting one another in developing this skill.

The Power of Making Thinking Visible is an extremely practical, usable guide for educators to support students in honing sharp minds. To learn more about supporting the process of thinking, see Creating Cultures of Thinking, also by Ron Ritcchart.

Ritchhart, R., & Church, M. (2020). The power of making thinking visible: practices to engage and empower all learners. John Wiley & Sons.

Learn Like a Pro: Science-Based Tools to Become Better at Anything by Barbara Oakley and Olav Schewe
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
July-29-2021

Learn Like a Pro: Science-Based Tools to Become Better at Anything by Barbara Oakley and Olav Schewe

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With the school year starting in just a couple of weeks, Learn Like a Pro: Science-Based Tools to Become Better at Anything by Barbara Oakley and Olav Schewe is an excellent resource to help students start the school year with strong study habits. Using a fun, accessible tone and helpful graphics this book instructs readers about how to manage procrastination, exert self-discipline, stay motivated, study actively, think deeply, memorize new content, take better notes, read more efficiently, and ace the next test. Oakley is a professor of engineering at Oakland University and known for her widely popular massive open online course. Schewe is the founder and CEO of an EdTech start up, Educas.

Part of effective learning and studying involves developing persistence and motivation to stick with one’s studies. One tool Oakley and Schewe recommend to beat procrastination is the Pomodoro technique, which involves remove all distractions, setting a timer for 25 minutes during which one works intently on a single task, then rewarding oneself with a 5 minute relaxing break (i.e., not a break that involves one’s smart phone). Meditation, yoga, and taking time to relax can also help build attention and focus. Removing temptations can make it easier to stick with a goal. Setting specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, and time limited short- and long-term goals can help increase motivation. Working with others (e.g., in a study group) and finding value in one’s work can also increase motivation. Metacognitive awareness about one’s progress are also helpful. Finally, a healthy lifestyle, which involves physical exercise, high quality and sufficient sleep, and a balanced diet, is key for effective learning.

Oakley and Schewe review good study habits. Active studying (e.g., by using flashcards, explaining concepts and their relations to one another, and brainstorming possible test questions) rather than passive studying (e.g., re-reading notes) is likely to yield results. Studying in frequent, small chunks and reviewing, previewing, and mixing content during those chunks of study time is helpful. Sometimes studying involves memorizing ideas so that a student has mental power available to solve advanced problems with simpler ideas already clearly in mind. Using acronyms, metaphors and other memory tricks can help make ideas stick. Working through practice problems is a great way to check for understanding while studying.

Being a good test taker involves some different skills than being a good student or studier. Oakley and Schewe suggest reading through test instructions and questions carefully, checking the time while taking the test, starting the test by previewing the hardest questions so one can passively think about them while answering other questions, and reviewing answers at the end.

Oakley and Schewe conclude the book with a checklist of ways to become an effective learner. To learn more about these and other helpful study suggestions you may be interested in Learn Like a Pro, as well as other works by Oakley, including Learning How to Learn.

Oakley, B. & Schewe, O. (2021).  Learn Like a Pro: Science-based Tools to Become Better at Anything. St. Martin’s Publishing Group.

Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycle of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind by Judson Brewer
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
June-29-2021

Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycle of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind by Judson Brewer

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Even before the increase in mental health challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we were living in an era of heightened anxiety. People experience feelings of worry, nervousness, or unease related to their futures or to life circumstances shrouded in uncertainty. In Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycle of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind, Judson Brewer, professor in Brown University’s School of Public Health and Medical School, shows that anxiety is a type of habit, and that the science of habit formation and addiction can help address anxiety. By some estimates, just shy of one-third of U.S. adults will experience an anxiety disorder at some time in their life. This book is helpful for the many people who struggle with anxiety and for individuals who help support people suffering from anxiety.

Anxiety originates from a brain and mind mechanism intended to support survival—i.e., fear is at the root of anxiety, and fear can be key to keeping us out of life-threatening danger. Anxiety is socially contagious and often exaggerated by judgement about our anxiety from ourselves or others. It cannot be avoided with willpower, reason, distraction, substitution, or environmental changes alone. Instead, Brewer suggests that we become aware of our anxiety habit loop and understand the ways in which we reward and reinforce those habits. Identifying a habit loop involves defining a trigger, subsequent behavior, and reward. He suggests practices for breaking bad habits and forming new ones and urges patience in the process of change. Mindfulness, or purposefully and non-judgmentally attending to the present moment, and curiosity, are key parts of unwinding the anxiety habit and curbing perseverative thinking. Brewer argues that mindfulness and curiosity work in part because they do not require changing the thoughts or emotions we have, but instead involve changing our relationship to those thoughts and emotions. For example, when we fall back on a bad habit, rather than chastising ourselves or saying what we “should” do, we can frame the misstep as a learning opportunity. Brewer urges actively saying “hmm” more often. He suggests that between our comfort zone and our danger zone is a growth zone in which we have the potential to help create a new version of ourselves.

Brewer recommends several specific practices for addressing anxiety and forming new mental and behavioral habits. He developed the acronym RAIN to describe one especially helpful practice which involves: 1) recognizing and relaxing into what one is feeling; 2) accepting and allowing those thoughts and feelings; 3) investigating them with curiosity and kindness; and 4) noting what happens in each moment. Paying attention to the present moment, including through breathing exercises, can be very effective. Loving Kindness meditation, which involves wishing yourself and others well, can help us accept ourselves and others as we are, and allowing the feeling of kindness to run through our bodies can provide a sense of calm. Paying close attention to the adverse behavior in a habit one is trying to break and to the good feelings in the new habit one is trying to form can help bring about habit change. Brewer also encourages having faith that you can learn a new skill or habit, practicing those new habits as needed, and focusing on making change in small, manageable chunks of time.

Brewer has examined all these practices through extensive laboratory-based research, as well as through a smart phone app he has developed to change habits. While many people are motivated to address anxiety-related issues because anxiety itself is unpleasant, Brewer offers additional incentive in the form of the wisdom that worrying does not prevent possible future troubles from occurring, but it does rob us of peace in the present moment. To learn more about addressing anxiety and engage with additional resources that Brewer has developed, visit DrJud.com.

Brewer, J. (2021). Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycle of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind.  New York: Avery, Penguin Random House LLC

Beyond Slogans and Posters: The Science of Student Motivation
Andrew Watson
Andrew Watson
June-15-2021

Beyond Slogans and Posters: The Science of Student Motivation

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In many cases, cognitive science offers clear teaching advice.

You’re curious about working memory? We’ve got LOTS of strategies.

Wondering about the limits of attention? Good news!

Alas, in other cases, research doesn’t give us such clarity. If, for instance, I want to ramp up my students’ motivation, what should I do?

Should I put up posters with uplifting quotations?

Should I encourage grit?

Or, should I promote a “growth mindset”?

If you’d like answers to these specific questions — and the broader questions that prompt them — I have a place to start: meet Peps Mccrea.

In his new book Motivated Teaching, Mccrea sorts though dozens/hundreds of studies to create a clear, readable, research-informed, and practical guide to the science of student motivation.

Here’s the story…

Evolution, and Beyond

Mccrea, sensibly enough, starts with an evolutionary perspective.

Humans face a cognitive problem: the environment offers us so many stimuli that we can struggle to know where to focus our attention. (Teachers REALLY care where students focus their attention.)

Motivation helps solve this problem. If I’m motivated to do Y, I will attend to Y; if I attend to Y, I just might learn it. As Mccrea pithily writes, “Motivation is a system for allocating attention.” *

How then do teachers amp up motivation?

For an initial answer to this question, Mccrea turns to behavioral economics. In his formulation, students feel motivated to learn when

… they see the VALUE in what they’re learning,

… the ODDS ARE GOOD that they can learn it, and

… the COSTS of learning are low.

If we manipulate these variables just right — increasing the odds of learning, reducing the costs — those teacherly efforts create student motivation.

For instance, I’ve spent years emphasizing the importance of classroom routines. From my perspective, they reduce working memory load — usually a good thing.

From Mccrea’s perspective — thinking about that cost/benefit formula above — routines reduce the costs of learning. Once students have classroom systems and mental systems in place, they can easily use them to learn more complex material.

As Mccrea says: we should make “the process of learning easy, whilst keeping the content of learning challenging.” (You see what I mean about his catchy summaries?)

Learning Is Individual AND Social

Of course, learning takes place in a social context, and Mccrea studies that research pool as well.

For instance, he highlights the importance of school and classroom norms. If students see that, around here, we all act a particular way, they’re likelier to join in the normal behavior they see.

For this reason, Mccrea advocates taking the time we need to articulate and re-establish our norms. Early work now will pay off later in the year.

By the way, Mccrea’s chapter here reminded me of a powerful story. At the high school where I work, a new freshman once used a mild slur to insult a classmate. Before the teacher could do anything, one of the student leaders looked up and said five simple words: “We don’t do that here.”

Imagine the power of that sentence. If the new student wanted to be a part of “we” and “here,” he needed to change his behavior pronto.

Norm established.

The Big Pictures

In Mccrea’s system — to answer the questions that opened this post — motivation does not result from uplifting posters. It produces grit, but does not result from it. (Mccrea does not specifically mention growth mindset.)

In fact, he specifically discounts “fun” as a good way to motivate students. Fun is an extrinsic driver: one that we should use sparingly, and as infrequently as possible.

Instead, he argues that if teachers focus on five key drivers of motivation, their cumulative results will foster motivation; and thereby attention; and thereby learning.

When you start reading Mccrea’s book, be aware that he’s explicitly aiming for “ultra-concise.” He has, in fact, boiled an early draft of 200,000 words to this slim volume of 10,000 words. (You read those numbers right — two hundred thousand words boiled down to ten thousand. **)

To achieve that goal, he gives few detailed examples, and saves research for links that you can follow. To imagine Mccrea’s suggestions at work in your context, you really should take time with the exercises he outlines on his page 112.

In other words: because he condenses research so effectively — like a bouillon cube — we readers need to soak it in our own context to let it expand and work its flavorful magic. You won’t get a detailed motivation checklist; you’ll get something much better — a way to think about motivation in many classroom contexts.

As someone who has written a book about research on motivation, I can tell you: Motivated Teaching is an excellent, readable, and practical book. It’s so short, you can easily read it twice.

In fact, after you’ve finished your first reading, you’ll be highly motivated to do so.

* Mccrea is GREAT at this sort of succinct formulation. In this review, I’m working really hard to limit the number of quotations from the book. I suspect I could compose a review almost entirely of his wise sentences.

** At the same time I read Mccrea’s book, I listened to Ollie Lovell’s podcast interview with him. This astonishing fact comes from that interview. By the way, if you DO like podcasts and you DON’T yet follow Lovell, now is an excellent time to start. He’s a one-man Learning and the Brain podcast in Australia.

Why Don’t Students Like School? (2nd. ed.) by Daniel T. Willingham
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
May-28-2021

Why Don’t Students Like School? (2nd. ed.) by Daniel T. Willingham

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Why don’t students like school? Daniel T. Willingham, Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia, addresses this and nine other significant questions about how the human mind works and the implications for teaching in his book aptly titled, “Why Don’t Students Like School?” The second edition of this book, with new information about technology now included, was recently released. Willingham’s overarching advice to teachers is to “know your students;” the book explains what about one’s students a teacher should strive to know and how to act on that knowledge.

The ten cognitive science principles for teachers that Willingham highlights are principles that he argues: (1) are true all the time and across contexts, (2) have robust supporting evidence (which Willingham organizes into comprehensive lists to help readers learn more), (3) can impact student performance, and (4) have actionable implications for teachers. By offering insights into students’ minds, Willingham aims to help teachers improve their practice not by prescribing how to teach, but by giving insights into what teachers might expect from their students based on the teaching decisions they make. Willingham is par excellence in his ability to translate cognitive science for an educator audience; this evidence-based, comprehensive synthesis will be of great utility for many educators, and the thought-provoking questions he includes throughout make this book an excellent option for a teacher book club/discussion group.

Much of the reason that students don’t like school (aside from social challenges) has to do with the fact that school rarely finds the sweet spot between to-be-learned content being too hard and too easy, according to Willingham. While we are naturally driven to satiate our curiosity, we also find thinking to be difficult and will default to what we remember rather than puzzling through something new. To make students more inclined to learn teachers can pique curiosity by explaining the question behind content the teachers wish students to learn, connect with students in other ways they find engaging (e.g., through comedy, stories, and demonstrating care), and avoid overloading the amount of information students have to hold in mind at one time.

Many teachers are concerned that teaching students the kinds of facts they need to perform highly on standardized tests undermines efforts to help them develop deep thinking skills or to think like a “real scientist” or a “real historian.” Willingham argues that students are well-served to learn the background information that they do in school because they need these facts to become strong readers and critical thinkers who are able to connect disparate ideas, hold information in mind, and develop sound predictions. Additionally, Willingham explains that the more one knows, the more one is able to acquire additional knowledge.

Experts–people who can create new knowledge in their field after practicing in the field for many years—think qualitatively differently than do novices. As such, we should strive for students to develop a deep understanding, but not to do exactly what experts do, since these same behaviors may not be fruitful without first having that deep understanding. To facilitate deep understanding and abstract thinking educators can help students link new content to information they already know, provide diverse and familiar examples of a concept, and offer analogies. We remember what we think about; to help students remember content, educators should reflect on what their lessons make students think about. Persuading students of the value of knowing the content, using a story-like arc in lectures, and engaging students emotionally can facilitate long-term memory. For memorization of basic information, Willingham lists several common mnemonics (e.g., using acronyms) that can be helpful.

The role of intelligence in education is a perennial and thorny issue. Importantly, Willingham notes the inherent worth of all students regardless of intelligence or talents.  He provides convincing evidence that intelligence can change with hard work and is more affected by our environment than genes. Focusing on the learning process rather than raw abilities, teaching that hard work pays off and that proficiency requires practice, and normalizing failure can lead to a boost in students’ academic performance. (Willingham notes, however, that effects of a so-called “growth mindset” on academic performance are small and there is not sufficient evidence about how to teach this mindset successfully in school.) While there is true variability in students’ intellectual abilities, Willingham shows that there are not consistent differences across people in the way they learn (i.e., their “learning style”). Willingham argues that the content to be taught, more than the learning format preferences of students, should drive the way one teaches a lesson.

Educators have heard too many promises about a tech-based education revolution. In spite of this, Willingham argues that technology has not fundamentally changed how our minds work and the effects that it does have on cognition are often unexpected. Willingham suggests that before adopting new technologies in schools, educators consider the evidence about the tool. Screen time can take students away from devoting their time to activities that might provide greater cognitive benefit and a reprieve from social pressures. For these reasons, it may be beneficial to limit technology use.

After devoting considerable attention to the minds of students, Willingham concludes by considering how teachers can support their own cognitive and professional growth. Teaching, like any cognitively demanding skill, must be practiced to lead to improvement. That practice should include measures such as isolating individual subskills to refine, receiving feedback from knowledgeable colleagues, trying new techniques, watching tapes of one’s own teaching, learning more about human development, and recognizing that the process of improving may be hard on one’s ego.

Why Don’t Students Like School? is great summer reading for teachers looking to improve their practice. For other works by Daniel Willingham, see The Reading Mind and Raising Kids who Read.

Willingham, D. T. (2021). Why Don’t Students Like School? Second edition. Hoboken, NJ: Jossey-Bass.

 

The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention by Simon Baron-Cohen
Rebecca Gotlieb
Rebecca Gotlieb
April-30-2021

The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention by Simon Baron-Cohen

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Cambridge University professor of psychology and psychiatry, Simon Baron-Cohen, recently published The Pattern Seekers: How Autism Drives Human Invention. Baron-Cohen argues that for the last 70,000-100,000 years humans have been the only species with the “Systemizing Mechanism,” or the ability to think in if-and-then patterns. This ability, which is stronger in people who work in science, technology, engineering, business, law, and some detail-oriented art fields, has offered us an advantage over other species because it enables invention. Baron-Cohen reviews extensive evidence suggesting that the Systemizing Mechanism is more common among people with autism, that both this mechanism and autism are at least partially genetic, and that they share a genetic basis. As the incidence of autism continues to rise and the need to better support this population and better harness the strengths of people with autism continues to grow, this book will be of interest not only to individuals with autism or to people who work with individuals with autism, but also to those striving to support two of our most uniquely human capacities—the capacity for innovation and for empathy.

Baron-Cohen explains that the Systemizing Mechanism involves first asking a question about the world, then hypothesizing an if-and-then pattern to answer it, testing that pattern repeatedly by making observations or experimenting, and finally, modifying it as appropriate. These steps allow us to learn new things about our environment and ultimately exert some control over it.

Baron-Cohen reviews the 70,000+ year history of human inventions. He argues that although other animal species use tools, and there is evidence of tools from other hominids, only humans can create a novel tool more than once. Baron-Cohen refutes the ideas that language, large working memory capacity, larger brains, or the protracted period of childhood could adequately explain humans’ unique ability to build innovative inventions. Only the Systemizing Mechanism is sufficient to explain our ability to invent.

Despite the power of the Systemizing Mechanism, we typically rely on empathy (a topic about which Baron-Cohen has researched and written extensively) to understand the social world. Baron-Cohen describes a trade-off between empathy and systemizing that may have both a genetic basis and may be influenced by environmental factors, including the prenatal hormonal environment.  He says that there are five distinct types of relative orientations individuals have towards systemizing and empathizing—an individual can be very high on one and very low on the other, moderately high on one and moderately low on the other, or balanced in both skills. Readers can assess their own systemizing and empathizing at www.yourbraintype.com. Systemizing is more common among people with autism than among the general population and is more common among people who work in technology than among people in most humanities. People with autism are often experts at recognizing patterns (consistent with systemizing), but may struggle with cognitive empathy, leading to difficulty with social relationships. Hyper-systemizing individuals are genetically more likely to have an autistic child and the parents of kids with autism tend to score higher on systemizing and pattern recognition tests.

The rate of diagnosed autism has risen, which may partially be because of increased awareness, better ability to diagnose, and changing diagnostic criteria, but it may also be increasing in the population because of a genuine growth in its frequency (perhaps secondary to increased mating among people with a genetic disposition to systemizing). Currently, school and the workforce are relatively unwelcoming places for people with autism, which causes them great suffering and loneliness and makes society lose out on their unique strengths. Baron-Cohen calls for offering more social support to people with autism and creating more employment opportunities for these individuals. Appreciating neurodiversity in the population, or the naturally occurring variability in types of brains, is a revolutionary, inclusive idea. Inspired by his work with people with autism, Baron-Cohen helps us imagine a better world—one in which we cease to judge one another for what we cannot do and instead celebrate the special talents we each possess.

Baron-Cohen, S. (2020). The Pattern Seekers. How Autism Drives Human Invention. Basic Books.

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