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- Lukas on Think, Pair, Share: Does It Help? If Yes, Why?
- Andrew Watson on Have I Been Spectacularly Wrong for Years? Part 1
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Tag Archives: classroom advice
Should Teachers Explain or Demonstrate?
If I were a chess teacher, I would want my newbies to understand … … how a bishop moves, … how castling works, … what checkmate means. To help them understand, I could… … show them (“see how this piece
Book Review: Teaching Secondary Science, by Adam Boxer
Let’s start by making this simple: First: You should absolutely buy Adam Boxer’s Teaching Secondary Science: A Complete Guide. Sooner is better than later. Second: You will probably not READ Boxer’s book so much as you will STUDY it. Have a
Is Teaching Golf Like Teaching Algebra?
My work in this field starts with a simple logical argument: A: Learning happens in the brain and the mind. B: Therefore, teachers might benefit from knowing more about the brain and the mind. C: Therefore, we should hang out
You Should Not (or Should) Let Your Students Take Pictures of Slides
Back in October, I wrote a blog post about a surprise: it turns out that students REMEMBER STUFF BETTER when they take photos of lecture slides. For several reasons — including common sense — I would have predicted the opposite.
Think, Pair, Share: Does It Help? If Yes, Why?
On some days, I find myself drawn to esoteric research studies. A few months ago, for example, I wrote about the effect of earworms on sleep. (Yes, scholars really do research earworms.) Today, I’ve found as straightforwardly practical a study
Practical Advice for Students: How to Make Good Flashcards
Flashcards feel to me like a research sweet-spot. In the first place: for the most part, students believe that they help — and are even willing to make them! In the second place: flashcards should help. After all, flashcards promote
“Seductive Details” meet “Retrieval Practice”: A Match Made in Cognitive Heaven
Here’s a common problem: your job today is to teach a boring topic. (You don’t think it’s boring, but your students always complain…) What’s a teacher to do? One plausible strategy: You might enliven this topic in some entertaining way. You’ve
Starting Class with “Prequestions”: Benefits, Problems, Solutions
We’ve known for many years now that retrieval practice works. That is: after we have introduced students to a topic, we might REVIEW it with them the next day. However, they’ll remember it better if we ask them to try to
The Hidden Lives of Learners
Many times over the last several years, I’ve heard enthusiastic reviews of a seemingly-magical book called The Hidden Lives of Learners, by Graham Nuthall. Here’s the magic: Nuthall’s frankly astonishing research method. Working in New Zealand classrooms in the 1980s, he
The Most Important 5 Minutes in Class: The Primacy/Recency Effect
As we put our lesson plans together, we teachers want to know: are some minutes more valuable than others? That is: Do students remember most at the 10-minute mark of the lesson, because they’re mentally revved up? Or, perhaps they