Education Eclipse

Every year, a WSU student wins the Inga Kromann Book Award. We’ve highlighted previous winners on our podcast. The purpose of this award is to recognize the literary talents and efforts of the students. This year’s winner is Stephanie Sparks, with her book A Pencil Named Benson. She tells us more. Education Eclipse starts now.

Law enforcement officers often consider their fellow officers as a brotherhood or sisterhood. That extends to canine officers. Police dogs. Quite frankly, some officers spend more time with their canine companions than they do with their own families, making those dogs de facto family. But how do we train police officers to render first aid …

Continue reading "040 A special police bond"

Quite simply, we can teach better, as a society, when we better know how students learn. A lot of research has been done through classroom observation. But getting down to learning from a neurocognitive perspective, can really help researchers better assess what works and what doesn’t. Jonah Firestone, from WSU Tri-Cities, runs a lab, called… …

Continue reading "039 Learning how to learn (SIMIAN Lab)"

We’ve all heard the phrase “best practice,” or, as is often used after research, “evidence-based practice.” Not all current teachers know what that best practice may be because they are uninformed about the newest research, or professional development hasn’t been provided to them. That certainly holds true for special education. We met up with Yun-Ru …

Continue reading "038 Evidence-based practice in SPED"

For stage actors, it’s not just about what is said, but how it’s said. And the body language that is used. The same can be said for teachers. Educational psychology doctoral student David Alpizar talks about something called “signaling,” which can be a variety of ways to emphasize thing for students; to draw their attention. …

Continue reading "037 Signaling in the multimedia classroom"

During a teacher shortage, one place to look for teachers is the classroom itself. Washington state already has a lot of paraeducators… folks who are in the classroom day in and day out, and aren’t certified teachers for a variety of reasons. Lindsay Lightner is at WSU Tri-Cities, and introduces us to its Alternate Route …

Continue reading "036 From Parapro to Teacher"

This might sound like a no-brainer, but something that captivates a students’ attention, will help them to then better engage in the lesson, activity, discussion, or what have you. Personal interest is something that is more long-term… more innate… it’s value-based. Situtational interest is something that teachers often have incredible ability to control, and it’s …

Continue reading "035 Increasing classroom situational interest"

People are bringing dogs into schools more than ever before. Usually, the reason deals with social aspects or social skills. Comfort dogs, for example. A lot of times, we call it canine therapy. But do we know the effect that dogs truly have on learning? Some research suggests there are some benefits to dogs in …

Continue reading "034 Dogs in school"

Research has shown that small interactions between students during small group learning environments can help the overall achievement of that group. But then do those small group interactions help the collective, whole classroom level of interaction? It’s not something recognized as having previously been investigated. We talk to Josh Premo, a graduate student in the …

Continue reading "033 From small group to big classroom"

You may have heard, but Sesame Street is debuting its first autistic character, Julia. Good timing, because, April is also Autism Awareness Month. As one reporter from a Staten Island news outlet wrote: “Producers of Sesame Street said they took a lot of care in how they portrayed Julia. They worked with autism advocates, teachers, …

Continue reading "032 How Literature Treats Autism Spectrum Disorder"