Two Pint PLC

Many schools have adopted new instructional standards in recent years, but some schools have struggled in helping teachers align their instruction. We talk with author Morgan Polikoff about his team’s work studying why flexible specificity is so important for success.

Later, we look at a very large study of a belonging intervention that helps students persist in their first year of college. We consider what that could mean for teachers in both K-12 and higher education settings.

Feedback is an essential component of professional growth, and teacher evaluation has changed in most places across the US over the last 15 years. What do we actually know about how those changes impacted school performance?

Later, we read a study that showed retrieval practice is only beneficial when we have working memory resources to devote to the process. We reflect on what this means for students who may be stressed or otherwise not able to allocate those resources.

Universal Design for Learning represents a framework that can impact every part of the school. We read research looking at how UDL can contribute to more effective MTSS Tier 1 interventions… if teachers have an accurate understanding of UDL.

Later, we look at an eye-tracking study to examine how students process feedback differently. The authors discuss “feedback literacy” and we brainstorm how we could help students become more feedback literate in our classrooms.

This month we are joined by two authors of a piece on constraints that fuel creativity. They share how limits on our writing help us focus on new parts of the writing process and make interesting connections along the way.

Later, we read about how errors are essential to the learning process and what we as teachers can do to make more productive use of the errors students will inevitably make.

This month we look at professional development. A fresh framework for PD lays out how we need to consider teacher learning in-context, with definite answers to the “for whom” and “when” when discussing whether something works.

Later, we look at norms for co-teaching by examining the role of a mentor teacher while a student teacher works with students. How should the mentor engage or intervene during a lesson?

This month we are joined again by guest Youki Terada to discuss his 2022 education research roundup. His team at Edutopia has curated their 10 top studies of the year - from retrieval practice to play-based learning - and we discuss every last one of them in a marathon episode.

Digital literacy skills are important for teachers to consider across many teaching contexts. We read about how critical ignoring should be part of what we are teaching to help students manage the information overload of today’s digital landscape.

Later, we read a classroom study of how reverse engineering can help students get more out of their first robotics experiences. The benefits over “forward” designs reached their collaborative skills and what they learned.

This month we read a robust, experimental study on teaching self-regulation and the increasing benefits to students over time. They learn more AND close a key achievement gap.

Later, we read about a pedagogy of enactment - how to learn about teaching through teaching. It underscores the many ways we improve through practice.

The theories about teaching students according to learning styles have been debunked in research, but the idea has been difficult to interrupt in practice. We read a new paper focused on helping teachers move on from old thinking related to learning styles with more productive contemporary research.

Later, we look at a listener recommendation focused on helping students think about how they view their own learning, in order to promote more effective practices among students.

Staffing challenges in districts across the United States are fueling a narrative of a nationwide teacher shortage. However, Paul Bruno joins us to talk about his recent work showing there may not be a national shortage… or national anything.

Later, we read a paper showing some of the inequitable impacts of math homework, and the persistence of a meritocracy myth despite teachers’ knowledge of the inequity.