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We’ve Misdiagnosed Adolescent Reading Struggles In a recent Education Week report, Stephen Sawchuk highlights that large numbers of middle and high school students struggle to read grade-level texts with confidence and fluency. The article notes that training for adolescent literacy is limited, while screening and intervention taper off after elementary school, leaving teachers to close years of gaps in…
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We Don’t Need More SEL Programs. We Need Better Teaching The SEL outcomes schools value most—confidence, motivation, belonging, and resilience—are byproducts of effective teaching, not programs teachers must add to their already full plates. In recent years, school districts have sought new ways to support what they call the “whole child,” expanding their focus beyond…
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Forty Years Later, and We Are Still Talking About Learning Styles In 1983, Howard Gardner introduced his theory of multiple intelligences in his landmark book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Gardner argued that intelligence is not a single general factor. Rather, human beings possess a plurality of “intelligences” or modalities (e.g., linguistic-verbal, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical,…
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The Science of Practice: How K–12 Teachers Can Make Learning Stick I hear it all the time in frustrated teachers’ classrooms:“These kids should have learned this last year!”“What did they even teach them?”“How could they have passed the previous grade without learning this essential skill?” While this frustration is sometimes justified—a critical skill may indeed…
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Myth-Busting Memory: Why Relying on ‘Student-Led’ Learning Can Backfire I often hear district leaders talk about student-centered learning as if it were the holy grail of K-12 education. The philosophy behind it is appealing: learners take charge of their learning, teachers step back as facilitators, and students are more “active” and democratic. Its roots run…