In a few short weeks, a book I'm featured in, Amplify Learning: A Global Collaborative, will be released. I'm the author of the chapter on assessment and feedback. On May 26, 2022, 7PM EST, I will be talking with the lead authors of the project about some of the assessment and feedback strategies that I … Continue reading Assessment and Feedback Strategies Livestream
Can Students Really Self-Differentiate?
Take a look at the screenshot below. It shows a learning activity containing a menu with two choices. Clicking the right button leads to a problem that the student must solve, and clicking the left button leads to an example that shows the student how to solve that sort of problem. This activity is one … Continue reading Can Students Really Self-Differentiate?
Do We Want Our Students to Struggle?
Like so many buzzwords in education, it's hard to pin down what people mean by the term "Productive Struggle". Of the two meanings of Productive Struggle I've heard being used most often, the good meaning is uncontroversial, and the bad - and more popular - meaning encourages teachers to abandon principles of effective instruction. The … Continue reading Do We Want Our Students to Struggle?
From Door to Do Now
When I coach teachers who struggle with classroom management, I often begin by helping them focus on the things that happen just prior to the actual lesson: The way students move and interact in the hallways, the way students line up at the door and enter, and the design of the task students are meant … Continue reading From Door to Do Now
Hyper-Individualized Teaching
Everyone has their ideas about what will fix education. One way to categorize these ideas is through the dichotomy of progressive and traditional approaches to education. Progressivism emphasizes setting the conditions to allow students to find their own way to subjects, and traditionalism emphasizes the importance of an expert bringing subjects that are of value … Continue reading Hyper-Individualized Teaching
S1E10: Special Edition
In this episode, Zach flies to the Midwest to meet up with Brad to tape a road trip edition of Progressively Incorrect. Along the way, the duo stop at the highest point of Ohio, the first paved road in the USA, and find (some) common ground in their debate over progressive versus traditional ideas in education.
The Practical Side of Cognitive Load Theory
In one of this blog’s more popular posts, I talked about how reading about cognitive load theory has led to changes in how I think about teaching. Today, I thought I'd describe a number of cognitive load theory-inspired practical applications that I've incorporated into my lessons. I hope this post illustrates how engaging with cognitive … Continue reading The Practical Side of Cognitive Load Theory
The Private School Penalty
For the past 9 years, I've worked in private independent and international schools, and before that, I trained and worked in public schools. As I've written before, the challenges that teachers experience in each of these contexts are vastly different. A pedagogy consisting largely of unstructured tasks with ill-defined goals, coupled with a laissez-faire approach … Continue reading The Private School Penalty
S1E9: On Students’ (Mis)judgments of Learning and Teaching Effectiveness by Carpenter et al.
In this episode of Progressively Incorrect, Zach Groshell and Bradley Arnold discuss "On Students’ (Mis)judgments of Learning and Teaching Effectiveness" by Shana Carpenter and colleagues. While it may be popular to collect student opinion on instructional matters, there is often a conflict between what students think is effective and what is actually effective. We discuss many of the ways that student opinion can have negative or positive effects on the quality of students' education.
Instructional Videos: Perfect for Learning Styles, Popular with Students, and THE FUTURE of Education!
Last week I attended a government-sponsored training on instructional video that began with three weird reasons for why teachers should use more instructional video: Instructional videos cater to students' learning stylesInstructional videos are more popular with students (i.e., they like them) than alternative methodsInstructional videos are the future of learning I'm sure fans of this … Continue reading Instructional Videos: Perfect for Learning Styles, Popular with Students, and THE FUTURE of Education!
Education Rickshaw 