Zach Groshell Education

How to Make Coaching Work — Every Time, With Every Teacher

When I first started teaching, I was fortunate. I got paired with two people who made a real difference in my development: a math coach and my mentor teacher. Neither had a formal coaching framework. They didn’t have an evidence-informed approach or shared language for what “good” looked like. Still, they helped me grow - … Continue reading How to Make Coaching Work — Every Time, With Every Teacher

Zach Groshell Education

Take an Edu-Trip to New York City

When I first started teaching, the best professional development I received came from two people: the math coach at my school and my assigned mentor teacher. It wasn’t perfect. The math coach only focused on math, and my mentor teacher often had to teach her own class while I was in front of mine. Still, … Continue reading Take an Edu-Trip to New York City

Zach Groshell Classroom management, Education, Instructional coaching, Learning, Math, motivation, PD, Science of Learning, Teachers

When something matters, we make time for it

I'm often told that schools don't have time to focus on teaching and learning. The reality is they don’t make time. Instructional coaching doesn’t demand a ton of time—it takes just 20-30 minutes to deliver a sharp and purposeful feedback session around a single, granular action step. Done right, it not only improves instruction but … Continue reading When something matters, we make time for it

Zach Groshell Instructional coaching

The Problem with “Sit and Get” PD and Conventional Instructional Coaching

The problem with conventional "sit and get" PD is that it doesn't often contain the mechanisms that lead to adoption of effective techniques. Listening to someone talk about "best practice" is far from a guarantee that this information, no matter how persuasive, will transfer into the classroom. Instructional coaching is perhaps the best evidenced solution … Continue reading The Problem with “Sit and Get” PD and Conventional Instructional Coaching

Zach Groshell Education, Inquiry, Instructional coaching, motivation, Papers and Podcasts, Progressively Incorrect, Research, Science of Learning, Teachers, technology, Top Posts

S4E15: Brendan Lee and Zach Groshell on Effective Leadership

Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect, a show sponsored by John Catt from Hodder Education and hosted by me, Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. https://www.amazon.com/Just-Tell-Them-Science-Explanation/dp/103600368X Listen and subscribe to Progressively Incorrect on…SpotifyYouTubeApple PodcastsWordPress This is … Continue reading S4E15: Brendan Lee and Zach Groshell on Effective Leadership

Zach Groshell Education

Diagnosing and Setting Coaching Action Steps

One of the trickiest parts of instructional coaching is diagnosis. It requires deep funds of knowledge by the coach around effective teaching and learning to select the next high leverage "step" for the teacher to work on. Some coaching approaches attempt to solve this problem by abdicating the responsibility of identifying the step to the … Continue reading Diagnosing and Setting Coaching Action Steps

Zach Groshell Classroom management, differentiation, Education, Instructional coaching, Interviews, Language, Learning, Math, motivation, Research, Science of Learning, Student, Teachers

Defining Explicit Teaching and Direct Instruction

Something about the label, direct instruction, seems to conjure images of boring lectures. The change to using explicit instruction was probably, at least in part, an attempt to remedy this, just like how testing got changed to retrieval practice to avoid associations with standardized tests. Retrieval is still testing, and explicit instruction is still direct, … Continue reading Defining Explicit Teaching and Direct Instruction

Zach Groshell Education, Inquiry, Instructional coaching, Language, Learning, Math, motivation, Papers and Podcasts, Progressively Incorrect, Research, Science of Learning, Teachers, technology

S4E13: Catherine Thevenot on Counting on Your Fingers

Should students be taught to count on their fingers? Today I am excited to bring you an interview with Catherine Thevenot. Catherine is a researcher at the Institute of Psychology at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Her work focuses on cognitive development, particularly in the area of numerical cognition and arithmetic skills in children. … Continue reading S4E13: Catherine Thevenot on Counting on Your Fingers

Zach Groshell Classroom management, differentiation, Education, Instructional coaching, Interviews, Language, Learning, Math, motivation, Research, Science of Learning, Student, Teachers

The Literacy View & Lucy Calkins

I was recently invited to speak on The Literacy View, where we had a laugh and discussed some of the policies that are being put in place to filter out nonsense in some of the worst reading programs, like three cueing. We also sipped to our concerns that the gurus of balanced literacy past may … Continue reading The Literacy View & Lucy Calkins

Zach Groshell Education, Inquiry, Instructional coaching, Language, Learning, motivation, Papers and Podcasts, Progressively Incorrect, Research, Science of Learning, Teachers, technology, Top Posts

S4E12: Jan Hasbrouck on Reading Fluency and Direct Instruction

Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. My name is Dr. Zach Groshell, and today I am excited to bring you an interview with Jan Hasbrouck, the keynote speaker at NIFDI’s 2025 National Direct Instruction Conference and Institutes. Dr. Hasbrouck is a renowned researcher and author with a distinguished career dedicated to improving literacy and educational outcomes. Dr. … Continue reading S4E12: Jan Hasbrouck on Reading Fluency and Direct Instruction