Learning is a compounding game. It’s about steady growth over time not momentary performance. This is why retrieval practice, daily review, and spacing are so powerful. They convert momentary effort into lasting advantage. We often judge students by where they are now. Their

Everyone is “constructivist”, just one side prompts students to systematically construct through examples and deliberate practice, while the other prompts students to construct through discovery. Students cannot construct upon shaky foundations. So, at some point, just tell them.

This is an excellent synopsis of the reading assessment reality: Assessing the ability to decode new words and the ability to comprehend a new text are different. The US landscape is a patchwork. HT Chad Aldeman.

Carl Hendrick has me thinking about the imperative to improve noise control in my classroom, especially since my own students are asking for quieter spaces to think. His analysis challenges the popular notion that "noisy classrooms equal thinking classrooms," which has dominated

If solving a math story problem depends on reading fluency and knowing niche vocabulary, it’s not testing math—it’s testing reading and background knowledge. That’s construct-irrelevant variance: when success hinges on unrelated skills. Strip the noise. Teach the math.

What's new in the science of learning? The brief is here. Your monthly round-up with new studies on retrieval practice, explicit instruction, interleaving, sleep, erroneous examples, AI, worked examples, print vs digital, adaptive learning Link in reply👇

When you make high-frequency, low-pressure classroom visits, you can transform your school's learning culture! Check out 10 questions to ask during your visits, via National Assoc. of Secondary School Principals. nassp.org/publication/pr…

Ss having a hard day? Here's a whole alphabet's worth of coping strategies, from T Moriah “Tall Energy” Stephens: ko-fi.com/s/53602a2095?f…

More learning can be fun!!! My students favorite retrieval strategy is Cops and Robbers (Credit to Kate Jones). Brain dump everything you know about a concept (👮‍♂️). Go steal new information you didn’t recall from peers (Robbers). I recommend enhancing with theme music. 😉

NEW: China officially opens the world’s tallest bridge, completing the project in under 4 years. The bridge features a restaurant at the top, a whopping 2600 ft above the river. The bridge not only cuts a 2-hour drive to 2 minutes, but also features as a theme park with a glass

One of my favorite retrieval practice strategies is a “knowledge bomb”. 5 minutes to list everything you know about a concept we’ve been learning about for a few weeks. Challenge them to see who can drop the biggest bomb. They love showing all the know! Again, theme music helps.

If you understand the interplay between working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM), then you can derive -- from first principles -- the methods of effective learning.

Can’t get enough of ⁦Anita Archer⁩. She said if she could only do one thing it would be encourage active participation! She sets a rule in - no hand raise policy. We want everyone to actively participate not just outgoing proficient kids. The Reading League⁩ #TRLCONF2025

I can't believe it. Columbia Teacher's College making good points. Yes, excusing students from presentations or tests will only make them MORE anxious in the long run. Make students do hard things. This should be obvious. Glad at least one College of Ed is seeing the light.

We spend so much time giving feedback — but are students really using it? Kate Jones shares a few clever ways to make feedback stick: 🟢 Have students repeat it back in their own words 🟢 Get them to act on it straight away 🟢 Use quick self-check routines after retrieval

1) Explicitly teach new concept/skill 2) Ask students to practice concept/skill 3) Test students to see if they learned it 4) Re-teach or move on accordingly This is teaching. This is how we learn. This is the essential cycle of a classroom You cannot innovate past it

We don’t talk enough about the difference between novice learners, skill-proficient learners, and expert learners. If we could introduce this continuum to more education discourse, we might talk past each other less in the debates about inquiry and project based learning versus

Why sleep is important.

THE SIMPLE MODEL OF THE MIND! This NEW one-page guide breaks down how we learn, drawing on key principles from cognitive science. It provides a clear, research-based framework to guide instruction, manage cognitive load, and build shared professional language. FREE to