Science teachers everywhere are encouraged to craft lessons that align with the 5E instructional model. The 5E centers on five instructional phases—usually called Engage, Explain, Explore, Elaborate (or Expand), and Evaluate. Follow the plan and your lessons will be “good.” Supposedly. The basic 5E model has predecessors dating back a remarkably long
In 2012, Google began studying how workers can transform productivity by examining the perfect team. They scrutinized everything from how often they socialize together, to how regularly they communicate, to their personal backgrounds. Like many organizations, Google believed that putting the best people together would
The Role of Reasoning-and-Proving We hear a lot of debate about ‘fake news’ in our politics these days – what it is, what it is not, and how we can get honest information and guard ourselves against being deceived. What does fake news have to do
Introduction In this three-part series, I write a lot about three of my favorite educational words and concepts: PREVENTION, INTERVENTION, and INTENTION. Each represents power-packed strategies that are a result of my research, evidence, and experience; they are the ‘how tos’ that finish incomplete, well-meaning educational
Starting to implement something new is difficult in its own right; sustaining and deepening that implementation brings on additional layers of complexity. The good news is that it can all be done with the right focus and mindset. Visible Learning is a body of research
An excerpt from Making Change That Sticks, a whitepaper about Visible Learningplus in Klein ISD, Texas. Metzler Elementary Principal Lakita Combs was at an education conference in 2013 when she first heard about Visible Learning in a session about a completely different topic. Immediately, she stopped
My mom was a believer in experiences. While I couldn’t detail the gifts I received over the years, I can still recall the scent of melting wax that we poured into sand candles and the roar of jet engines above the long-shuttered O’Hare Airport observation
I recently started a martial arts class. Towards the end of the first class, we began something I have never done before: the five animal poses. As I focused on following the leader, making sure I’ve got the right motions, we embodied different animals, starting
When I co-wrote Growing into Equity: Professional Learning and Personalization in High-Performing Schools five years ago, I repeatedly was told that having “equity” in the title of the book would reduce sales. Not now. While the growth in hate crimes and police shootings of unarmed black and brown people could be paralyzing, many people of good will are focusing on equity as a form
Introduction In this three-part series, I write a lot about three of my favorite educational words and concepts: PREVENTION, INTERVENTION, and INTENTION. Each represents power-packed strategies that are a result of my research, evidence, and experience; they are the ‘how tos’ that finish incomplete, well-meaning educational advice telling us ‘what’ to do. In this series, Part 1