In a thriving education system, students experience learning that prepares them as the vital keepers of a just and democratic society. Teachers as professionals and experts, not cogs in a machine, are essential to this goal. "Sparks Into Fire" offers design principles for facilitating effective professional learning in which teachers are…

Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) Learning Labs (LL) are a learning experience in which adults and youth come together to ask questions about something in their work that puzzles or interests them. Sometimes this is call a line of inquiry. Like working in a laboratory, the LL organizers start with a question -- an inquiry -- and a set of outcomes,…

Teachers and curriculum specialists are exposed to many ideas from educational leaders, but it is difficult to know which ones can be transformed into meaningful learning experiences in the classroom. "Concept-Based Instruction": (1) Helps educators translate the works of leading educational thinkers into concept-based units; (2) Draws…

This guide to understanding school readiness in young children is essential reading for early years practitioners. It explores the concept of school readiness by unpicking what the term means for children and how we can define it in the context of the characteristics of effective learning. This includes ideas for promoting playing and exploring,…

COVID-19 exacerbated and brought attention to inequities long present in public education. Facing inconsistent access to learning over distance, students will leave this period with months of what's been called "lost learning." Short of repeating a full year, addressing these gaps presents a grave challenge for traditionally structured…

With support from the Fremont Street Fund, a national nonprofit philanthropy dedicated to catalyzing and scaling educator-led innovation in public schools, the authors of this report embarked on a research effort to understand the underlying causes that drove teachers to adopt new teaching practices--such as blended learning, mastery-based…

"Leading Personalized and Digital Learning" provides needed guidance for principals, aspiring principals, and other school leaders at a critical time when educators are looking to put the power of technology to work for student-centered learning. The authors identify eight leadership essentials that school leaders must attend to if they…

Improving Social and Emotional Learning in Primary Schools reviews the best available research to offer school leaders six practical recommendations to support good SEL for all children. It stresses this is especially important for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and other vulnerable groups, who, on average, have weaker SEL skills at all…

Developed by Bob Moon, this Blueprint and Toolkit provides the guidance and supporting resources for a programme of around 12-15 weeks' duration and includes a detailed framework that can be adapted to the context of a particular country, region, district or school. It targets institutions wishing to implement school-based teacher development…

Because researchers know so much more about the brain and development than they did when the 20th-century U.S. education system was designed, this knowledge can now be used to design a system in which all individuals are able to take advantage of high-quality opportunities for transformative learning and development. This playbook suggests a set…

Many parents find it hard to make decisions about screen time for their kids because advice comes from different directions and often conflicts. In the field of child development, there are decades of theory and research that can be very helpful as a guide for screen and digital device use with young kids. These ideas can be a resource for parents…

Grounded in best practices and current research, this hands-on resource connects the dots that link brain activity, motor and sensory development, movement, and early learning. The expert authors unveil the Kinetic Scale: a visual map of the active learning needs of infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and primary graders that fits each child's…

This book addresses an important and seldom addressed issue: learning. Not teaching, not performance, not "work": this book really is about learning, what makes learning effective and how it may be promoted in classrooms. The authors take the context of the classroom seriously, not only because of its effects on teachers and pupils, but because…

This paper provides guidelines for creating REALs (Rich Environments for Active Learning) on the World Wide Web and demonstrates how those guidelines have been applied in a variety of Web-based learning environment contexts. The paper is organized according to the following attributes of student-centered REALs: (1) promote intentional learning by…

This issue of the quarterly newsletter, "PLAINTalk," is the first in a four part series, reprinting chapters from Sharon and Craig Ramey's book, "Going to School." This issue presents practical and useful techniques for parents, covering the following topics: (1) How Parents Can Help Children Learn; (2) How Does Your Child's Brain Work; (3) The…