In an interview, educator and psychologist Thomas Armstrong says that schools need to do a better job of speaking to--rather than resisting or crushing--adolescents' neurological development. "Essentially, the curriculum in high school needs to be more affective," he argues. "It needs to be more engaging in terms of humor, vitality,…

When a school weaves social-emotional learning throughout its curriculum and culture--both helping students tune in to emotions and teaching "emotional skills" for handling difficult feelings--students and teachers thrive. Brackett discusses ways to develop the emotional intelligence of everyone in the school and lists five key emotion…

The way special education is carried out in U.S. schools must change. Special education has become weighed down by its emphasis on deficits and disorders: As regular education has opened to new ways of thinking about brain neuroplasticity, growth mindsets, and other innovations, special education has held fast to its diagnostic categories,…

When the author and her colleague asked teachers to list which qualities were most important without giving them a list to choose from, almost none mentioned curiosity. Many teachers endorse curiosity when they are asked about it, but it is not uppermost on their minds--or shaping their teaching plans. Why is this disturbing? Because research…

Fourth grade is a pivotal year, in which students commonly face increased academic demands. According to Anderson, teachers can help students make a smooth transition to 4th grade by introducing these new challenges in ways that are in line with 4th graders' common developmental characteristics: incredible energy and emotion, industriousness and…

New technology-enabled assessments offer the potential to understand more than just whether a student answered a test question right or wrong. Using multiple forms of media that enable both visual and graphical representations, these assessments present complex, multistep problems for students to solve and collect detailed information about an…

A learning environment stimulating enough for extraverted students may be too stimulating for introverted students (and for the teacher). (Author)

Studies show that students are capable of correctly identifying their own learning styles. (JM)

We need to develop better forms of school readiness assessment that do not encourage tracking, narrowing the curriculum, or kindergarten retention. This article describes three examples of work-in-progress from the state of Georgia, a test publisher (CTB Macmillan/McGraw-Hill), and a research scientist, Samuel Meisels. Includes seven references.…

Studies suggest that primary children are teacher-motivated, prefer structure, movement, and intake while reading, and use tactual and kinesthetic senses to learn to read. Older students are less teacher-motivated, need less movement, intake, and structure, and more choice of materials, and use visual and auditory senses to learn. (Author/JM)

Education policymakers often go astray when they attempt to integrate multiple intelligences theory into schools, according to the originator of the theory, Howard Gardner, and his colleagues. The greatest potential of a multiple intelligences approach to education grows from the concept of a profile of intelligences. Each learner's intelligence…

Direct instruction is more effective for some purposes and students than for others. The approach used should depend on the type of student and the teacher's objectives. (Author)