With many distractions competing for students' attention, student engagement and knowledge retention are more important than ever. "Where Learning Happens" explores the types of attention--sustained, selective, divided, and effective--in depth and provides research-suggested strategies to maximize student attention and engagement. By…

How can educators leverage neuroscience research about how the human brain learns? How can we use this information to improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment so our students achieve deep learning and understanding in all subject areas? Upgrade Your Teaching: Understanding by Design Meets Neuroscience answers these questions by merging…

The book that inspired millions of educators to refine their approach to teaching returns for an all-new third edition. Built on a more rigorous research base and updated to emphasize student diversity, equity, and inclusion, "The New Classroom Instruction That Works" offers a streamlined focus on the 14 instructional strategies proven…

Inquiry is an integral part of the teaching and learning of science. However, many science teachers are unsure of how to promote and support inquiry in the classroom or how to design lessons that engage students in inquiry in a way that improves students' understanding of important concepts and practices in biology. In this article, the authors…

This article describes a quizzing activity that aims to facilitate student cognitive engagement at a variety of Bloom's taxonomy levels and promote reading of course assignments. The quizzing activity described is potentially useful for any course. Because it is based on Bloom's cognitive taxonomy, which is itself designed to address the spectrum…

How do you know when students understand something? How can you design learning experiences that make it much more likely that students understand content and apply it in meaningful ways? Since 1998, thousands of educators have used "Understanding by Design" to answer these questions and create more rigorous and engaging curricula. Now, this…

Instructional design strategy for improving problem solving is presented. The strategy entails selecting an appropriate domain of problem-solving tasks, learning hierarchies, teaching methods and assembling of learning materials, and designing teacher training and evaluation. Obstacles to be overcome and directions for future research are…

To explain how writing is both cognitive and behavioral, this paper compares and contrasts behavioral and cognitive orientations within an instructional design. The first section addresses the weaknesses and strengths of a behavioral versus a cognitive orientation and relates them to Janet Emig's 1971 study, "The Composing Processes of Twelfth…

Cognitive process instruction takes a constructivist view of education and emphasizes that students must be actively involved in learning, not merely recipients of information. Four basic descriptive model-building frameworks characterize the work related to cognitive process instruction: (1) a developmental framework, (2) a microanalytic…

Corrective reading assessment and instruction in middle and secondary schools are based on students' weaknesses rather than on their strengths and bear little relationship to the tasks of content area reading. Two premises serve as a rationale for a positive approach to middle and secondary school reading instruction: (1) the majority of students…

In order to demonstrate how course content can be adapted so that thinking skills are included in the learning experience, this paper uses a unit of study from theater history as a basis for examining how subject matter can be structured with learning objectives, a study guide, a hypothetical problem situation, instructions, and feedback. The…

Describes a course developed by a librarian and an economics teacher using active learning techniques to teach research skills and critical thinking. Topic include the course development, including course objectives and clarification of the librarians role; a search strategy; and revisions to methodology to achieve course objectives. (six…