Sociocultural theories based on the work of Vygotsky have been increasingly influential in educational sciences. Developmental education (DE) is a pedagogical approach based on Vygotskian theory that has inspired primary schools in the Netherlands to change the learning environment innovatively in a comprehensive way. In this article, we focus on…

This paper highlights reciprocal teaching as an inclusive instructional strategy that has been shown to improve reading comprehension and metacognitive skills. It provides a conceptual background to reciprocal teaching and examines its purpose, strengths and weaknesses. The notion of reciprocal teaching as an evidence-based practice is also…

The Common Core State Standards emphasize the value of teaching students to engage with complex text. But what exactly makes a text complex, and how can teachers help students develop their ability to learn from such texts? The authors of this article discuss five factors that determine text complexity: vocabulary, sentence structure, coherence,…

In today's classrooms, students now turn to the Internet as their primary source of information, though the common belief in the idea that "digital natives" can easily traverse a landscape littered with misconceptions, multiple perspectives, and competing ideas has large implications in the classroom. Research into students reading multiple online…