It is time to mobilize whole child advocates behind the neuroscience of learning and development, write education professors Sara Rimm-Kaufman and Jacqueline Jodl. Here, they describe four key research findings on the brain and learning--and how to translate them into practice in order to support the whole child.

In a world that seems to value speed and efficiency, teacher Kevin S. Krahenbuhl says, "Slow it down!" Krahenbuhl explores the value of taking one's time in classroom discussions, leaving students ample time to reflect, prepare, and even meander a bit in order to fully understand and engage with a text.

Language ideologies--the way our ideas about language and accent both reflect and are informed by our ideas about people and society--influence us in subtle, often subconscious ways. They can shape classroom practices and potentially create barriers to student learning. In this article, learn about two especially harmful language ideologies that…

Guided by its arts educators, every school can learn to design activities that foster the serious play of a creatively invested learner. Bring arts educators into one's planning meetings; give them opportunities at faculty meetings to catalyze teachers' creative instincts. This effort does not require a new program or new curriculum. Teachers…

Creativity has become a hot topic in education. From President Barack Obama to Amazon's Jeff Bezos to "Newsweek" magazine, business leaders, major media outlets, government officials, and education policy makers are increasingly advocating including student creativity in the curriculum. But without a clear understanding of the nature of creativity…

Students are so creative! How can teachers help them use that creativity to learn? This question haunted the author while she was teaching art in a K-8 public school. In art class, she frequently saw students demonstrate refreshingly original ideas in their drawings and paintings as well as innovative problem solving related to their projects.…

No matter what we decide students need to learn, not much will happen until students understand what they are supposed to learn during a lesson and set their sights on learning it. Crafting learning targets for each lesson and deliberately sharing them with students is one way to give students the direction they need. Targets that tell students…

Although students vary in their abilities and interests, "hyper-individualizing" the curriculum in an attempt to accommodate these differences is not the best way to help each student excel, write Willingham and Daniel. Drawing on educational research, the authors give examples of several cognitive must haves (things that the cognitive system…

High school students' lack of experience and practice with reading complex texts is a primary cause of their difficulties with college-level reading. Filling the syllabus with digital texts does little to address this deficiency. Complex texts demand three dispositions from readers: a willingness to probe works characterized by dense meanings, the…

Present technology provides the means to generate teacher centers in which we can continuously work to expand our range of competence and test the single proposition on which we rest our case. (Author)

Summarizes research exploring six solutions to the "2 sigma problem" of devising teaching-learning conditions that will enable the majority of students under group instruction to achieve at levels now possible only when students are tutored. Recommendations include using mastery learning, improving the home environment, and emphasizing higher…

Former principal tells how he transformed high school from an emphasis on teaching to an emphasis on learning by functioning as a learning leader rather than an instructional leader. Asserts that all principals should become learning leaders that promote student and teacher learning. (PKP)

Staff at a Louisville, Kentucky, school have created a caring community of learners whose members feel valued, personally interconnected, and committed to everyone's growth and learning. Child Development Project schools emphasize warm, supportive, and stable relationships; constructive learning; intrinsic motivation; a challenging curriculum; and…

This literature review concludes that, although time spent is not so consistently related to achievement as it may seem, studies of time use in schools provide important information that can serve as a base for school improvement. (MJL)

Suggests the use of specified objectives rather than behavioral objectives. They would be chosen by the school according to its own philosophy of education, and would be specified only for certain subject matter which the school considers basic. (Author/DR)