Between the Fall of 2016 through February of 2022 (the start of the pandemic) the author drove as an independent contractor for both Uber and Lyft--the ridesharing companies. During this time, he provided 4,590 rides (with a 4.97- star rating) in Boston, MA and the neighboring communities. When he decided to drive for these rideshare platforms, he…

Making inferences is essential to comprehending text. Teachers can ask inferential questions, model their thinking, and teach specific strategies to support upper elementary students in making inferences while reading.

There is no shortage of great pedagogical tools available, but many require considerable investment of time and effort (and oftentimes money and equipment), which can be a significant barrier for already time-poor teachers. "Wonder Questions" is a pedagogical tool that is simple, flexible, and pedagogically powerful in three ways: (1) it…

As advocacy communications professionals who work with educators, one truth is constant in the current conversations with superintendents, principals, teachers, parents, and youth advocates: Education conversations today are riddled with more land mines than ever before. In their current work at RALLY, an issue-focused communications firm, the…

This article discusses the place of thematic coherence in various approaches to educational dialogue and proposes a unifying approach to the analysis of thematic coherence of classroom conversations based on research in educational dialogue, philosophy of language and recent advances in linguistic research on discourse structure. Addressing the…

A challenge that exists in higher education is the lack of relatability between students and teachers. This disconnect likely prevents students from asking for help before, during, and/or after class. One way to increase relatability between students and teachers is by having a simple 5-minute conversation during an individual meeting, where I…

This article explores the relationship between argumentation theory and dialogic pedagogy. Arguments made in everyday discourse tend to be enthymematic, i.e., containing implicit premises. Thus, dialogue is often necessary to uncover hidden assumptions. Furthermore, evaluating logical arguments involves dialectical and dialogic processes. We…

Randomized response techniques (RRTs) are useful survey tools for estimating the prevalence of sensitive issues, such as the prevalence of doping in elite sports. One type of RRT, the unrelated question model (UQM), has become widely used because of its psychological acceptability for study participants and its favorable statistical properties.…

Education professionals face myriad problems of practice, especially in the face of current trauma, injustice, and other stressors. To address those challenges, educators should work collaboratively to target the sources, not just the symptoms, of the problems. Asking why can begin to surface root causes, which may be related to systems,…

In this article, the authors share how a third-grade teacher supported students in crafting and researching their own inquiry questions using a process known as the Question Formulation Technique to scaffold students' development of supporting questions. Hughes and Heckart provide the reader with suggestions and resources for supporting…

At the heart of the teaching practice is the art of questioning. Costa and Kallick noted that questions are the means by which insights unlock thinking. Effective questioning is essential to effective teaching. Despite this, a cohesive theory on the method of questioning has yet to be developed. A discussion of questioning is vital to moving the…

Asking questions is essential for building empathy, understanding, and trust -- all of which are necessary for group success but are sorely lacking in today's divided political climate. In a time of immense stress among and unusual hostility toward educators, listening and learning are among leaders' most important responsibilities. Fortunately,…

Classroom interactions emerging from socioscientific argumentation may be incompatible with the traditional definitions of learning, thus creating tension and potentially undermining its implementation. Leveraging existing literature, we identify argumentative talk that shifts away from scientific content and toward subjective claims, as well as…

In their work, the authors study what it looks like to build on a high-leverage student mathematical contribution--one that provides an in-the-moment opportunity to engage the class in joint sense making about the contribution to better understand the important mathematics within it. They have noticed that some "go-to" teacher practices…

Student affairs educators are asked fundamental questions about programming and its effectiveness. Stakeholders (e.g., students, parents, accreditors) ask what programming (e.g., activities, strategies, curriculum) is offered, "why" it is offered, and "who" benefits in terms of learning and development (e.g., Carpenter, 2001;…