Tag / Topic: Student Agency and Voice

Inspire Self-Directed Learning

This article, written by an educator, shares ideas for nurturing self-directed learning in the classroom. It lays out four steps, and related resources, to get ideas and inspiration for trying the Gradual Release of Responsibility approach and Peer-to-Peer Instruction models to build student autonomy. It also includes detailed classroom tips such as relying on context… Read More ›

Pioneering the New Way of Learning: Learner Agency and Opportunity

This article introduces a framework that explores learner agency and student motivation. The article is written by two students from the Leadership Board of GripTape, a youth-led organization that works to build a network and share the message that all youth have the potential and capacity to learn anything they want. The framework discusses the factors… Read More ›

The Role of Noncognitive Factors in Student Success

This short research brief and accompanying video, produced by the UChicago Consortium on School Research, highlight some of the big ideas from their research on noncognitive factors.  It outlines the importance of the following five factors to student success in the classroom and beyond and examines the importance of student’s environments in the development of these factors… Read More ›

How Maker Mindsets Can Be An Easy Fit For Rural Schools

This article explores how rural schools are adapting to the maker movement in ways that are unique to their rural environments. The blog highlights maker projects – like building air sensors to help assess and ultimately alleviate air pollution in a town in rural Montana–that can be adapted in other schools, or used to spark… Read More ›

How to Artfully Enroll Parents in Learner-Centered Transformation

This article from the Principal of Red Bank Elementary School in South Carolina, shares successes and failures the school faced while building family support for student-centered changes. The author asserts that for successful school transformation, parents must be “artfully enrolled” in the process. This began with challenging parents to grapple with tough questions about traditional schooling.… Read More ›

To Engage Students and Teachers, Treat Core Subjects Like Extracurriculars

This article shares varied examples from schools across the country that have implemented a project-based learning model in which core classes mimic extracurricular projects and activities. Researchers Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine have been observing school systems over six years to try to understand what promotes deeper learning. They found that in many school environments students were… Read More ›

How to Integrate Growth Mindset Messages Into Every Part of Math Class

This article discusses the research around teaching and learning mathematics conducted by Catherine Good, a professor who studies social psychology and growth mindset. Good found that growth mindset—the idea that one can improve understanding and performance by building neural pathways through repeated work—is especially important for students studying math. Teaching growth mindset may protect against stereotype threat—the perception… Read More ›

Fire Up Your Class With Student-Interest Surveys

This practical article gives advice on how to keep content fresh and relevant and nurture student voice in the classroom. The author, an experienced teacher, suggests that the best way to stay up to date with students’ interests and motivations is to ask students and ask them often. To gather feedback, she suggests free online… Read More ›

Culturally Responsive Positive Behavioral Support Matters

This report, developed by Equity Alliance, discusses ways to make the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) model more culturally responsive.  In contrast to punitive disciplinary models, PBIS uses prevention, data-based decisions making, and research-based interventions to nurture positive student and adult behaviors. Race-based disparities in discipline and behavioral outcomes is a continuous issue in schools… Read More ›

Facing History and Ourselves

Facing History and Ourselves’s shares innovative approaches to civics, social studies, humanities, and language arts education, designed to increase student engagement and achievement while teaching students about bigotry and hatred. The educator resources database includes lesson and unit plans, collections of primary source documents and images, and multimedia resources on topics such as: Race in… Read More ›

Effective (Teacher-Centered) Coaching

This blog, written by a math teacher and coach, and a member of the Better Math Teaching Network, discusses the importance of coaching for teachers in order to drive student success in math. The blog–a reflective essay of sorts– creates a compelling argument and call to action to transform math classrooms. The author discusses learner-centered models… Read More ›