Unleash powerful teaching and the science of learning in your classroom Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning empowers educators to harness rigorous research on how students learn and unleash it in their classrooms. In this book, cognitive scientist Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D., and veteran K–12 teacher Patrice M. Bain, Ed.S., decipher cognitive science research and illustrate ways to successfully apply the science of learning in classrooms settings. This practical resource is filled with evidence-based strategies that are easily implemented in less than a minute—without additional prepping, grading, or funding! Research demonstrates that these powerful strategies raise student achievement by a letter grade or more; boost learning for diverse students, grade levels, and subject areas; and enhance students’ higher order learning and transfer of knowledge beyond the classroom. Drawing on a fifteen-year scientist-teacher collaboration, more than 100 years of research on learning, and rich experiences from educators in K–12 and higher education, the authors present highly accessible step-by-step guidance on how to transform teaching with four essential strategies: Retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and feedback-driven metacognition. With Powerful Teaching, you will: Develop a deep understanding of powerful teaching strategies based on the science of learning Gain insight from real-world examples of how evidence-based strategies are being implemented in a variety of academic settings Think critically about your current teaching practices from a research-based perspective Develop tools to share the science of learning with students and parents, ensuring success inside and outside the classroom Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning is an indispensable resource for educators who want to take their instruction to the next level. Equipped with scientific knowledge and evidence-based tools, turn your teaching into powerful teaching and unleash student learning in your classroom.

In Smart Teaching Stronger Learning, renowned cognitive scientists from around the world share innovative teaching strategies that significantly transform student learning. This approachable resource distills key principles from the science of learning, with concise chapters and real-world examples for busy educators and leaders in K-12, higher education, and beyond. Enrich your pedagogy, professional growth, and knowledge of the newest findings in educational psychology with down-to-earth tips straight from the source: cognitive scientists who are also classroom teachers. Learn how you already use evidence-based methods - such as retrieval practice, interleaving, and metacognition - and gain creative strategies to strengthen students' motivation, long-term learning, and success.

Although principals play a vital role as school leaders, exactly how principal leadership affects student learning is only beginning to be understood. In fact, only a few states have analyzed basic profile data on their principals--their demographics, education, and prior experience before leading a school. Most states also have yet to examine how principals change jobs over time or why they leave the profession. The research presented here marks the most comprehensive profile undertaken to date of Illinois principals. With support from The Joyce Foundation, the Illinois Education Research Council (IERC) at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville integrated its research on principal demographics and turnover with research on principal effectiveness and a survey of current Illinois principals' job-related beliefs and practices. The IERC analyzed demographic and employment trends among over 7100 individuals serving as Illinois public school principals between 2001 and 2008, statistically modeled principal impact on student achievement and teacher qualifications in over 3500 Illinois public schools, and surveyed more than one in five active public school principals in the 2010-2011 school year. Only charter schools were excluded from the analyses because their personnel are not consistently included in state records of educator employment. This report highlights emerging trends among Illinois principals, synthesizes key findings from the research, and offers recommendations for policy, practice, and preparation to enhance principals' ability to increase student achievement. (Contains 10 figures, 1 table and 6 footnotes.).

"This edited book represents a sliver, albeit a substantial one, of the scholarship on the science of learning and its application in educational settings. Most of the work described in this book is based on theory and research in cognitive psychology. Although much, but not all, of what is presented is focused on learning in college and university settings, teachers of all academic levels may find the recommendations made by chapter authors of service. Authors wrote their chapters with nonexperts as the target audience - teachers who may have little or no background in science of learning, research-based approaches to teaching and learning, or even general principles of psychological science. The book is organized in three sections. The 14 chapters in Part 1 address important concepts, principles, theories, and research findings, and applications related to the science of learning. The four chapters in Part 2 focus on preparing faculty to apply science of learning principles in their courses. Finally, the six chapters in Part 3 provide examples of research that have been done in real academic settings and that have applied one or more science of learning principles." -- Book homepage

The use of summative testing to evaluate students' acquisition, retention, and transfer of instructed material is a fundamental aspect of educational practice and theory. However, a substantial basic literature has established that testing is not a neutral event--testing can also enhance and modify memory (Carpenter & DeLosh, 2006; Hogan & Kintsch, 1971; McDaniel & Masson, 1985; see Roediger & Karpicke, 2006, for a review). Such findings suggest that educators might exploit testing (e.g., no- or low-stakes quizzing) as a technique to promote learning, not just as a way to assess learning. Converging on this suggestion, a number of quasi-experimental and correlational studies have demonstrated that no- and low-stakes quizzing can enhance performance on course assessments relative to no quizzing, for both online quizzing (Angus & Watson, 2009, Daniel & Broida, 2004; Kibble, 2007) and in-class quizzing (e.g., Leeming, 2002; see Bangert-Drowns, Kulik, & Kulik, 1991, for a review). The authors thought it possible that low-stakes quizzing in the classroom might also prompt deeper or more complete learning of the course material, such that performance on course summative assessment items that required transfer of the tested information would be enhanced relative to no quizzing. To examine this possibility, the authors conducted three experiments in an authentic classroom situation in which performance on the summative examinations used to evaluate the students (and assign grades) served as their dependent measures. Of interest was the extent to which in-class quizzes (with feedback) would enhance performance on summative exams, especially when quiz items are related to, but are not identical to, items on the summative exam. Echoing the variety of transfer effects produced by testing (quizzing) reported across the tantalizing but limited available experimental work (see Rohrer et al., 2010), the present study was designed to explore a range of possible transfer from quizzed items to exam items. As an overview, Experiment 1 focused on the extent to which quizzing would produce associative transfer, and Experiments 2a and 2b examined the effects of quizzing on learning and retention of related information and application of target constructs. Results demonstrate that low- and no-stakes quizzing can promote learning that is deeper than just retaining a particular answer. Experiment 1 clearly showed that quizzing promoted transfer to different exam items requiring a reverse association between concept-term and definition from that quizzed. Experiments 2a and 2b further showed that quizzing promoted transfer from applying a principle/concept in a concrete context to better retention of definitional information, as well as to applying the principle in a new context. This transfer was relatively broad, ranging from associative transfer, to increased learning of definitional information (after applied questions), to application of concepts in a variety of situations. Thus, quizzing can enhance learning of science concepts, not just learning of particular answers to repeated questions (across quizzes and exams). As such, low- or no-stakes quizzing appears to be a valuable learning technique that could be incorporated in a wide variety of educational contexts, without extensive changes or adjustments to current classroom practice and teacher development. (Contains 2 tables and 3 figures.).

In this study, the authors examined whether a test-enhanced learning program, integrated with daily classroom practices, is effective in a middle school setting. Specifically, they implemented and experimentally evaluated a test-enhanced learning program in 6th-8th grade Social Studies, English, Science, and Spanish classes. Although laboratory studies documenting the benefits of quizzing on learning and retention are prominent, prior to their work little experimental work has assessed the effects of quizzing in classroom settings. The absence of classroom experiments relating to the testing effect represents a critical gap in extending the basic work to educational practice. In the typical laboratory experiment, the testing effect is demonstrated for material that subjects are exposed to once and for which they have no further access for review and study. Further, even when target material is educationally relevant (e.g., a text), it is an isolated passage not related to integrated content like that representing a classes' educational objectives. By contrast, material learned in a classroom context is seen under very different circumstances. The material is typically reinforced in homework and reading assignments, it is designated as important for the students to master, and the material is part of an integrated topic domain identified as core to the curriculum. To remedy this critical gap in verifying that the basic testing effect work can translate to effective educational practice, their ongoing work has focused on experimental evaluation of the effects of quizzing on learning course content in classroom settings. Their past three years of research at Columbia Middle School (CMS) have shown powerful positive effects of quizzing on student performance on chapter exams, semester exams, and even on final examinations given at the end of the school year. (Contains 1 figure.).

En este libro se ilustran formas de aplicar con éxito la ciencia del aprendizaje en los entornos de las salas de clases. Aquí encontrarás estrategias basadas en evidencia que se implementan fácilmente en menos de un minuto. Se presenta una guía paso a paso sobre cómo transformar la enseñanza con cuatro estrategias esenciales: práctica de recuperación, espaciado, intercalado y metacognición impulsada por retroalimentación.