Initiative Education Teresa and Alexandre Soares dos Santos

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The Key to Motivating Students--and Maybe Everyone Else Too

Students won’t learn unless they’re motivated. But the best way to motivate them is to enable them to experience achievement.

Weave Writing Activities Into Regular Instruction

Weaving explicit writing instruction into class discussion can maximize the benefits of any content-rich curriculum—and help students become proficient writers.

Want Students to Be Good Speakers? Teach Them to Write

A push for "oracy" in England points up connections between writing and oral language

Thinking is Hard

Thinking is hard. As someone whose career is more or less based on thinking thoughts, and communicating those thoughts effectively, I have a love-hate relationship with thinking.

Cold Calling and Classroom Discussions

Inserting questions into a lecture, and encouraging students to covertly retrieve through cold calling, ought to improve learning from a lesson. If time does not permit writing out the answers (one form of overt retrieval), or doing so would disrupt the flow of a discussion, then students should still benefit from bringing the information to mind if they are encouraged to do so fully through cold

Math Practices You Can Count On: Part 1

Research-validated practices have been shown to be effective for student mathematics outcomes across multiple studies. In this five-part series, we explain the practice, the research that supports the practice, and what this practice might look like in the classroom.

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Math Practices You Can Count On: Part 2

Opinion Reading time: 4 min

Do two weeks of instruction time matter?

Opinion Reading time: 6 min

Dramatic new evidence that building knowledge can boost comprehension and close gaps

Opinion Reading time: 6 min

The gift of gifted children

492

students currently in the AaZ – Ler Melhor, Saber Mais programme.

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vocational courses developed in close collaboration with schools, companies, and municipalities.

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26%

of 15-year-old students in the OECD countries struggle with reading at an elementary level (PISA 2022).

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Understanding how we learn: An interview with John Sweller

In this interview, the man behind cognitive load theory shares his thoughts about memory, explicit instruction and how evidence-based practices can improve student learning.

Teachers Vs Tech

In her book Teachers Vs Tech, Daisy Christodoulou discusses the importance and limitations of using technology by teachers and students. In this interview, she emphasizes a key point that many tend to overlook: technology should, above all, serve teacher-led instruction.

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Effective learning strategies

In his book Why Don't Students Like School?, Daniel T. Willingham explores key questions about the brain and explains their significance for teaching and learning. In this interview, he explains why cognitive psychology is so crucial for education, both inside and outside the classroom.

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The Knowledge Gap

How is reading taught and learned in the early years of school? In the United States, this is a question that divides the educational community and can seriously undermine social equity. To better understand this controversy and the various reading instruction methods advocated and adopted in recent years in the U.S., we spoke with Natalie Wexler, author of the book The Knowledge Gap.

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The importance of a good curriculum

In his book Creating the Schools Our Children Need, Dylan Wiliam proposes a practical and realistic approach to the problems in education. In this interview, he explains the importance of a good curriculum and other simple measures that can have a significant impact in the classroom.

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How do we learn?

In his book How Learning Happens, Paul A. Kirschner explores the latest developments in cognitive psychology and their implications for learning. In this discussion, we learn how students acquire knowledge and why it is essential to recognize that young people are not simply miniature adults.

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Estonia in the Spotlight

PISA data continues to rank Estonia among the best in the world and as the top performer in Europe. But what has been done to justify these results? To better understand the Estonian education system, we spoke with Gunda Tire, the national PISA coordinator.

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Education as a driver of development

In his book The Knowledge Capital of Nations: Education and the Economics of Growth, Eric Hanushek addresses fundamental concepts of education as a driver of national development. In this interview, we learn why we should not focus solely on countries' schooling levels if we want to assess the overall quality of their citizens' education.

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