by Laura Maniglia | Feb 7, 2022 | attention & focus, cognitive skills, learning, non-cognitive skills, parents, SEL, student engagement, students
As discussed in a previous blog, one of the components of executive functioning essential for education is impulse control: being able to think before acting. The ability to delay gratification is critical to self-regulation, or self-control. The ability to...
by Laura Maniglia | Jan 20, 2022 | active learning, attention & focus, cognitive skills, exercise, instruction, learning, parents, public schools, recess, student engagement
According to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, executive functions enable individuals to “plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully.” Executive functioning has three components: working...
by Laura Maniglia | Jan 14, 2022 | academic standing, attention & focus, differentiation, homeschooling, instruction, learning, parents, public schools, student engagement, teacher effectiveness, teacher training
A previous blog centered on ability grouping and objections to it based on its possible negative impact on struggling students. However, other classroom arrangements such as Skill-based learning can address differing student needs including ability level, interests,...
by Laura Maniglia | Jan 7, 2022 | instruction, language, learning, NAEP, parents, PISA, reading, speech, student engagement, study skills, teacher training, teachers
The controversy about the best method to teach reading has been raging for more than 200 years. Phonics has been around since the 1600s. In the 17th & 18th centuries phonics remained the prevailing method. Children learned the...
by Laura Maniglia | Dec 16, 2021 | academic standing, active learning, attention & focus, cognitive skills, instruction, learning, public schools, reading, student engagement, study skills
Practice tests enhance learning. “Pretesting involves taking tests before to-be-learned information is studied, whereas post-testing involves taking tests after information is studied.” What are the benefits of each? Should instructors test students before they are...
by Laura Maniglia | Nov 29, 2021 | academic standing, active learning, attention & focus, cognitive skills, homework, instruction, learning, reading, student engagement, students, study skills, teacher effectiveness
Homework has been the subject of debate since the nineteenth century. Attitudes about homework undergo changes every few decades, depending on the current trends in society. Perspectives range from homework causing undue stress (1930’s, ‘60’s, 2000’s) to...
by Laura Maniglia | Nov 18, 2021 | academic standing, attention & focus, classroom management, cognitive skills, instruction, learning, public schools, student engagement, students, study skills, teacher effectiveness, teacher training, teachers
Ability grouping/selection is generally well accepted in our society. Imagine the rigorous selection process for professional athletes. Or consider admission to an elite University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, for example has an acceptance rate of only...
by Laura Maniglia | Oct 19, 2021 | academic standing, instruction, learning, math, NAEP, PISA, reading, teacher effectiveness, teachers
The nation’s report card, NAEP, recently released a study showing the performance of students over the last 50 years, and the results are disheartening. The test was designed “to improve the effectiveness of our Nation’s schools by making objective information about...
by Laura Maniglia | Oct 2, 2021 | academic standing, attention & focus, cognitive skills, instruction, metacognition, mindset, non-cognitive skills, reading, student engagement, study skills
Metacognition is thinking about thinking, but it also encompasses the “regulation of these thoughts – the ability to change them.” It includes the processes to plan, monitor, and assess understanding and performance. Flavell first identified the term in 1979, and...
by Laura Maniglia | Sep 17, 2021 | active learning, attention & focus, cognitive skills, instruction, learning
In addition to interleaving and retrieval, an effective learning strategy is spaced practice. The opposite of cramming, spaced practice requires revisiting material over time. As early as the 1890’s a German psychologist described the “forgetting curve” and...
