Teaching and Learning
Editor’s Note
Articles on this page zero in on nitty-gritty issues of teaching and learning. What are the stumbling blocks in teaching fractions? How can we use instructional time more effectively? What are the stages of vocabulary development, and what are the most effective ways to help students learn new words? How can new technology make learning and teaching more exciting? And what can we do to make sure our students are prepared for the demands of life in the 21st century?
Schools gear up to promote thinking skills
By Robert Rothman
Four years ago, Mamadou Ba (a pseudonym) came to the United States from Senegal, knowing no English, and enrolled in a New York City middle school.Continue
Controversial online recovery programs speed the path to graduation
By Andrew Brownstein
The lessons in John Rice’s English III class at Anacostia High School in Washington, D.C., are as varied as the music wafting from his students’ headphones.
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Limited research spurs experimentation with staffing
By Stephen Sawchuk
In a world filled with terms like “value-added” and “adequate yearly progress,” many parents still rely on a far simpler data point to assess a school’s quality: the number of students in the classroom.
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Student perceptions may hold the key to mastering a “cold” subject
By Laura Pappano
What if our national problems with math—from poor school and test performance to the dearth of STEM grads—are more about fuzzy-sounding stuff like relationships, emotion, and identity than, well, actual math?
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Using art to deepen learning
By Philip Yenawine
In 1987, roughly halfway through my 10-year tenure as education director at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York, several trustees challenged my staff and me to find out if anyone learned from our many educational options. We were asked to be accountable for our teaching: Were we effective? Did people learn what we taught? Sound familiar?
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