When is the best time to ask questions with an instructional video?

The advice to ask questions while students watch an instructional video is hardly surprising. But when is the best time to ask those questions? Before the video, so that students may have a better idea of what to pay attention to? Or afterwards, so that they have to retrieve the information from memory? A new… Read More When is the best time to ask questions with an instructional video?

New chapter published: Correcting Misconceptions

Paul Kirschner and I wrote a new chapter for the recently published book Investigating Educational Psychology, edited by Tesia Marshik, Mary Beth Leibham, Michael I. Axelrod, and Stephen Hupp. As authors, we argue that accurate information alone often isn’t enough to address learners’ misconceptions. Misconceptions are not merely due to a lack of knowledge. They can be… Read More New chapter published: Correcting Misconceptions

Does boredom make you more creative? Not in the classroom!

Sometimes I’ve told my children, when they complained they were bored, “Good!” It helps your creativity! Yes, it is great fun being the child of this educational scientist. The idea is that when you have nothing to do for a while, your mind starts to wander, which can lead to new ideas. Some research seems… Read More Does boredom make you more creative? Not in the classroom!

Factchecking the factcheck: about Sold a Story and Project Follow Through

I was in Canada this weekend at an education conference, and I noticed how many people referred to the podcast Sold a Story. I’ve already seen it pop up a few times on social media here, too, especially the episode in which Emily Hanford discusses Project Follow Through. Some people will probably be familiar with… Read More Factchecking the factcheck: about Sold a Story and Project Follow Through

What happens when teachers are asked to communicate high expectations?

High expectations matter. By now, there is quite a bit of research suggesting that what teachers expect from their students can play a role in what happens in the classroom. Research also examines so-called wise feedback: critical feedback in which teachers make clear they have high standards while also indicating they believe the student can… Read More What happens when teachers are asked to communicate high expectations?

What happens when you restrict tutoring, but the competition remains?

Over the years I have been blogging, I have rarely let what I think you would like to read guide me. The past few weeks have also taught me that I really can’t predict this. For instance, I would never have expected the number of readers for my post about Gert Biesta. The choice always… Read More What happens when you restrict tutoring, but the competition remains?

Funny on Sunday: Finding out about Amsterdams new ban

Normally, Roya compares people in the US with people in France or other places, but now she has a question… Check here for more Funny on Sunday.

What do we know and not know about hybrid learning?

Learning and Instruction has a special issue on hybrid learning, which combines face-to-face learning with online technology. The introductory article by Gaëlle Molinari and colleagues nicely summarises what we know and don’t know from the still young field of research on hybrid learning. First, what do the researchers mean by hybrid learning here? Here, they mean… Read More What do we know and not know about hybrid learning?

Do gestures help you learn foreign words better than images?

Earlier this week I wrote that multimodal learning can work. And for learning a foreign language, too, we have known for some time that it can help not only to hear the word and the translation, but also, for example, to see an image or make a gesture. But what works better? Is it primarily… Read More Do gestures help you learn foreign words better than images?

Who is Gert Biesta actually arguing with?

Let me start this post with a confession. I’ve had a somewhat complicated relationship with Gert Biesta’s work ever since I first heard him speak live, back when I was still working at Artevelde University of Applied Sciences. Often when I read something he wrote, I will think: yes, of course. But I often notice… Read More Who is Gert Biesta actually arguing with?