By Glenn Whitman
Executive Director, The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning
Some of you know that as a New Jersey (United States) native I have a crush on the “Boss” (Bruce Springsteen). But I have many more “academic crushes” on those researchers and educators who have informed my Science of Teaching and Learning journey as a history teacher, as well as the Science of Teaching and Learning journey of the Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL) at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School (MD).
With my colleagues from the CTTL and St. Andrew’s, we headed north on I-270, to converge with over 400 other educators from the United States, Canada, and Europe, for the fifth researchED USA conference in Frederick, MD—an event made possible over the years by the vision and hard work of Tom Bennett, Eric Kalenze and Meg Lee. For those who don’t know yet, researchED is an organization started by Tom Bennett OBE to champion and spread evidence-informed practices in schools from the ground up. At researchED events all over the world, the greatest minds out there give up their time for free to help educators take home strategies that will make their classes and schools better. It is a global movement to improve education based on the most promising research and strategies. Famously, events are held on weekends so that no one has to ask permission from their school to attend. This researchED was particularly significant because it was the first one in the USA held in and organized by a public school district—thank you so much to Meg Lee and the amazing team at Frederick County MD Public Schools!
The secret sauce of this conference is the combination of the joy each attendee brought to this event, the evidence that was shared and absorbed, and our collective sense of purpose. We all wanted to go back to the students in our public, private, charter, and international schools, districts, and programs with the most promising research and strategies to try out with them in our context. I imagine students asking themselves, “What the heck did my teacher do over the weekend?” when they are asked to do some retrieval practice, metacognition, move more during class, self-regulate, evaluate their writing and grammar simultaneously, or try out some new reading strategies.
I got to attend sessions facilitated by a number of my “academic crushes,” a term I first heard from Kristin Simmers and many who are part of the CTTL’s tiered Research Base. I also got to see a number of my St. Andrew’s and CTTL colleagues contribute their experience as research-informed teachers to the conference offerings. Each of their sessions reflect their personal, and our school’s collective and replicable, Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) science journey since 2011—stories we also share through our publication, Think Differently and Deeply (available for free online for those that did not grab a hard copy at the CTTL table).
Knowing how much each conference attendee wanted to be at more than one session at the same time, I thought I would provide a chance to revisit, or check-out for the first time, what the CTTL team at St. Andrew’s shared through these sessions. I will also share their supporting materials and some extension readings.
Profoundly Practical MBE for Elementary Environments
Chris Lewis (@CLewis4kids/clewis@saes.org), CTTL Lower School Head of Research.
This session shared practical examples of how teachers in elementary classrooms are elevating their professional presence and efficacy in ways that are informed by research in the fields of cognitive psychology, behavioral psychology, sociology, neuroscience, and education.
As a next step, review Chris’ slides, worksheets, and check-out her blog post series “Reading Unraveled” that is part of the CTTL’s The Bridge.
Creating a Culture of Belonging through the Lens of MBE and DEI
Lorraine Martinez Hanley (@LorraineHanley6/lmartinezhanley@saes.org), History teacher, St. Andrew’s Director of Diversity, Equity, and Belonging, and the CTTL’s DEB Head of Research; Eva Shultis (@evashultis/eshultis@saes.org), AP Biology teacher and the CTTL Associate Director for Research; and Ian Kelleher (@ijkelleher/ikelleher@saes.org), Science teacher and The CTTL Dreyfuss Family Chair for Research.
This session explored how identity impacts learning and how learning impacts identity using frameworks and tools developed by the CTTL. It also explored the intersection of the too often siloed fields of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DEI) and Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE), and what teachers and school leaders can do to help bring them together to benefit all students. As a next step, review the slides from this session and check-out Lorraine, Eva, and Ian’s article in Independent School “A Powerful Combo: Diversity, Equity, and Belonging and Mind, Brain, and Education” (Winter 2022).
Activating MBE Research and Strategies in Your School of District
Meg Lee (@MegVertebrae/margaret.lee@fcps.org), Director of Organizational Development for Frederick County, MD Public Schools and Glenn Whitman (@gwhitmancttl/gwhitman@saes.org), History teacher and Executive Director the CTTL.
This session provided a replicable and scalable model to bring research-informed strategies from the Science of Teaching and Learning—aligned with school and district priorities—to 100% of your educators. As a next step, review the session slides, explore the full FCPS / CTTL case study to learn more details (freely available), or read Meg and Glenn’s article “Research-Informed Teaching at Scale” in Impact: The Journal of the Chartered College of Teaching (paywall-sorry!).
Dialing Down Stress without Dumbing Down School
Dr. Ian Kelleher (@ijkelleher/ikelleher@saes.org), Science teacher and the CTTL Dreyfuss Family Chair for Research.
This session explored research-informed strategies to decrease students’ stress while also increasing their engagement and performance. Yes, you can have both! And the the Science of Teaching and Learning suggests a number of easy-to-implement strategies that all educators can try out without asking permission. As a next step, review the session slides, or read Ian’s recent Edutopia pieces on “How to Reduce the Cognitive Load on Students During Lessons,” and “Teaching Students to Use Evidence-Based Studying Strategies.”
Beyond these CTTL-contributed sessions, many of our expert partners in translating research into practice also presented at researchED this weekend. So check out our friends’ work too—it is a very impressive list of very impressive educators! Here are their talks (in italics).
Dr. Pooja Agarwal (@retrievelearn) cognitive scientist, author, and CTTL Summer Academy presenter & Patrice Bain (@patricebain1), educator, author, and CTTL Summer Academy presenter: The Teaching Triangle: Sharing the Science of Learning Between Home and School.
Shawna Angelo (@angelo_shawna) Delta County CO Public Schools, and CTTL Summer Academy Translation Group Leader: Building a Science of Teaching and Learning.
Pedro De Bruyckere (@thebandb) educational scientist, author, and CTTL Summer Academy presenter: Almost Everything You Need to Know About Psychology.
Emily Hood (@ehoodwes_fcps) Academic Support Specialist for Frederick County MD Public Schools and CTTL Summer Academy Translation Group Leader & Mary Geasey (@marygeasey) Special Education Teacher for Frederick County MD Public Schools and CTTL Summer Academy participant: Learning and the Brain: Translating Science into Practice.
Julie Jungalwala (@juliemargretta) founder of the Institute for the Future of Learning, instructor at Harvard Extension School and CTTL Summer Academy presenter & Julie Stern (@juliehstern) internationally recognized author and facilitator of adult learning, CTTL Summer Academy Presenter: 3 Truths for the Future of Education: A Framework for Leading and Sustaining Meaningful Change.
Mike Markoe (@mikemarkoefcps) Deputy Superintendent for Frederick County MD Public Schools, CTTL Summer Academy Participant & Kent Wetzel (@kentwetzelfcps), Teacher Specialist for Leadership Development for Frederick County MD Public Schools and CTTL Summer Academy Translation Group Leader: Leading with the Brain in Mind.
Liz Matheny (@lizmathenyfcps) Teacher Specialist for Innovative Learning Frederick County MD Public Schools and CTTL Summer Academy participant: Leveraging Student Focus Groups to Foster School Improvement and a Sense of Belonging.
Christina McKeever (@cbmckeever) & Jay Schill (@jay_schill) middle school principals for Frederick County MD Public Schools and CTTL Summer Academy participants: Principals as MBE Practitioners.
Karine Myers (@fcpskarinemyers) Supervisor of Leadership Development for Frederick County MD Public Schools and CTTL Summer Academy participant & Dr. Angela Elkordy (@elkorda) Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and founding director Learning Sciences at the National College of Education, National Louis University and CTTL Summer Academy participant: Improvement by Design: Leveraging Evidence for Instructional Practices.
Meg Lee (@megvertebrae) Director of Organizational Development for Frederick County MD Public Schools, and CTTL Summer Academy Presenter and Translation Group Leader: researchED United States lead organizer: Activating MBE Research and Strategies in Your School or District.
Devon Rothschild, middle school teacher and Mentor Behavior Coach for Carroll County MD Public Schools and CTTL Summer Academy Presenter: Classroom Management Strategies is a Post-Pandemic Classroom: An Action Research Project Using Mind, Brain, and Education Tools.
Tammy Sander (@fcpsplt52) Courtney Kelly (@fcps_ckelly) Teacher Specialists on the Employee Induction and Professional Learning Team for Frederick County MD Public Schools and CTTL Teacher Specialist Academy participants: Reimagining Educator Induction.
Kristin Simmers (@kristinasimmers) long time elementary teacher and now Ph.D. Candidate and the University of Connecticut and CTTL Summer Academy Presenter and Translation Group Leader: From Teacher to Researcher & Back Again.
If you attended researchED, make it a priority to jump back into the conference folder, which hosts the slides for many of the other 37 sessions that took place throughout the day. If you remember the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve shared by Patrice Bain and Dr. Pooja Agarwal in their opening keynote, it is time already to do a first bit of spaced retrieval practice. And Patrice would love that you did so. Take a blank piece of paper, think hard and try to retrieve what you can from your long-term memory, refer back to your notes to check, and then revise your recalled notes.
If you didn’t attend researchED, put it on your radar for next time. They are all over the world, so wherever you are, look out. It is a unique experience where you can walk up to your academic crushes and ask them a question—and where, for sure, new academic crushes will be made.
I took away a lot from my day at researchED Frederick. First, I took away gratitude for the team, including student volunteers, from Frederick County Public Schools who made this event so easy, fun, and accessible to attend—and so full of really high quality, really useful content. And the sandwiches from Frisco’s were great!
Second, I took away admiration for the wisdom, passion, and sense of adventure and fun shown by every educator who gained the well-earned title of “Saturday Teachers” that I heard used by Dr. M-J Mercanti-Anthony in his session, Spreading Common Strategies Building-Wide Rooted in the Science of Learning. I know these educators will use this conference to elevate their understanding of the Science of Teaching and Learning and their use of evidence-informed strategies with their students, in their context, with their unique secret sauce as a teacher.
And finally, I kept thinking about those students who are fortunate enough to be in the classrooms, teams, clubs, performances, schools, and districts of each researchED United States (Frederick) attendee. They are lucky to have you as educators, and I would love to hear how your stories of research-informed-strategies to classroom-and-schoolwide-practices continue.