2024

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20 Types Of Questions For Teaching Critical Thinking

TeachThought

What Are The Best Questions For Teaching Critical Thinking? by Terry Heick What are the different types of questions? Turns out, it’s pretty limitless. I’ve always been interested in them–the way they can cause (or stop) thinking; the nature of inquiry and reason; the way they can facilitate and deepen a conversation; the way they can reveal understanding (or lack thereof); the stunning power of the right question at the right time.

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Yes, Your School Librarian Can Do That (and More)

Cult of Pedagogy

Listen to the interview with Karina Quilantan-Garza, Lauren Mobley, K.C. Boyd, and Barbara Paciotti ( transcript ): Sponsored by WeVideo and The Modern Classrooms Project I used to think librarians did three things: (1) organize and fiercely protect large collections of books, (2) check those books out to visitors, and (3) shush people. As libraries started to house more technology, I added a fourth role: manage and protect the tech.

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Children as Artists: A New Perspective on Upper Paleolithic Cave Art

Anthropology.net

Deep within Cantabria, Spain, the Las Monedas cave offers a stunning glimpse into the lives of our Upper Paleolithic ancestors. While much of the art attributed to this era has been studied through the lens of adult craftsmanship, a recent study shifts the focus to children. By integrating insights from developmental psychology, researchers have identified playful and imaginative marks made by young artists, fundamentally rethinking prehistoric creativity.

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Compliance vs Engagement

A Principal's Reflections

One of the best aspects of the work my team and I at Aspire Change EDU do is getting into leaders as part of the coaching process. During this time, we begin to collect qualitative evidence aligned with growth opportunities that they have set during initial meetings. No matter where our travels take us, one of the most common areas districts and schools want to improve is shifting from compliance to student engagement.

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Call for Papers: Teaching and Learning with Generative AI and Emergent Technologies (Special Issue)

Teaching Anthropology

Deadline for abstract submission 16 th Sept 2024 Editors: Dr Natalie Djohari and Dr Gavin Weston, Bournemouth University. With the growing accessibility of generative AIs, haptic technologies and open-source software, this Teaching Anthropology Special Issue asks; ‘how is anthropological knowledge production changing in this fast growing socio-technological era?

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Spain’s Move to Decolonize Its Museums Must Continue

Sapiens

In early 2024, Spain’s culture minister announced that the nation would overhaul its state museum collections, igniting a wave of anticipation—and controversy. ✽ WHEN SPAIN’S CULTURE MINISTER, Ernest Urtasun, announced his intention to overhaul the nation’s state museum collections earlier this year, his plan “to move beyond a colonial framework” reopened old wounds and sparked heated debates about national identity and historical representation.

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Equal Rights Project

Passion for Social Studies

Teachers have a huge goal: to prepare students for the real world! This includes helping them to become informed, empathetic, active, and responsible citizens. While all teachers feel this pressure, social studies teachers have a bit of added stress. They are responsible for preparing students with the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities to know why this is important.

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For My Daughters, For My Students: Valencia Abbott’s All-In

NCHE

After Valencia Abbott’s school day ended, we met to discuss her experiences as a history teacher. At the top of our time together, we discussed a quote from an article she recently wrote: “ When students sense that you are all-in for them, they are more likely to give you their best in the classroom.” “That’s not something that came about because I was in the classroom,” Valencia said.

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APSA Oral History Project: Contributions by Scholars of Color Interview Series

Political Science Now

As part of an ongoing series examining Contributions of Scholars of Color , the APSA Diversity and Inclusion Department conducted a a second set of oral history interviews during the 2024 National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS) Annual Meeting held in Los Angeles, California. This collection of interviews contributes to a continuous project that seeks to amplify the scholarship and the contributions of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to the profession and investigate t

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Three reasons why so few eighth graders in the poorest schools take algebra

The Hechinger Report

Like learning to read by third grade, taking eighth grade math is a pivotal moment in a child’s education. Students who pass Algebra 1 in eighth grade are more likely to sign up for more advanced math courses, and those who pass more advanced math courses are more likely to graduate from college and earn more money. “Algebra in eighth grade is a gateway to a lot of further opportunities,” said Dan Goldhaber, an economist who studies education at the American Institutes for Research, in a recent

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What Is Learned Helplessness?

TeachThought

by TeachThought Staff What is learned helplessness? Definition Learned helplessness is a psychological condition in which a person, after repeated failures or negative experiences, believes they have no control over situations’ outcomes and stops trying to improve or change them. Below is an example of Learned Helplessness in the classroom. Instructor: The biggest fear for an adolescent, written throughout this text, is not fitting in.

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When Your Classroom Management Goes Off the Rails

Cult of Pedagogy

Listen to my interview with Claire English ( transcript ) Sponsored by Alpaca and Scholastic Magazines+ This page contains Amazon Affiliate and Bookshop.org links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. What’s the difference between Amazon and Bookshop.org? The year started off beautifully: You had your routines in place, made your expectations clear, and for a while, your students were behaving just fine.

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Humanity’s Oldest Ochre Mine: The 48,000-Year Legacy of Artistry and Symbolism in Eswatini's Lion Cavern

Anthropology.net

The Ancient Artistry of Ochre Mining in Eswatini The Lion Cavern at Ngwenya, Eswatini, holds groundbreaking evidence 1 of humanity's earliest intensive ochre mining practices, dating back 48,000 years. This remarkable find suggests not only a profound commitment to artistic and symbolic expression but also the beginnings of human impact on the environment.

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Using Student Discourse to Increase Engagement

A Principal's Reflections

As my Aspire Change EDU consultant team and I visit classrooms on a routine basis, we strive to lead administrators, coaches, and teachers in reflecting on their practice using questioning techniques. The majority of these often revolve around engagement, and it is quickly realized that when students are compliant, it is because the adult is doing all the work or talking.

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Miseducation Shaped the 2024 Election

Zinn Education Project

The 2024 election revealed a troubling reality: Widespread miseducation and fear-mongering continue to shape political outcomes at the expense of people of color and marginalized communities. This is why the right launched a nationwide anti-CRT campaign and book bans restricting teaching about systemic racism, and erasing the histories of immigrant and LGBTQ+ communities.

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How Colonialism Invented Food Insecurity in West Africa

Sapiens

Archaeological evidence and Oral Histories show people in what is today Ghana lived sustainably for millennia—until European colonial powers and the widespread trade of enslaved people changed everything. ✽ It’s the year 2065. West Africa’s cool seasonal rains wake Abena. She rides her bike to work, where she pushes investment in cultivating insects as renewable protein sources.

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Socrative Review Games for Social Studies

Passion for Social Studies

Are you always searching for ways to make your lessons more engaging? Similarly, are you constantly trying to get students to be active in the thinking process? Honestly, both of these questions make teaching overwhelming! Teachers want students to enjoy school and be the ones thinking, but there is a lot to get through! There are so many standards and not enough time to teach everything.

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Sites of Encounter- The Medieval World

World History Teachers Blog

One of my favorite sites for teaching medieval cities like Mali, Calicut, and Quanzhou is called Sites of Encounter in the Medieval World. It comes from The University of California at Davis and includes lessons with primary sources, maps, charts, and graphs. The lesson on Calicut, for example, explores the importance of the spice trade in food and medicine and even includes medieval recipes.

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EverydayAdvocacy.org – Helping Educators Address Censorship and Book Banning

NCHE

When a Pennsylvania school board in 2020 pulled over 300 books and materials from school bookshelves, a student group at the high school, the Panther Anti-Racist Union, took note. All the banned books were by or about people of color or of diverse genders (including even a student PowerPoint on helping minority students take the SAT). Faculty sponsors Patricia Jackson and Ben Hodge helped the students to first talk with the administration, after which the group decided to hold a series of mornin

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How the Electoral College Works—And Why It Exists

Teaching American History

Every presidential election year revives questions about our system of voting through the Electoral College. Teachers tell us that students find this the most perplexing feature of our constitutional system. Below, we offer an explanation of why the Electoral College exists, how it works, and what happens when the electoral count in any state is contested.

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OPINION: Encouraging Black and Latinx students to apply to selective colleges has become more urgent than ever

The Hechinger Report

Those of us who worked with high school students in the wake of the Supreme Court’s historic decision overturning race-conscious admissions can’t profess shock over news showing decreases in enrollment among Black and Latinx students across many college campuses, especially those considered competitive for enrollment. We saw this coming. Last year we saw too many highly qualified students shy away from applying to schools because they were sent a message that they wouldn’t get in without affirma

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Tone As A Cause And Effect Of Learning

TeachThought

Tone As A Cause And Effect Of Learning by Terrell Heick In 20 Words That Can Affect How Students Think, , we said “Tone affects how students see themselves and their role in the learning process. In fact, a student’s own ongoing internal dialogue and thoughts about themselves and their self-identity as learners isn’t just a ‘factor’ in learning but one of the single most important factors.” This is central to the principle and practice of Social-Emotional Learning (and strategies for

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Avoiding the Pitfalls of Multitasking in School

Cult of Pedagogy

Listen to my interview with Megan Sumeracki ( transcript ): Sponsored by Alpaca and The Gilder Lehrman Institute This page contains Amazon Affiliate and Bookshop.org links. When you make a purchase through these links, Cult of Pedagogy gets a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you. What’s the difference between Amazon and Bookshop.org?

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Paleolithic Discoveries at Soii Havzak Rockshelter Illuminate Human Migration in Central Asia

Anthropology.net

High in the Zeravshan Valley of Tajikistan, the Soii Havzak rock-shelter has provided researchers with an invaluable glimpse into early human migration routes and daily life in Central Asia. Discovered 1 only recently, this rock-shelter sits 40 meters above a tributary of the Zeravshan River, approximately 10 kilometers north of Panjakent. It contains layers of human occupation spanning the Middle and Upper Paleolithic periods, approximately 150,000 to 20,000 years ago.

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The Art of Justifying Change

A Principal's Reflections

Change is an inevitable constant in education. If it isn’t, it surely should be. While it can be met with resistance, effective leaders understand that it is often necessary for growth, innovation, and, most importantly, to meet the needs of students. As a principal, I vividly remember spearheading several major change initiatives such as improved grading practices, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), selection and implementation of a new evaluation system, development of the Academies at NMHS, adopti

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What If Finding Child Care Online Were as Easy as Making a Dinner Reservation?

ED Surge

In 2024, if you want to make a dinner reservation, you’re very likely to open an app on your phone, input a few details and then filter your results to see which restaurants have availability for your party size, date and time. If you want to find child care, on the other hand, good luck. In most states, you can visit a website and see a map of providers in your area, along with some basic information about them — ages served, operating hours, quality rating — but details about their enrollment

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Popular Lessons

Zinn Education Project

The right is doing all they can to suppress the teaching of history, but they are not succeeding. How do we know? Check out this list of lessons that were most frequently downloaded from the Zinn Education Project website this year! Read the list and donate so that we can provide more teachers with these lessons in 2025. Teaching the Seeds of Violence in Palestine-Israel By Bill Bigelow A mixer/mystery activity on Zionism, anti-Zionism, peasant resistance, the Great War, the British Mandate, and

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Teaching the Executive Branch

Passion for Social Studies

One topic that is always popular when teaching any government course is the presidency. Honestly, students are always so engaged to learn about the person who is the leader of the United States. They want to know everything they can about the role once the person officially enters the White House. So, teaching the executive branch is always fun and exciting!

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Strengthening Civic Education: The Role of High-Quality Curriculum and Teaching Strategies

TCI

Civic education is the cornerstone of a functioning democracy, yet recent evaluations reveal significant gaps in how it is taught across the nation. High-quality civics and U.S. history instruction is essential for developing informed, engaged citizens who can navigate the complexities of modern society. However, recent studies indicate that many states are falling short of providing students with the educational foundation needed for active civic participation.

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It’s as easy as 1-2-3: The importance of contextualised behaviour routines and mentoring support for beginning teachers

Becoming a History Teacher

Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.com Jessie is starting to assume more responsibility for her classes. So far, she’s taught around 15 whole lessons, but hasn’t had to do any teaching completely independently. Her mentor, Jasdeep, has always been on hand to step in if behaviour started to creep out of control or Jessie was struggling with curriculum content.

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Teaching the Constitution in the Context of Human Behavior

Teaching American History

“To be a good member of your community, you really have to understand why people do the things that they do,” says Bryan Little, who teaches both on-level Government and AP Government at McPherson High School in McPherson, Kansas. “That’s why good teaching about citizenship involves students in an intentional study of human behavior.” Bryan Little, the 2022 James Madison Foundation Fellow for Kansas completed his MAHG degree in 2024.

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How four universities graduate their low-income students at much higher rates than average

The Hechinger Report

MONTCLAIR, N.J. — As a high-school senior in New Jersey, Ernesto Reyes Velasco couldn’t envision himself taking the leap to become an independent college student. Neither of his parents, who are immigrants from Mexico, had gone to college. He didn’t have close friends as examples. Money was tight. But this past summer Reyes Velasco spent five weeks on Montclair State University’s campus as part of a program designed to support incoming first-year low-income students.

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20 Questions To Help Students Think Critically About News

TeachThought

Help Students Think Critically About News With These 20 Questions This post was originally published in 2019 and updated in 2024 by Terrell Heick 1. In the article, headline, or social share, ‘who’ is saying ‘what’? That is, what specific author and publication are making what kind of claim about what topic or ideas? 2. Is what’s being stated or claimed fact or opinion?

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How Partisanship Twists Accountability

Political Science Now

In the APSA Public Scholarship Program, graduate students in political science produce summaries of new research in the American Political Science Review. This piece, written by Jack Wippell, covers the new article by Tabitha Bonilla, “The Influence of Partisanship on Assessments of Promise Fulfillment and Accountability.” Does partisanship undermine accountability?

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Ancient DNA Reveals Genetic and Linguistic Divides in the Bronze Age Mediterranean

Anthropology.net

The origins of Indo-European languages, which today stretch from Ireland to India, have long fascinated archaeologists and linguists. A new study 1 adds clarity to this enduring mystery by examining ancient genomes across the Mediterranean. Researchers have discovered a genetic divide during the Bronze Age, which correlates with linguistic patterns between Eastern and Western Indo-European populations.

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Cutting Through the Fog: Why Leadership Clarity Matters

A Principal's Reflections

" Leadership clarity is the light that cuts through the fog of uncertainty, guiding others toward a clear and purposeful path." During my early years as a principal, I was literally flying by the seat of my pants. No one person or program can adequately prepare you for the realities of the job, as things are coming at you from every direction. While putting out fires comes with the territory, the real work lies in developing a learning culture prioritizing relationships and student outcomes.

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SEL Can Thrive in Schools, But We Need Time to Discuss What Matters Most

ED Surge

Social-emotional learning (SEL) has become a primary focus in many school’s strategic plans. Fortunately, there is a long list of literature, articles and research that outline the importance of SEL and the positive impact that it can have on student development. Knowing this, teachers try to fit these lessons into their morning meetings, projects, special classes, birthday celebrations, snack times and lunch hours.

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