Teacher Resources
John Dewey’s 4 Principles of Progressive Education
There are only a few ideas that had as much of an impact on education as those of John Dewey. The American philosopher, psychologist and educator believed children to be active contributors and agents of their learning, and not just passive recipients of knowledge of previous generations. He believed that for knowledge to be acquired successfully, learning should be an experience. His Experiential Learning approach was based on four core principles. To find out what these are and how it works in real life, watch our video.
The Whole Child: Ackermann’s 8 Forces of Natural Development
The Ackermann theory of The Whole Child Development pays respect to the fact that there are many aspects of human potential that grades can't measure. Besides curiosity and intelligence, children may want to develop creativity, passion, resilience, intuition, confidence, generosity, mindfulness, humor, and many, many other important traits. Instead of splitting children into a collection of 4-8 skills, such as social, emotional and so forth, the theory identified four natural urges that drive our growth throughout childhood into adult life: Being Me, Us, the World, and Human Creations.
Active Learning vs. Passive Instruction
Active learning" means you participate, collaborate with others, and apply concepts to the real world. It requires hard mental effort but leads to better retention and an understanding of the material that can be transferred to other situations.
Piaget’s Schema: How We Change Information to Fit Our Brain Space
A schema is a cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information.
Freud’s 5 Stages of Psychosexual Development
Freud’s theory of psychosexual development claims that as we grow up, we pass through five critical phases which are defined by our sexual drive, also called libido, concentrating at specific erogenous zones.
Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning is a mental manipulation to reprogram natural body functions. It is a way of learning where a stimulus that triggers a biological response is paired with a new stimulus that then results in the same reaction.
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning: Rewards & Punishments
Operant conditioning is based on the idea that we can increase or decrease a certain behavior by adding a consequence.
Watson’s Theory of Behaviourism
John B. Watson famously claimed that if he were to be given a dozen healthy infants, he could shape them into anything; doctors, lawyers, artists, beggars or thieves, regardless of their background or genetic predispositions.
Vygotsky's Cognitive Development Through Social Relationships
Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Development argues that community and language play a central part in learning. Vygotsky believed that children develop independently of specific stages as a result of social interactions.
Bruner’s 3 Steps of Learning in a Spiral Curriculum
In the 1980s, the Singaporean government decided to stop importing foreign textbooks and, instead, build the world's best math curriculum from scratch. Since that time, Singaporeans study fewer concepts with greater detail, following Bruner's guideline.
Kohlberg’s 6 Stages of Moral Development
Lawrence Kohlberg's theory claims that our development of moral reasoning happens in six stages: 1. Obedience and Punishment, 2. Self-interest 3. Interpersonal Accord and Conformity 4.Authority and maintaining social order, 5.Social Contract, 6.Universal Ethical principles.
Project-Based Learning: How It Works and Why It’s So Effective
Project Based Learning, in short PBL, is a powerful way to learn new things and remember them for a long time. It describes a form of learning that happens as a result of solving actual problems.
Bloom’s Taxonomy: Structuring The Learning Journey
Bloom's taxonomy is a toolbox that teachers or students can use to classify and organize learning objectives.
It’s most popular version is based on the cognitive domain and assumes that learning should be structured from easy to difficult in the following 6 steps:
1. Remember
2. Understand
3. Apply
4. Analyze
5. Evaluate
6. Create
Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development
Piaget's theory argues that we have to conquer 4 stages of cognitive development:
1. Sensori-Motor Stage
2. Pre-Operational Stage
3. Concrete Operational Stage
4. Formal Operational Stage
Only once we have gone through all the stages, at what age can vary, we are able to reach full human intelligence.
Creative Thinking: How to Increase the Dots to Connect
Creativity is our ability to look at a problem and come up with a good solution to solve it. Once we understand this, we realize that it has nothing to do with the subject matter, job or what we study.
Situative Learning: How Context Matters
Creativity is our ability to look at a problem and come up with a good solution to solve it. Once we understand this, we realize that it has nothing to do with the subject matter, job or what we study.
The Design Thinking Process
Design Thinking is a 5-step process to come up with meaningful ideas that solve real problems for a particular group of people. The process is taught in top design and business schools around the world. It has brought many businesses lots of happy customers and helped entrepreneurs from all around the world, to solve problems with innovative new solutions.
The Science of Teaching, Effective Education, and Great Schools
Scientific evidence suggests that the secret to thriving students and a good education are amazing teachers.
Mastery Learning
Tests are meant to measure progress towards gaining practical skills or understanding ideas. Their purpose is to show teachers and students what went right and what went wrong. Unfortunately, too many times we fail to act upon what tests find out.
If students do not achieve mastery on the test, they go back to study and then get tested again. This cycle continues until the student gets it right. Only then may they move on to learn the next thing.
Under Mastery Learning students must achieve a level of excellence (which could be. 90% on a math test) before moving forward.
The Flipped Classroom Model
The Flipped Classroom is a new method of teaching that is turning the traditional classroom on its head.
Every day, thousands of teachers deliver the exact same lesson in class to millions of students. Every night, millions of students sit over the exact same homework, trying to figure out how to solve it. The Flipped Classroom is turning this upside down.
Traditionally students listen to lectures and take tests in class and read textbooks and work on problem sets at home. In flip teaching, students first study the topic by themselves, typically using video lessons on YouTube and then apply the knowledge by solving problems and doing practical work in class.
Modern schools who flipped their classroom report many benefits: 1. It allows all students to learn at their own pace as videos can be watched again. 2. Its more efficient, as students enter the classroom prepared to contribute. 3. It enriches the lesson as more time can be spent on group work and projects. 4. Doing homework in class allows students to help each other, which benefits both the advanced and less advanced learners.