Blog Archives

Navigating special education labels is complex, and it matters for education equity

Navigating special education labels is complex, and it matters for education equity

The Ontario Ministry of Education’s special education policy and resource guide provides instructions to school boards and schools on administering special education programs. It also emphasizes the importance of education equity, and involving parents in special education designations. As researchers, we explored the rights of Latin American and Black Caribbean youth when it comes to special education in our […] … learn more→

Six uses of augmented reality in class with the potential to transform teaching

Six uses of augmented reality in class with the potential to transform teaching

Imagine a history class in which the events studied come to life before our eyes: while the teacher narrates the key events of the French Revolution, the students are immersed in an immersive visual experience. Historical figures emerge as three-dimensional holograms in the classroom, recreating the most crucial moments. Robespierre delivers his speeches, the clamor of the […] … learn more→

How teens benefit from being able to read ‘disturbing’ books that some want to ban

How teens benefit from being able to read ‘disturbing’ books that some want to ban

Should we worry, as massive book-banning efforts imply, that young people will be harmed by certain kinds of books? For over a decade and through hundreds of interviews, my colleague, literacy professor Peter Johnston, and I have studied how adolescents experience reading when they have unfettered access to young adult literature. Our findings suggest that many are helped rather than […] … learn more→

How educator Gloria Jean Merriex used dance, drills and devotion to turn around a failing elementary school in a year

How educator Gloria Jean Merriex used dance, drills and devotion to turn around a failing elementary school in a year

When Duval Elementary – a school that served mostly Black and poor students in East Gainesville, Florida – failed the state’s high-stakes standardized test in 2002, district leaders pressured the school’s educators to more closely follow the curriculum. But Gloria Jean Merriex, who taught third and fourth grade reading and fifth grade math, wasn’t interested. She argued […] … learn more→

Happy teachers: a key to improving academic results

Happy teachers: a key to improving academic results

Nine in the morning, the doorbell rings. The boys and girls rush to enter the classrooms. His teacher is waiting there. She has been at the center for more than half an hour arranging the classroom to carry out a dynamic that she hopes will work and capture attention better than yesterday. Among the large […] … learn more→

“The other side of words”: Resilience

“The other side of words”: Resilience

Increasingly frequent in media discourse and everyday language, the term resilience was said to have been used for the first time by Emmy Werner . This developmental psychologist focused in the 1980s and 1990s on the long-term consequences of stress occurring during the prenatal and perinatal periods, based on longitudinal research on 698 people from the island of Kauai […] … learn more→

Students lose out as cities and states give billions in property tax breaks to businesses − draining school budgets and especially hurting the poorest students

Students lose out as cities and states give billions in property tax breaks to businesses − draining school budgets and especially hurting the poorest students

Built in 1910, James Elementary is a three-story brick school in Kansas City, Missouri’s historic Northeast neighborhood, with a bright blue front door framed by a sand-colored stone arch adorned with a gargoyle. As bustling students and teachers negotiate a maze of gray stairs with worn wooden handrails, Marjorie Mayes, the school’s principal, escorts a […] … learn more→

Academic failure: history and invention of a concept

Academic failure: history and invention of a concept

The French school is reputed, at least in a significant part of public and political representations, to be locked in a multifaceted crisis. Thanks to these findings, attention has focused on “academic failure”, “dropouts” and the average results of French students in international rankings (PISA). This context of increased academic competition translates, in the eyes […] … learn more→

What are ‘multiplication facts’? Why are they essential to your child’s success in maths?

What are ‘multiplication facts’? Why are they essential to your child’s success in maths?

`One of the essential skills students need to master in primary school mathematics are “multiplication facts”. What are they? What are they so important? And how can you help your child master them? What are multiplication facts? Multiplication facts typically describe the answers to multiplication sums up to 10×10. Sums up to 10×10 are called […] … learn more→