Sunday Listens: Talking math instruction
Two podcasts on math research and instruction for your weekend listening
Hi, readers. Here’s some Sunday podcasts for you!
I got a chance to talk with math instructional coach and curriculum writer Bill Davidson for his great podcast, Centering the Pendulum, that focuses on elementary math education, and wanted to share it with you. We got to talk about all my recent math reporting at Edutopia, The 74, EdPost and more. Bill asked some important and insightful questions, and I think it’s worth a listen.
“What should the public know about elementary math instruction?” Bill asked right off the top.
And I responded, “The big news to me is that, just like there is a science of reading, there is also the same thing for math....it does exist. It’s very similar to the science of reading in that many teachers haven’t been trained to know about it, and many schools don’t know about it. The majority of American students are not succeeding in math, and here we have this evidence base that shows, in general, what helps students learn more math, and we aren’t using it.”
*Listen to Centering the Pendulum Episode 122: Holly Korbey, Education Journalist
But there’s more! It’s been a banner week for good podcasts about teaching and learning.
I highly recommend this great episode of math professor Anna Stokke’s Chalk and Talk with renowned educator, researcher and author Dylan William.
They cover a lot of topics around the science of learning, and William’s crystal-clear explanations on what students need according to research, and how to improve teaching, are worth a listen.
Williams explains why strategies to teach critical thinking, for example, don’t work: “We've done lots of work to give students practice of thinking. We've had initiatives around thinking skills. And those haven't worked because, actually, students don't need more practice in thinking, they need more things to think with.”
As one teacher remarked about the remark on X: “You can’t teach critical thinking skills to students who know nothing about a subject. We are trying to teach students mastery of mastery and not mastery of skills first. It’s not possible.”
*Listen to Chalk and Talk: Raising student achievement with Dylan William
Have a great week, until meet again right here this Friday.
Thank you for sharing my podcast Holly! I'll have a listen to your interview with Bill this afternoon. Looking forward to it!
-Anna
These are on my list now! Thank you!