Charlotte, NC —Discovery Education, the creators of essential K-12 learning solutions used in classrooms around the world, today announced a host of exciting product updates during a special virtual event led by the company’s Chief Product Officer Pete Weir. Based on feedback from the company’s school-based partners, these updates make teaching and learning even more relevant, engaging, and personalized for users of Discovery Education products.
Among the enhancements made to Discovery Education Experience, the essential companion for engaged K-12 classrooms that inspires teachers and motivates students, are: teachers and motivates students, are:
Improved Personalized Recommendations for Teachers: With thousands of resources in Experience, there is something for every classroom. The new Core Curriculum Complements feature in Experience automatically surfaces engaging resources handpicked to enhance school systems’ core curriculum, simplifying lesson planning and ensuring tight alignment with district priorities. Additionally, Experience now offers educators Personalized Content Recommendations. These content suggestions made to individual teachers are based on their unique profiles and preferences, or what is frequently used by other educators like them.
An Enhanced AI-Powered Assessment Tool: Originally launched in 2024, this tool is the first in a new suite of AI-powered teaching tools currently under development, and it empowers educators to create high-quality assessments using vetted resources right from within Experience. Educators can now more easily customize assessments according to reading level, question type, Bloom’s Taxonomy, and more – ensuring optimal learning experiences for students. Educators can also review and tailor the questions and, once ready, export those questions into a variety of formats.
A New Career Exploration Tool for All Discovery Education Experience Users: Career Connect – the award-winning tool that connects K-12 classrooms with real industry professionals – is now accessible to all Discovery Education Experience users. With this new feature, classrooms using Experience can directly connect to the professionals, innovations, and skills of today’s workforce. Furthermore, Experience is now delivering a variety of new career pathway resources, virtual field trips, and career profiles – building career awareness, inviting exploration, and helping students prepare for their future.
A newly enhanced Instructional Strategy Library: To elevate instruction and better support teachers, Discovery Education has enhanced its one-stop-spot for strategies supporting more engaging, efficient, and effective teaching. The improved Instructional Strategy Library streamlines the way educators find and use popular, research-backed instructional strategies and professional learning supports and provides connected model lessons and activities.
Also announced today were a host of improvements to DreamBox Math by Discovery Education. DreamBox Math offers adaptive, engaging, and scaffolded lessons that adjust in real time to personalize learning so that students can build confidence and skills at their own pace. Among the new improvements to DreamBox Math are:
Major Lesson Updates: Based on teacher feedback, Discovery Education’s expert curriculum team has updated DreamBox Math’s most popular lessons to make them easier for students to start, play, and complete successfully. Students will now encounter lessons with updated scaffolding, enhanced visuals, greater interactivity, and added context to ground mathematical concepts in the curriculum and the world they live in.
A New Look for Middle School: Middle school students will encounter a more vibrantly colored and upgraded user interface featuring a reorganized Lesson Chooser whose intuitive design makes it easy to identify teacher-assigned lessons from their personalized lesson options. Additional updates will follow throughout the year.
New Interactive Curriculum Guide: Discovery Education has strengthened the link between DreamBox Math and school systems’ core instruction with an Interactive Curriculum Guide. Educators can now explore the breadth and scope of DreamBox content by grade and standard to locate, preview, and play lessons, increasing familiarity with lessons, and enhancing targeted instruction. The DreamBox Math team will continue to make updates to standards and curriculum alignments throughout the year.
To watch a replay of today’s special event in its entirety, and to learn about additional updates to Discovery Education’s suite of K-12 solutions, visit this link.
“Discovery Education understands teachers’ sense of urgency about closing the achievement gaps highlighted by recent NAEP scores,” said Pete Weir, Discovery Education’s Chief Product Officer. “In response, we accelerated the development and deployment of what has traditionally been our ‘Back-to-School’ product enhancements. The stakes for our students have never been higher, and Discovery Education is dedicated to putting the highest-quality, most effective resources into teachers and students’ hands as soon as possible.”
eSchool Media staff cover education technology in all its aspects–from legislation and litigation, to best practices, to lessons learned and new products. First published in March of 1998 as a monthly print and digital newspaper, eSchool Media provides the news and information necessary to help K-20 decision-makers successfully use technology and innovation to transform schools and colleges and achieve their educational goals.
SHINGLETOWN, Calif. — On a cold morning in October, the sun shone weakly through tall sugar pines and cedars in Shingletown, a small Northern California outpost whose name is a reminder of its history as a logging camp in the 1800s. Up a gravel road banked with iron-rich red soil, Dylan Knight took a break from stacking logs.
Knight is one of 10 student loggers at Shasta College training to operate the heavy equipment required for modern-day logging: processors to remove limbs from logs that have just been cut, skidders to pull logs out of the cutting site, loaders to stack and sort the logs by species and masticators to mulch up debris.
For centuries, logging was a seasonal, learn-on-the-job trade passed down from father to son. But as climate change and innovations in the industry have changed logging into a year-round business, there aren’t always enough workers to fill jobs.
“Our workforce was dying,” said Delbert Gannon, owner of Creekside Logging. “You couldn’t even pick from the bottom of the barrel. It was affecting our production and our ability to haul logs. We felt we had to do something.”
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Around the country, community colleges are stepping in to run apprenticeship programs for heritage industries, such as logging and aquaculture, which are too small to run. These partnerships help colleges expand the workforce development programs central to their mission. The partnerships also help keep small businesses in small industries alive by managing state and federal grants and providing the equipment, courses and staff to train workers.
As industries go, logging is small, and it’s struggling. In 2023 there were only about 50,000 logging jobs in the U.S., but the number of logging companies has been on the decline for several years. Most loggers are over 50, according to industry data, and older generations are retiring, contributing to more than 6,000 vacant positions every year on average. The median annual salary for loggers is about $50,000.
Student logger Bryce Shannon operates a wood chipper at a logging site as part of his instruction at Shasta College in Redding, Calif. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report
Retirements have hit Creekside Logging hard. In 2018 Gannon’s company had jobs to do, and the machines to do them, but nobody to do the work. He reached out to Shasta College, which offers certificates and degrees in forestry and heavy equipment operation, to see if there might be a student who could help.
That conversation led to a formal partnership between the college and 19 timber companies to create a pre-apprenticeship course in Heavy Equipment Logging Operations. Soon after, they formed the California Registered Apprenticeship Forest Training program. Shasta College used $3.5 million in grant funds to buy the equipment pre-apprentices use.
Logging instruction takes place on land owned by Sierra Pacific Industries lumber company — which does not employ its own loggers and so relies on companies like Creekside Lumber to fell and transport logs to mills.
Each semester, 10 student loggers like Knight take the pre-apprenticeship course at Shasta College. Nearly all are hired upon completion. Once employed, they continue their work as apprentices in the forest training program, which Shasta College runs in partnership with employers like Gannon. State apprenticeship funds help employers offset the cost of training new workers, as well as the lost productivity of on-the-job mentors.
For Creekside Logging — a 22-person company — working with Shasta College makes participation in the apprenticeship program possible.Gannon’s company often trained new loggers, only to have them back out of the job months later. It can cost tens of thousands of dollars to train a new worker, and Creekside couldn’t afford to keep taking the financial risk. Now Gannon has a steady flow of committed employees, trained at the college rather than on his payroll. Workers who complete the pre-apprenticeship know what they’re getting into — working outdoors in the cold all day, driving big machines and cutting down trees.
Workers who complete the apprenticeship, Gannon said, are generally looking for a career and not just a seasonal job.
Talon Gramps-Green, a student logger at Shasta College in Redding, Calif., shows off stickers on his safety helmet. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report
“You get folks that are going to show up every day,” Gannon said. “They got to test drive the career and know they like heavy equipment. They want to work in the woods. The college has solved that for us.”
Apprentices benefit too. Workers who didn’t grow up around a trade can try it out, which for some means tracking down an elusive pathway into the work. Kyra Lierly grew up in Redding, about 30 miles west of Shingletown, and previously worked for the California Department of Forestry as a firefighter. She’s used to hard work, but when she looked into getting a job as a logger she couldn’t find a way in. Some companies had no office phone or website, she says. Jobs were given out casually, by word of mouth.
“A lot of logging outfits are sketchy, and I wanted to work somewhere safe,” said Lierly, 25. She worked as an apprentice with Creekside Lumber but is taking a break while she completes an internship at Sierra Pacific Industries, a lumber producer, and gets a certificate in natural resources at Shasta College.
“The apprenticeship made forestry less intimidating because the college isn’t going to partner with any company that isn’t reputable,” Lierly said.
Apprenticeships, with their combination of hands-on and classroom learning, are found in many union halls but, until now, was not known to be common practice in the forested sites of logging crews.
State and federally registered apprenticeships have gained popularity in recent years as training tools in health care, cybersecurity and telecommunications.
Federal funding grew steadily from $145 million in 2018 to more than $244 million during the last years of the Biden administration. That money was used to support apprenticeships in traditional building trades as well as industries that don’t traditionally offer registered apprenticeships, including teaching and nursing.
The investment aims to address the shortage of skilled workers. The number of working adults in the U.S. doesn’t align with the number of skilled jobs, a disparity that is only slowly recovering after the pandemic.
Labor shortages hit especially hard in rural areas, where trades like logging have an outsized impact on their local economies. For regional heritage trades like logging, just a few apprentices can make the difference between staying in business and shutting down.
Lucas Licea, a student logger at Shasta College in Redding, Calif., operates a loader. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report
“There’s a common misconception of registered apprentices that they’re only in the building trades when most are in a variety of sectors,” said Manny Lamarre, who served as deputy assistant secretary for employment and training with the Labor Department during the Biden administration. More than 5,000 new occupations have registered with the department to offer apprenticeships since 2021, he said. “We can specifically support unique small occupations in rural communities where a lot of people are retiring.”
Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who was confirmed earlier this month, said in her confirmation hearing that she supports apprenticeships. But ongoing cuts make it unclear what the new federal role will be in supporting such programs.
However, “sharing the capacity has been an important way to get apprenticeships into rural and small employers,” said Vanessa Bennett, director at the Center for Apprenticeship and Work-Based Learning at the nonprofit Jobs for the Future. It’s helpful when employers partner with a nonprofit or community college that can sponsor an apprenticeship program, as Shasta College does, Bennett said.
Once Knight, the student logger, completes the heavy equipment pre-apprenticeship, he plans to return to his hometown of Oroville, about 100 miles south of Shingletown. His tribe — the Berry Creek Rancheria of Tyme Maidu Indians — is starting its own logging crew, and Knight will be one of only two members trained to use some of the most challenging pieces of logging equipment.
“This program is awesome,” said Knight, 24. “It’s really hands-on. You learn as you go and it helps to have a great instructor.”
Student logger Dylan Knight drives a masticator, which grinds wood into chips, as Shasta College instructor Chris Hockenberry looks on. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report
Across the country in Maine, a community college is helping to train apprentices for jobs at heritage oyster, mussel and kelp farms that have struggled to find enough workers to meet the growing demand for shellfish. Often classified as seasonal work, aquaculture jobs can become year-round careers for workers trained in both harvesting shellfish and planning for future seasons.
“I love the farm work and I feel confident that I will be able to make a full-length career out of this,” said Gabe Chlebowski, who completed a year-long apprenticeship with Muscongus Bay Aquaculture, which harvests in Damariscotta, Maine. A farm boy from rural Pennsylvania, Chlebowski worked in construction and stone masonry after high school. When his parents moved to Maine, he realized that he wanted a job on the water. With no prior experience, he applied for an oyster farming apprenticeship and was accepted.
“I was the youngest by five years and the only person who’d never worked on water,” said Chlebowski, 22. “I grew up in a landlocked state surrounded by corn fields. I had the work ethic and no idea what I was doing in boats.”
The apprenticeship program was launched in 2023 by the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, which joined with the Maine Aquaculture Association and Educate Maine to create a yearlong apprenticeship with Southern Maine Community College. Apprentices take classes in shellfish biology, water safety, skiff driving and basic boat maintenance. Grants helped pay for the boots, jackets and fishing bibs apprentices needed.
“The workforce here was a bottleneck,” said Carissa Maurin, aquaculture program manager for GMRI. New workers with degrees in marine biology were changing their minds after starting training at aquaculture farms. “Farms were wasting time and money on employees that didn’t want to be there.”
Chlebowski completed the apprenticeship at Muscongus Bay in September. He learned how to repair a Yamaha outdoor motor, how to grade oysters and how to work on a 24-foot, flat-bottom skiff. He stayed on as an employee, working at the farm on the Damariscotta River — the oyster capital of New England. The company is known for two varieties of oysters: Dodge Cove Pemaquid and Wawenauk.
Oyster farming generates local pride, Chlebowski said. The Shuck Station in downtown Damariscotta gives oyster farmers a free drink when they come in and there’s an annual summer shucking festival. But the company is trying to provide careers, Chlebowski said, not just high-season jobs.
“It can be hard to make a career out of farming, but it’s like any trade,” he said, adding that there is work to do year-round. “Welding and HVAC have trade schools and apprenticeships. Why shouldn’t aquaculture?”
Chlebowski’s apprenticeship turned into a career. Back in Shingletown, students in the logging program hope for the same result when they finish.
Until then, they spend Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in the woods learning how to operate and maintain equipment. Tuesdays and Thursdays are spent on Shasta College’s Redding campus, where the apprentices take three classes: construction equipment operation, introduction to forestry and wood products and milling.
At the end of the semester, students demonstrate their skills at a showcase in the Shingletown woods. Logging company representatives will attend and scout for workers. Students typically get offers at the showcase. So far, 50 students have completed the pre-apprenticeship program and most transitioned into full apprenticeships. Fifteen people have completed the full apprenticeship program and now earn from $40,000 to $90,000 a year as loggers.
Mentorship is at the heart of apprenticeships. On the job, new workers are paired with more experienced loggers who pass on knowledge and supervise the rookies as they complete tasks. Pre-apprentices at Shasta College learn from Jonas Lindblom, the program’s heavy equipment and logging operations instructor.
At the logging site, Lindblom watches as a tall sugar pine slowly falls and thuds to the ground. Lindblom’s father, grandfathers and great-grandfather all drove trucks for logging companies in Northern California.
An axe sticks out of a freshly cut tree at a logging site used to train student loggers enrolled at Shasta College in Redding, Calif. Credit: Minh Connors for The Hechinger Report
This is a good area for apprentices to “just be able to learn at their pace,” he said. “They’re not pushed and they can get comfortable in the machines without developing bad habits along the way.”
Lindblom, who studied agriculture education at Chico State University, spent all his breaks during college working as a logger. He works closely with the logging companies that partner with the program to make sure he’s teaching up-to-date practices. It’s better for new loggers to learn in this outdoor classroom, he said, than on the job.
“The majority of these students did not grow up in logging families,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to pass on this knowledge and share where the industry is going.”
Contact editor Christina A. Samuels at 212-678-3635 or [email protected].
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The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) recently announced that it has become the new steward of Engaging Schools’ extensive body of educational resources. With Engaging Schools set to close in early 2025 after more than four decades of impact, CASEL will ensure the organization’s valuable tools, books, and frameworks remain available to educators worldwide.
As part of this transition, CASEL is making these resources freely accessible to the public. Over time, CASEL will integrate elements of Engaging Schools’ work into several areas including the free Guide for Schoolwide SEL to further advance high-quality, evidence-based SEL implementation in schools and districts.
“For more than 40 years, Engaging Schools has helped educators create safe and supportive learning environments where students thrive,” said Aaliyah A. Samuel, president and CEO of CASEL. “We are honored to carry forward their legacy by making these resources widely available and embedding them into our work to create school communities that prioritize academic, social, and emotional development.”
Engaging Schools has long been recognized for its contributions to fostering inclusive school climates, strengthening restorative and equitable discipline, and advancing engaging teaching practices.
“We take immense pride in the lasting impact of Engaging Schools’ work,” said Larry Dieringer, Executive Director of Engaging Schools. “Though our organization’s chapter is closing, we are deeply grateful to CASEL for ensuring our resources continue to benefit educators and students for years to come.”
For more than 30 years, CASEL has been a trusted leader in advancing SEL through research, practice, and policy. By integrating Engaging Schools’ resources into its offerings, CASEL reaffirms its commitment to supporting educators with the tools they need to create engaging, inclusive, and academically rich learning environments.
Kevin is a forward-thinking media executive with more than 25 years of experience building brands and audiences online, in print, and face to face. He is an acclaimed writer, editor, and commentator covering the intersection of society and technology, especially education technology. You can reach Kevin at [email protected]
How many artificial intelligence and higher education meetings have you attended where much of the time is spent discussing the basics of how generative AI works? At this point in 2025, the biggest challenge for universities to develop an AI strategy is our seeming inability to achieve universal generative AI literacy.
Given this state of affairs, I’d like to make a modest proposal. From now on, all attendees of any AI higher education–focused conversation, meeting, conference or discussion must first have read Ethan Mollick’s (short) book Co-Intelligence: Living and Working With AI.
The audiobook version is only four hours and 37 minutes. Think of the productivity gains if we canceled the next five hours of planned AI meetings and booked that time for everyone to sit and listen to Mollick’s book.
For university people, Co-Intelligence is perfect, as Mollick is both a professor and (crucially) not a computer scientist. As a management professor at Wharton, Mollick is experienced in explaining why technologies matter to people and organizations. His writing on generative AI mirrors how he teaches his students to utilize technology, emphasizing translating knowledge into action.
In my world of online education, Co-Intelligence serves as an excellent road map to guide our integration of generative AI into daily work. In the past, I would have posted Mollick’s four generative AI principles on the physical walls of the campus offices that learning designers, media educators, marketing and admissions teams, and educational technology professionals once shared. Now that we live on Zoom and are distributed and hybrid—I guess I’ll have to put them on Slack.
Mollick’s four principles include:
Always Invite AI to the Table
When it comes to university online learning units (and probably everywhere else), we should experiment with generative AI in everything we do. This experimentation runs from course/program development, curriculum and assessment writing to program outreach and marketing.
Be the Human in the Loop
While anything written (and very soon, visual and video) should be co-created with generative AI, that content must always be checked, edited and reworked by one of us. Generative AI can accelerate our work but not replace our expertise or contribution.
Treat AI Like a Person (But Tell It What Kind of Person It Is)
When working with large language models, the key to good prompt writing is context, specificity and revision. The predictive accuracy and effectiveness of generative AI output dramatically improve with the precision of the prompt. You need to tell the AI who it is, who the audience it is writing for is and what tone the generated content should assume.
Assume This Is the Worst AI You Will Ever Use
Today, we can easily work with AI to create lecture scripts and decks. How long will it take to feed the AI a picture of a subject matter expert and a script and tool to create plausible—and compelling—full video lectures (chunked into short segments with embedded computer-generated formative assessments)? Think of the time and money we will save when AI complements studio-created instructional videos. We are around the corner of AI’s ability to accelerate the work of learning designers and media educators dramatically. Are we preparing for that day?
How are your online learning teams leveraging generative AI in your work?
What other books on AI would you recommend for university readers?
This HEPI blog was kindly authored by colleagues at the German Embassy in London and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
#ShoutOutForGerman – this is the title of a week-long campaign from 17 to 21 March to showcase all things German across the entire UK and inspire learning German. The German Embassy London and the German Academic Exchange Service are only two of the organisations behind this campaign. Why are we shouting out for German? Because the steady decline of German learners in the UK, of students pursuing German at the university level, the closure of language departments and the ongoing threat of further closures is a cause for concern.
The benefits of learning German are clear: it provides students with communication skills and enhances career opportunities, but it also fosters closer economic and cultural ties between the UK and Germany. The German Embassy in London and the German Academic Exchange Service both work to strengthen language learning in general and German in particular at British universities.
There are countless reasons for studying German. Just like learning any foreign language, it equips people with critical communication and transferable skills, opens the door to other ways of thinking, and strengthens personal connections across borders. The case for German is even stronger, as it is the most sought-after foreign language among UK employers and a key language in fields such as science, engineering, finance, and international relations. Germany remains the UK’s second-largest goods trading partner, and a strong command of the language provides a competitive advantage in the job market. German is the language of influential philosophers, writers, and scientists, offering access to a rich intellectual and cultural heritage.
Beyond the economic advantages, language learning plays a crucial role in diplomacy and international relations. The ability to speak each other’s language fosters trust, facilitates collaboration, and strengthens bilateral ties. As John le Carré once said, “The decision to learn a foreign language is an act of friendship.” Looking at the events unfolding in today’s world, it would be a gross understatement to say that the European continent is facing a multitude of challenges. To navigate the new realities, to preserve our safety, our hard-fought liberties, our prosperity and place in the world, the links between the UK and its European neighbours will be of pivotal importance – and key among them is the German-British partnership. Learning each other’s language can be understood as a commitment to strengthen and future-proof this partnership from the ground up.
A Declining Trend in German Studies
And yet, demand for studying languages at universities has been in a downtrend, and courses offered have been declining in parallel. According to HESA, the numbers of full-time students enrolled in German or German studies at British universities decreased from 1,780 in 2019 to 1,330 in 2023, marking a 25% decrease in just four years. This highlights an alarming trend that could lead to further erosion of German language education in higher education institutions. In lockstep, severaluniversities have closed their language departments entirely in recent years in response to budget constraints. Language centres can only, in part, make up for the loss that is generated by the lack of language degree courses – even though their existence is proof of the value and necessity universities attribute to language skills.
This development is, among others, a consequence of various decisions which have shaped the nature of educational politics in the UK as we know them today. It is thus more important than ever, that languages are given their due place in England’s Curriculum and Assessment Review – where the German Ambassador has made the plea for consistent language instruction over the entire educational journey. The assessment represents an important fork in the road and opportunity for a firm push towards stopping and gradually reversing the downtrend in language learning, lest it have long-term consequences for Britain’s position in global academia, diplomacy, and business.
The German Embassy and DAAD’s Commitment to German in the UK
The DAAD London has been around for over 70 years, as the DAAD’s oldest branch in the world. The German Embassy, the DAAD, and the Goethe-Institut London have been actively engaged in promoting German across all sectors in the UK for years. From providing scholarships and funding for students to supporting language teaching and teacher training at universities, we have consistently worked to strengthen German language education.
Each year, the DAAD funds many UK students to spend part of their summer at German universities, where they have the chance to learn German alongside young people from around the world. The annual German Language Competition, in collaboration with the Institute for Languages, Cultures, and Societies and other partners, encourages German learners to explore creative themes such as But Don’t Mention the War, Roads Not Taken and Love Letters between Victoria and Albert. The DAAD’s mission to promote the German language dates back to 1952, when the first DAAD Lecturer was placed at Aberystwyth University. At the time, no one could have predicted that this would lead to thousands more coming to the UK, teaching German language, literature, and culture to young Britons across UK universities. Our latest push comes in the form of our “Making the Case for German” initiative, which the German Ambassador Miguel Berger launched in late 2023 in partnership with the DAAD and the Goethe-Institut London. It serves as a comprehensive platform open to all who promote German in every sector, including schools, universities, and cultural organisations. Launched as a nationwide alliance, the initiative fosters collaboration through events, forums, and partnerships.
Such an alliance is necessary as this is a challenge we must address collectively. The Embassy, the DAAD, the Goethe-Institut and our partners will continue to support German in the UK through strategic initiatives, funding opportunities, and advocacy, but in order to reverse the trend, a national effort is needed. Universities, educators, policymakers, and businesses must work together to ensure that future generations have access to quality language education, and a communicative effort is necessary for people to recognize its immense value.
Giving a Collective #ShoutOutForGerman from 17 to 21 March
This is the reason why we came up with the idea for a #shoutoutforGerman campaign. In the week of 17 to 21 March dubbed German Week, we will celebrate all teachers and schools, university lecturers and German or Modern Languages departments, parents and pupils, students and civil society organisations such as town twinning associations as well as any individuals out there in the UK who are working very hard to keep German alive. Each and every one can take part, sharing what they like about German language, literature or culture. By sharing positive stories under the hashtag #ShoutOutForGerman, we will collectively give a huge shout out for all things German in the UK and hopefully convince some to dip their toes into the language of Klopp and Tuchel. The DAAD and the Goethe-Institut have further strengthened this campaign by offering a range of offerings to universities and schools alike.
Looking ahead
We firmly believe that multilingualism is not a luxury but a necessity in today’s world and that quality language education should be available to everybody. The Embassy, together with the Goethe-Institut, the DAAD and its partners will continue to make the case for German all across the country, by building alliances and supporting individual efforts to the best of our abilities. In this vein, the Embassy will soon start to officially recognise individuals and organisations who have shown particular dedication in promoting German in the UK. If Britain is to remain globally competitive, culturally enriched, and diplomatically agile, the decline in language learning has to be reversed. And German, as one of the most widely spoken languages in Europe and a key language of business and diplomacy, should be at the heart of that effort.
Have you ever wondered what makes a course highly effective? If you had to focus on one, two, or three essential factors, what would they be? Would you emphasize a supportive learning environment, cognitive and affective learning, pedagogical design, essential content, creating assessments, providing feedback, integrating technology, or something different? Reflecting on my years in academia, I find myself increasingly drawn to the challenge of designing the optimal class—one that not only engages students but also maximizes student learning. Why do some classes leave an indelible mark on students, while others quickly fade from memory? As you think about this task, I hope this exercise offers a stimulating intellectual endeavor: a chance to reflect and improve one’s teaching.
Perhaps I am taking the easy way out by emphasizing pedagogical design, as it could be argued that a well-designed course naturally incorporates all of the above factors. That said, what is it about an optimally designed class that resonates so deeply with my inner teacher? Simply, it is the way it combines cognitive and educational psychology—how people learn—with the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), which focuses on how educators’ study and improve their teaching to increase student learning (McKinney, 2007). This convergence of theory and teaching practice offers one perspective for creating an optimal learning experience.
An Anticipatory Set
For me, a well-designed class begins with an anticipatory set and a review of prior learning. These activities work together to engage students, activate their prior knowledge, and prepare them for new content. An anticipatory set, for example, might ask students to brainstorm times when they applied knowledge in real-world settings. This approach not only sparks curiosity but also helps students connect the material to their personal experiences, facilitating affective learning. Following this, a review of prior learning solidifies what students have already learned and creates a transition to new material. By linking new content to existing knowledge, students move from learning in isolation to building meaningful connections. Together, these strategies reduce cognitive load (Sweller, Van Merrienboer, & Pass, 2019), allowing students to focus their mental energy on deeper understanding and application.
The Delivery
Next comes the delivery of new learning, which can be achieved through various methods such as assigned readings, live or pre-recorded lectures, class discussions, flipped classroom activities, or small group work. The key to presenting new material effectively is managing cognitive load—ensuring students are not overwhelmed by overly long or complex presentations. For instance, lecturing for extended periods without breaks, poorly structured group work, or using technology without a clear purpose can increase cognitive load and hinder learning. When students are required to concentrate for long periods or expend unnecessary mental energy, their ability to process and retain information decreases.
Present and Practice
After presenting new content, it is crucial to provide students with opportunities to practice what they have learned. This could take the form of a no-point or low-stakes quiz, a case study, group work, or even a reflective activity. These practice opportunities not only reinforce learning but also allow instructors to offer immediate feedback and guidance, helping students refine their understanding of the material.
Summary Statement
Finally, an effective class concludes with a strategy to summarize key points. This might involve asking students to write a summary statement, connect course concepts to learning outcomes, or collaborate to create mock exam questions. These activities encourage students to make meaningful connections between new and prior learning, solidifying their understanding and preparing them for future learning.
Approaching your course with an eye for cognitive load allows you to scaffold learning in ways that are both efficient and grounded in effective learning research. By carefully managing how new material is presented, providing opportunities for practice, and encouraging students to connect new knowledge to prior learning, you create a classroom environment where students can thrive. Moreover, adopting a SoTL mindset empowers educators to continually reflect on their teaching practices, identify what works, and make meaningful improvements—all with the goal of student learning.
Reflection
As you reflect on your own teaching, consider this: What small change could you make in your next class to better manage cognitive load or foster deeper connections between new and prior learning? Perhaps it is rethinking how you introduce new material, designing a low-stakes practice activity, or incorporating a summarization strategy at the end of a class. Whatever it may be, remember that teaching is an iterative process, and even small adjustments can have a positive impact on students. By embracing these principles and committing yourself to ongoing reflection and improvement, you not only enhance your teaching but also model for your students how to become lifelong learners.
Michael Kiener is a professor at Maryville University of St. Louis in their Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. For the past 10 years he has coordinated their Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program, where faculty participate in a yearlong program with a goal of improved student learning. In 2012 and 2024 he received the Outstanding Faculty Award for faculty who best demonstrate excellence in the integration of teaching, scholarship and/or service. He has over thirty publications including a co-authored book on strength-based counseling and journal articles on career decision making, action research, counseling pedagogy, and active and dynamic learning strategies.
References
McKinney, K. 2007. Enhancing learning through the scholarship of teaching and learning: The challenges and joys of juggling. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sweller, J., Van Merriënboer, J. and Paas, F. 2019. Cognitive architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later. Educational Psychology Review 31, (2): 261-292.
Have you ever wondered what makes a course highly effective? If you had to focus on one, two, or three essential factors, what would they be? Would you emphasize a supportive learning environment, cognitive and affective learning, pedagogical design, essential content, creating assessments, providing feedback, integrating technology, or something different? Reflecting on my years in academia, I find myself increasingly drawn to the challenge of designing the optimal class—one that not only engages students but also maximizes student learning. Why do some classes leave an indelible mark on students, while others quickly fade from memory? As you think about this task, I hope this exercise offers a stimulating intellectual endeavor: a chance to reflect and improve one’s teaching.
Perhaps I am taking the easy way out by emphasizing pedagogical design, as it could be argued that a well-designed course naturally incorporates all of the above factors. That said, what is it about an optimally designed class that resonates so deeply with my inner teacher? Simply, it is the way it combines cognitive and educational psychology—how people learn—with the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), which focuses on how educators’ study and improve their teaching to increase student learning (McKinney, 2007). This convergence of theory and teaching practice offers one perspective for creating an optimal learning experience.
An Anticipatory Set
For me, a well-designed class begins with an anticipatory set and a review of prior learning. These activities work together to engage students, activate their prior knowledge, and prepare them for new content. An anticipatory set, for example, might ask students to brainstorm times when they applied knowledge in real-world settings. This approach not only sparks curiosity but also helps students connect the material to their personal experiences, facilitating affective learning. Following this, a review of prior learning solidifies what students have already learned and creates a transition to new material. By linking new content to existing knowledge, students move from learning in isolation to building meaningful connections. Together, these strategies reduce cognitive load (Sweller, Van Merrienboer, & Pass, 2019), allowing students to focus their mental energy on deeper understanding and application.
The Delivery
Next comes the delivery of new learning, which can be achieved through various methods such as assigned readings, live or pre-recorded lectures, class discussions, flipped classroom activities, or small group work. The key to presenting new material effectively is managing cognitive load—ensuring students are not overwhelmed by overly long or complex presentations. For instance, lecturing for extended periods without breaks, poorly structured group work, or using technology without a clear purpose can increase cognitive load and hinder learning. When students are required to concentrate for long periods or expend unnecessary mental energy, their ability to process and retain information decreases.
Present and Practice
After presenting new content, it is crucial to provide students with opportunities to practice what they have learned. This could take the form of a no-point or low-stakes quiz, a case study, group work, or even a reflective activity. These practice opportunities not only reinforce learning but also allow instructors to offer immediate feedback and guidance, helping students refine their understanding of the material.
Summary Statement
Finally, an effective class concludes with a strategy to summarize key points. This might involve asking students to write a summary statement, connect course concepts to learning outcomes, or collaborate to create mock exam questions. These activities encourage students to make meaningful connections between new and prior learning, solidifying their understanding and preparing them for future learning.
Approaching your course with an eye for cognitive load allows you to scaffold learning in ways that are both efficient and grounded in effective learning research. By carefully managing how new material is presented, providing opportunities for practice, and encouraging students to connect new knowledge to prior learning, you create a classroom environment where students can thrive. Moreover, adopting a SoTL mindset empowers educators to continually reflect on their teaching practices, identify what works, and make meaningful improvements—all with the goal of student learning.
Reflection
As you reflect on your own teaching, consider this: What small change could you make in your next class to better manage cognitive load or foster deeper connections between new and prior learning? Perhaps it is rethinking how you introduce new material, designing a low-stakes practice activity, or incorporating a summarization strategy at the end of a class. Whatever it may be, remember that teaching is an iterative process, and even small adjustments can have a positive impact on students. By embracing these principles and committing yourself to ongoing reflection and improvement, you not only enhance your teaching but also model for your students how to become lifelong learners.
Michael Kiener is a professor at Maryville University of St. Louis in their Clinical Mental Health Counseling program. For the past 10 years he has coordinated their Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Program, where faculty participate in a yearlong program with a goal of improved student learning. In 2012 and 2024 he received the Outstanding Faculty Award for faculty who best demonstrate excellence in the integration of teaching, scholarship and/or service. He has over thirty publications including a co-authored book on strength-based counseling and journal articles on career decision making, action research, counseling pedagogy, and active and dynamic learning strategies.
References
McKinney, K. 2007. Enhancing learning through the scholarship of teaching and learning: The challenges and joys of juggling. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sweller, J., Van Merriënboer, J. and Paas, F. 2019. Cognitive architecture and Instructional Design: 20 Years Later. Educational Psychology Review 31, (2): 261-292.
This is a question every educator has faced before. To be fair, it’s a valid question. Students are naturally curious, and it’s normal for them to wonder about the knowledge that they’re acquiring. The real issue is how we, as educators, choose to respond to them.
In my experience, teachers have two standard replies to this question:
They’ll try to explain the subject in detail, which results in a long-winded answer that confuses their students and doesn’t satisfy them.
They’ll argue that the information is important because it’s on an upcoming test, which typically leaves students feeling frustrated and disengaged.
Either way, the result is the same: Students lose all legitimacy in the lesson and they’re unable to connect with the content.
If we want our students to engage with the material in a way that’s memorable, meaningful, and fun, then we need to help them discover why it is important. Teachers can accomplish this by introducing real-world connections into the lesson, which reveal how the information that students acquire can be practically applied to real-world problems.
Without building these connections between the concepts our students learn and real-world applications, students lose interest in what they are learning. Using the strategies below, you can start to build student investment into your classroom content.
The everyday enigma
Use everyday items that operate with mystery and frame your lesson around them. Your students’ curiosity will drive them to learn more about the object and how it functions. This allows students to see that the small concepts they are learning are leading to the understanding of an object that they interact with daily. When choosing an item, pick one that is familiar and one that has multiple STEM elements. For example, you could use a copper wire to discuss electrical currents, a piece of an automobile to explore chemistry and combustion, or shark teeth when teaching about animal adaptations and food chains.
Interest intersect
Connect your students’ personal hobbies to the subject matter. For instance, if you have a student who is really passionate about soccer, try having them create a mini poster that connects the sport to the concepts learned in class. This gets them to think creatively about the purpose of content. This strategy has the additional benefit of helping teachers learn more about their students, creating opportunities to build communication and rapport.
Get an expert
Invite professionals (scientists, engineers, etc.) to talk with your class. This gives students a first-hand account of how the concepts they are learning can be applied to different careers. If you’re teaching chemistry, consider inviting a nurse or doctor to share how this subject applies to human health. If you’re teaching math, a local architect can expound on how angles and equations literally shape the homes in which students live. Not only does this provide a real-world example of students, but it helps schools connect with their community, creating vital relationships in the process.
Problem to progress
Create an engineering investigation based on a local, real-world problem. For instance, I once knew a music teacher who was frustrated because pencils would regularly fall off his music stands. I challenged my 5th grade students to create a solution using the engineering design process. Not only did they succeed, but the experience allowed my students to see the real-world results of the inventions they created. When students understand that their work can make a tangible difference, it completely changes their relationship with the material.
Project-based learning
Project-based learning is driven by inquiry and student ownership. This allows students to make contributions to the real world through hands-on investigations. What makes these inquiry-focused lessons so useful is that students are the driving force behind them. They choose how to approach the information, what questions to pursue, and what solutions they want to test. This makes the learning intensely personal while taking advantage of students’ natural curiosity, creativity, and critical-thinking skills. If you need a little help getting started, consider using one of these Blue Apple projects from Inquiry Outpost.
By linking our STEM lessons to real-world experiences, teachers can provide a meaningful answer to the age-old question of, “Why are we learning this?” We can equip our students with the skills to not only navigate everyday challenges but also create positive change within their own communities. So, let’s empower young learners to see the relevance of STEM in their lives, and lay a strong learning foundation that will support them well beyond the classroom.
Michael Grieb, Van Andel Institute for Education
Michael Grieb is a Learning Specialist at Van Andel Institute for Education, a Michigan-based education nonprofit dedicated to creating classrooms where curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking thrive.
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Collaborative Classroom, a leading nonprofit publisher of K–12 instructional materials, announces the publication of SIPPS, a systematic decoding program. Now in a new fifth edition, this research-based program accelerates mastery of vital foundational reading skills for both new and striving readers.
Twenty-Five Years of Transforming Literacy Outcomes
“As educators, we know the ability to read proficiently is one of the strongest predictors of academic and life success,” said Kelly Stuart, President and CEO of Collaborative Classroom. “Third-party studies have proven the power of SIPPS. This program has a 25-year track record of transforming literacy outcomes for students of all ages, whether they are kindergarteners learning to read or high schoolers struggling with persistent gaps in their foundational skills.
“By accelerating students’ mastery of foundational skills and empowering teachers with the tools and learning to deliver effective, evidence-aligned instruction, SIPPS makes a lasting impact.”
What Makes SIPPS Effective?
Aligned with the science of reading, SIPPS provides explicit, systematic instruction in phonological awareness, spelling-sound correspondences, and high-frequency words.
Through differentiated small-group instruction tailored to students’ specific needs, SIPPS ensures every student receives the necessary targeted support—making the most of every instructional minute—to achieve grade-level reading success.
“SIPPS is uniquely effective because it accelerates foundational skills through its mastery-based and small-group targeted instructional design,” said Linda Diamond, author of the Teaching Reading Sourcebook. “Grounded in the research on explicit instruction, SIPPS provides ample practice, active engagement, and frequent response opportunities, all validated as essential for initial learning and retention of learning.”
Personalized, AI-Powered Teacher Support
Educators using SIPPS Fifth Edition have access to a brand-new feature: immediate, personalized responses to their implementation questions with CC AI Assistant, a generative AI-powered chatbot.
Exclusively trained on Collaborative Classroom’s intellectual content and proprietary program data, CC AI Assistant provides accurate, reliable information for educators.
Other Key Features of SIPPS, Fifth Edition
Tailored Placement and Progress Assessments: A quick, 3–8 minute placement assessment ensures each student starts exactly at their point of instructional need. Ongoing assessments help monitor progress, adjust pacing, and support grouping decisions.
Differentiated Small-Group Instruction: SIPPS maximizes instructional time by focusing on small groups of students with similar needs, ensuring targeted, effective teaching.
Supportive of Multilingual Learners: Best practices in multilingual learner (ML) instruction and English language development strategies are integrated into the design of SIPPS.
Engaging and Effective for Older Readers: SIPPS Plus and SIPPS Challenge Level are specifically designed for students in grades 4–12, offering age-appropriate texts and instruction to close lingering foundational skill gaps.
Multimodal Supports: Integrated visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile strategies help all learners, including multilingual students.
Flexible, Adaptable, and Easy to Teach: Highly supportive for teachers, tutors, and other adults working in classrooms and expanded learning settings, SIPPS is easy to implement well. A wraparound system of professional learning support ensures success for every implementer.
Accelerating Reading Success for Students of All Ages
In small-group settings, students actively engage in routines that reinforce phonics and decoding strategies, practice with aligned texts, and receive immediate feedback—all of which contribute to measurable gains.
“With SIPPS, students get the tools needed to read, write, and understand text that’s tailored to their specific abilities,” said Desiree Torres, ENL teacher and 6th Grade Team Lead at Dr. Richard Izquierdo Health and Science Charter School in New York. “The boost to their self-esteem when we conference about their exam results is priceless. Each and every student improves with the SIPPS program.”
Kevin is a forward-thinking media executive with more than 25 years of experience building brands and audiences online, in print, and face to face. He is an acclaimed writer, editor, and commentator covering the intersection of society and technology, especially education technology. You can reach Kevin at [email protected]
When we write about creativity, we often refer to the work of geniuses; [distancing] ordinary members of society from the act of creativity by reinforcing a perception that they could never be creative themselves (Dymoke, 2020: 80).
Digital story by Kate Shpota
The state of creativity
The damage wrought by the stereotype of a creative as an isolated genius seems likely to increase within the current context of the UK school system, where an overloaded curriculum and assessment driven pedagogies dominate. The 2023 State of Creativity report notes that creativity has been ‘all but expunged from the school curriculum in England’. Educators across schools and departments in HEIs are attempting to resist the current educational practice which promotes students as consumers and centres our students as active producers in their own learning. Yet, as education policy from primary through to higher education continues not only to cut its emphasis on the humanities and creativity, but also eliminate arts and humanities departments altogether, higher education runs a profound risk of further alienating students from the benefits of creative thinking and artistic practice.
Our undergraduates, being educationalists, use sociological and psychological lenses to understand the social and cultural landscape affecting both classroom learning and community education more broadly. Nevertheless, despite education being at the intersection of many academic disciplines (Sociology, English, Philosophy, History to name a few), students are often reluctant to incorporate alternative approaches into their learning and even less so into their assessments.
Fear and discomfort
As educators, we ask students to embrace discomfort when learning different theoretical approaches or understanding alternative viewpoints. But often, we do not ask them to embrace discomfort in operating outside of the neoliberal HE system, a ‘results driven quantification [which] directs learning’ (Kulz, 2017 p. 55). Within this context, learning focuses on the product (the assessable outcome), rather than the process (the learning journey). Thus, it is unsurprising that our undergraduates initially baulked at the idea of an assessment that incorporated a creative element, preferring essays and multiple-choice exams instead. Hunter & Frawley (2023) define arts-based pedagogy (ABP) as a process by which students can observe and reflect on an art form to link different disciplines, thus encouraging students to lean into uncomfortable subject matter and explore their place within in the wider world. To build more dynamic and critically analytical students, we had to simultaneously encourage an ABP approach so they would understand their academic and theoretical course content more fully while scaffolding their learning through a series of creative activities designed to engage students with different forms of learning and reflection. By incorporating cultural visits, mentorship, and creative assessments into the module, art enhanced subject teaching while encouraging students to think more deeply about their own practice (Fleming, 2012). Yet, incorporating practice was not enough, we were faced with the question: how do educationalists ask students to engage with their vulnerabilities around creative practice (the belief and the engrained fear that they cannot do art or are not good at art) and lead them to an understanding that vulnerability itself can be beneficial?
Perhaps, the most basic answer came by asking ourselves, are we, as academics, scared of implementing creative pedagogies because we are scared of showing our own vulnerabilities? What if we as educators fail at a task and our students see? What would happen if we became vulnerable alongside our students? Jordan (2010) argues that when vulnerability is met with criticism, we disengage as a self-preservation tactic. For Brown, acknowledging our insecurities offers a means of understanding ourselves, developing shame resilience and acting authentically. In our session, our vulnerability as lecturers was tested when engaging with textile art, specifically a battle with crochet. Our students saw educators who were not secure or competent in a task. This resulted in a small amount of mockery, but also empathy and offers of support. By stepping out of our comfort zone and embracing a pedagogy of discomfort (Boler 1999), we encouraged our students to challenge themselves. Romney and Holland (2023) refer to this as a ‘paradox of vulnerability’: by overcoming our own reluctance to be vulnerable with our learners we create connections and a sense of trust. We should add that the session explored women’s textile art as activism and the outcome, a piece of textile art, symbolically woven together by students and staff—all female.
Collective textile piece
Importance of community and connection
Once we examined theoretical and personal aspects of discomfort and vulnerability, to support and enhance our focus on creative practice, we drew on local cultural partnerships. The incorporation of cultural visits, mentorship from resident artists, and creative exercises enriched our subject teaching while simultaneously encouraging students to think more deeply about their own practice (Fleming, 2012). It also built an alliance between social scientists and colleagues in arts and humanities disciplines, capitalising on their expertise and years of honing ABP. Nottingham is a city where the legend of Robin Hood, outlaws, and rebellion intersect with vibrant cultural community. But many of our students do not engage with cultural spaces, leading to double disconnect, first from their own creative practice and second from the cultural sector altogether. Our students expressed their disconnect from the cultural heart of Nottingham was due to the spaces being ‘not for them’ or a worry that they would not ‘understand’ the art. By exploring the city centre as a group, walking from one site to another, we broke down barriers around these prohibited spaces.
Engagement with Nottingham by Alisha Begum
Once inside the Nottingham Contemporary, the resident artists told their own stories of fear, worries of judgement, and expressed anxieties of creative practice, thus setting our students free from the myth of the genius artist – untouchable by self-doubt. This realisation allowed our students to relax and engage worry-free into the creative tasks.
Found poem by Alisha Begum‘I object’ by Nicole Robinson
By joining in with these activities, lecturers and students learned alongside each other, tackling our insecurities regarding our creative abilities together as a learning community. Perhaps community was the most important outcome in the project as connection was central. Exposure to the cultural sites created a feeling of connection with the cultural heart of the city. Students also, perhaps more importantly, reported that they became more connected to an understanding of themselves as creatives, becoming more autonomous and engaged in their own learning.
Digital storytelling: Identity Crisis by Shahnaz Begum
Perhaps it is most appropriate to end this post with the voice of one of our year-two students—the transcript from a podcast created as part of her larger portfolio. She asserts:
Art in education is a goldmine of untouched opportunities [and can be] used to foster students’ holistic development, stimulate creative thinking and engagement with social justice. … and to my fellow Artivists, embrace creativity one canvas at a time.
Katherine Friend is an Associate Professor of Higher Education at Nottingham Trent University. Her work focuses on three themes: the underrepresented student experience on university campuses, the importance of undergraduate engagement in the cultural sector, and reconciling international and academic identities. Threading all three themes together are discussions of one’s ‘place’ and/or ‘space’ in HE and how social and cultural hierarchies contribute to identity, representation, and belonging.
Aisling Walters is a Senior Lecturer in Secondary Education at Nottingham Trent University whose research focuses on the development of writer identity in trainee English teachers, preservice teachers’ experiences of prescriptive schemes of learning, arts-based pedagogies, and students as writers.
