Our Blog

Schools have to get more efficient to free up time for work on literacy, application, personalization and guiding principles (more…)

“Remember being a teenager? Rocked internally with hormones, outwardly with social pressures, you sometimes wondered what was going on in your head. So does Sarah-Jayne Blakemore. And what she and others in her field are finding is: The adolescent brain really is different.” (more…)

Research on the brain and learning has shown that a change of activity can help the retention of new learning.

This effect was demonstrated again in a recent study from the University of Edinburgh.  Not only can this be used in formal learning settings but students, teachers and the rest of us can all utilize this effect to help us become better learners.

http://www.spring.org.uk/2012/08/memory-enhanced-by-a-simple-break-after-reading.php

Part II  – The 12 Building Blocks of Successful Transfer

It is remarkably easy to waste time and money on professional development that produces no real change. The opportunities to attend interesting and exciting events are everywhere.  The edu-tainment industry is big business and can send everyone home well-fed, significantly dazzled and at least temporarily motivated.  Yet the data on transfer of new knowledge from training to the learning environment remains poor and, as resources diminish, cost-effectiveness becomes increasingly more critical.

(more…)

Professional Development that Makes a Difference 

Part 1  – The Four Components of Effective Professional Development

It turns out that ensuring positive outcomes from professional development, especially transfer of new knowledge and skills into the classroom, is not easy.  Research has been conducted on the outcomes of professional development for more than 20 years and the results are quite discouraging. Are we wasting our money?

(more…)

We are pleased to introduce the VT-HEC Blog. Our goals for the blog are to:

Our blog will include content that covers all of the programs and interests of the VT-HEC. It will include posts on professional development, research on the brain and learning, school improvement, collaborative implementation and coaching along with posts covering special education, early education, autism, TASS, teaching math, writing, etc.

As with all of our programs the success of our blog will depend on collaboration. We hope you will add your views to those expressed by our contributors and share your experiences in the comment section.