Articles - Additional Resources

Several of our Master HET Consultants write articles for various publications and informational venues. included below is a selection of published works and writings. You may click on the topic to access a downloadable pdf file or an online version. Simply scroll down the page to read a few on the screen. Enjoy!

Literacy Establishes Crucial Link to Society
"Did You Know?" column (March, 2008) by Susan Kovalik

Literacy: the ability to read and write, a simple definition underscoring a vast range of skills and talents needed to navigate our print world. A literate person is defined as a well informed educated person.

Education has seen an increased focus the past six years on increasing literacy in our schools and commercial programs designed to meet that goal have grown until they number in the thousands.  Programs provide strategies to make a reader proficient, capable of high level questions, making connections to themselves and others, drawing conclusions and synthesizing information.   Some familiar programs are Success for All, Open Court, Distar, Direct Instruction, Reading Recovery, Read 180, Lindamood-Bell, Accelerated Reading, Leveled Reading, and SRA.  All of these programs come with a wealth of materials to assist and support the teachers in the preparation of their students to be able to read and comprehend, and all of them cost a great deal of money.

After 30 years in education I would like to present a different kind of literacy program for grades K-12.   Literacy should open the doors to becoming an active and competent member of the immediate community and the community at-large.  I believe that reading under supervision of the teacher should all be content specific, non-fiction, enlarging a student's knowledge base about the world around them and the greater world.  Two novels a year should be read as a whole class to foster cultural literacy and fiction should be the choice of the students and they should select as many books as they want to read each month.

These suggestions are designed to make students literate in the true sense of the word. Think About It.

Kindergarten – The Wonder of Literacy
Discover the magic of words through poetry of all kinds and levels. Committing at least a poem a week to memory empowers students of their own capabilities and many are remembered for a lifetime. Rhyme is a natural foundation for learning to read.

1st-3rd grade – Neighborhood Literacy
The living world that surrounds us including books on bees, ants, snails, slugs, sow bugs, birds, moles, snakes and every other creature that they could find in their natural environment. Additionally, books on cars, trucks, trains, busses, and other equipment we see everyday has high student appeal and examples are everywhere.

4th grade – Geographic Literacy
Where in the world, a study of ecosystems, starting with their own: wetlands, Puget Sound, rain forest- temperate and tropical- ocean, ponds, lakes, rivers, bays, islands, mountains, volcanoes, woods, farm land and cities.

5th grade – Community Literacy
Navigate the phone book, the introductory pages include: area attractions from symphony performances to ballet to museums to science center and NW trek, plus a calendar of events for the year including arts, crafts, ethnic celebrations, and farmer's market.  Community service from abuse hotlines to help for senior citizens, parks and recreation by city, county, state, national and national parks, the tide tables, public transportation: airports, ferries, buses, metro, seating charts for all major venues in area, location maps by city and street. Newcomers guide to refuse, water, recycling, and sewer, gas, electric, post office, chamber of commerce.  U.S. Government offices, city, county, and state.

6th grade – Inspirational Literacy
Speeches or music or books that have influenced history, biographies of at least 12 individuals, some living, some not, whose life has contributed to making the world a better place.

7th – Survival Literacy
How to prepare for earthquakes, floods, ice storms, avalanches and other forms of natural disaster, plus inventions that have changed the world, past, present and projecting to the future.

8th – Citizen Literacy 
Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution designed to protect the rights of all citizens, residents and visitors on United States territory.  Identify and follow their application throughout the year in newspapers, periodicals and online websites.

9th – Economic Literacy
Economic issues effect every family every day, understand the language of contracts starting with cell phone, credit cards, warranties – from appliances to automobiles, loans: pay day, lines of credit, college, car and home loans.

10th – Media Literacy
Examine and understand how media messages are constructed, how they reflect social values and influence teen behavior. Explore the business side of media including advertising, commercial interests, media and democracy and career options.

11th – Civil Literacy
Examine the laws and regulations necessary for millions of people to live, work and survive in a society starting with school rules and then city, county, state, and federal. Look at them first and foremost as they impact a teenager.

12th – Responsible Citizenship Literacy
How to interpret a ballot, find supporting information for the arguments presented, review supreme court decisions from the past two years and project how these decisions will affect your life now and in the future.

Literacy is the life link to critically important decisions we make everyday. Imagine if each year in school we became more and more knowledge about the world in which we live and what it takes to navigate and be a contributing member of society.

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We Must Teach in a Brain-Compatible Way
"Did You Know?" column (April, 2008) by Susan Kovalik

In a previous article, I suggested that math skills could be taught in a single day in a comprehensive way so students could readily apply those skills in other subject areas.  It is essential to know how the brain learns if we want to produce students who are capable and competent in all of their subjects.  So what defines something as brain-compatible or brain-antagonistic?

When the staffed space program was just about to be launched, my 6th grade class visited NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) in Sunnyvale, California where one of my students’ father was directly involved with the design of the space suit. He explained the most challenging part of the suit was the glove that covered the hands.  It had to be protective while at the same time allowing the hand to do all that it is capable of doing.  It had to be hand-compatible. A glove that encumbered the hand would be hand-antagonistic. Referring to the hand example, imagine what it takes to make tools, instruments, and keyboards, as well as performing tasks such as picking things up, doing microscopic work, and all the other things we do that involves using our hands without thinking.

The brain has the same need to be used as designed. The difficulty has been that we were unable to see inside the brain while it was learning and so we depended on controlling behavior to make learning happen. Some of the early research on learning and motivation through rewards and punishment was recognized in the Theory of Operant Behavior created by B.F. Skinner, who said, “It has long been known that behavior is affected by its consequences. We reward and punish people, for example, so that they will behave in different ways.” In many instances in business, home, and schools, this premise is still in use.

Thirty years ago a breakthrough in understanding how the brain learns emerged and was called, neuroscience. Neuroscience is a field that is devoted to the scientific study of the nervous system. Such studies span the structure, function, evolutionary history, development, genetics, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, informatics, computational neuroscience and pathology of the nervous system. Traditionally, it is seen as a branch of biological sciences. The gift of neuroscience is that we now know a great deal about what is going on inside our brains.

In 1975, Leslie Hart wrote, How the Brain Works and in it, introduced the idea of Brain-compatible schools. In 1983, his second book Human Brain and Human Learning clearly articulated what schools needed to do in order to capitalize on the brain’s natural abilities.

Back to math -- the brain-compatible elements that support teaching a math skill, or any other skill, in a single day include:

1. Absence of Threat, nurturing reflective thinking
2. Meaningful Content
3. Enriched Environment
4. Movement to enhance learning
5. Choices
6. Adequate time
7. Collaboration
8. Immediate feedback
9. Mastery (application)

While looking at the brain-compatible elements needed to develop a deep understanding, recall something you have learned and can still use routinely.  How many elements on that list contributed to your basic understanding? These elements form a template through which an employer or teacher or parent can orchestrate the learning of something new.

The brain is a pattern-seeking device and learning is identifying those patterns that are important to your survival as well as creating a mental program to make it happen.  For instance, if you heard that your child’s car had a flat tire, you would know what that meant, and would know if they had skills to fix or change it. Knowing the words “flat tire” is a pattern; Fixing/changing it is a mental program.  The challenge in the classroom is to move from pattern to mental program; meaning, the students have a solid foundation and can USE the skill.  Think of your own school career: Which subjects took you to the application level? And can you call upon that understanding in your adult life?  The most obvious examples are the career and technical education courses, or if you participated in a school sport, or drama, or marching band; You spent three hours each day honing your craft so it became part of who you are.  When performance or a product is part of the class, adequate time and immediate feedback are essential.

Each morning, we call upon hundreds of mental programs to get through the day: turning off the alarm, showering, dressing, getting breakfast, reading the news, stopping for a latté, navigating traffic, getting to work, using a keyboard.  All these programs are automatic, unless there is an upheaval of some sort to interrupt the mental program; you don’t even have to think about what you are doing.

Skills are the same, they need to be automatic, useful in a variety of situations and solid enough that the next significant math skill can be built upon what you already know and understand.

Just this week I received a new book, brain rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home and School  by Dr. John Medina, a molecular biologist and director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University.  Using humor and everyday examples, he clearly summarizes the work of neuroscience over the past 30 years.

Math is a skill and the brain learns thousands of everyday skills routinely. The challenge is to teach the skill in a brain-compatible way.

Think about it.

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The Brain and Learning
Informational Article for the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) by Susan Kovalik

Founder of Susan Kovalik & Associates, Inc. dba the Center for Effective Learning
Creator of the Highly Effective Teaching Model formerly known as Integrated Thematic Instruction (ITI). Author of multiple publications and educational materials including Exceeding Expectations: A User’s Guide to Implementing Brain Research in the Classroom and Kid’s Eye View of Science

Learning is the result of real, observable physiological growth in the brain, occurring as a response to sensory input and the processing, organizing, and pruning it promotes. The richer the sensory input, the greater the physiological growth in the brain and thus the greater the learning that will be wired into long-term memory. This factor is the important issue in the great nature versus nurture debate about intelligence. There is now plenty of scientific evidence to establish the power of both.

Genetics was once thought to be an immutable determiner of intelligence - what you were born with was what you would end up with. This is not so, but genetic make-up does set parameters and a range of possibilities. However, within these parameters, experiences matter greatly. An undeveloped potential is just that, an undeveloped brain capable of less intelligent behaviors.

The work of Marian Diamond, UC Berkeley, Reuven Feurstein, Israel, as well as that of Paul Nussbaum, Neurological Surgery University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine; and many others — refutes the long-held beliefs that intelligence is a genetically-fixed, singular quality. Feurstein and his associates have even gone so far as to stipulate “Genetics is no barrier to learning.” Marion Diamond’s work shows that an enriched environment results in measurable growth in the brain. In short, if we know how the brain learns — what happens physiologically when learning occurs — we can assist a learner to create new “hardwiring” in the brain to transmit new learnings.

Intelligence, the capacity to solve problems and create products, is significantly influenced by environment and experience. For example, most “gifted” students in our programs for the gifted and talented are not “gifted” in the realm of such people as Einstein, Mozart, David Packard, Eleanor Roosevelt, Steve Wozniak, Sacagawea, or Maria Montessori.  Rather, they are advantaged; they are students whose parents provided an enriched environment that nurtured a physiological development of neural networks, which became long-term memory of knowledge and skills and greatly expanded vocabulary.

In short, learning is the result of actual physical growth in the brain. To talk about learning is to talk about the physiology of the brain and how to enhance its physical growth and thus learning. According to Dr. Diamond, a number of physiological changes occur when the brain is immersed in an enriched environment:

• Dendritic spines grow, change shape, or shrink as we experience the world. Neurons grow larger. The brain becomes denser and heavier. Therefore, choose the types of input that will produce the greatest physiological change in the brain.
• The stimulation of an enriched environment results in significant physiological change in the brain—as much as 20% compared to brains in sterile, boring environments.
• There is a correlation between brain structure and what we do in life—what we spend time doing and not doing. In other words, how we spend our time—what we ask our brain to do on a daily basis—actually alters its physical structure. Vast amounts of time spent on television and/or video games (4-6 hours daily) wires the brain to do television and video games and does not wire the brain for other things such as physical exploration or high facility for initiating and processing language. If students cannot do what is expected of them, such as learn the periodic table of the elements, then time must be taken to build the neural wiring and structures that will enable them to do what is expected of them, or they may become discouraged and disengaged in the learning process.
• Much of the increase in the physical size of the brain (at birth, the brain is one quarter of its eventual adult size) is due to myelination, a process by which fatty tissue forms around the axons of frequently-firing neurons which act like rubber insulation on electrical cords. This allows for speedier and more reliable transmission of electrical impulses thus improving communication among neurons. While much of this process occurs with the unfolding maturation of the brain, much can be deliberately enhanced through ample practice in using the knowledge or skill being learned, particularly in real-world settings which allow for rich sensory input and feedback.
• “Use it or lose it” is a maxim for all ages — birth through old age. “Brains don’t just steadily make more and more connections. Instead, they grow many more connections than they need and then get rid of (prune) those that are not used. It turns out that deleting old connections is just as important as adding new ones.”9 By removing connections no longer in use, the brain makes room for new connections.

Implications
If learning is the result of such physiological changes, then the question for teachers becomes: What should the classroom teacher do to maximize growth in the brain? The answers aren’t mysterious or complicated yet they fly in the face of our traditional curricular tools and instructional processes.

• Provide large amounts of sensory-rich input from being there experiences or simulations in the real world. Purposefully reduce the amount of low-sensory input materials and processes such as textbooks, worksheets, and working in isolation. Remember, worksheets do not make dendrites! Move instruction and curriculum beyond the “A Quadrant” in the Rigor/Relevance Framework™
• Demanding performance when the requisite wiring is not in place is akin to keeping the high jump bar over someone’s head when he/she does not have the physical skills for jumping at waist height. In track sports, this would be instantly recognized as both cruel and a foolish waste of time. Yet this expectation for student performance is frequently exhibited in the classroom without regard to the learners’ level of necessary wiring. Ensure that learning is non-threatening and that all students may experience success.
• Design curriculum and instructional strategies to encourage practice and mastery in real-world situations, rather than aiming at quick quiz responses that usually stop short of ability to recognize content and don’t demand students understanding or ability to use it. Using knowledge and skills in real-world applications — especially to solve problems with no “pat” solutions, as in the “D Quadrant” — greatly increases development and maintenance of neural connections.  Once contextual learning has been established, the learning translates into other arenas for relevant use.

The most effective educators connect to the students, enrich the learning environment, and offer high-sensory experiences to optimize learning. Educators have a tremendous impact on the individual learners who will become the next global leaders.

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Gender Differences Mark Classroom Division
"Stay Tuned" column (November, 2008) by Susan Kovalik

Girls and boys play differently. They learn differently, they fight differently, they see the world differently and they hear differently. They express their emotions differently.

Girls and boys behave differently because their brains are wired differently.
This information is becoming vital as schools see more boys disengaged from the classroom/school. In Dr. Leonard Sax’s latest book, “Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men,” he contends that a combination of social and biological factors is creating an environment that is literally toxic to boys.

The following examples are broad generalizations, as all behaviors are on a continuum, and each of us is a unique individual flexible enough to modify our behavior based on the situation when needed or if motivated to do so.

Information on gender is not new. Over the years we have heard about it, but rarely have we applied it with intention in our classrooms. Actually, what we have done over the past 20 years is tried to create gender neutral classroom/school environments, which in many cases have been a detriment of boys.

In his practice as a family physician and psychologist, Dr. Sax has seen a growing epidemic of underachieving boys. Starting in kindergarten, they are very often labeled as inattentive and distracted, and with limited focus. Often they are put on medication to control their behavior. Dr. Sax’s dedication to uncovering what is behind this trend taps into the question of student disengagement and uncovering the factors that are influencing this trend.

There is no right or wrong in this discussion — just the science behind the hardwiring of gender. The past 10 years have proven beyond doubt that classrooms that organize around gender neutral strategies leave out what we have known about our differences. It is once again in the forefront of our thinking as more students (primarily boys) seem adrift from our classrooms. In some locations, it is now seen as an epidemic.

Risk taking: Hard wired?
Many boys enjoy taking risks and are impressed by other boys who do as well.

They enjoy the immediate thrill of the risk itself, and usually the consequences are not a consideration. Boys are more likely to be seriously injured in a variety of accidents, whether on a bike or skateboard, misusing a gun or being lost in the wilderness. A ranger at Yosemite National Park reported that 9 out of 10 boys who get lost end up seriously hurt — and 9 out of 10 girls will be found, usually very near where they were lost.

Girls are willing to take risks, but are less likely to seek out risk-taking behavior. Boys overestimate their abilities, and girls underestimate their abilities and will be less likely to engage in an activity where they have no experience. It may be that for boys, in choosing risk-taking behavior, the danger it is exhilarating.

If a boy takes his skateboard over a dangerous jump, other boys think it is awesome, but girls are more likely to ask, “Why would he want to do that?” If a girl did the same behavior, the girls who heard about it would react, “That is crazy, why would she do that?”

A boy is more likely to take a dangerous risk if there are other boys present. Dangerous behavior gives boys an irresistible charge. Climb the mountain because it is there, ride the bull at the rodeo, become a motocross racer, snowboard down the steepest hill, use alcohol while underage, experiment with drugs — all elements that have a risky edge and provide an emotional high.

Girls participate in these activities, but it is not the norm; some boys do not participate at all.

Emotions
Emotions, both positive and negative, are processed differently in boys’ and girls’ brains.

Prior to adolescence, there are limited connections between feelings and language in both boys and girls. Acknowledging that you feel mad, sad or disconnected is your feeling, but you may not be able to describe or explain it to yourself or others. During adolescence, the connections between the amygdala (the emotional center) and the cerebral cortex (the language center) begin, and this connection empowers reasoning, reflection and language.

This change occurs only in girls. Boys’ negative emotions stay routed in the amygdala. And how do these negative emotions get expressed? Watch the way boys just standing next to each other will punch or push their brothers or friends; interestingly, when boys have a fight they get over it as quickly as it started, and in most cases remain friends. Not so for girls: If they disagree, or are a target for bullying, or verbally rejected from their “group,” the making up is not usually easy and the feelings last over time.

Classroom Behavior
In the classroom, girls are more likely to do their homework, even if the assignment doesn’t interest them, because they want the teacher to like them.

Boys need to find the homework assignment meaningful to them, and having the teacher like them is not a necessity. A boy who works well with his teacher may have his status lowered with other boys, or may be considered a geek.

When girls ask for help, she is responsive to a smile and will make eye contact. With a boy, sit down next to him and spread out the materials in front of you so that you are both looking at the materials, shoulder-to-shoulder. Avoid eye contact.

Small group learning works for girls because they are more comfortable asking the teacher for help if they need it. If boys get stuck, chances are they won’t ask for help and may even get rowdy to get attention. Their status in the eyes of the other boys in the classroom is raised if they disrupt the teacher.

Competition and time-constrained tasks draw boys’ attention, and when they have to work as a team to answer a question, they collaborate and work hard not to let the rest of the team down.

Girls regard shouting out answers as silly and complain that the “right answer” focuses on small details instead of the big picture. Moderate stress improves boys’ performance on tests and degrades girls’ performance.

What does all this mean? According to Dr. Sax, “ignoring gender differences does not break down gender stereotypes; ironically, neglecting hardwired gender differences more often results in a reinforcement of gender stereotypes.”

The solution is not necessarily to have gender-specific classes, although in some situations, that has shown to work very well. In some states, this is a growing trend. For the classroom teacher/parent, knowing these hardwired differences can inform and direct what we do in the classroom, ensuring that students are engaged and eager to participate in the learning — and that home offers a safe and predictable environment. For more information, visit www.whygendermatters.com.

Stay tuned.

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Quality Science Education Demands a Greater Test
"Did You Know?" column (April, 2008) by Susan Kovalik

Fifty years ago this month, an aluminum ball 23 inches in diameter and weighing 183 pounds was launched into outer space by Russia.

Sputnik was a giant wake-up call to the United States regarding our technological and scientific progress. We had no idea that another country could/would explore outer space before us. The video “October Sky,” a true story about high school students in West Virginia who were intrigued and motivated by the idea of outer space/rockets, offers insight into how some people reacted to this historic event.

There was an immediate and concerned response from the U.S. government for increased emphasis on math and science in our schools. In response to this, a number of publishers began creating materials and new textbooks, and in-service instruction for teachers began. Here we are 50 years later, and the same cry is being heralded — only this time with the goal to pass the state science tests.

There have been numerous programs developed, a favorite among school districts being commercial kits with a single topic focus: Water, trees, solids, liquids, structures, solar energy, electricity and magnetism to name a few. The kits include content information and instructions as how to present the material. In some cases, outreach activities are also included.

A teacher has the kit for a specific amount of time before it is to be passed on to the next class. In many schools at the K-6 level, science is taught once a week for 40 minutes. If our concern began 50 years ago, and since that time, many of us have gone through the K-12 system, why is there such a lack of enthusiasm by most learners about science? It usually has to be mandated for students to take it in high school and at the same time, there never seems to be enough qualified instructors to teach it.

My science education really began during my last year of college when a three-credit course called “science for classroom teachers” was required. It had both a lecture and three-hour lab requirement. On the evening of my first lab, in the oldest building on campus (the one with the most smells and diverse displays), 30 females waited expectantly for the arrival of the professor.

At 12 minutes after the hour, in walked Dr. Thaw. He was about 5 feet 4 inches tall, had a crew cut and horned-rim glasses. Without a word, he climbed on top of his desk — and it was then that we saw he was holding a chalkboard eraser and a dustpan.

When he had our full attention, he dropped both at the same time and announced, “This, ladies, is science. And there is nothing you can see around you in your everyday lives that doesn’t have science at its core.” Well, he had our attention!

He then announced that during our lecture time, we would meet at a specified location on campus to support the statement that science is everywhere and it should be understood and valued. This approach had a profound effect on us all as we went on to become science teachers. I taught at a K-6 school with 1,200 students in California.

Since then, I have traveled the globe in pursuit of enhancing science education for teachers and students. If you pick up an elementary science textbook, you will see the same topic areas that have been there for at least 40 years: Making a complete circuit with a bulb and battery, seeing how sound travels through a string that connects two cans, dissecting a flower to see its innermost parts, and many water experiments showing its diverse properties.

What is evident, when reviewing the kits and textbooks, is that the science that schools seem to offer is really about activities; Activities in and of themselves — with little connection to the world in which we live. A high school text has hundreds of pages and is usually divided by specific forms of science: Earth science, physics, physiology, zoology and biology, each taught separately from one another.

Yet, as I sit in my office, I look outside and see a wetland: An interdependent ecosystem that connects biology, zoology and botany — a valuable and necessary part of the environment in which we live. Down the road, we have Mt. Rainier. Puget Sound is nearby with its host of islands, wildlife and recreational possibilities. If you go into downtown Seattle, you immediately see multiple docks off-loading containers as fast as the machinery can handle it. These are perfect locations for the study of physics, as are both of our stadiums, in which case you could also teach geometry and other aspects of math in relation to the structures.

All of this is to say if we continue to teach science in separate topics, or within separate categories (biology, earth science, physiology and physics) with little application to the world and our place in it, we miss the greater understanding of science, and our ability to be good stewards is marginalized.

Clearly if science had been taught conceptually, with all of its implications made clear through the lens of a number of “big ideas” — change, interdependence, cause/effect, adaptation, stability — we may have noticed if global warming (alluded to for many years) had validity.

Now, throughout the United States, schools are once again being told to “teach science.” I submit that we should be teaching the world around us from a conceptual base, allowing us to understand that science is not a simple subject to be tested on a standardized test.

Rather, students should be tested on their ability to apply their understanding of “science” as the foundation of just about everything we experience in our lives. The real test then becomes an indicator of a student’s ability to recognize critical issues, predict outcomes and to know appropriate action to take as we live and care for our home environments for both the present and future generations.

Think about it.

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Pioneering the Implementation of Brain Research in the Classroom
Informational Article for the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) by Susan Kovalik

Founder of Susan Kovalik & Associates, Inc. dba the Center for Effective Learning
Creator of the Highly Effective Teaching Model formerly known as Integrated Thematic Instruction (ITI). Author of multiple publications and educational materials including Exceeding Expectations: A User’s Guide to Implementing Brain Research in the Classroom and Kid’s Eye View of Science

The Highly Effective Teaching (HET) model was created for the purpose of increasing human capacity, and is a compilation of my lifetime including things I have read, places I have gone, people I have met, knowledge I have discovered, and thoughts I have pondered. I am privileged to have had multiple opportunities to travel the world, meet great thinkers, read biographies of people long gone, had children of my own, taught other people’s children, and had parents who expected all four of their daughters to contribute something of value in their communities.

History of the Highly Effective Teaching Model:
The Highly Effective Teaching Model (formerly known as ITI: Integrated Thematic Instruction) is an outgrowth of all these experiences plus years from working with students both in the classroom and the community. I taught 6th grade in a middle school, was a science teacher for 1200 K-6 students in a large elementary school, and then a teacher of the gifted and talented 2-8th grade. I was a national consultant for gifted and talented for eight years. After which, I established my own business and educational foundation.

It was my work with the gifted and talented (starting in the mid 1970’s) which led me to more and deeper research into how we learn, how to  orchestrate optimal learning, and how to be effective in how information is presented to students to promote the greatest achievement. For the next seven years, I was a national consultant for gifted and talented, reading all that I could find about the human brain as well as attending University seminars on the subject whenever possible. The culminating point for me was the book I found in an airport while traveling across the country, Human Brain and Human Learning by Leslie Hart, which was published in 1983. I somehow had missed his first book, How the Brain Works, which was published in 1975 and how I wish we could’ve had deep conversations with him at that time. It wasn’t until 1984 that I personally met him — and the rest is history. Some of the major elements in the Highly Effective Teaching model were influenced by his remarkable synthesis. Hart was a voracious reader of primary research in the area of human brain and developed the Proster (Program Structure) Theory of learning patterns and programs. This profound gift of the theory of learning was that it encompassed everything necessary to consider for creating learning environments that were meaningful, enriched, and free of threat, all based on the natural way a brain learns.

All this is to say the Highly Effective Teaching Model is solid, grounded in brain research and the science of learning. This means it can be replicated anywhere and, indeed, it has been actively and successfully implemented as an educational model since 1984. Since that time, two important aspects have been added:

• The model is continuously updated to reflect the current research with practical application strategies, and
• There is a team of Highly Effective Teaching coaches and presenters, some who have been with Susan Kovalik and Associates, Inc. for the around 20 years. Their ongoing work with teachers, administrators, and educational leaders throughout the United States is an inspiration and constant reminder of the effectiveness of this bodybrain-compatible model.

Highly effective teaching and learning is possible in any school environment, providing meaningful opportunities for students and a joyful renewal for teachers. A quarter-century of using brain research to enhance learning has provided thousands of teachers with solid guidelines toward impacting student performance and consistently raising achievement levels. The model has given administrators a solid base with specific goals for supporting and encouraging their teachers.

You may discover you have intuitively practiced many aspects of the Highly Effective Teaching model — and our material comprehensively explains why it works. I hope you create your own journey through the many books and variety of people you have known, so when you look back on your career you may celebrate your own wonderful opportunities and accomplishments.

Life is good, and very good.
Susan Kovalik

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