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What Diversity and Inclusion Strategies Really Work?

Founders Thoughts

What Diversity and Inclusion Strategies Really Work?

With so many diversity and inclusion strategies out there, what really works? Beagle Learning CEO, Turner Bohlen, shares research and proven best practices.

ONLINE LEARNING: Four Steps to Preparing an Open Inquiry Course

ONLINE LEARNING: Four Steps to Preparing an Open Inquiry Course

This fall, after years of preparation in the classroom, we have launched our first 100% open inquiry online course. Students in this course chart their own path by asking questions, and they learn to find, read, and summarize content to answer those questions. This process trains key transferable skills in

A Podcast We Love: Reboot Revolution Episode Talks Bringing Inquiry to K-12

A Podcast We Love: Reboot Revolution Episode Talks Bringing Inquiry to K-12

Recently, we listened to an episode called "Revolutionary Leaders: Re-Imagine School [https://sites.google.com/mpsaz.org/mpspodcast/home/revolutionary-leaders/revolutionary-leaders-re-imagine-school] " on the Reboot Revolution podcast that we thought was especially illuminating. A conversation between four Mesa, Arizona public school leaders, it featured Area Superintendent Dr. Randy Mahlerwein, Principal of

How to Improve Research Skills for Students (And Overcome These 5 Common Obstacles)

Online Education

How to Improve Research Skills for Students (And Overcome These 5 Common Obstacles)

Here’s a common nightmare: you’ve just graded a ton of research papers and none of them resemble the kind of thought-provoking analysis you know your students are capable of. While this is clearly a worst-case scenario, let’s be honest: we’ve all had a similar experience. But

I Stopped Lecturing so That My Students Could Own Their Learning

I Stopped Lecturing so That My Students Could Own Their Learning

Read one professor's journey from lecture to inquiry-based learning in gender studies. Pick up her strategies and learn the benefits of inquiry-based learning.

A Three-Step Process for Making Your Lecture Interactive

A Three-Step Process for Making Your Lecture Interactive

According to research by Freeman S, et al. when using active learning compared to traditional lecture students’ average failure rate decreased by 12% and performance on identical or comparable tests improved by nearly half of the standard deviation of the test scores (an effect size of 0.47).

The Joy and the Fear of Learning: Ideas on How to Run an Undergraduate Research Course

The Joy and the Fear of Learning: Ideas on How to Run an Undergraduate Research Course

Learn more about a new approach to undergraduate education, in which students are taught the key life skills that are all too often reserved for graduate school.

Natural Next Questions: Experiences and Frameworks for Training Critical Thinking

Natural Next Questions: Experiences and Frameworks for Training Critical Thinking

Beagle Learning Workshop If you are interested in hosting or attending a workshop, please contact us through this form. Description: Teaching critical thinking is an important theme in education today, but often requires major redesigns of existing curricula. We’ve found that simple exercises that encourage student question-asking can have

Any Questions? How to Turn Student Silence into a Conversation

Any Questions? How to Turn Student Silence into a Conversation

I now cringe whenever I hear a speaker say, “Any questions?” Few of us are ever jumping out of our seats with secret unanswered questions. If we had had something urgent to ask, we probably asked it right away. And if we didn’t, the speaker’s query is just

Are Some Questions Better Than Others? Assessing Questions with Students [Rubric Download]

Are Some Questions Better Than Others? Assessing Questions with Students [Rubric Download]

We think the secret to learning, the secret to progress, the secret to leading, is for the learner to ask great questions. Learn more about how questions drive us forward. Because without the right question, we’ll ever ever get to the right answer.

How We Teach Problem-Solving, Or, A Step-by-Step Guide for Having Questions Lead Your Learning Experience

Education Featured

How We Teach Problem-Solving, Or, A Step-by-Step Guide for Having Questions Lead Your Learning Experience

This is the fourth in a series of blogs on on questions in the classroom, following Turning Around Question-Asking in Your Class [https://www.beaglelearning.com/blog/question-asking-in-your-class/], Learning in a Content-Saturated Environment [https://www.beaglelearning.com/blog/learning-in-a-content-saturated-environment/], and Teaching Via Inquiry Learning — An First Step? [https://www.beaglelearning.

Turning Around Question-Asking In Your Class

Turning Around Question-Asking In Your Class

Three years ago I was nervously facing my first experimental class, a class at the end of which I planned to ask the students what their questions were, and then let those questions decide where we should go the next week. In my mind I’d first see a shining

Learning in a Content-Saturated Environment

Learning in a Content-Saturated Environment

Mastering existing content is no longer enough; in today’s world we also need to master the process of learning, critiquing, using, and contributing to content. We need to develop the confidence to solve complex problems. We need to learn how to work effectively in teams. In short, we need

Teaching Trigonometry with Inquiry Learning: A First Step?

Teaching Trigonometry with Inquiry Learning: A First Step?

Inquiry-based learning, project-based learning, and exploratory learning are terms we often hear today. Even if we don’t know what they mean in practice (I confess, I am not sure that I personally do), we do know that they each refer to a transformation of how teaching and learning is

High Hedonistic and Low Fatalistic: The Importance of Optimism and Agency in Life and in Education

High Hedonistic and Low Fatalistic: The Importance of Optimism and Agency in Life and in Education

Reprinted with permission from Visions, Ventures, Escape Velocities: A Collection of Space Futures [http://csi.asu.edu/books/vvev/] (2017) Ed. Ed Finn and Joey Eschrich Snowman in Oryx and Crake. Case in Neuromancer. Theon Greyjoy in Game of Thrones , for goodness’ sake. Why is it so easy to write

Ambiguity and Nuance — Even In Mathematics

Ambiguity and Nuance — Even In Mathematics

Mathematics is often seen as the epitome of a study of hard facts: answers are either right or wrong, concrete algorithms give concrete results, and mathematical claims are either true or false. All seems somewhat binary with no place for ambiguity or nuance. Yet practitioners of mathematics attempting to describe

Teaching One World

Teaching One World

We all may truly want the same things for our students. A big question started as a little doubt, a little question, as I was thinking about our undergraduate majors here at ASU. The courses our undergraduate majors take are broadly similar to other Earth and space science programs, and

Virtual Team Success: 10 Best Practices for Managing a Global, Remote Team [Example]

Virtual Team Success: 10 Best Practices for Managing a Global, Remote Team [Example]

We Live in Different Time Zones and We Work on Different Things Are We Really a Team? “Welcome on board, Sophie!” I cheer over the phone, to our latest scientific team member. She’s joining our international team from a university in Germany. Some of us on the team know

What Do Corporate Teamwork and Higher Education Have in Common?

What Do Corporate Teamwork and Higher Education Have in Common?

Over the past three months, we’ve been talking with more and more people about our online learning tool. And something interesting has happened. We’ve started working with a few great higher education partners (more on that soon!), but we’ve also had a number of companies express interest

What Do We Really Need to Be Better Teachers?

What Do We Really Need to Be Better Teachers?

Compare and contrast: (1) students leaping out of their seats with blazing eyes and changing their lives in the movie “Dead Poets Society,” and (2) the bored, inward gazes or sleeping heads of students that many of us see in classrooms across the country. These are two stereotyped extremes. But

Them, Me and Us: Three Categories of Learning You Should Know

Them, Me and Us: Three Categories of Learning You Should Know

The quality education that we need isn’t about what other people have done. It’s about what current students will do. Having just listened to Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast on the topic [http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/01-the-lady-vanishes], let’s take Elizabeth Thompson as one extraordinary example. She painted The

The Culture of Learning: Excellence Without Competition

The Culture of Learning: Excellence Without Competition

What is the true premise of learning? How do you collaborate in it's purist form?

Coursera Present and Coursera Future

Coursera Present and Coursera Future

Some years ago a couple of MIT undergrads told me they no longer went to lecture, because the lectures were videotaped and put online. Watching the lectures online was actually better than watching in person, because they could watch at 1.5x speed! So many questions. Would that be true

7.4 Billion

Achieving a personal goal isn't easy. So how do you achieve a goal for 7.4 billion people?

$The Human Context in Learning Math$

The Human Context in Learning Math

What is mathematics? I am a mathematician and math teacher and I’ve often reflected on the question: What is mathematics? You would think I have a clear and ready answer to that question, but I don’t really. If you asked me that question I would likely give some