Progressively Incorrect

Zach Groshell

Welcome to Progressively Incorrect, a podcast about the teacher-centered and the student-centered, the traditional and the progressive, in education. Hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell on educationrickshaw.com

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July 12 · 1 hr 12 min
S5E34: Anita Archer on the principles of explicit instruction
I’m thrilled to be sharing this special episode with you, the Season 5 Finale of Progressively Incorrect. I’m joined by Dr. Anita Archer, one of the most influential voices in explicit instruction and effective teaching. For decades, Anita has helped educators translate learning science into practical classroom routines that improve student success, and her work has shaped the instructional practices of schools around the world. Our conversation explores what great teaching actually looks like in practice. We discuss how expert teachers plan lessons, sequence learning, reduce unnecessary cognitive load, and make complex ideas accessible through clear explanations, guided practice, and carefully designed questioning. Anita explains why effective instruction is far more than simply presenting information—it requires deliberate decisions about examples, pacing, responses, feedback, and opportunities for students to experience success. We also take a deep dive into explicit vocabulary instruction, discussing how educators can move beyond definitions to help students develop durable, usable word knowledge. Anita shares practical routines for introducing, reviewing, and reinforcing vocabulary while explaining why repeated, meaningful encounters with words are essential for long-term learning. Finally, we discuss the enduring principles behind explicit instruction, how those principles continue to evolve alongside advances in the science of learning, and what teachers can expect from the upcoming NIFDI Institute. Whether you’re new to explicit instruction or have spent years refining your craft, this conversation is packed with practical wisdom from one of education’s most respected instructional experts. Last Call! Love what you heard? Come to The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration Check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
July 5 · 39 min
S5E33: Sean Morrisey on word mapping, vocabulary routines, and durable word knowledge
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell. In this episode, I’m joined by Sean Morrisey, creator of the Word Mapping Project, for a conversation about how students learn words—not just as spellings to memorize or definitions to recite, but as connected units of sound, spelling, and meaning. Sean spent eight years as a school psychologist before becoming a classroom teacher, and that background shapes the way he thinks about memory, retrieval, language, and comprehension. We talk about the classroom problems that led him to develop the Word Mapping Project, especially the challenge of students who can decode words but still struggle to understand and use them flexibly. Sean walks us through what word learning looks like in practice, including word sums, matrices, prefixes, roots, suffixes, fluency passages, sentence composition, explicit instruction, retrieval practice, and independent practice. We also discuss where vocabulary instruction often goes wrong, why daily structure matters, and what kinds of evidence suggest that students are building word knowledge that lasts and transfers into reading, writing, science, and comprehension. Last Call! Love what you heard? Come to The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration Check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
July 3 · 28 min
S5E32: Doug Gray on Alaskan schools, bush teaching, and better systems for students
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell. I’ve always been fascinated by what teaching looks like in remote and challenging contexts. That interest goes back to my own time working in places like Sudan, where the namesake of this blog, Education Rickshaw, comes from. So when I was invited to present at Alaska’s MTSS Conference, I was eager to learn more about the unique realities of teaching and learning across the state. In this episode, I’m joined by Doug Gray, the organizer of the Alaska MTSS Conference and an educator who has spent years working across Alaska, including in bush communities. Doug shares what first drew him to Alaskan schools, what daily life was like teaching in the bush, and how local culture, close-knit communities, isolation, weather, travel, and limited resources shaped his approach as an educator. We also talk about the future of Alaska schools, MTSS, and the promise of evidence-based teaching practices for supporting students across such a diverse and extraordinary state. Last Call! Love what you heard? Come to The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration Check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
June 16 · 34 min
S5E31: Katharine Beals on facilitated communication and educational pseudoscience
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell. Education is filled with myths. Some are harmless. Others shape curriculum, teacher training, intervention programs, and the lives of students for decades before anyone seriously asks whether they work. One of the reasons this podcast exists is to challenge those myths and examine the evidence behind them. Too often, educational practices spread because of compelling stories, persuasive advocates, and wishful thinking rather than rigorous scientific testing. When that happens, bad ideas can become institutionalized long before they’re properly scrutinized. Few examples illustrate this better than facilitated communication. Introduced in the 1970s and widely adopted in the 1980s and 1990s, facilitated communication was presented as a breakthrough method for helping individuals with severe communication disabilities express thoughts that had previously been assumed inaccessible. Through physical support provided by a facilitator, individuals were said to be able to type messages, write, and communicate complex ideas. Parents, educators, and advocates reported what appeared to be remarkable transformations. Individuals who had never spoken or demonstrated conventional literacy suddenly seemed capable of sophisticated written communication. Stories emerged of hidden intelligence being unlocked, challenging longstanding assumptions about disability, cognition, and human potential. There was just one problem: the evidence ultimately showed that the messages were not coming from the individuals themselves. What many believed was a breakthrough in communication turned out to be an illusion. In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Katharine Beals, whose work has focused on language, literacy, autism, and the scientific evaluation of facilitated communication. We discuss how the method gained credibility, why so many sincere and well-intentioned people became convinced of its effectiveness, and the scientific investigations that sought to determine whether the communication was truly originating from the disabled individual or from the facilitator. Our conversation also explores the broader lessons this story holds for education, psychology, and disability advocacy. How should educators evaluate extraordinary claims? What role should evidence play when powerful personal experiences seem to point in a different direction? And why do ideas that have been extensively studied and criticized continue to reappear in new forms and under new names? Whether you are an educator, psychologist, speech-language pathologist, parent, or simply interested in the history of controversial educational practices, facilitated communication offers a fascinating case study in the intersection of science, advocacy, hope, and human judgment. It is a story that continues to raise important questions about evidence, ethics, and the responsibility we bear when making decisions on behalf of vulnerable individuals. Resources and Links Learn more about facilitated communication and related research: https://www.facilitatedcommunication.org/ Explore Dr. Katharine Beals’ books, articles, and research: https://katharinebeals.com/ Tickets Selling Fast! Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration Check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
June 7 · 52 min
S5E30: Sarah Oberle and Mitch Weathers on executive functions for K-3 classrooms
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell. Executive functioning has become one of the most frequently discussed topics in education, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood. Teachers are increasingly expected to help students manage attention, organization, memory, planning, and self-regulation, but questions remain about what these skills actually are, how they develop, and what schools can realistically do to support them. In this episode, I’m joined by Sarah Oberle and Mitch Weathers, co-authors of Executive Functions for Every K–3 Classroom. Their work focuses on helping educators understand the cognitive processes that underlie successful learning and on creating classroom environments that make those processes visible, teachable, and sustainable for young learners. The book explores practical approaches to supporting working memory, building organizational habits, and establishing the conditions that allow students to focus and engage in learning. It also raises larger questions about the role schools play in developing these foundational capacities. Are executive functions best understood as skills, habits, dispositions, or something else entirely? How much can they be taught directly? And what would it look like for schools to approach executive functioning not as an intervention for a few students, but as a core component of teaching and learning for all students? Whether you’re a classroom teacher, instructional coach, school leader, or simply interested in the science of learning, executive functioning sits at the intersection of cognition, instruction, and school culture. It is a topic that has implications far beyond student organization or classroom management, touching on some of the most fundamental questions about how learners become increasingly independent and capable over time. Tickets Selling Fast! Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration Check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
May 31 · 45 min
S5E29: Owen Engelmann on field testing direct instruction programs
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Dr. Zach Groshell. Today I’m bringing you an episode from the Direct Instruction Podcast—one that I think anyone interested in instructional design, curriculum development, or evidence-based teaching will find fascinating. I’m joined by Owen Engelmann of Engelmann-Becker Corporation, the curriculum development organization founded by Siegfried Engelmann and Wesley Becker that has spent decades designing and field-testing Direct Instruction programs. Owen has worked extensively in the development and revision of DI materials, carrying forward the engineering tradition behind some of the most thoroughly tested instructional programs ever created. This episode is an inside look at field testing—the process at the heart of how instructional programs are actually built. Owen walks us through how an initial field-test version is created, why programs are only written a few weeks ahead of the field, and what happens when real students encounter a lesson sequence for the very first time. We get concrete about the revision cycles that shape programs lesson by lesson: who’s in the room, what gets recorded, how student errors are interpreted, and how a single moment of confusion can trigger a rewrite of an example, an exercise, or even an entire sequence. We also explore the deeper diagnostic challenges behind the process. How do developers distinguish between a flaw in the script and a flaw in delivery? What kinds of student errors signal a local issue versus a deeper structural problem in the program design? And what standards of evidence are strong enough to justify a revision? Along the way, Owen shares stories from the field—moments where a student’s unexpected response exposed a hidden ambiguity or forced developers to rethink an instructional sequence entirely. Whether or not you have any connection to Direct Instruction, this conversation offers a rare look at what it means to treat teaching as an engineering problem rather than an artistic one. It’s a reminder that effective instruction doesn’t emerge from intuition alone—it emerges from observation, testing, revision, and a willingness to let reality have the final say. If you’re implementing Direct Instruction—or simply want to learn more about one of the most extensively researched instructional models ever developed—I strongly recommend connecting with NIFDI, the National Institute for Direct Instruction, at www.nifdi.org. They remain the leading source for training, coaching, and implementation support. Tickets Selling Fast! Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration I also hope you have time to check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
May 16 · 37 min
S5E28: AJ Pettway on “student-centered learning,” instructional coaching, and school leadership
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell, and today we are talking about teaching, coaching, and the strange language of modern education. One phrase that comes up constantly in education is “student-centered learning.” It gets used so often, and so vaguely, that it’s started to mean almost everything and almost nothing at the same time. Usually, it signals a rejection of explicit instruction in favor of discovery, personalization, or loosely defined engagement. But underneath the rhetoric is a more important question: what does it actually mean to center students in the work of learning without abandoning the responsibility to teach well? So I wanted to sit down with someone who has spent years thinking about that question from inside classrooms, schools, and coaching systems. AJ Pettway didn’t take a traditional path into education, and part of what makes this conversation interesting is how grounded his perspective is in actual classroom experience across very different contexts. Over the course of his career, AJ has taught and coached in a wide range of school environments, experiences that shaped the way he thinks about learner variability, instructional quality, and what teachers actually need in order to improve. In this episode, we talk about AJ’s path into teaching and how his thinking about instruction evolved over time. We discuss the reality of learner differences and how schools often misunderstand what effective differentiation actually requires. AJ explains why he has become increasingly critical of the phrase “student-centered learning,” what people usually mean when they say it, and where the idea often breaks down in practice. We also get into instructional coaching — specifically the fears and challenges that come with moving from the classroom into a leadership role. AJ reflects on his early years as a coach, including the insecurities that came with trying to support teachers while still refining his own understanding of instruction. Finally, we tackle a question that sits underneath almost every school improvement effort: do school leaders actually need to be instructional experts? AJ makes the case that without a deep understanding of instruction itself, leadership too easily drifts into managing culture, compliance, or systems while the core work of teaching remains untouched. Along the way, we talk about pedagogy, coaching, professional growth, and the tension between educational slogans and the reality of what it takes to help students learn. Tickets Selling Fast! Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration I also hope you have time to check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
May 10 · 43 min
S5E27: Matt Bateman and Laura Mazer set the record straight on Montessori
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell, and today we are talking about Montessori. I’ll admit, I came into this conversation skeptical. Most of what gets sold as “Montessori” today is a watered-down, follow-your-bliss version of what Maria Montessori actually wrote. The popular caricature— that Montessori is a free-for-all where kids drift between activities and nothing systematic ever happens — turns out to be just as wrong. Reading Montessori’s own writing, especially The Discovery of the Child and The Absorbent Mind, and you find a much more rigorous, structured, an determinate method than the caricatures capture. There are scripted presentations. There’s a sequenced curriculum. There are mastery expectations. So I wanted to sit down with two people who actually take Montessori seriously as a method and who have thought hard about how it intersects with the stuff we usually talk about on this podcast. Matt Bateman has been building Montessori programs nation wide for many years. Laura Mazer is a former surgeon turned educator whose work focuses on the integration of Montessori practice with adaptive learning technology and on translating Montessori’s approach into a model that can be rigorously evaluated and scaled. Together, Matt and Laura run Montessorium, an elementary school model that combines a full Montessori environment with the Timeback adaptive learning platform. My daughter is enrolled at their school, which gives me a unique vantage point: I’m not just talking to them as a podcast host, I’m talking to them as someone preparing for what their model will do to my kid. In this episode, we discuss what Montessori actually said, as opposed to what people imagine she said. We work through the question of how Montessori is compatible with what cognitive science tells us about how children learn — including the role of explicit instruction. We then get into how a Montessori environment can be enhanced — and arguably completed — by explicit instruction delivered through adaptive software. The Montessorium model uses a two-hour computer-based learning block built on Engelmann-style mastery principles, with the rest of the day spent in a traditional Montessori environment. Matt and Laura make the case for why this isn’t a compromise but an improvement. Along the way, we talk about what genuine Montessori looks like in practice, what gets lost when the brand drifts, and what it means to take both Montessori’s genius and the explicit instruction evidence base seriously without letting either tradition off the hook. Tickets Selling Fast! Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration I also hope you have time to check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
May 3 · 46 min
S5E26: Ste Robinson on mastery-based, knowledge-rich PE
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell, and today we are talking about…. PE! I’ll admit, I’ve often taken a dim view of PE as a subject. At its worst, it’s often just games and activities that don’t appear to build toward much, and that, frankly, could be led by someone without much expertise at all. So I was genuinely curious to sit down with Ste Robinson. Ste is a PE teacher and department leader who has been rethinking what physical education can look like when it is treated as a serious curriculum subject rather than just a series of activities. In this episode, we discuss his approach to building a knowledge-rich PE curriculum, how he applies ideas like mastery learning and skill-based grouping, and how he has led his department to think more carefully about progression, instruction, and what it means for students to truly improve. Along the way, we talk about what it takes to move beyond activity for its own sake and toward a model of PE where students actually master skills over time. We also discuss how to make high-quality PE accessible to the students who need it most. Tickets Selling Fast! Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration I also hope you have time to check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
April 28 · 41 min
S5E25: Jamey Peavler on access vs. exposure and constrained vs. unconstrained skills
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect, a show about the teacher-centered and the student-centered, the traditional and the progressive, in education. My guest today is Jamey Peavler, literacy leader and instructional expert focused on building coherent, science-aligned systems of reading instruction. Jamey has worked extensively with schools and districts to design and implement structured literacy models that move beyond fragmented, exposure-based approaches toward systems that ensure every student masters foundational skills. In this conversation, we dive into one of the most persistent tensions in education: the difference between giving students exposure to grade-level content and ensuring they truly have access to it. Jamey brings clarity to this distinction through the lens of constrained and unconstrained skills—a framework often discussed in literacy research, where foundational skills like decoding are finite and sequential, while language comprehension and knowledge-building are broader and ongoing. We explore why many current instructional models unintentionally prioritize exposure over mastery, and what it takes to design systems that guarantee access—ensuring students receive targeted instruction that builds up to them being able to access grade-level content. We also address a common concern: when schools organize instruction to ensure mastery, how is that different from tracking—and what makes it more effective? Throughout, the conversation stays grounded in a central question: What would it look like to build school systems where access and mastery—not just exposure and overload—is the default for every student? Tickets Selling Fast! Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration I also hope you have time to check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
April 20 · 46 min
S5E24: Olivia Mullins on content, curriculum, and coherence in elementary science
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I am you host, Zach Groshell. My guest today is Dr. Olivia Mullins, Founder and Executive Director of Science Delivered and lead developer of the Learning Squared science and literacy program. Olivia trained as a scientist before turning to elementary science education. She’s become one of the sharpest voices working at the intersection of knowledge-building curriculum, the science of reading, and explicit instruction for the youngest learners, and her blogs and tweets have shaped a lot of the current conversation about what “knowledge-building” actually means in literacy and the content areas. Registration is open! Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration I also hope you have time to check out my latest book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. In this episode, we discuss: What we tend to misunderstand about content instruction in the early elementary years How building knowledge through coherent texts and talk differs from treating content as a list of disconnected facts What it looks like in practice when science and literacy are fully integrated in a primary classroom Why language — especially vocabulary and sentence structures — is so central to learning science concepts in the early grades How standards like NGSS fit in, and whether they support or complicate this kind of integration Links: Science Delivered — science-delivered.org Olivia’s Substack Please give this podcast 5 and subscribe: Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts
March 28 · 46 min
S5E23: Richard Wheadon on teaching learning habits and returning to the classroom
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect, a show sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by me, Dr. Zach Groshell. My guest today is Richard Wheadon, author of the forthcoming book Teaching Learning Habits – How to Develop Independent and Successful Learners, to be published with Routledge. He blogs at Everything Pedagogy and writes on Substack. Richard recently made the unusual decision to step down from senior leadership and return to classroom teaching—and in this conversation, we explore what that move revealed about substitute teaching, teacher development, and what it really means to go back to the chalkface. Registration is open! Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration We discuss: Substitute teaching and what it exposes. What does the experience of being a substitute teacher—or supply teacher, for those in the UK—reveal about how schools actually function? We talk about the unique challenges of stepping into someone else’s classroom and what substitute teaching tells us about the systems, routines, and culture that either support or undermine good instruction. Teacher development that actually works. Richard spent years as a senior leader overseeing quality of education and professional development. We discuss what he learned about what makes PD stick, the role of coaching, and how schools can build development structures that lead to genuine improvement in teaching—not just compliance or box-ticking. Going back into the classroom. After 15 years in leadership, Richard made the decision to return to full-time classroom teaching. We talk about why he did it, what surprised him, and what leaders miss when they lose daily contact with instruction. What does it look like when someone who has shaped school-wide teaching and learning goes back to doing it themselves? Learning Habits—grounded in cognitive science, not woolly thinking. Richard’s forthcoming book, Teaching Learning Habits, isn’t another vague appeal to “growth mindset” or “learning to learn.” It’s rooted in cognitive science—memory, self-efficacy, motivation, and the habits that actually help students become more independent learners. We discuss what the book covers, how it translates research into something teachers and pupils can use, and why Richard felt the field needed a no-nonsense, evidence-informed take on learning habits. Listen to Progressively Incorrect on… Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts WordPress Books I can recommend… The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching.
March 16 · 47 min
S5E21: Inwood Academy Pioneers the Science of Learning
My name is Dr. Zach Groshell and welcome to my podcast! This season, I continue to explore the science of learning—especially what the work actually looks like when schools try to build their instructional models around it. We talk a lot about evidence-based practice in education, but far fewer conversations focus on how schools implement those ideas coherently across classrooms. This is a two-part conversation with educators from Inwood Academy For Leadership in New York City. In Part 1, I sit down with Christina Reyes and Bianca Mercedes, leaders at Inwood Academy, to talk about how their school has worked to pioneer an approach grounded in the science of learning. We explore their professional journeys, how their instructional vision developed, and what it takes at the leadership level to build systems that support consistent, evidence-informed teaching. In Part 2, I’m joined by Ciary Lugo and Janitza Santana, teachers at Inwood Academy, who bring the classroom perspective to this work. We discuss what these instructional shifts look like day to day, how teachers experience the implementation of learning-science-aligned practices, and what it takes to make those approaches work with real students in real classrooms. Across both conversations, a central theme is implementation. What does it actually take to move from research ideas to consistent classroom practice? How do leaders support teachers in adopting explicit, evidence-informed approaches to instruction? And what structures—coaching, collaboration, and shared instructional routines—help sustain that work over time? Together, these two episodes offer a look at the leadership and classroom sides of building a school around the science of learning. Registration is open! Love what you heard? Inwood Academy is hosting my The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction – in New York City this summer. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration Listen to Progressively Incorrect on… Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts WordPress Books I can recommend… The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching.
March 9 · 45 min
S5E20: Christopher Such on action steps for reading and the latest literacy debates
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect, a show sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by me, Dr. Zach Groshell. My guest today is Christopher Such, literacy expert, former primary teacher, and author of Primary Reading Simplified. Chris makes his epic return to the show to tackle several debates currently shaping reading instruction in schools—from how long phonics should last, to how assessments distort instruction, to the work he is doing with Steplab to support teachers to improve reading outcomes. Book a demo of Steplab today and join 14,000 schools in implementing effective techniques with systematic coaching and PD. We discuss: Phonics and “escape velocity.” There’s growing talk about schools teaching too much phonics, along with phrases like “escape velocity.” What does the evidence actually say about how long and how intensively phonics should be taught? Is “escape velocity” a meaningful instructional concept, or more of a rhetorical one? Linguistic phonics and speech-to-print. There’s renewed debate about linguistic phonics versus traditional systematic phonics, and speech-to-print versus print-to-speech approaches. Are these fundamentally different approaches to initial decoding instruction, or mostly differences in framing and sequencing? Is there strong evidence favoring one over the other? When assessment starts driving instruction. In many systems, reading instruction ends up shaped by comprehension tests. When does alignment with assessment become distortion of instruction? How should schools prevent test-prep from replacing genuine knowledge building and fluency work? What comes after phonics. Chris revisits a framework he shared in his previous appearance on the podcast: the essential elements schools need to provide in reading instruction once decoding is established. Coaching and Steplab. Chris has been working with Steplab to translate evidence into concrete coaching actions. We discuss how coaching systems can support teachers in delivering more effective reading instruction. If you’re interested in the science of reading this episode is packed with insights. Listen to Progressively Incorrect on… Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts WordPress Registration is open! This summer, join me in New York City for The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration Books I can recommend… The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching.
March 2 · 35 min
S5E19: Leslie Laud on writing instruction and self-regulated strategy development
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Dr. Zach Groshell. This season, I’ve been diving deeply into writing instruction — what the research actually says, where classroom practice often drifts, and what it truly takes to help students become confident, capable writers. Writing is one of the most cognitively demanding things we ask students to do, and yet instruction can vary dramatically from classroom to classroom. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Leslie Laud to explore Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD). We begin with Leslie’s professional journey and how her work became centered on strengthening writing instruction for students across grade levels. From there, we dig into what SRSD looks like in classroom practice and why it has such a strong evidence base behind it. A key part of our conversation focuses on Think SRSD, which Leslie clarifies in the episode. We discuss what Think SRSD is, how it supports teachers in implementing SRSD effectively, and how schools can learn more through the official site: https://thinksrsd.com Listen to Progressively Incorrect on… Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts WordPress We also explore the instructional shifts involved in moving toward explicit strategy instruction in writing. What questions do teachers have when encountering SRSD for the first time? How does structured strategy instruction interact with student motivation and engagement? Another major theme is the integration of explicit strategy instruction with self-regulation. We discuss how students learn specific strategies—such as POW+TREE or TIDE—and how they gradually take ownership of these tools as independent writers. Implementation is central to the discussion as well. What does it take to layer SRSD onto an existing ELA program? When schools attempt to scale this work across classrooms, what supports—coaching, leadership, materials, collaboration—matter most? Finally, we look ahead to what’s next in Leslie’s work and the broader trajectory of writing instruction. This episode is a focused conversation on evidence-based writing instruction and the practical realities of helping students become stronger writers. Questions We Explored How did your professional journey lead you to focus on SRSD and writing instruction? What does SRSD look like in real classroom practice? What is Think SRSD, and how does it support teachers implementing this approach? Why does explicit strategy instruction work so effectively for developing writers? What misconceptions do teachers often have about structured writing instruction? How does SRSD combine explicit teaching with student self-regulation? How can schools successfully integrate SRSD into existing ELA programs? What supports make large-scale implementation successful? What’s next in your work? Registration is open! This summer, join me in New York City for The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration Books I can actually recommend… The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWCDPDGN?ref_=k4w_oembed_ggka1DjfNPYshPu0026amp;tag=kpembed-20u0026amp;linkCode=kpd Interested in coaching that works for every teacher, every time? Book a demo of Steplab today and join 14,000 schools in implementing effective techniques with systematic coaching and PD.
February 23 · 52 min
S5E18: Glenn Whitman and Ian Kelleher on bridging learning science and classroom reality
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Dr. Zach Groshell. In this episode, I sit down with Ian Kelleher and Glenn Whitman of the Center for Transformative Teaching & Learning (CTTL). We began with the origin story of CTTL — how they set out to bridge mind, brain, and education science with real classroom practice — but we quickly moved into something deeper. This wasn’t just a conversation about research. It became a conversation about what it will actually take to improve schools using the science of learning. We explored the tension between neuroscience and cognitive science, the responsibility teachers have (and shouldn’t have) when it comes to research literacy, and the persistent implementation gap that stands between knowing the science and using it well. We also dug into scaling: how do you expand research-informed practice across systems without diluting it into “brain-based” buzzwords? And how do you balance structure and explicit instruction with the emotional and motivational dimensions of learning that CTTL emphasizes? Rather than staying abstract, we pushed into the practical realities: teacher preparation, leadership, school culture, and the long-term legacy of this work. Questions We Explored What problem in schools led to the creation of CTTL? What does it mean to be a “research-informed teacher” in practice? How do we avoid neuromyths while still translating brain research into classroom strategies? Why is implementation so hard—even for educators who believe in the science? What does it take to scale learning science without reducing it to a checklist? How should schools balance emotion, belonging, and motivation with clarity and explicit instruction? Twenty years from now, what would it mean for this work to have truly succeeded? Registration is open! This summer, join me in New York City for The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration Listen to Progressively Incorrect on… Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts WordPress Books I can actually recommend… The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Interested in coaching that works for every teacher, every time? Book a demo of Steplab today and join 14,000 schools in implementing effective techniques with systematic coaching and PD.
February 16 · 55 min
S5E17: Femi Adeniran on explicit math instruction and coaching for better math teaching
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Dr. Zach Groshell. In this episode, I’m joined by the always fabulous, Femi Adeniran, to continue a conversation that started when I appeared on the Beyond Good podcast about math, coaching, and instruction. We discuss: How to begin a maths lesson How not to begin a maths lesson What explicit instruction looks like Delivering an effective maths lesson The transformative method of giving people answers as well as questions when tackling maths problems Things teachers do which can lead to problems The main areas Femi works on with teachers through his coaching What effective coaching looks like Running a maths department Developing a group of people collectively Registration is open! This summer, join me in New York City for The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration Listen to Progressively Incorrect on… Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts WordPress Books I can actually recommend… The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Interested in coaching that works for every teacher, every time? Book a demo of Steplab today and join 14,000 schools in implementing effective techniques with systematic coaching and PD.
February 8 · 28 min
S5E16: Scott Jackson on summer camp
Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Dr. Zach Groshell. In this episode, I’m joined by Scotty Jackson to talk about how summer camp can create the experiences—and build the kinds of values—that help kids be better people: honesty, respect, responsibility, caring, and belonging. I’m not coming at this as a distant observer. I was a camp counselor for many years, and Scotty was my boss and mentor, so this episode is personal—an opportunity to connect what I’ve learned since in schools with what Scotty has learned about building culture. This conversation was also inspired by one of my all-time favorite episodes of This American Life, “Notes on Camp.” It captures the strange, intense, wonderful rituals of camp culture—and it got me thinking about what camp does at its best, and why those experiences stick with kids (and adults) for life. Must Listen: This American Life — Episode 109, “Notes on Camp”: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/109/notes-on-camp In this episode, we discuss What it takes to consistently deliver the kind of experience kids deserve Why summer camp can be a uniquely powerful “compressed” environment for growth How great camps intentionally build belonging, independence, and responsibility The adult craft behind kid joy: routines, traditions, and culture What “values” look like in practice—not posters, but daily decisions Registration is open! This summer, join me in New York City for The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration About Scotty and Camp Seymour Scotty Jackson is a longtime camp professional who has served as Executive Director for YMCA Camp Seymour and YMCA Camp Lake Helena, focused on building camp communities that develop character, connection, and leadership in young people. Camp Seymour is a YMCA resident camp and outdoor education site on Washington’s Key Peninsula near Gig Harbor, offering classic camp programming and group experiences that emphasize skill-building, character, and friendships. The campus includes a range of outdoor and program facilities (e.g., challenge/ropes elements and aquatics) and serves youth and community groups through multiple camp formats. Listen to Progressively Incorrect on… Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts WordPress Books I can actually recommend… The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Interested in coaching that works for every teacher, every time? Book a demo of Steplab today and join 14,000 schools in implementing effective techniques with systematic coaching and PD.
February 2 · 46 min
S5E15: Barbara Oakley on constructivism vs. learning science
In this episode, I sit down with Barbara Oakley—engineer, bestselling author, and one of the most influential voices in the science of learning—to talk about why so much instruction still misses the mark, what “good teaching” looks like when you take cognition seriously, and what’s at stake if we keep defaulting to methods that feel progressive but fail learners. The conversation picks up right where Oakley’s Seattle Times essay lands: Washington’s math outcomes aren’t just “concerning”—she calls them a crisis, and she lays out what she thinks would actually help. We use that piece as a launch point to talk about how to recognize when instruction is failing students, why certain approaches persist long past their sell-by date, and what learning science suggests we should do instead. Registration is open! This summer, join me in New York City for The Explicit Teaching Institute—a five-day deep dive into the science of learning and the highest-leverage moves in explicit instruction. We’ll spend our mornings unpacking the research, our middays studying expert teaching on video (courtesy of Steplab!), and our afternoons rehearsing the moves that make instruction clear, efficient, and reliable—so you leave with a practical toolkit you can use on day one. NYC | July 27–31, 2026 Learn more + register here: Explicit Teaching Institute registration From there, we widen the aperture: what principles from the science of learning apply across every subject, what’s at stake for equity and opportunity when weak instruction becomes normal, and what one change a teacher could make tomorrow to strengthen lessons immediately. We also shift into the “ed-tech hope cycle”—what MOOCs taught us about scaling learning, what they didn’t, and where AI tutoring could genuinely help (or just repackage old problems with new branding). We close with what Oakley is most excited about in teaching and learning over the next decade. Topics What Oakley is most hopeful about in the next decade of teaching and learning What drew Oakley into learning science—and how her perspective has evolved Why she describes math education (in WA) as a “crisis,” and how to diagnose failing instruction Learning science principles that transfer beyond math to every subject Why outdated instructional philosophies persist across disciplines What’s at stake: equity, opportunity, and the broader social costs of weak instruction One actionable change teachers can make tomorrow to strengthen lessons What we learned from MOOCs—and what that implies for AI tutoring About Barbara Oakley Barbara Oakley is a professor of engineering and a leading voice in the science of learning. She’s the author of A Mind for Numbers and Learning How to Learn (and related books and courses), and she’s helped bring learning science to a global audience through massively popular MOOCs, keynote talks, and widely read public writing. Her work consistently presses educators to align instruction with how memory and skill actually develop—clear explanations, deliberate practice, spaced retrieval, and evidence over “vibes.” Listen to Progressively Incorrect on… Spotify YouTube Apple Podcasts WordPress Books I can actually recommend… The podcast you’re listening to is sponsored by John Catt from Hachette Learning and hosted by Dr. Zach Groshell. John Catt publishes some of the best books in education, including my book, Just Tell Them: The Power of Explanations and Explicit Teaching. Interested in coaching that works for every teacher, every time? Book a demo of Steplab today and join 14,000 schools in implementing effective techniques with systematic coaching and PD.
January 30 · 33 min
S5E14: Thinking out loud… what comes first in coaching, techniques or lesson design?
The “Thinking Out Loud” episodes on Better Teaching: Only Stuff That Works are a running set of conversations to make sense of instruction, coaching, and implementation as they actually function in schools—not as we wish they did. The premise is straightforward: Gene Tavernetti and I take a concrete problem of practice, name what tends to go wrong, and work toward clearer thinking and more usable actions for teachers, coaches, and leaders. Take a look at the list of episodes we’ve done so far. My hope is these summaries give you an efficient way to decide which episodes to start with—and to surface the recurring themes that have clarified our work in instructional coaching. Enjoy! Thinking Out Loud with Zach Groshell — October 9, 2024 Listen here This is the kickoff. We start by thinking out loud about Direct Instruction (DI), explicit teaching, and what gets lost when people treat “explicit instruction” like a buzzword instead of a craft. It’s a wide-ranging, foundational conversation that sets the tone for the whole series: precise language, fast-paced teaching, and coaching that supports real performance—not just good intentions. Rehearsal & Instructional Coaching — December 4, 2024 Listen here We dig into rehearsal as a missing “bridge” between professional development and actual classroom change. If teachers only talk about strategies (or just watch someone else do them), transfer is shaky. Rehearsal—paired with feedback—helps convert ideas into actions teachers can reliably pull off with students. Pros and Cons of Coaching Models — February 12, 2025 Listen here This episode is all about tradeoffs: full-time coaches vs. hybrid models, centralized vs. distributed support, and why “best model” depends on context (time, staffing, trust, leadership clarity). The through-line is practicality—how to choose a structure that supports teachers without turning coaching into another layer of friction. Coaching Moves While Observing Lessons — March 19, 2025 Listen here We zoom in on what coaches actually do during observations. Observation isn’t passive—what you attend to, how you collect evidence, and how you frame what you saw all shape whether the debrief becomes helpful (or demoralizing). It’s a nuts-and-bolts episode about noticing, interpreting, and choosing next steps with care. Should the Best Teachers Be Coaches? — May 7, 2025 Listen here We take on a classic staffing dilemma: pulling great teachers out of classrooms can hurt students—but schools also need credible, skilled coaches. We talk through the opportunity costs, why great teaching doesn’t automatically equal great coaching, and how to think about pathways that strengthen coaching without draining classrooms of their strongest practitioners. Coaching Cycles — June 18, 2025 Listen here This episode defines what coaching cycles are for and when they’re worth doing. We talk about the purpose (not just the steps), how long cycles should last, and when cycles become bureaucracy. The emphasis is on making cycles serve teacher growth—rather than turning them into a compliance routine. Lessons from Consulting — October 1, 2025 Listen here Here I reflect on what consulting teaches you about implementation and change: what leaders think they want vs. what will actually move practice, why “big splash” training often fades, and why alignment and follow-through matter more than inspiration. It’s a practical conversation for anyone trying to move a system—not just an individual teacher. Providing Support to Teachers — November 26, 2025 Listen here This one is about starting well: how you begin supporting teachers in a way that’s credible, helpful, and sustainable. We talk through what it means to enter support work with clarity and humility, and how to structure early moves so teachers feel helped (not judged) and the work can actually stick.

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