S1-01. The Knowledge Gap: Natalie Wexler

What’s broken in our education system? Natalie joins Susan for a provocative talk about her latest book, The Knowledge Gap, and how a knowledge-based curriculum can change classrooms—and students’ futures. Quotes “Kids actually love to learn stuff. They love to feel like they’re experts. It does wonders for their self-esteem.” - Wexler “Once teachers try it and can see what can happen…they’re going to say ‘I’m never going back to what I was doing before.” - Wexler Resources Natalie Wexler’s books: The Knowledge Gap: The hidden cause of America's broken education system--and how to fix it The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grade Natalie Wexler’s articles: “Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong: The Case for Teaching Kids Stuff” (The Atlantic, August 2019) “Why American Students Haven't Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years” (The Atlantic, April 2018) Additional resources: Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham’s education blog Want to discuss the episode? Join our Facebook group Science of Reading: The Community. Episode Content Timestamps* 2:00: Introduction: Why is Natalie Wexler? 4:00: The meaning of "content" 6:00: How did the problem of not teaching content evolve? Why do we need to teach content? 10:00: Observations from a knowledge-based classroom 13:00: Education reform and the current attention on knowledge building 17:00: Classroom teachers: Addressing misconceptions and confusion, and insight 26:00: The knowledge gap issue beyond just the individual teacher 34:00: The connection between content and writing 36:00: Top things for listeners to take away from this episode *Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute