Education Rickshaw

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.

S5E22: Adam Robbins on the Challenge of Improving Teaching

My name is Dr. Zach Groshell and welcome to my podcast! In this episode, I welcome Adam Robbins to Progressively Incorrect for a conversation about one of the biggest challenges in education: improving teaching. Together, we explore why teacher development is often so difficult and why schools need more than good intentions to make meaningful progress. This episode looks at several of the key levers schools use to develop teachers, including lesson observation, feedback, coaching, professional development, and accountability. Rather than offering simple answers, the conversation digs into the tensions, decisions, and tradeoffs involved in helping teachers get better over time. 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 Questions discussed in this episode: Why is it so hard to improve teaching? How do we get the most out of lesson observations? How can we develop teaching through feedback and coaching? How can we develop teaching through whole-school professional development? How can we use accountability to develop teachers? Listen to Progressively Incorrect on… SpotifyYouTubeApple PodcastsWordPress 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.

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… SpotifyYouTubeApple PodcastsWordPress 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.

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… SpotifyYouTubeApple PodcastsWordPress 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.

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… SpotifyYouTubeApple PodcastsWordPress 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. 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.