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Things in Education

This is our repository of all our newsletters which are delivered to the inbox of our subscribers.

List of Published Newsletters

Edition 5.33

7 Aug 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 178th edition of TEPS Weekly! 

Raghav cannot read. Raghav can read, but cannot understand. Raghav cannot read, if he doesn't understand. 

All these statements cannot be true at the same time. And as you will see, Raghav does say stuff out loud. Is he reading? Is he comprehending? We begin today's edition with Raghav, and go on to dissect what reading comprehension is, answering questions like why reading comprehension is not a skill. If you want to find out more, keep reading... Read More.

Edition 5.32

31 Jul 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 177th edition of TEPS Weekly! A few weeks ago there was a discussion in the office on the difference between 'giving an exam' and 'taking an exam'. This is what inspired the title of this week's newsletter. Is there a difference between 'taking notes' and 'making notes'? Is it just semantics? Or is there a real difference? Before you continue reading, one clarification: this edition is not about money! Read More.

Edition 5.31

24 Jul 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 176th edition of TEPS Weekly! One day, a 5-year old girl who was attending school off and on, very proudly announced to her teacher that she could count up to 1000. The teacher was impressed and asked the girl to count the number of fans in the room. A girl looked at the teacher, confused. The relation between counting and knowing numbers is not straightforward. The assumption that a student who is able to recite numbers can also count is very common among educators. This week, we write to question this assumption. Read More.

Edition 5.30

17 Jul 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 175th edition of TEPS Weekly! In this edition, we write about feedback – more specifically giving feedback to students while they are learning a concept. This week we write on how we can give feedback in a crowded Indian classroom. We do not go into the cognitive psychology of how feedback helps with student learning and deeper understanding (future edition), but write about the operations of actually giving students feedback in challenging circumstances. For this we also re-define what feedback can look like! Have a read!  Read More.

Edition 5.29

10 Jul 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 174th edition of TEPS Weekly! In this edition, we write about one of the most 'taken for granted' part of a teacher's – explanation. We often think of teacher explanations as a synonym for teaching. But it is much more than that! How is that even possible? Read on, and find out. Read More.

Edition 5.28

3 Jul 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 173rd edition of TEPS Weekly! 

Understanding a topic is cognition. Understanding my own understanding is metacognition. Understanding how to understand my own cognition is called...errm what? Whatever it is called, we have written about it in this edition. We explore what metacognition is, why it's important and how to get students to start thinking about their learning and understanding. Read More.

Edition 5.27

26 Jun 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 172nd edition of TEPS Weekly! 

If a student cannot identify colours in preschool, then they will not be able to sort different coloured balls into different bags. So it is important that students learn colours and colour names before they learn how to sort based on colours. As we move to higher grades, it becomes trickier to figure out what should be taught first: nutrient cycles or the food web? Friction as a force or motion? In today's edition, we write about how educators can take some of these decisions on sequencing topics in the curriculum. And the answer is not to just follow the sequence in the textbook. Read More.

Edition 5.26

19 Jun 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 171st edition of TEPS Weekly! 

If someone says, "Kiran used force to push..." there are at least two connotations. In general speak, it could mean something negative that Kiran was up to. Alternatively, if we think of force as a scientific term, then the sentence becomes factual. In today's edition, we write about what it means to build vocabulary for science learning, and how vocabulary building helps with learning scientific concepts. Read More.

Edition 5.25

12 Jun 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 170th edition of TEPS Weekly! 

There are multiple opinions on Internationalism vs. Nationalism, or what it means to be a citizen. Are we instintively tribal or can we think beyond our scale of imagination for the 'greater good'? Don't worry, this is not a edition on philosophy. It is a segue into the how global citizenship education looks in classrooms. For what it is worth, the NEP 2020 mentions global citizenship as one of the focus areas of student development. So we asked ourselves how this education would look like in the classroom. Have a read! Read More.

Edition 5.24

5 Jun 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 169th edition of TEPS Weekly! 

When we speak to school leadership and management about the need for curriculum innovation there are phrases that we hear like improvement plans, teacher training sessions, annual goals and preparing students for the future. But what is curriculum innovation in a real sense? What changes are we looking to make to the curriculum to make it more ‘innovative’? Is it introducing the project-based learning (PBL) approach? Is it getting students assessed more frequently? Read on to explore a few possibilities. Read More.

Edition 5.23

29 May 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 168th edition of TEPS Weekly! 

Here a TLM, there a TLM, everywhere a TLM! Teaching Learning Materials (TLM) are universally present in conversations between teachers and educators. Is a smart board a TLM? Is a flashcard a TLM? Which TLM is useful? What makes a TLM useful? In today's edition, we write about what makes a TLMs good. We end the edition with a useful checklist to help you figure out if a TLM is useful. Read More.

Edition 5.22

22 May 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 167th edition of TEPS Weekly! 


There are tabs and smartboards in primary and even foundational level classes. These are important signals from the school to parents that they are a "new-age" "post-GenAI" school. Here's the paradox: in this new age or post-GenAI world a properly developed brain with strong connections between different areas is becoming more and more important. These strong foundational connections become the foundation on which skills like critical thinking are also built. On the other hand, as we write in this edition, giving students digital devices for writing goes against creating strong connections between different areas of the brain. So here's our argument for more pencil-paper writing even in the most "post-GenAI" schools. Read More.

Edition 5.21

15 May 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 166th edition of TEPS Weekly! 

We have mentioned how teaching needs to be professionalised on some occasions. We have also mentioned that there are multiple steps that are needed to truly professionalise teaching, especially school teaching in the country. School teachers should not be moonlighting as census takers, election officers or event planners. School teachers should teach and teach well. In today's edition, we share the steps that will need to be taken by teachers, schools, boards, and just all the people involved in school education. We argue that it is a systemic issue with individual responsibilities for all stakeholders. Go on, tell us how naive we are being! Read More.

Edition 5.20

8 May 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 165th edition of TEPS Weekly! 

We wrote about flipped learning in 2022, wherein we highlighted the issues with flipped learning and how a lot of things can go wrong and we must be careful when trying out this pedagogical approach. When we wrote that piece, Imran Khan was still the President of Pakistan, the Morbi Bridge had not opened (and collapsed), Argentina had not yet won the football world cup. Today, with the advent of AI, more penetration of smartphones and the Internet in India, the possibility of successfully doing flipped learning has increased. In today's edition, we write about how to successfully conduct flipped learning sessions. Read More.

Edition 5.19

1 May 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 164th edition of TEPS Weekly! 

Here is an exerpt of a conversation in our office: 

A: How do you connect with the students so well?

B: I just speak to them like adults, while knowing that they are not adults.

A: Isn't that diffucult?

B: No.

What B doesn't know is that they are practising mindfulness in the classroom. They are using techniques in conversations and interactions that help teachers and hence students be mindful. So, what is mindfulness? What role does it have in the classroom? How does this work during a lesson? This week's edition tries to answer these questions. Go on, have a read and let us know what you think. Read More.

Edition 5.18

24 Apr 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 163rd edition of TEPS Weekly! 

A lot of teachers feel nervous when it comes to students doing group work. This has to do with two things – control and discipline. As soon as teachers think of group work they think that students won't sit in one place, they will talk, discipline of the class will break down, the teacher may lose control of the class and no learning will happen. In today's edition, we write about what group work is and how we can do the simple things right to ensure group work serves its intended purpose. Read More.

Edition 5.17

17 Apr 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 162nd edition of TEPS Weekly! 

Teaching is a noble job!
Teaching should be thought of as a service.

These sentences have been said in India at least a billion times. It probably comes from the history of teachers – where there were learned (mostly) men dissapting information and knowledge. The role of a teacher has changed since then. But treating this work as a service actually does a disservice to the profession of teaching. We need to move toward professionalising teaching. National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST) is one important step towards this. What is the NPST? What does it contain? What can a teacher or a school do about this? All these questions are answered in today's edition.  Read More.

Edition 5.16

10 Apr 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 161st edition of TEPS Weekly! When someone thinks about school culture, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? The number of socio-cultural events the school does? The number of students passing the board examinations with more than 90%? The amount of money charged as school fees? The money spent on building new infrastructure like a football ground, a swimming pool or a laboratory? The money and time spent on lesson planing and teacher development? Interestingly, we think that all of these (and more) are part of a school's culture. In today's edition, you will see that day-to-day decisions can be based on the guiding principles of the school's culture.

As experienced school leaders and teachers, do you have anything that you do in your school to define and support your school's cutlure? If yes, we would love to hear from you. Read More.

Edition 5.15

3 Apr 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 160th edition of TEPS Weekly! Do you still read if it is not related to your work? When did you start reading for the sake of reading? Some of us take up reading as a refuge from the 'reality' of life (even at a young age). Some of us take up reading to 'know more'. Some of take up reading because it was just a thing to do – like eat, sleep, go to school, and so on. In today's edition, we write about how to create conditions so that reading is one of the things to do in a day – not as an activity, not as a fun thing (yes, it can be fun), but reading for the sake of reading. Let us know what you think and what your earliest memories of reading are, why you took up reading and how it became a habit. Read More.

Edition 5.14

27 Mar 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 159th edition of TEPS Weekly! Did you know that only by thinking that students are 'smart', teachers sub-consciously make the learning environment such that students start performing better? In this edition, you will read about this study, and a lot more about how having positive expectations of all students helps them achieve learning outcomes. There are lots of practices that you can start in your class next week so that you can show students that you have high expectations from them.

It has been a long academic year. This is the perfect time to read this edition and reflect on how we can change our students' perspective of themselves by some simple actions in class. Read More.

Edition 5.13

20 Mar 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 158th edition of TEPS Weekly! 

"Get students to think in the class..." 
"Your classes should be more interactive..."
"We want our teachers to have more discussions with the students in class..."

These are common themes that we see during our school visits. We are sure that you have either heard or said one or more of these statements in school. So there is a conscious effort to make classes more interactive. That means there seems to be a will among teachers, educators and school leaders in this direction. So to support this move, we are writing today on how to take the first steps towards this goal. Read More.

Edition 5.12

13 Mar 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 157th edition of TEPS Weekly! A student’s assessment score may tell a teacher that there is a problem. It does not always tell the teacher why that problem exists or what to do next. For that, teachers need a wider view of data – not only marks and attendance, but also participation, learner profile, home context (if possible), and evidence of whether their own teaching methods are working. In today's edition, we explore the different dimensions that may need to be considered to not only understand where the students are struggling, but also why this might be the case. Let us know what you think! Read More.

Edition 5.11

6 Mar 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 156th edition of TEPS Weekly! What does it mean to professionalise teaching? – this is a central question at the heart of the teacher development discourse. There are multiple axes along which we can think of professionalising teaching like, competetive salaries, reduction of 'extra' duties, performance-based growth opportunities, in-job learning, developing professional skills and so on. We today write about one of the professional skills that teachers have – project management. We think teachers are essentially a year-long project manager with a variety of stakeholders, tight timelines, and a never ending supply of unforeseen issues. Have a read and look for parallels between a teacher and project manager. It makes us ask: if teachers are project managers, then why are the salaries so different for these roles? Read More.

Edition 5.10

27 Feb 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 155th edition of TEPS Weekly! There are so many platforms that tell us that they are building a community of professionals – there are WhatsApp groups, online platforms, who have a common goal of discussing issues in their areas of interest and sometimes even lamenting 'the situation'. The same is true for such communities in education – in fact, we have a community on WhatsApp. But in today's edition, we write about Professional Learning Communities, and how they are different from all these communities. Read on to find out what is needed to create a Professional Learning Community in your school or organisation. Read More.

Edition 5.09

20 Feb 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 154th edition of TEPS Weekly! What do you think of our newsletter? Is it timely? Is it good? Helpful? Irritating? And how much have you really thought about our newsletter? We think a lot about our newsletter (obviously!). And we also reflect about our newsletter. What is the difference between 'thinking about' and 'reflecting on' something? In today's edition, we write about how reflection on one's classroom, teaching, planning can help educators. We also share a template to help with the reflection process. Hope you find it useful! Read More.

Edition 5.08

13 Feb 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 153rd edition of TEPS Weekly! "Winters were dark and gloomy with evenings having no Sunlight." This is what we were told from our texts during school. And we could not imagine it. Winters were sunny, a crisp chill in the air, and it was almost an invogorating time (especially, if you were in central or South India). Reading comprehension not only has to do with the language, sentence construction, etc. but also has to do with the context and experience of the learners. We write about what authentic texts are, and how they help in reading comprehension. Read More.

Edition 5.07

6 Feb 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 152nd edition of TEPS Weekly! We often hear science teachers say that they encourage students to 'behave like scientists' in the science class. This is a good habit. However, we know that scientists are at the peak of the expertise in their field, while students are learning science in school. So sometimes the parallels between a scientists' work and students work may not hold true. However, there is one aspect of 'behaving like scientists' that students can do – write like scientists. They can look for evidence, describe the evidence, present their reasoning, and communicate their conslusions. In today's edition, we write about how teachers can guide students in scientific writing. Read More.

Edition 5.06

30 Jan 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 151st edition of TEPS Weekly! Motivation is one of the biggest drivers of learning among school students. And teachers often ask us questions like, "My students just don't want to learn. How should I make them learn?" So motivation is important to learn, and anecdotal conversations suggest internal motivations are low for learning in school, but very high for learning songs. So why does this happen? Today we write about how internal motivation can be understood and then leveraged in classrooms. Read More.

Edition 5.05

23 Jan 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 150th edition of TEPS Weekly! Yes! This is the 150th edition of TEPS Weekly! We have been sending out this newsletter to educators not only across India but also across South Asia, South-East Asia, the Southwest Asia or Arabian Gulf, and even some African countries! One of the most common questions we are asked is, “How do you write so consistently? How have you never missed or even delayed a single edition?” The simple answer is that we love reading about education and we love writing about it too. The slightly deeper answer is that we work intensively with schools, school leaders and teachers – we hear about their concerns, we see their passion as well as their struggles in the classroom, and we deeply believe in the importance of good education for students. We use those experiences and insights to write the newsletter each week, and we have never run out of topics to write about. Read More.

Edition 5.04

16 Jan 2026.

Hello all. Welcome to the 149th edition of TEPS Weekly! A few years ago, we had written about primary and secondary knowledge – primary knowledge is something that our brains have evolutionarily developed to know, like listening or speaking, while secondary knowledge is something that our brains were not evolutionarily developed for, like reading, writing or doing mathematics. It is easier for us to learn primary knowledge, and secondary knowledge can be built on top of this. In today's edition, we write in this context about the importance of building oral language skills for foundational years' students. Read More.

Edition 5.03

9 Jan 2026.

Welcome to the 148th edition of TEPS Weekly! We have been working with a few teachers, a few schools, a few school groups, a few education boards over the last half decade. During this time, we have had a lot of success, but there have been multiple challenges. What we have realised is that almost all our challenges with teacher professional development (TPD) at all levels were alleviated through data and evidence. We share our secret sauce with you today. Read More.

Edition 5.02

2 Jan 2026.

Hello all. Happy New Year and welcome to the 147th edition of TEPS Weekly! We have written a lot on formative assessments, and mainly focussed on how teachers can use the students' responses as evidence for students' understanding, skill mastery, and so on. This edition focuses on giving students feedback during formative assessments with the view of allowing them to learn better. Feedback from teachers should be short, actionable, and always shared in a non-violent way. Let's dig in to learn more about feedback to help students learn. Read More.

Edition 5.01

26 Dec 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 146th edition of TEPS Weekly! Psst... It is also the beginning of the 5th year of this newsletter. Nice time to recap some of the things we wrote about in the last year. Read More.

Edition 4.52

19 Dec 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 145th edition of TEPS Weekly! How can we optimise learning in students? We have written that there are memory registers, and then there are routines which help in scaffolding. We have also written about challenging students, but also ensuring that they solve the challenges from time to time. Can we bring all of this under some framework? And how can we integrate all this into practice in the classroom? Read on and find out! Read More.

Edition 4.51

12 Dec 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 144th edition of TEPS Weekly! Anganwadis and Balvatikas were started with the principle of whole-child development. In a country where majority of the population had nourishment and health issues, it was sensible to have education closely knitted with child health and nutrition. However, even if we dive deeper into the education side of this trio we see that whole-child development means that a child should develop cognitively, sensorially, emotionally and physically. How do we ensure whole-child development? We have some suggestions for you in today's edition. Read More.

Edition 4.50

5 Dec 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 143rd edition of TEPS Weekly! In today's edition, we continue with writing on the theme of classroom management – specifically on behaviour management. Are there practices that we can use to proactively manage behaviour? It is difficult to predict all behaviours of students. So, how can we use a combination of proactive and reactive techniques for student behaviour management? We answer these questions and more today. Read on! Read More.

Edition 4.49

28 Nov 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 142nd edition of TEPS Weekly! In today's edition, we write about an important aspect of classroom management – discipline. Discipline is not putting fingers on lips or standing in a straight line. As you will read further, discipline is a state of mind. What can we, as educators, do to get students to this state of mind? This is the primary question we will answer. And it is important for students to have this state of mind for deep learning and understanding. If pedagogy and content is an airplane, discipline (and more generally) classroom management is the runway. If the runway is smooth, the landing is great, but if the runway is not maintained the airplane won't land or it will be a bumpy landing. Read More.

Edition 4.48

21 Nov 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 141st edition of TEPS Weekly! Observation-based assessments have been done semi-formally before the NEP 2020 came along, especially in the foundational grades. Now wih the NEP 2020, holistic progress cards and other recommended and support material, there is a need to understand how to ensure formal assessment through observation of all students for all developmental domains. It can seem overwhelming for educators. In today's edition, we write on how to structure observation-based assessment so that assessments are accurate and they do not over-burden the teacher. Read More.

Edition 4.47

14 Nov 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 140th edition of TEPS Weekly!

"Multiple choice questions should only have three options". 
"Multiple choice questions makes it easy for students to score marks".
"Multiple choice questions are a treasure trove of student learning and teacher insights".

There are many opinions on multiple choice questions, or MCQs as they are called. We have heard all the statements listed above. And honestly, we agree with only one of them. Read on further to find out which one, as this week we explore how to create excellent MCQs! And there are some examples and non-examples through the piece. Read More.

Edition 4.46

7 Nov 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 139th edition of TEPS Weekly! Competency-based education helps make learning real for students. It gives context to what students are learning and is likely to help students understand why they are learning something. And with a very public push in India for teachers to use a competency-based approach to teaching, there is a need to ask if teachers are ready for it, and what are the first steps that they can take to move toward this pedagogy. Read More.

Edition 4.45

31 Oct 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 138th edition of TEPS Weekly! What parts of a teacher's job involves no communication? You would be hard pressed to find even a handful of tasks within a teacher's repertoire which entail no communication. But building communication skills in teachers is one of the most requested TPD sessions we are asked to do. We cannot pinpoint to the cause for this gap, but we write today about why and how communication makes a difference to students psychology, motivation, cognitive function and general well being.  Read More.

Edition 4.44

24 Oct 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 137th edition of TEPS Weekly! Last week we asked whether teachers were leaving their jobs in India or not. And we saw that even though only a small fraction of teachers are leaving, there are still a large number of vacancies that need to be filled. In today's edition we write about teacher salaries, contracts, growth and working conditions. And by the end of reading it, we think that you will ask yourselves why teachers are not leaving. Read More.

Edition 4.43

17 Oct 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 136th edition of TEPS Weekly! Today's edition is a little different. We are stepping out of the classroom by stepping into multiple classrooms. We are zooming out and trying to understand the status of teachers and teaching in India. Today, we write about if teachers are leaving their jobs or if people are joining the teaching workforce.

We will dig into the nuances of the teaching workforce in India. We are planning to write more about teachers based on empirical data, either collected by us or publicly available. We are going to explore what the job satisfaction level of teachers is, if it is related to teacher performance, or if it is linked to student performance. We will also explore what type of vacancies exist in India – at what learning levels, in which states and in which geographical area. What are the main drivers of teacher motivation? For this we would love to speak to as many people or organisations as possible – be it on ground, policy makers, school leaders or even passionate people who are willing to share their information with us.

Things Education uses the phrase "research-backed" in its literal sense, unlike a lot of other organisations. Come, be a part of this great exploration. Read More.

Edition 4.42

10 Oct 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 135th edition of TEPS Weekly! There are some who like reading till the last minute before the test begins. Others like to close their books, relax and just try to recall what they had read from the books, in the minutes before the test. This is often cast away as differences in learning styles. Sure! The learning styles are different, but only one of these styles is going to help the student learn the content in the long-term. The other is mostly going to forget as soon as (or before) the test is over. Why so? Let's find out! Read More.

Edition 4.41

03 Oct 2025.

If you are a fan of any sport, you hear the players or coaches say, "It is all about the process, and the results will take care of themselves." As a fan of someone or a team that has just lost, this sentence may not make sense. However from a learning point of view, this makes perfect sense. In sport getting it right entails the player going through the process again and again. In the same way in classrooms, learning happens if students go through the rigour of practice, and more importantly repeated practice. This week we write about how learning is all about getting the process right, and the results (or products) will take care of themselves. Read More.

Edition 4.40

26 Sep 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 133rd edition of TEPS Weekly! The NEP 2020 suggested schools take up competency-based assessments for students. This was put into action through some documents that CBSE put out on how all chapters of all subjects now had competencies instead of learning outcomes. Given that we had a small role to play in creating these competencies, we thought we should write something about what these competencies are and how they relate to your classrooms. We start with writing about Competency-based Assessments (CBA), and we will write more deeply on this topic in the coming months. Read More.

Edition 4.39

19 Sep 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 132nd edition of TEPS Weekly! The question, why do students remember movie plots and song lyrics, but do not recall things that they learn in school, has been asked many times. A part of the reason is the story or an in-built narration that appeals to some emotion for people. That's why storytelling is so powerful as a communication tool. What happens if we use storytelling as an approach for teaching? As you will see in today's edition - it is easy to get it wrong, but it can be very effective if we can get the small things right. Read More.

Edition 4.38

12 Sep 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 131st edition of TEPS Weekly! There has been emphasis on value eduation for a long time. Don't we all remember our 'Moral Science' classes, or the 'Value Education' class every week, or that one question that would suddenly pop up in our Mathematics exam which was about some ethical issue? With the NEP 2020, the effort is to make this part of education - the values - more structured and hopefully, mainstream. But the old ways of having separate 'value ed' classes may not be the best approach. In today's edition, we propose an alternative by integrating value education into our 'mainstream' curriculum. Read More.

Edition 4.37

5 Sep 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 130th edition of TEPS Weekly! It's Teachers' Day again! And on this, one of the Teachers' Days celebrated in India, we have come up with what we think is the best way to show our respect and support for teachers. We have a platform with ~100 courses, tens of thousands of teaching strategies, multiple teaching and learning materials (TLMs) for teachers. Respecting teachers is about moving teaching from being a "noble service" to a profession. We have taken the first step towards it with TEPS Staffroom. Read on further to find out what we think can be done to show our respect for teachers. Read More.

Edition 4.36

29 Aug 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 129th edition of TEPS Weekly! Historically, we have taken a subject-agnostic approach to pedagogy, classroom management and even cognitive science. However, in the last few months, we have moved to writing about pedagogical content knowledge or how to approach teaching for different subjects. We have written about history, mathematics, physics, grammar, economics, sustainability and english literature. And in today's edition we write about teaching biology how using inquiry to create cognitive conflict and opportunities for students to think actively. So dive in! Read More.

Edition 4.35

22 Aug 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 128th edition of TEPS Weekly! It is not easy to integrate any approach to one's unique style of teaching in the class. What generally tends to happen is that the approach is not really integrated, but used as a placeholder. For example, a question at the beginning of an 'Inquiry Lesson', which is then never thought of again in the lesson. Or a project that is done at the end of a 'Project-based Learning' lesson. We have written about how to integrate inquiry and projects into existing lessons before. Today, we write about another approach that doesn't tend to get integrated as well - Art Integration into lessons. We give you simple tips with a lot of examples to ensure that you can integrate art into academic subjects. Read More.

Edition 4.34

15 Aug 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 127th edition of TEPS Weekly! In our last edition, we wrote about how Gen-AI can help teachers brainstorm PBL ideas (Phase 1) and plan and design projects (Phase 2). In today's edition, we move on and think about what happens once the project starts. This is where the challenge inside the classroom begins. Students learn at different speeds, ask unpredictable questions, and sometimes get stuck. Teachers need to give support without giving direct answers. They have to keep the whole class moving forward and assess students' progress. Read More.

Edition 4.33

8 Aug 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 126th edition of TEPS Weekly! Project-based Learning (PBL) is an exciting pedagogical approach. It is not as intimidating as inquiry learning, and does not seem too embedded in theory like, say, the Constructivist approach. Something about PBL makes teachers feel that they want to try it out in the classroom. With PBL being one of the approaches that the NEP 2020 is also pushing for, this need to try it out in the classroom has only gotten intense for teachers. However, for most of the teachers, we find that they don't know where to start. What is a good project? How do I approach this? In this edition, we attempt to answer this question of how to start off planning a PBL lesson using GenAI. We will continue this thought next week, where we will dive deeper into how GenAI can help with PBL lessons. Read More.

Edition 4.32

1 Aug 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 125th edition of TEPS Weekly! Students are not given a chance to think in some of their classes – they are expected to just passively listen. In some other classes, they do not know how to structure or communicate their thoughts and thinking processes. This is where routines help. In today's edition, we break down Think, Pair, Share with you. We write about what each step of this routine should do to help students think, structure their thoughts and communicate their thoughts, and how a teacher should facilitate this process. Read More.

Edition 4.31

25 Jul 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 124th edition of TEPS Weekly! The CBSE has come up with a number of recommended courses for school teachers. The purpose of teachers going through these courses is so that they can implement the learnings from the courses in their classrooms. The list is extensive and publicly available. One of the courses on the list is Theory of Knowledge (TOK). All of us are familiar of TOK as something that the 'IB Board does'. In today's edition, we break down TOK and see how much closer we all to following the TOK philosophy. Read More.

Edition 4.30

18 Jul 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 123rd edition of TEPS Weekly! Literature, in general, is a great way to build knowledge, skills and attitudes. One can think of each story in literature as a project in science. There are so many threads that can be interwoven. Teaching and learning literature is unweaving the threads to understand how life was, how life can be or how I should conduct my life. In this edition, we see three ways in which teachers can approach teaching English literature. Read More.

Edition 4.29

11 Jul 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 122nd edition of TEPS Weekly! What if you could get students involved when you are teaching them slightly more theoretical or abstract concepts like sustainability? Can we make this real for students? This is what we write about in this week's newsletter. It is a deep dive into an actual classroom that we have experienced. Hope you like the level of detail! Read More.

Edition 4.28

04 Jul 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 121st edition of TEPS Weekly! Autumn is said to be just after the summer and before winter, say in September or October, right? There are students in India who have never been able to remember the autumn months. They remember summer, winter and monsoon, but not autumn. It is likely that these students have a difficult time remembering the autumn months because they have not experienced autumn in September or October in India. This is because in most of India, these months are characterised by rains and trees lush with leaves. So how can these be autumn months?

So, experience plays a huge role in learning. Creating meaningful experiences to learn from is what we write about today, why this is important, and how to do it in the classroom. Read More.

Edition 4.27

27 Jun 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 120th edition of TEPS Weekly! In today's edition we write about whole child development. Are there ways to ensure we teach, assess and give feedback to students not just on their marks, but also their attitude to learning, their patience, their confidence, and so on? We share tips on how to teachers can use everyday lessons to teach and assess students. This will become crucial in a post-GenAI world where the process of learning will become as (if not more) important than the product of learning. Read More.

Edition 4.26

20 Jun 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 119th edition of TEPS Weekly! The invention and easy availability of the radio was the first time that questions on whether teachers and schools were redundant for student education or not, started being asked. More than 100 years later, we are still asking similar questions about teachers and schools in a post Gen-AI world. In today's edition we write about the paradigm shifts that Gen-AI will (or at least should) bring in our schooling system. Gen-AI will not replace teachers and schools, but it certainly will change the way we think about them. Read More.

Edition 4.25

13 Jun 2025.

Hello all. Welcome to the 118th edition of TEPS Weekly! One of the most common comments that we get from teachers is that parents demand a lot from them when it comes to their kids. Parents hold teachers responsible for their kids' grades, for their mental health, and often even for their misbehaviour at home. In today's edition, we write about how educators can suggest day-to-day activities to parents so that their kids are curious and learning. Spoiler Alert: Parents have to spend some quality time with their kids. Read More.

Edition 4.24

6 Jun 2025.

Welcome to the 117th edition of TEPS Weekly! This week's edition is a little different. It has a slightly different perspective. Not only does it have a lot of tips to set up the library, but also includes the on-ground information from people who have been setting up libraries all around Western India. So let's dive in to what we need to keep in mind to use libraries to build a reading culture in India. Read More.

Edition 4.23

30 May 2025.

Today we write on reading comprehension. This is not just a primer on the difference between reading comprehension and reading fluency. This is a deep dive into reading comprehension. We explore what are the different levels of reading comprehension that are possible to build and hence, also need to be assessed. Read More.

Edition 4.22

23 May 2025.

"Economics is boring, dry, full of technical terms that don't mean anything in the real world." This is what a student told a teacher on why she was not a fan of learning the subject. In today's edition, we try to correct this misconception and share tips on how to make teaching and learning Economics meaningful, fun and interesting. Read More.

Edition 4.21

16 May 2025.

In today's edition we write about how teaching grammar is not only about teaching the rules of grammar. Of course, the rules are important. But just expecting students to memorise them is not the only way to teach grammar. So dive into a fun grammar classroom with us. Read More.

Edition 4.20

9 May 2025.

Welcome to the 113th edition of TEPS Weekly! What happens when the conceptual understanding of a topic does not match with the day-to-day anecdotal experience of students? How do we get students to look beyond the obvious and understand the world around them. On one hand, the bicycle a student rides comes to a halt unless they keep pedaling (applying force). And on the other hand, Newton's First Law of Motion says that a body in motion will continue to be in motion unless external force is applied. We write about reconciling these apparent contradictions in today's edition. Read More.

Edition 4.18

25 Apr 2025.

Welcome to the 111th edition of TEPS Weekly! How's the summer going?

In this week's edition, we explore how to make mathematics less scary and more fun. We hope this helps teachers and a lot of students out there. Read More.

Edition 4.17

18 Apr 2025.

Welcome to the 110th edition of TEPS Weekly! Design Thinking is one of the more popular problem-solving approaches in the last few years. And it looks like it is going to remain that way looking at the importance given to Design Thinking as a problem-solving skill in our educational boards. In today's edition, we pair Design Thinking with Gen-AI. How can this new technology help teachers prepare for a Design Thinking class? Read More.

Edition 4.16

11 Apr 2025.

Welcome to the 109th edition of TEPS Weekly! In today's edition, we have written on creating questions for long-response answers. Why are the words that we use in a question important? Why does it become even more important if it a question for long responses? How can we create good long-response questions? These are the questions we explore in today's TEPS Weekly. Read More.

Edition 4.15

4 Apr 2025.

Welcome to the 108th edition of TEPS Weekly! Socio-emotional learning (SEL) and making students resilient or anti-fragile or emotionally intelligent is a core part of student learning and development. Often this part of student development is thought of as separate from the more 'academic' development. In this edition, we show how SEL can be integrated into a lesson. Read More.

Edition 4.14

28 Mar 2025.

Welcome to the 107th edition of TEPS Weekly! We have written about how active learning experiences are important for students. We have written that when students are actively thinking, they are likely to understand deeper and remember for longer. One of the ways to have students think actively is to engage them in discussions. In today's edition, we write about how a discussion-led class should look like and what the role of the teacher should be. Read More.

Edition 4.13

21 Mar 2025.

Welcome to the 106th edition of TEPS Weekly! oday, we write about what is helpful in student learning and what is not. When does it help to give students information? When does it help that teachers ask questions? Why is it important in making space for students to work hard? Read More.

Edition 4.12

14 Mar 2025.

Welcome to the 105th edition of TEPS Weekly! In today's edition, we write about the progression of writing skills right from the foundational stage to the secondary school. We answer questions like: What can we expect at the different stages of development? Are there some common strategies that we could use to develop writing skills across developmental stages? Can we use the same prompt for students of different ages and at different developmental stages? Read More.

Edition 4.11

7 Mar 2025.

Welcome to the 104th edition of TEPS Weekly! In today's edition, we write about the Waldorf approach in Indian classrooms. What? How can an approach that started after the Great War (as it was called then) have any significance or relevance in today's India? Well, we dug into the academics of it, and we found some very interesting ways to adapt the Waldorf approach for Indian foundational learning classrooms. Read More.

Edition 4.10

28 Feb 2025.

Welcome to the 103rd edition of TEPS Weekly. Yes! We are changing the name of our newsletter to TEPS Weekly. In today's edition, we write on how to teach history. Why is studying history 'boring' but India-Pakistan cricket games are the most popular? If history evokes emotion and empathy, then how can it be boring? These are some of the questions we are tackling in today's edition. Read More.

Edition 4.09

21 Feb 2025.

Welcome to the 102nd edition of Things in Education. In today's edition, we write on phonics. Specifically, we peel the layers of building phonemic awareness and how learning to be phonemically aware is a structured and step-wise process. Read More.

Edition 4.08

28 Feb 2025.

Welcome to the 103rd edition of TEPS Weekly. Yes! We are changing the name of our newsletter to TEPS Weekly. In today's edition, we write on how to teach history. Why is studying history 'boring' but India-Pakistan cricket games are the most popular? If history evokes emotion and empathy, then how can it be boring? These are some of the questions we are tackling in today's edition. Read More.

Edition 4.07

7 Feb 2025.

Hello all. This is our 100th edition of this newsletter! And we are very proud and happy about how consistently we have put up quality material weekly. But your support and encouragement have been instrumental in giving us the energy to write even on difficult days. This week’s edition is about how teacher professional development should look if it is well rounded, accountable and supportive. We lay out our model of a good teacher professional development ecosystem. Read More.

Edition 4.06

31 Jan 2025.

Hello and welcome to the 99th edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. In today's edition, we continue deeper into the understanding of classroom management. Specifically, we write about the reactive measures that teachers can take to manage student behaviour in the classroom. What is a reactive measure? How will it manage student behaviour? Does the teacher change their behaviour or practice? We answer these questions in today's edition. Read More.

Edition 4.05

24 Jan 2025.

Hello and welcome to the 98th edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. In today's edition, we write on classroom management. When we think of classroom management, the first thing that comes to mind is maintaining discipline in the classroom. As we point out, there is a lot more to it. In fact, we could not fit all of it in this edition and we will need more editions to write about this. Read More.

Edition 4.03

10 Jan 2025.

Hello and welcome to the 96th edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. In today's edition, we write about our good friend - the working memory. I am sure as a constant reader you remember our friend. We focus on another technique to lower the cognitive load on students' working memory so they learn more easily. Read More.

Edition 4.01

27 Dec 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 94th edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. In today's edition, we reflect on a year of Teacher Professional Development (TPD) at Things Education. Read More.

Edition 3.40

13 Dec 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 92nd edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. In today's edition we go deeper into understanding how memories are made and how us, educators, can leverage this knowledge to ensure learning which is deep and lasts for a long time. Read More.

Edition 3.38

29 Nov 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 90th edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. Think the trip that you had taken with your family and cousins. Think of the time that you had an embarrassing conversation. Think of the time when you were so happy because you got some good news. Today's edition is about the part of the brain which allows us to have these memories and thoughts - long-term memory (LTM). We introduce LTM and will continue to write about it in the next few editions. Read More.

Edition 3.36

15 Nov 2024.

We hope you had a good festive season. Our team took a well deserved break. And we are back! We are continuing with our series on information processing. And today we write about not just how to ensure that the cognitive load on working memory is not too high, but also on how to increase the capacity of working memory. Read More.

Edition 3.35

25 Oct 2024.

In this edition we write about a part of the main character in most of the discussions on information processing for student learning - working memory. Specifically, we write about the need to optimise the load on students' working memory and how too little load on the working memory is equally bad for learning as too much load! Read More.

Edition 3.33

11 Oct 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 85th edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. In this edition we write about a part of the Cognitive Load Theory that gets overlooked - Sensory Memory. How do our brains pay attention to some things and ignore some other very obvious things? Read More.

Edition 3.31

27 Sep 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 83rd edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. This edition we write about the cognitive science of learning--specifcially the way we process new information and remember it. This is a precursor to multiple editions in the future, in which we will write about classroom practices, time tables, yearly planning and its links with how we process new information. Read More.

Edition 3.29

13 Sep 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 81st edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. This is a special edition because we are drawing connections between human evolution, human psychology, educational psychology, cognitive psychology, and a little neuro-biology to give you a simple strategy for when you plan your next lesson. Maybe it becomes a cheat code for predicting what the students will find hard to learn and what will be relatively easy. Read More.

Edition 3.27

30 Aug 2024.

Are the assessments you are doing next week formative or summative? We think that after reading today's edition you will know for sure. So please dig in... Read More.

Edition 3.25

16 Aug 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 77th edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. Isn't it ironic that almost everyone in India can enjoy this long weekend, but teachers need to come to school even on Independence Day? Teachers go above and beyond! This edition is about critical thinking. And we have written about it earlier, but this time we really get into the nuances of how this would look in a classroom. Hope there is something for everyone in this one. Read More.

Edition 3.23

2 Aug 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 75th edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. We hope you are staying safe with the weather taking over almost the whole of India. In today's edition, we examine the multiple intelligences theory. We take a look behind the curtain and bust myths with scientific arguments. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this. Read More.

Edition 3.21

19 July 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 73rd edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. In today's edition we do a deep dive into what scaffolding is. And as you will also realise, by the time we are done with the thousand words, we want to write another thousand on the nuances that emerge. We will be writing more on these in the coming editions, but for now let's get our thoughts on how scaffolding works. Read More.

Edition 3.19

5 July 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 71st edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. We've had many interesting conversations with teachers over the last few months. And as we reflect on our learnings, we will periodically share our learnings and thoughts with you. We did the same a couple of editions ago, and today too, we are going to write about student understanding. Read More.

Edition 3.17

21 June 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 69th edition of our weekly newsletter, Things in Education. Today's edition has a few reflections on teacher professional development in India, based on our experiences over the last year. We would love to hear from you if your experience has been similar or dissimilar. Read More.

Edition 3.15

7 June 2024.

The NEP 2020 and various other guidelines emphasise the need for educators to transition from traditional lesson formats to project-based learning, inquiry-based classrooms, and experiential learning. We believe that at the foundation of all of these is the fact that students should be actively engaged in learning. And in this edition, we write about what it means to actively engage students in learning. Read More.

Edition 3.13

24 May 2024.

With the new academic year beginning and teachers preparing for their classes, we thought that we could summarise the different pedagogical approaches and what needs to be kept in mind while using different pedagogical approaches. Read More.

Edition 3.11

10 May 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 63rd edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. Our organisation started with the question, "What can we do so that teachers can upskill themselves?" So when we write about continuous teacher professional development, it is very close to our heart. In today's edition, we go into why continuity is important in teacher professional development and what the different ways are in which professional development can occur (hint: there are more things apart from hands-on workshops). Read More.

Edition 3.10

26 Apr 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 62nd edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. In today's edition we try to explore why Direct Instruction is so maligned as a pedagogical approach. Is it that there is no pedagogical upside to Direct Instruction? No. Are there some misconceptions about what Direct Instruction should look like in a classroom? As we find out, maybe. Read More.

Edition 3.9

12 Apr 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 61st edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. Today we write about something that a lot of experienced teachers do intuitively. But we think that writing about it makes it concrete for the experienced teachers, as it is no longer just intuitive, but also research-backed. For teachers with fewer years in the field, knowing that you can blend two approaches while teaching comes as first, a surprise, and then a relief. Imagine that you didn't have to only follow the Reggio Emilia approach for foundational learning, but you could also take elements of the Montessori approach. Life becomes so much simpler for teachers! And dare we say better for students' learning outcomes. So let's dive into the what and how blending of approaches. Read More.

Edition 3.8

29 Mar 2024.

As we wind down yet another academic year as teachers, principals, school leaders, owners we thought this would be good time to post something that can help with self-reflection, building better hiring processes and just cooler ways to plan professional development. Today we write about how content knowledge is different than pedagogical knowledge and the ramifications of these in our approaches to teaching. Read More.

Edition 3.7

15 Mar 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 59th edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. In this edition, we have tried to uncover the basics of what teachers need for the best chance of ensuring students meet their learning outcomes. We think that constant and frequent feedback on students' thoughts and actions are key to better planned and customised lessons. However, students' thoughts and actions are not easily seen. We write about a model of how to make students' thoughts and actions visible. Read More.

Edition 3.6

1 Mar 2024.

In today's edition, we write about which topics teachers find difficult to teach or are at least, not interested in teaching. Over the last few years, we have been meeting with teachers and we have seen that teachers find some topics harder to teach effectively than others. So we tried to make sense of it by asking: Are there any patterns to the topics that teachers don't like to teach? Are not good at teaching? And many more. Tell us if you agree with our model. We want to know if you have had different experiences. Read More.

Edition 3.5

16 Feb 2024.

In this edition of the newsletter, we annouce the launch of our Data-Informed Teacher Development. We have been doing teacher professional development for private schools and teachers from various government schools. Finally, after a year little more than a year of building, we think we have a solution that supports teachers and schools in the best possible way. And it exists as a combination of online and in-person intervention, and a combination of support and accountability in equal measure. And our favourite part is that the entire solution is modular. You only want the online part? Okay! You only want the in-person sessions? Okay! So dive in and have a look at our solution. Read More.

Edition 3.4

2 Feb 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 56th edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. This In the last edition, we wrote about what is STEM in the foundational years and why it is important. We now explore the other side of exploring STEM in foundational years - the pitfalls. But before that, as promised in the last edition, we share examples how technology and mathematics can included in foundational STEM. Read More.

Edition 3.3

19 Jan 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 55th edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. Does STEM have a place in a foundational learning classroom? Is it just a fad? Does it really help foundational development of learners? This edition explores these questions and hopefully shows why STEM is crucial in early education. Read More.

Edition 3.2

5 Jan 2024.

Hello and welcome to the 54th edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. This edition is on foundational numeracy, specifically focussing on how an innately present number sense can be leveraged to teach mathematical operations. We hope that today's edition helps our readers pinpoint specific reasons why hands-on activities are important in teaching and learning foundational numeracy skills. Read More.

Edition 3.1

22 Dec 2023.

Hello and welcome to the 53rd edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. Today we reflect on our work with teachers. We took the plunge to support and help in-service teachers, so what did we learn in the last three years? Read More.

Edition 2.26

8 Dec 2023.

We, at Things Education, have been working with teachers, teacher trainers, school leaders and sometimes students over the last three years. We have been reading, understanding and implementing some of the best practices of teacher professional development over these years. We thought that it would be a good idea to reflect on the process and see where we have reached as an organisation and also the area of teacher professional development in school education, in general. Read More.

Edition 2.25

24 Nov 2023.

Today we write about a critical component of teacher development – breaking of ineffective habits and creation of effective ones. Breaking old habits and creating new ones is not an easy task, and definitely not one that can be achieved in a single TPD session. How can we use evidence from neuroscience and social science to make TPD more effective? We write today about this specific issue, based on a paper by Hobbiss, M., Sims, S., & Allen, R. (2020). Read More.

Edition 2.24

10 Nov 2023.

Today we write about a part of teacher professional development which a lot of us tend to forget or maybe ignore. Classroom observations. Classroom observations are subjective, difficult and effortful. No wonder they are avoided. We write today about how one may be able to approach classroom observations without it being a pain in the neck. Read More.

Edition 2.23

27 Oct 2023.

The Things Education team is made up of teachers – teachers who have taught in different situations, taught different subjects and grades, and taught using different approaches. Over our several years of individual and combined teaching and teacher training experiences, we believe we have a fair understanding of what kind of support teachers will benefit from – and all our expertise has now taken the form of a fantastic new teaching tool, TEPS. But what do we think is the right kind of support? And why? Dive into this summary edition of our newsletter to find out. Read More.

Edition 2.22

13 Oct 2023. 

Imagine this situation: You are a Grade 3 English teacher in India, and you are following a manual of standardised lesson plans to teach skills of reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary. This week, the lesson plan requires you to read the poem ‘Bed in Summer’ by Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish novelist and poet. This poem comes highly recommended, because it forms part of the poet’s collection called “A Child’s Garden of Verses”, it is at just the right reading level for Grade 3 students, and it uses endearing imagery and rhyme. Read More.

Edition 2.21

29 Sep 2023. 

Many times when we are having conversations about assessments or lesson plans or even specific activities in lesson plans, we ask a question to teacher, "What is the learning outcome of this lesson?" It is uncanny how many times we don't get a specific answer to the question. So in today's edition we break down the components of learning outcomes and give you simple do's and don't's of creating a learning outcome. We believe that having clearly defined learning outcomes are the first step to any teaching-learning plans. Read More.

Edition 2.20

15 Sep 2023. 

We live in an age when information is available at our fingertips. AI has made looking for the information easy. There are approximately infinite resources which can be used as learning aids. Social media has been a great platform to look for and share the best ideas. So when an educationist looks at an interesting teaching tool, questions about how to use this tool, when to use this tool and more importantly when not to use the tool come up. Today's edition is about one of the decisions that an educator needs to make - does the learning outcome need students to explore deeply or do they need to build skills or procedural knowledge? Read More.

Edition 2.19

1 Sep 2023. 

We are growing up. And we are growing. Growing up - we completed two years of being an officially registered entity earlier this week. Growing, because of two reasons - one we are writing about topics that are highly debated. Last edition was a breakdown of IBL, PBL and constuctivism and today we are writing about role of AI in a teacher's life. Secondly, this edition was formed with the experiences of our Academic Lead, Shristi Singh. Today we write about what Shristi has learned from using AI. What have been the advantages and where she needs to be careful and use her own judgement and expertise. We are sure this will help a lot of educators. Read More.

Edition 2.18

18 Aug 2023. 

Hello and welcome to the 44th edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. Phew!! Today we do it. We specifically show, write and summarise the difference between constructivism, inquiry-based learning and project-based learning. Through the course of reading it, you may see a lot of things overlap between these approaches. This may lead you to ask, "What is really different?" We have tried to at least write that one defining feature that makes a pedagogical approach inquiry-based or project-based. Read More.

Edition 2.17

4 Aug 2023. 

This edition was inspired in part by some experience that Things Education team members had at a few schools and also in part to an amazing discussion on Twitter. In this edition, we talk about what we usually get right and wrong about Problem-based Learning - the other PBL. Two studies have recently been published on PBL which help make sense of the effectiveness of PBL at different grades and different circumstances. Hope you enjoy this summary of the research in the field and our experience on ground in schools. Read More.

Edition 2.16

21 July 2023. 

One of our early editions was about why teacher professional development (TPD) programmes fail in Indian schools and what can be done to ensure more effective TPD programmes. That edition was more than one and a half years ago. Today we revisit the topic of TPD and schools to see where we are with TPD. With the increasing awareness of the need to have TPD programmes in schools, more schools are opting for TPD programmes. This is a great first step. We delve deeper today into what schools have been doing, what they may be missing and what more they could do. Read More.

Edition 2.15

7 July 2023. 

We have somewhat of a masterclass on Constructivism today. There is some debate on whether constructivism is an effective pedagogical approach for student learning or not. In today's edition, we conclusively take a side in the debate, and at the same time we also caution the readers on how not to approach constructivism. In one of our follwing editions we will also delve into what is the right time to use construtivism as a pedgogical strategy. Read More.

Edition 2.14

23 June 2023. 

Today's edition is a little different than normal. We have attempted to put our other editions in the context of what policy, research and practice are telling us to do when it comes to foundational learning. We are not really surprised that there we could call back almost 10 different editions to help bring context to our fortnightly editions. It is especially pleasing for a fledging organisation like ours to see that we are thinking and creating foundational learning solutions which are aligned with not just policy, but also backed by research in classrooms. Read More.

Edition 2.13

9 June 2023. 

Today we write about a fundamental dichotomy when it comes to teaching in inquiry classrooms or taking the project-based learning approach. The dichotomy comes from the fact that through these pedagogies we expect students, who are learning the discipline, to act as experts in the discipline. We say it is a dichotomy, but as you read on, you will realise there is no dichotomy. Read More.

Edition 2.12

26 May 2023. 

In a previous edition, we wrote about what phonics is and why phonics instruction is one of the foundations of strong reading abilities. “Cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham has often emphasised that "the alphabet is a code that puts sounds into visual form." As we read, we turn these random shapes on paper – letters – back into sound! In that sense, this week's article is about how reading leads to better reading. Read More.

Edition 2.11

12 May 2023. 

This week we are back with our foundational learning series. And as we had promised at the beginning of the calendar year, we have an edition on foundational numeracy. More specifically, we write today about the intiutive number sense that we have and how it needs to be developed to deepen students' sense for numbers. Read More.

Edition 2.10

28 Apr 2023. 

Hello and welcome to the 36th edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. What does policy change in education mean for you as an educator, a school leader or a content creator? Today, we try to partially answer this in the context foundational learning.  Read More.

Edition 2.9

14 Apr 2023. 

Hello and welcome to the 35th edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. In this edition we write about how the role of the educator may be changing in the weeks or months to come. It is a little different. Can you find out what is different as you go through the article?  Read More.

Edition 2.8

31 Mar 2023. 

A teaching strategy is the approach a teacher uses to teach something new to students. Teaching strategies that involve active learning - that is the students' brains are actively engaging with the material instead of passively listening - are the most successful strategies to enhance student learning and remembering.

Hello and welcome to the 34th edition of our fortnightly newsletter, Things in Education. Today, we write about teaching strategies in vocabulary that involve active learning. Things that teachers can do in the class to make building vocabulary more than just a passive outcome of exposure to different and newer words. Read More.

Edition 2.7

17 Mar 2023. 

After a brief pause on our series of editions on foundational learning, we are back with a special edition on foundational learning. We are sharing not just our thoughts and experiences, but we have also incldued parts of our own preschool offering. Read More.

Edition 2.6

3 Mar 2023. 

In the previous two editions of our series on assessments, we wrote about how formative assessments are a key part of teaching and how we can successfully assess for understanding. This week we focus on what we misinterpret as student understanding. Read More.

Edition 2.5

17 Feb 2023. 

In the previous edition of our series on assessments, we wrote about the need for formative assessments during teaching and how these assessments must inform teaching. The focus of the piece was that assessments must help us answer the question: Have students understood what I have taught them today? In today’s edition, we go deeper into how to assess for student understanding. Read More.

Edition 2.4

3 Feb 2023. 

Today's edition is not related to foundational learning. It is about formative assessments. We write about how misunderstood formative assessment may be and what changes can we make in them to improve student learning. Read More.

Edition 2.3

20 Jan 2023. 

This Friday we have a selection of writings on alternate pedagogies and assesments that we wrote about in the last year. And what we mean by alternate pedagogies is just pedagogies which are different from the traditional lecture-based instruction. We summarise the different difficulites that educators face while conducting inquiry classes, project-based learning lessons and flipped classrooms. We also give some quick tips and some deeper tips to overcome these challenges. We end the newsletter with summing up our thoughts on how to use assessments in the most effective way and also how to not overwhelm a student when asking a question. We hope you enjoy this journey! Read More.

Edition 2.2

6 Jan 2023. 

As we continue our anniversary celebrations, today's edition brings you the highlights of how a human mind learns and how knowledge of this can be leveraged in classrooms. Students can be motivated, kept engaged with the lesson and learning goals can be achieved more effectively when we know how the human mind is going to learn and what are the ways the human mind can trick teachers and students into believing that they learned something, without really learning it. Read More.

Edition 2.1

23 Dec 2022. 

There has been a great push for strengthening foundational learning practices across the country, thanks to the policy statements of the NEP 2020, the guidelines for implementation by NIPUN Bharat, and the curriculum framework set out by the NCF 2022. And this edition is a good summary of our thoughts on how early learning practices should be approached. Read More.

Edition 1.26

9 Dec 2022. 

Today's edition of Things in Education is us sharing what we have learned from seeing our philosophy and curriculum in action in preschools. We understand it is nice to talk about what could work, or what may work. Today, we focus on what works and what are some essential things we need to do as educators to make it work. You may wonder, "What is 'making it work'?" 'Making it work' for us is ensuring student learning. Read More.

Edition 1.25

25 Nov 2022. 

Today's edition of Things in Education explores a rather debated topic in early learning - phonics and its relevance in learning to read the English language. We focus on arguments from a data-driven point of view rather than the memories of our early learning. This is a continuing series on Foundational Learning that we are running. Read More.

Edition 1.24

11 Nov 2022. 

In today’s edition we try to understand what an application-based question really is. Does an application-based question really exist? Or is it just some mythical thing? We have all heard the phrase ‘application-based questions’. We have also been asked numerous times to check whether the students are able to apply what they have learned. So how do we ask a question that tests students’ ability to apply the knowledge that they have learned and understood? Read More.

Edition 1.23

28 Oct 2022. 

This edition is part of the Foundational Learning Series and talks about the need for motor development as an important stepping stone to learning writing. We already spoke about why writing is essential in developing a literate brain and we also saw that writing develops from what we may think is gibberish, but are actually important pre-writing levels. Taken together a slightly bigger picture on the development of writing emerges which includes crucial development of the brain alongwith development of other parts of the body.  Read More.

Edition 1.22

14 Oct 2022. 

Assessing student learning is as straightforward as you want it to be. Decent questions give a good superficial understanding of student learning. But there are many nuanced layers to making excellent assessement questions. Today's edition is the beginning of a new series on Making Excellent Assessments.

The first part of the series talks about how not to make recall questions and why context, cognitive load and the testing objective need to be balanced while making a question.  Read More.

Edition 1.21

30 Sep 2022. 

We started our Foundational Learning series a month ago, and we hope that you’ve found it useful. The first edition in the series suggested reasons why handwriting is not as redundant as it may seem in the present times. And the second edition was a deep dive into what actually constitutes writing at the Kindergarten level. In today’s edition we highlight points to understand to ensure student learning happens and the student is motivated to learn. We have written about these earlier in our newsletter. Read More.

Edition 1.20

16 Sep 2022. This is the second article in our Foundational Learning series of Things in Education. And in this edition we get down to the bedrock of what writing is. And writing is much more than writing. And today's edition is even more special as it includes contribution from Vani Balasubramanian, who has worked in the education sector in direct and indirect capacities for the last 4 years. She is currently pursuing her master's in education from Azim Premji University. Vani's educational interests include classroom literacy practices, library spaces and the role of children's literature in early language acquisition. Read More.

Edition 1.19

2 Sep 2022. This edition is a special one because it launches our series on Foundational Learning. Seasoned readers would recall that we have written about foundational learning before. And we agree. WIth this series, we aim to discuss specific questions or issues that teachers, principals and school leaders encounter often. For example, we kick off this series by asking what happens to reading if we remove writing from the foundational curriculum. If the need for a writing syllabus has not been questioned yet in your school, it will be soon. Hopefully this article can help you articulate some of the arguments against it. Read More.

Edition 1.18

19 Aug 2022. In this edition we discuss one of the most often encountered concern of teachers. Teachers who think newer methods and pedagogies may be helpful. But they believe that there is no time to complete the curriculum in time. "An inquiry learning classroom takes longer to cover the topic than a traditional classroom", they say. Our point of view is simple: don't cover everything in the curriculum! Read More.

Edition 1.17

5 Aug 2022. This is the part two of a two-part series on how the process of scientific thinking can be used to engage students in active learning. In this part we give you an idea of how we approach designing a class to engage students in the process of scientific inquiry. We hope that this helps you integrate inquiry as a way to actively engage students in the classroom. Read More.

Edition 1.16

22 July 2022. This edition is the first of a two-part series on how the process of scientific thinking can be used to engage students in active learning. In this part we try to show how the process of scientific inquiry can lead to active engagement and hence deeper understanding in students. The next part will focus on the challenges while using the process of scientific inqury in class. Read More.

Edition 1.15

8 July 2022. Today's edition is a little different. It is a type of an experiment. This edition tries to summarise information on different aspects of lesson planning that we have written about over the last six months. Lesson planning is an important skill and needs to be built over time and experience in the classrooms makes lesson planning more refined. Sometimes teachers say, "I had a great lesson plan. I knew what I was going to do every minute of the class." Lesson plans are not only about preparing material for every minute of class. It is about engaging and motivating students. And what better way to introduce it, than to paraphrase the boxer Mike Tyson... Read More.

Edition 1.14

24 June 2022. In today's edition we have written about motivation - specifically motivating students to learn. Motivation is one of the most difficult aspects of child (or adult) psychology to deal with. There are multiple factors which feed into one's motivation. Here we present one framework by which we can understand student motivation. Read More.

Edition 1.13

10 June 2022. Thinking creatively need not be an in-born trait which cannot be taught. There are ways to encourage creativity in classrooms and help students build this vital skill. To understand how one can do this, Read More.

Edition 1.12

27 May 2022. Flipped learning has gained some momentum in the last few years given the advent of online learning and asynchronous learning. In this article we talk about the dangers of doign flipped learning wrong. This is meant as a caution and we will share tips on how to avoid this in upcoming editions. Read More.

Edition 1.11

13 May 2022. Inquiry-based learning is a powerful pedagogy which allows for the democratisation of education. Students have a bigger say in what they would like to explore and learn rather than being told to do something. However inquiry classes are not straightforward to manage for some teachers, especially early on. In this edition of the newsletter we take a look at the challenges that teachers face and how we can ovecome these challenges.  Read More.

Edition 1.10

29 Apr 2022. Why is it easier for us to remember all the characters of our favourite TV show and their history but when it comes to history of the world, we struggle to recall? This edition of our newsletter suggestes that the answer may lie in how our mind rebels against remembering things that it deems unimportant. As educators we need to get our minds to stop rebelling against the learning matter. Read More.

Edition 1.9

15 Apr 2022. Engaging lesson plans are important, but what is more important than engaging students? Engaging students so that they learn and understand. We write about how to go about approaching lesson plan creation by keeping student learning at the centre. We also have a couple of great teacher professional development courses - details in the newsletter. Read More.

Edition 1.8

1 Apr 2022. In today's edition of our newsletter we decipher why it is difficult to think critically. And once we know why it is difficult, we can find ways to make it easier for students to develop critical thinking as a skill. Read More.

Edition 1.7

18 Mar 2022. In today's edition of our newsletter we focus on project-based learning (PBL). Specifically, we share our experiences of working with educators who are interested in conducting PBL classrooms in their schools. We hope that this edition helps you understand the basics of PBL and gives you options on how to start the transition to PBL classrooms. Read More.

Edition 1.6

4 Mar 2022. It is that time of the year again! The final examinations are upon us in most of the schools in India. And they will soon begin in the rest of the world, as well. Creating the final examination is an important process. One, it can assess the students' progress in the year. A subtle but more powerful aspect of creating final examinations is to allow teachers to reflect on the year of teaching and learning. Reflecting on the focus of teaching during the year can be a powerful tool to know what a teacher taught during the class, and hence what to focus the final examinations on. Further it helps teachers understand what teachers got right and what changes they should try in the next year. We hope that this edition helps you with the reflection process. Read More.

Edition 1.5

18 Feb 2022. Our core interest and expertise lies in Teacher Profesional Development and we help schools and governmental organisations to upskill teachers. From our experience we have come up with some common pitfalls that educators may fall into while thinking about professional development. Though this edition comes from our experience with schools, these are easily applicable to individual educators and parents. Read More.

Edition 1.4

4 Feb 2022. Reading is a difficult activity for the human brain. Depending on the language we can fluently read, our brain develops differently. What does this mean as digital devices replace books as primary reading resource? In the fourth edition of Things in Education, we dive into answering this question. And not surprisingly, the answers may come from the early days of writing in Western Asia and Egypt. Read More.

Edition 1.3

21 Jan 2022. In the third edition of Things in Education, we focus on how challenging it is for educators and students to transition from lecture-based classrooms to inquiry classrooms. We also write about scaffolding and how it helps in student learning not only in inquiry classrooms, but also in any type of classroom. Read More.

Edition 1.2

7 Jan 2022. In the second edition of Things in Education, we talk about one of the main reasons why reading levels in India are so low and what are small changes that educators or parents can make to help build reading skills in students. Read More.

Edition 1.1

25 Dec 2021. In this first edition of Things in Education, we talk about why our brain is quick to lose motivation to learn, and how relevance, rigour and fun can make learning easier as well as deeper. Read More.

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