S5E28: AJ Pettway on “student-centered learning,” instructional coaching, and school leadership

Welcome to the Progressively Incorrect podcast. I’m Dr. Zach Groshell, and in this episode, I welcome Kurt Engelmann and Alisa Kerr of the National Institute for Direct Instruction (NIFDI) for a conversation about the second season of Emily Hanford’s Sold a Story, which turns its attention to Direct Instruction. This is also the first episode…

I’m thrilled to be sharing this special episode with you, the Season 5 Finale of Progressively Incorrect. I’m joined by Dr. Anita Archer, one of the most influential voices in explicit instruction and effective teaching. For decades, Anita has helped educators translate learning science into practical classroom routines that improve student success, and her work…

Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell. In this episode, I’m joined by Sean Morrisey, creator of the Word Mapping Project, for a conversation about how students learn words—not just as spellings to memorize or definitions to recite, but as connected units of sound, spelling, and meaning. Sean spent eight years as…

Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell. I’ve always been fascinated by what teaching looks like in remote and challenging contexts. That interest goes back to my own time working in places like Sudan, where the namesake of this blog, Education Rickshaw, comes from. So when I was invited to present at…

Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell. Education is filled with myths. Some are harmless. Others shape curriculum, teacher training, intervention programs, and the lives of students for decades before anyone seriously asks whether they work. One of the reasons this podcast exists is to challenge those myths and examine the evidence…

Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell. Executive functioning has become one of the most frequently discussed topics in education, yet it remains one of the most misunderstood. Teachers are increasingly expected to help students manage attention, organization, memory, planning, and self-regulation, but questions remain about what these skills actually are, how…

Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Dr. Zach Groshell. Today I’m bringing you an episode from the Direct Instruction Podcast—one that I think anyone interested in instructional design, curriculum development, or evidence-based teaching will find fascinating. I’m joined by Owen Engelmann of Engelmann-Becker Corporation, the curriculum development organization founded by Siegfried Engelmann and…

Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell, and today we are talking about teaching, coaching, and the strange language of modern education. One phrase that comes up constantly in education is “student-centered learning.” It gets used so often, and so vaguely, that it’s started to mean almost everything and almost nothing at…

Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell, and today we are talking about Montessori. I’ll admit, I came into this conversation skeptical. Most of what gets sold as “Montessori” today is a watered-down, follow-your-bliss version of what Maria Montessori actually wrote. The popular caricature— that Montessori is a free-for-all where kids drift…

Welcome back to Progressively Incorrect. I’m your host, Zach Groshell, and today we are talking about…. PE! I’ll admit, I’ve often taken a dim view of PE as a subject. At its worst, it’s often just games and activities that don’t appear to build toward much, and that, frankly, could be led by someone without…