Dear colleague, According to Efficacy belief OG Dr. Albert Bandura, there are four keys to the cultivation of Efficacy in an individual. I’ll list them, describe them briefly, and give a practical pointer or two. Lots of interesting things we can take away from Dr. Bandura’s four keys to efficacy. Mad respect, Dr. B. DSJR
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Let’s Make Teaching Better.
Dave Stuart Jr. is a husband, father, and high school teacher who writes about education. He reads extensively across the disciplines so that he can create uniquely satisfying professional development experiences for his colleagues around the world. His mission is to encourage and equip educators on the journey to long-term flourishing and professional excellence.
Professional development. (The good kind.)
If we’re going to make teaching better, we’ve got to improve professional development. I’m not the guru, but I have spent thousands of hours practicing and researching the art and science of educator-centered, high-impact PD. My hope with all of these is that they help.
And oh yeah: I’m still a teacher. I’ve never left the classroom. With 120 students on my roster each year, it’s impossible for me to detach theory from practice.
Online PD
My schedule-friendly, all-online professional development courses are designed with busy educators in mind. Whole staff or district applications are available — email support@davestuartjr.com with your needs.
In-Person PD
I speak and lead education workshops for a limited number of schools and organizations around the world each year.
Books + Blog
My best-selling book, These 6 Things, has been read and cherished by secondary teachers around the world. My blog is read by over 35,000 educators each month.
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The Latest from the Blog
If My Phone Distracts Me… Except There Is No If
Dear colleague, Back at the start of November, I guided my students through our first WOOP goal-setting exercise of the year. (For more on that, see this video, this article, or the Define Success chapter of The Will to Learn.) WOOP is a really beautiful strategy to get good at. It’s research-supported, it gives students […]
What’s Woodenization All About?
Dear colleague, Ashley Yazarlou is a true Will to Learn warrior, having led innovative and personalized professional development on the material in the book multiple times in her setting of Hemet Unified School District in California. Last year, when leading a session on the Effort and Efficacy beliefs, she asked participants to define Woodenization in […]
Three Ways to Stoke the Value Fireplace
Dear colleague, Cold days this month have got me thinking about fireplaces. Mmmmm… Fireplaces. I don’t have one, but whenever I visit a home where there are real logs crackling, it’s a real strong feeling of, “Okay. Let’s stay here. Until spring.” So in our classrooms, there’s a thing that’s kind of got that some […]
90% of Our Students…
…want us to be successful. I really believe that. In The Will to Learn, I made an argument I believe with every cell in my body: all students *want* to want to care about learning. They want to be motivated. And they want this for the same reason I prefer eating a great meal to […]
The Biggest Problem (and Opportunity) With Educational AI…
…is that it’s forcing us to grapple with answers to basic questions. Questions like: High-quality, comprehensive, and evidence-supported answers are the only ones that work here. If we assume we’re all in agreement on what an education is for and then proceed to work at answering what it takes to get there, we’ll end up […]
The Subversive Nature of a Good Mini-Sermon
Dear colleague, A great mini-sermon is a subversive little bit of messaging. In 30-60 seconds, the teacher communicates in an “oh, by the way” manner that learning is good for all kinds of reasons. As they do this over time, they try to paint with all the colors of the Rainbow of Why. When we […]
It Works If We Work It
Dear colleague, A while ago, our colleague Katie from Des Moines wrote in the following: Just wanted to say thank you for putting words to what I always vaguely knew to be true about teacher credibility. As I started the school year, I really focused on MGCs, mini sermons, using time well, and giving quick […]
Wishing You a Regret-Free Winter Break ๐
Dear colleague, This’ll be my last article of 2024; thank you for reading and teaching right beside me this year. (This is the halfway mark of the eighteenth year of my teaching career. Just when I think I’ve got this job figured out, providence brings along a set of challenges that make it feel brand […]
What Mentally Strong Teachers DON’T Do
Dear colleague, In my last article, I did some poor writing unintentionally, alluding to these things that mentally strong teachers don’t do but then not really listing those things. What I’ve written below is my teacher-centered take on psychoanalyst Amy Morin’s book, 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do. These aren’t Amy’s words verbatim, but […]
How Psychoanalyst Amy Morin Teaches Through Non-Examples
In 13 Things Mentally Strong Parents Don’t Do, psychotherapist Amy Morin demonstrates a great teaching move: using non-examples. Whether you’re teaching elementary math, high school science, community college composition, or whatever-else-have-you, this idea of teaching from non-examples is really helpful. Now of course, non-examples can be confusing, so you’ve got to be clear about your […]
The Keys to Hitting a Target
Dear colleague, For the past few summers in Michigan, my family and I have spent one week at a family camp, and one of our favorite camp activities is heading to the riflery and archery ranges and working on our marksmanship. Being town dwellers like we are, shooting 22s or bows and arrows isn’t something […]
Woodenization Example: Improving at Short Answer Questions + Teaching the Rubric
Dear colleague, Here’s a quick Woodenization example for a couple of biggies in my classroom: After my students wrote their first SAQs of the school year, I worked hard to give them fast, simple feedback. Using our single-point rubrics (see pp. 184-185 in your copy of These 6 Things), I did my darnedest to have […]
Why “Work Harder” is a Terrible Plan
Dear colleague, Another thing my students often do when setting goals earlier on in the semester is say that their goal (or Wish in WOOP parlance) is to improve their grades and their Plan is to work harder. “Working harder,” I tell them, “is a terrific recipe for being anxious and getting down on yourself. […]
The Best Pop-Up Debate Prompt in my Repertoire (Valued Within Exercise)
Dear colleague, Today, let’s look at a Valued Within exercise that we can do via one of my favorite instructional activities: Pop-Up Debates. As you’ll recall, Valued Within exercises are any activity that has students figuring out why the work of learning is valuable to them. Unlike Mini-Sermons, in which creating and communicating Value messages […]
To Be Versus to Seem
Dear colleague, A friend sent me this article on AI recently, titled “Subcontracting Our Minds.” In case the title doesn’t make it obvious, the author is not an AI optimist. Though I found the author’s arguments compelling, what I loved most was his surfacing of an old Rousseau argument that it is necessary “to be […]