Evidence-Based Instructional Practices to Support Elementary Students in Reading and Mathematics
Presented by Nicole McNeil
The goal of this seminar is to offer educators specific, evidence-based recommendations for teaching foundational reading and mathematics skills to elementary students. Professor McNeil will synthesize some of the best available research on how to support children’s foundational reading and mathematics skills using the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) Practice Guides for EducatorsTM as a base. The group will discuss the “how and why” of research in the education sciences, the quality of the evidence for each recommendation, how recommended practices compare to current practices, and how to implement the recommended practices in the classroom. Group members will be asked to apply the recommendations using specific examples and will share ideas with others educators in the group.
About Nicole McNeil
McNeil is Professor of Psychology and ACE College Professor at Notre Dame. She currently directs the Education, Schooling, and Society (ESS) undergraduate program; the Cognition Learning and Development (CLAD) Lab; and TutorND. She also serves as a member of the South Bend Community School Corporation’s (SBCSC) Restorative Justice in Education Advisory Council. Her professional preparation includes a B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University, a Ph.D. from University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a postdoc at Yale. She studies cognitive development, with a specific focus on mathematical cognition, symbolic development, concept construction, and problem solving. She asks questions like “How does existing knowledge affect learning of new information?” and “How do children construct new problem-solving strategies”? and “What do children understand about math before they start learning it in school, and how does the formal teaching of math affect this intuitive knowledge?” A key contribution of her work has been to show that relatively minor differences in children’s input can play a central role in shaping understanding of foundational concepts. She received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and the Boyd McCandless Award from APA. She’s a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and an Associate Editor for the journal Cognitive Science. McNeil’s research is supported by grants from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).