A Parent's Guide to Powerful Teaching

by Patrice Bain

“I’m not sure how to help my child with schoolwork.” “I see my child study for tests and not do well.” “How much help is too much? Or Not enough?” As a parent, do you have questions like these? For students reading this book, have you ever I studied all night and didn’t do well on the test? Do you question why spending more time on schoolwork often does not reflect increased learning or higher grades? We all think we know how to study. Many of us have spent years in educational settings. Because we have learned, do we know how learning occurs? Often the answer is no. Fewer than 10% of students have parents who are certified educators. Where can the other 90% of parents go to find answers? If you are a student, where can you go to find out how to maximize learning while spending less time doing so? The answer is this guide. Patrice Bain has shown thousands of students with a wide range of abilities how to increase school performance. Having worked with cognitive scientists in the classroom for over half of her 25+ year teaching career, Bain knows how students learn and has developed strategies that increase memory, grades and retention of material. This book is not about fads or the latest shiny gadgets. Instead, this guide, based on rigorous research, gives the inside look into how all of us learn best. Filled with stories making learning relevant, and strategies to use at home, this guide will be like having a seat in Mrs. Bain’s engaging classroom.

82 pages, Paperback

Published December 15, 2020

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve always been more concerned about long term learning than individual grades. Because even if you do well in Algebra, if you haven’t really learned it, then Algebra 2 will be harder than it needs to be. I have been able to change quite a few things easily to get at these ideas. I ask what did you do today in math, instead of asking how was school. Sometimes I’ll follow up with how is that different than what you learned last week? The science of learning is interesting and is helpful as a parent. A lot of these techniques have a secondary benefit of reducing anxiety too.

The book is not long and maybe I would have like some more white space in the layout.

[Nicole Rothenay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and simple, this guide teaches the science of learning (encode, store, and retrieve) along with three power tools parents can use to help their students study better (retrieval, metacognition, and spacing). The book shares a variety of strategies for each tool, including mini-quizzes and retrieval cards–upgraded versions of flashcards that prompt greater metacognition.

I’ll take what I learned here for my own personal study time, helping my children learn, and into my own classroom. I’m sold on the simplicity and effectiveness of the strategies, and I’m now on the hunt for a copy of the original Powerful Teaching.

[N.J. Danatangelo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very solid book and brilliantly designed for all parents. If like me, you are insanely curious about how we learn and how we can teach our kids, most of what is in here would be familiar to you from previous books. But if you are like most parents and don’t have the time to research about learning and teaching this might be the perfect intro book to get started. It also focuses on the highest impact changes one can make to help their kids learn and study more effectively.