James Hosler

Improve your school through experience, research, and data.

James Hosler

I explore challenging ideas in education and write about school improvement from multiple perspectives. My current focus is Professional Learning Communities, particularly why they struggle, what we’ve misunderstood about collaboration, and how schools can make meaningful progress.

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  • Timeless Goals (and Obstacles) for PLCs

    We have long discussed the goals of professional learning communities (PLCs). Louis et al. (1996) define a PLC by describing five aspects of school life which, they would seem to argue, stand to be uniquely impacted by PLCs: Administrators can’t help but look at PLCs and see the potential for a systematic method to improve…

  • Glaser, Where to Begin? Issue vs. Problem

    Where to begin a grounded theory study can be confusing, especially when one is advised to avoid bringing in ideas from a existing theory and literature. We are told that even the research problem itself should emerge. We are allowed an “area” of research, but we should go in without a preconceived problem: In vital…

  • Inductive vs. Deductive Reasoning and Levels of Abstraction

    Describing the methodology of grounded theory, Glaser and Strauss (1967) imply a helpful distinction between inductive and deductive reasoning: This is an inductive method of theory development. To make theoretical sense of so much diversity in his data, the analyst is forced to develop ideas on a level of generality higher in conceptual abstraction than…

  • Notes on The Talent Code, Coyle (2009)

    Coyle, Daniel. The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. New York, Bantam, 2009. page 5: Myelin’s vital role is to wrap those nerve fibers the same way that rubber insulation wraps a copper wire, making the signal stronger and faster by preventing the electrical impulses from leaking out. pages 14-15: The conventional way to explain…

  • What is “circling”? With examples!

    “Circling” is a technique for asking repetitive questions in the target language. We do this all the time in TPRS and CI-based instruction in order to provide students with more repetitions of target structures (i.e., new vocabulary and grammar). The basic pattern of circling is: You follow this pattern to ask questions about the subject…

  • Observation Guide for Foreign Langauge Classrooms

    Based on the examples of Susan Gross (.pdf) and Bryce Hedstrom (.pdf), I have created a guide for observing foreign language classrooms. Since so many observation guides are state- or district-mandated, they often lack relevancy for foreign language classrooms. I have made this guide to be applicable to the method of comprehensible input (CI) and Teaching Proficiency through Reading and…