Episode 83: Natalie Wexler

In this episode of What Your Therapist is Reading, psychotherapist and host Jessica Fowler interviews education writer Natalie Wexler about her book "The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System—and How to Fix It.  Wexler explains that many elementary schools, especially since the rise of high-stakes testing around 2000, have reduced time spent on history, social studies, and science in favor of practicing transferable reading “skills” like finding the main idea. Drawing on cognitive science, she argues these skills depend heavily on prior knowledge and vocabulary, and that building knowledge through coherent, topic-based instruction improves reading comprehension by reducing working-memory load (cognitive load theory). In addition, we discuss we explore how mental health and education are connected.

*Information shared in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only.