Why the Reading and Math Wars Keep Coming Back | Jon Star

Education has seen it all before. A promising approach to teaching catches on, and then it becomes the center of a heated debate. That's happening with the science of reading, and increasingly, the science of math. But Harvard Professor Jon Star says these debates get at a bigger question in education: What counts as good research, and how should it guide decisions about teaching and learning? “Anyone with a megaphone or a social media platform or a lot of money can advocate for a particular way to teach. And they can claim that their way of teaching is supported by research evidence…,” Star says. “The debate is less about whether one method of teaching is better than another method of teaching. But it's really a debate about the type of research that supports each of those methods.” And it's something that education hasn't been able to get away from throughout its history. If you look back far enough, Star says, you can see some of the same debates we're having now about math as long ago as the 1800s, including debates over discovery-based learning and explicit instruction. In math education, what may appear to be one central argument is actually a collection of overlapping disagreements. This is partly why Star thinks it's valuable for educators to understand the history of education and the debates that go along with it. It's also the focus of his course, “Controversy in the Classroom: Debates on the Learning and Teaching of Math, Reading, and Science,” currently offered for both HGSE and Harvard College students. “I don't want to use the oft-repeated 'those who don't know the past are doomed to repeat it' kind of idea, but it does seem like there's a bit of that,” he says. “We need to know the ways this played out in the past in order to better understand and participate in the debate in the present.” Ultimately, Star says we need to focus on what's best for students, even though there's no single instructional approach that meets every student's needs. Research can offer important guidance about what approaches work better under particular conditions. But the challenge is balancing the evidence with an individual student's needs and the realities of classroom teaching. In this episode, Star shifts the focus away from simply defending one side of an education debate. Instead, he considers how educators, researchers, and policymakers can remain open to different approaches, ask better questions about the evidence, and work together to understand what helps children learn. In this episode Why the science of reading and science of math have become central to education debates. What people really mean when they talk about the science of education. Why disagreements over teaching methods are often disagreements about what counts as credible research. The history of the reading wars and math wars. Explicit instruction versus discovery-based learning in mathematics. What historical math textbooks and research studies reveal about how students learn. Why there is no one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. How educators balance research evidence with classroom experience. How education research influences media coverage, classrooms, and education policy. How educators and researchers can move beyond polarized debates and keep students at the center. Episode timestamps 00:00 – Why the science of reading and science of math have become central to education debates. 01:15 – What people really mean when they talk about the "science of" education—and why the definition of good research is so contentious. 03:00 – Why disagreements over teaching methods are often really disagreements about what counts as credible research. 05:45 – The history of the reading wars and math wars, and why today's education debates aren't as new as they might seem. 07:30 – The central debate in math education: explicit instruction versus discovery-based learning. 09:30 – What a 200-year-old math textbook and a 1934 research study reveal about today's debates over how students learn math. 10:45 – Why there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching—and how educators can balance research-based guidance with individual student needs. 13:30 – What happens when education research moves from academic journals into the media, classrooms, and education policy. 16:00 – How teachers navigate competing research claims while drawing on their own classroom experience. 19:00 – How educators and researchers can move beyond polarized debates and keep the focus on what's best for students. About Jon Star Jon Star is a Harvard professor and educational psychologist whose work focuses on mathematics education, teaching, learning, and educational research. Listen to more conversations about education, research, and learning on the Harvard EdCast.