Behind the Headline: Can This Man Save U.S. Soccer?
On Top of the News
Can This Man Save U.S. Soccer?
The Atlantic | March 2016
Behind the Headline
Tools for Teachers
Education Next | Spring 2011
In the Atlantic, Amanda Ripley describes how soccer officials who wanted to raise the level of soccer playing in the U.S. turned to a teacher of teachers, Doug Lemov, for answers.
Among teachers, Doug Lemov is a sort of celebrity. He’s spent years studying great educators, creating a taxonomy of techniques they use to manage common challenges (like defiant kids or tired kids or kids who need a lot of time to learn something that other kids learn quickly). Each year, he trains thousands of teachers around the world to use these tactics. He’s also written a popular book called Teach Like a Champion and co-founded a chain of public charter schools in the Northeast.
Ripley looks at the idea that soccer players would get better if their coaches got better, and describes how Doug Lemov took on that challenge.
Coaches, like teachers, need practical training and meaningful feedback to do well. Teachers rarely get that support; coaches almost never do. And so, with Chesler’s help, Lemov set about identifying specific tactics coaches could learn from great teachers—establishing rituals so drills start faster, say, or helping players get comfortable making mistakes in practice. So far, Lemov has trained about 200 coach educators, who in turn teach rank-and-file coaches around the country.
Robert Pondiscio reviewed Lemov’s book Teach Like a Champion for Education Next in 2011.
Click here for a video of Lemov talking about his second book, Teach Like a Champion 2.0.
– Education Next
Sign Up To Receive Notification
when the latest issue of Education Next is posted
In the meantime check the site regularly for new articles, blog postings, and reader comments