I have done this twice and scoring over 82% both times I was able to join the waiting list to become a mentor. I became a menot a year or 18 months later. This role has diminished over the last 2 years as Coursera have moved away from the volunteer mentor approach. It's hard to mentor over 1 million students however many mentors you have! Peer support within each cohort is now favoured (as happens on FutureLearn).
Click here to join > Learning How To Learn
This is wonderful from
Five Reasons from the wonderful Xina Gooding Broderick
You didn’t set aside sufficient time to complete your course so create a timetable. Build in compassion. Build in flexibility and re-schedule. Adjust for it. And move in. We’re going for progress, not perfection.
You didn’t realise it would be as challenging as it is. See Barbara Oakley on ‘Learning How To Learn’. The physiology of procrastination and defeat. Do study skills. Know your learning style. Get plenty of rest. Find a way to embed that learning. Podcasts. Take them on a walk.
You didn’t ask for help when you needed it. Speak to your tutor or teacher. Keep asking until you understand. You need to understand this.
No accountability. When left to your own devices.
You downgraded your requirement for completing it. What are your pros and cons. Every component to decide if this is correct for you in the first place.
Who might a reference as evidence of wider reading and why are the relevant to my developing teaching practice?
John Carroll > Three way step approach [I could use this]
Is this the man?
Carroll, J. (1963). A model of school learning. Teachers College Record, 64, 723-733.
John B Carroll ?Whose 'model emphasises aptitude as a determinant of time needed for learning'. This 'suggests that increased effort' be placed on predicting student potential and so designing appropriate instruction, so that 'ideals of equal opportunity to learn are to be achieved within a diversity of educational objectives'.(1)
Geoff Petty
Dylan Wiliams
So long as they fit the narrative, rather than being shoehorned in, then the names that come to mind and for whom I will find plenty here are:
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - In the flow (boredom/challenge)
Something you can do, then a challenge to take a further.
John Seely Brown - Communities of practice, therefore working it out collectively.
Ebbinghaus - Forgetting curve, therefore repetition and 'spaced education'.
Gilly Salmon - e-tivities and five stages, could be used to introduce online homework.
They can login, use the platform (put in their name), answer a question. Ask for support.
Grainne Conole (2011) - Flat vocabulary, more complex vocabulary, classification schemas or models and metaphors. [Designing for Learning in a Digital World].
Barbara Oakley - 'Learning How to Learn' chunking and metaphor + the classroom ‘observation’ of deferring to a god-like expert as witness/evidence.
Yrjö Engeström (1987) - Activity Theory and Systems and how people construct meaning
Van Gundy (1988) - Creative problem solving techniques.
Ritchey (20070 - 'Wicked Problems' are not 'true or false' but 'better or worse'. Social problems are complex and wicked. So called 'Tame Problems', even as complex as chess, have a scientific or mathematical solution so are not 'wicked' or 'messy'.
Grayson Perry - creativity is making mistakes.
Can someone own the following though:
For tweens and teens.
A simplified digest of Barbara Oakley's incredible MOOC on Coursera 'Learning How To Learn'. The last time I looked this had had over 1.4 million students.
Having done this MOOC myself I later signed up to be a mentor. This is mostly meet and greet rather than teaching support. We help keep people going.
I recommend 'How to Learn' as a great introduction to the topic before tackling the material aimed at undergrads and post-grads. I simply find this a great way to refresh my knowledge.
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