Uncommon Sense Teaching: Part 2, Building Community and Habits of Learning

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Go to class

Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Free Online Course (Audit)
Languages

English
Certificate

Paid Certificate Available
Duration & workload

4 weeks long, 14 hours worth of material
Sessions
Level

Intermediate
Subtitles

English

Found in

Teacher Professional Development Courses

Part of

Uncommon Sense Teaching

5.0

Overview

Class Central Tips

In Part 2 of Uncommon Sense Teaching: Building Community and Habits of Learning, you will explore the following areas more deeply—helping you to connect with the latest insights into research and have fun while you are doing it!

• The hidden strengths of neurodiversity: Dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, and
other syndromes that relate to learning
• The value of forgetting
• How to use habits formed by the procedural system to help you with classroom management
• Judicious use of rewards to motivate students (too many rewards can de-motivate)
• How to avoid educational fads
• The power of lesson plans

This is like no other course on teaching—it weaves late-breaking insights from neuroscience with personal insights from the classroom to provide unexpected, yet practical, new approaches. You’ll discover how to bring out the best from all your students in today’s diverse teaching environment, where students often have a wide range of abilities.

Uncommon Sense Teaching will take your teaching to a higher level for whatever subjects you teach, whether math, physics, literature, dance, art, or anything else; and whether you are teaching K-12, university, business, vocational, or at home.

Join us today to move into the new era of education!

Syllabus

Week 1: Motivation, Stress, and Character Change

This week’s materials cover motivation, stress, and character change—vitally important topics for us as teachers. We’ll learn about the importance of surprise in learning—part of what can make good teaching both surprising and rewarding! We’ll also discover why we like to say that “Curiosity is Queen” —and why being taken by surprise can be a very good thing when it comes to learning. We’ll also learn about the “Drama King"—that is, the amygdala—which can underpin some of our subconscious biases. And we’ll begin setting the stage to understand why cramming is so effective. At least, for short periods of time! Neuroscience is uncovering new insights about motivation. This brings us to a seemingly different area—unreachable, unteachable students who can tell you exactly what you want to hear, without any internal motivation for change no matter what you may do to try to motivate them. Perhaps surprisingly—bullying isn’t just a problem for students—it can actually be a problem amongst teachers themselves, with some of the best teachers bearing the brunt of the bullying behavior. But guess what—sometimes our best approach to help students sail successfully through stressful situations in life is to simply do what we teachers are born to do—teach with passion and with heart. All this, and more, in this week’s videos!

Week 2: How to Reach and Teach Both Procedural and Declarative Pathways

This week, we’ll learn how the brain decides whether to make some mental or physical task conscious or nonconscious—it all depends on how often we do it! We’ll also be sneaking in through both the front and back doors of the brain’s different learning systems. Of course, both declarative and procedural ways of learning can have advantages and drawbacks. But as we’ll see, having information deposited in procedural sets of links can be like having a nicely wrapped package of movements or thoughts that a student's working memory can automatically grab onto, instead of having to think through each tiny movement or thought individually. This can not only speed students’ learning—it can even make classroom management easier. Using the magic of the procedural system, your classroom can run like a well-oiled machine, seemingly without you doing anything!

Week 3: Intellectual Humility, Critical Thinking, and Bias

This week is full of surprises as we dig deeper into the advantages and disadvantages of faster and slower types of learning. Who knew that those who struggle with their learning—our hikers—can actually be more accurate with what they learn? For them, it can be easier to flexibly accept and change their minds when the data shows they are wrong. On the other hand, our race cars, who can learn faster and remember better, can also find it difficult to accept when they’re wrong. And all this relates in a very deep way, as you’ll see, with our ability to think critically. Join us as we explore all these ideas, and more, in this week’s videos! (And don’t forget, there’s plenty of optional extra info in the readings!)

Neurodiversity, Student Groups, and Charting Your Course to the Finish Line!

Syndromes such as dyslexia or attention deficit disorder can sometimes exert subtle effects that can make learning more difficult even though no diagnosis has been made. Other times, as with famed director Steven Spielberg and his dyslexia, a student's learning challenges can simply escape detection altogether. For teachers of these students, the best approach is to nurture these students’ ways of learning, rather than forcing them to learn like the majority of other students. Surprisingly often, this involves teaching more toward the procedural system for some students, and more toward the declarative system for others. All of this means that careful planning of your lessons is in order. What do we mean by careful planning? That's the subject of our final videos--we'll give you a template and insights to help guide your activities and allow you to soar in your teaching!

Taught by

Barbara Oakley, Beth Rogowsky and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski

Charts

#2 in Subjects / Education & Teaching
#2 in Subjects / Education & Teaching / Teacher Professional Development

Reviews

4.9 rating, based on 84 Class Central reviews

4.9 rating at Coursera based on 74 ratings

Start your review of Uncommon Sense Teaching: Part 2, Building Community and Habits of Learning

Sonal P Patel @sonal

Wow! Another great class from a wonderful team. I loved this class! This class goes deeper into the concepts covered in part 1 and covers more material on different learning styles. This class is a must for any teacher/educator and of course any curious...

Wow! Another great class from a wonderful team. I loved this class! This class goes deeper into the concepts covered in part 1 and covers more material on different learning styles. This class is a must for any teacher/educator and of course any curious learner, to expand their understanding of teaching and learning!

I would recommend you do this class at a slower pace, review some great references and be grateful when you make mistakes in quizzes. This team provides us with great feedback that is by itself a great learning resource to supplement the course content! I appreciate all the hard work put in to make and teach such a wonderful class in a novel way that deepens our understanding of teaching and learning. I will continue to visit this class often, as and when I need help with quality material for teaching for my personal development.

Can not wait to see the next class --Part 3, where Prof. David Joyner will add his expertise to teach about online education. What a great journey with wonderful teachers, passionate about teaching online, as well as in the classroom!
Gilberto Collazo @papo7575

Uncommon Sense Teaching Part 2 is a very informative course. Thorough study of the course will give you a more understanding at what is really going on in the brain while we learn. Supported by scientific research, which is also included in the course and also in depth books, scientific articles and a lot of supporting material for a deeper understanding of the subject is available. Excellent learning experience for all diversity of students.
Anonymous

This course, the first I have taken to begin teaching English to students in Spain, has been a totally riveting and eye opening course, beginning to end of the two courses. I have immensely enjoyed learning here, especially based on neuroscience research....

This course, the first I have taken to begin teaching English to students in Spain, has been a totally riveting and eye opening course, beginning to end of the two courses. I have immensely enjoyed learning here, especially based on neuroscience research. Slow and fast learners, hikers and racecar drivers, not quite sure which group I belong to; yet both make so much sense, even if uncommon! Since a child, I learnt, I read very fast, yet to absorb better, after the first read, a second was imperative, slow in this case, to absorb the data I had raced through firstly. Note taking, underlining, was also always a must. I guess it was helping the retrieval, and strengthening of long term memory neural links. Studying has always been a part of my life, whether professionally, or not.

I have the course book, a treasure for me. Daily, on a walk in Madrid to the Retiro park, it accompanies my doggie and myself. We sit down after a long while, when I take to reading... I savour each and every sentence, it is a gem for learners and teachers. I cannot list all that amazes, as it would be never ending! Such great research, and so well taught in these online courses.. If I may say so, Barb, your experiences shared and your turns in career, your successes, are inspirational! Beth and Terry, words fail... What a great team!

I await the third course, and hope I will be informed by email when it is available. Carry on this great work for Teachers, who have alongwith nurses, always had all my respect! Three cheers, stating it very lightly... all my admiration, and awe....
Anonymous

This course expands the neuroscience of learning from course 1. It shows hoe the amygdala influences learning and behavior. The material has direct application to classroom activities at the most basic level. The information on "value function" can be extended to the USA's politics to explain why people favor conspiracy over truth.
Zsuzsanna Kispál-Vitai

I have done all the MOOCs that were taught by Barabara Oakley. The first one changed my life, was "Learning How To Learn". Uncommon Sense Teaching 1 and 2 gave me more motivation to teach, explanations about how students learn, and how we teachers should...

I have done all the MOOCs that were taught by Barabara Oakley. The first one changed my life, was "Learning How To Learn". Uncommon Sense Teaching 1 and 2 gave me more motivation to teach, explanations about how students learn, and how we teachers should use this information in our work. I learned again new information and new ideas, both scientific - which was great - and practical - which was useful. The videos are not only very well done and highly professional but also great fun to watch. I did this course in the final race of our spring semester and I watched them as a bonus after having finished a day's work. I highly appreciate the work that went into creating this course and I am trying to convince my Ph.D. students to do it as well. We teach at the university level, so we should do it the most effective way possible. These Uncommon Sense courses are giving us missing knowledge. Thank you all who have worked with this course, the lecturers, designers, the people who made our learning possible!
Anonymous

I loved this course as it is jam-packed of insights about how to help our students to learn better and faster. This course contains many details, nuances and practical suggestions on how to plan our lessons in the best way and how to organise teams/groups...

I loved this course as it is jam-packed of insights about how to help our students to learn better and faster. This course contains many details, nuances and practical suggestions on how to plan our lessons in the best way and how to organise teams/groups giving them all the tools to manage misbehaving members. I also adored the part of this course that explained neurodiversity and how to approach our teaching with people affected by dyslexia, ADHD, autistic and other types of neurodiversity that can be managed by knowing scientifically their characteristics and how to effectively adjust our teaching to maximise these students' learning. I'm looking forward to attending the next course. This trio of lecturers is simply formidable combined together each with their own competencies. I definitely suggest this course to all people (parents, teachers) who want to help effectively their students.
Anonymous

This course gives enough knowledge on how the brain works while studying and provides with tools for teachers how to improve lessons. The course is perfectly accompanied by various sources, addtitional materials, presentations, templates and - which is...

This course gives enough knowledge on how the brain works while studying and provides with tools for teachers how to improve lessons. The course is perfectly accompanied by various sources, addtitional materials, presentations, templates and - which is important for processing the information - with formative assessments.
The information is given in a comprehensible and sometimes fancy way, without information overload for a commoner. On the other hand, there are lots of links to materials that can help dive deeper into related topics if there is an interst or necessity.

Thanks to all three experts who made this course with passion and special attitude to the topic, to the students of the course (teachers) and to students all over the world.

Hope to see the third part of the course soon!
Best regards!
Anonymous

Uncommon sense teaching is an uncommon course. Barb Oakley, Terry Sejnowki and Beth Rogowsky are amazing teaching us how to teach. We get a comprehensive picture of learning mechanisms and its diversity among people. We go from neurosciences to dys problems ... It can apply to studends but can also give us a better understanding of our own system of learning. I also hope it will help me being a better teacher with my kids.
I'm not a teacher now and I m'not "in the subject" appart to approach how to better teach a trainee. But the journey with these three wonderful scientists really worthes it. I say a great thanks to them!
Anonymous

I actually really enjoyed this class. There were a lot of topics that required both declarative and procedural thinking. For example, some of the topics such as autism, dyslexia, and students of special needs I already knew about but they added some other topics such as Tourettes and ADHD disorders. Also, I like the examples provided by the professors and the extensive explanations of 'how shy people have flexible thinking.' Those who have extensive research still should be open to the idea of new information because they tend to have confirmation biases.
Anonymous

I teach senior college level and internal company classes and found the material in this course amazing. Although most of the examples are for K12 teachers, there are many hints for who teach to adults like me. Learning how the learning takes place in the brain and solidifying this information with practical tips to use in the classroom is wonderful. This course helped me as a student also: I learned many practical hints for my own pleasure learning sessions as well. It is definitely worth the time I spent for this course and I highly recommend it to everyone.
Anonymous

I enjoyed the class Uncommon Sense Teaching both parts 1 & 2 . This class is good for caregivers & "Brain Moms" of their children who have been rewired by Neurologist via brain surgeries. This class is fun and silly + I enjoyed logging in to watch the videos and take the quizzes.
Anonymous

Easy to follow content: practical examples : brilliant engaging format; excellent dynamic presenters: fantastic references and resources available .

One of the best online courses I have completed. The quizzes throughout the course gave me a sense of achievement.

The final assignments were very challenging and the fact that I could retry when I wanted to was a great benefit to be able to see if I could improve my score and also revisit the area of the course that I may need to redo.
Anonymous

Excellent course, providing direction to incorporate the principles taught for classroom use. Explained each idea effectively and thoroughly. Gave information on how to work with students of higher and lower thought processes, and understand how to enhance their educational success. Thank you for the additional resources to support class activities. They should allow implementation of these research based concepts are put into practice.
Anonymous

The second part of Uncommon Sense Teaching course gets even practical than the first one, not avoiding the super challenging topics such as bullying, biases, learning challenges students with mental health issues.

Uncommon Sense Teaching course II gets to the nitty-gritty level of details for a successful class management by providing the optimal lesson plans for supporting neurodiversity in students.

Highly recommended!
Anonymous

Excellent ideas for classroom practices including key elements of a lesson. The course shows you how to handle different kinds of learners, and teaches you ways to use different learning pathways. Inputs from seasoned teachers on handling issues like bullying, collaborative learning, and good classroom and time management make the course a very practical and useful one for practicing educators and teachers!
Anonymous

With another school year about to start, I've found this course invaluable. It gave me lots of great ideas to teach students about how they learn. The instructors made it interesting but cut out a lot of the fluff that can clutter up what was important and what wasn't. The resources were solid and very usable. I'm looking forward to checking out the third course.
Anonymous

This course, exactly like the previous in the specialization, is so well designed and inspiring! Many thanks to Barb, Bethy and Terry for compiling all this knowledge into these short, funny and thought provoking videos. And of course that they do as they teach with plenty occasions of active retrieval and spaced repetition for the course materials. Excellent work!
Anonymous

This course was a great help to better understand how the brain works, how it impacts learning, and concrete techniques that we can use to leverage that knowledge for better learning. It can apply to all types of learning (from self to K-12 to university students) and sheds light on other aspects of how we, humans, are conditioned by our environment.
Ewe Chean Yeoh

The courses are very well structured, engaging and informative. The content is very much research-based and the tips and suggestion from the instructors are very practical. I love the recommended reading materials that link you to the research papers and articles of the topics. Thank you so much for this enriching and indepth training on the subject!
Natalie M. Cleveland

This was a great course! The instructors were great, and they provided information that could be very useful to new teachers as well as seasoned teachers. I loved how the instructors provided examples from their life stories to help illustrate the concepts...

This was a great course! The instructors were great, and they provided information that could be very useful to new teachers as well as seasoned teachers. I loved how the instructors provided examples from their life stories to help illustrate the concepts and skills they were teaching. I gained a better understanding of the declarative and procedural systems, and classroom management. I also have a better understanding about the amygdala, dopamine, motivation, and effective ways to administer rewards in the classroom (beyond stickers). This course confirmed for me that many of the activities I have been implementing in my classroom environment are right on point. I also learned about neurodiversity and how the declarative and procedural systems are impacted by the various neurodiversity's. Finally, this course provided me a better understanding about bullying--what I should and should not do as a teacher when addressing conflicts between my students. The information provided in this course has been very helpful to me hands down. I can't wait to implement some of the activities in my classroom this upcoming school year!