Over the last hundred years, researchers have discovered an enormous amount about how people learn and how best to teach them. Unfortunately, much of that knowledge has not yet been translated into common classroom practice, while many myths about education have proven remarkably persistent.
This two-day class has two goals:
The content addressing these goals is linked in the schedule below.
The class will be hands-on throughout: short lessons will alternate with individual and group practical exercises, including practice teaching sessions. Those who complete the two full days and some short follow-up exercises online will be certified to teach Software Carpentry and/or Data Carpentry.
Software Carpentry has run variations on this course since 2012 for over 500 people, and the current material reflects the latest iteration of an ongoing process to refine what new instructors need to know. Feedback is welcome as an issue on the Github repository that hosts this site.
These materials are freely available under a Creative Commons license.
| Day 1 | 00:00 | Welcome |
Who is participating in this workshop and what do they know?
What will we cover (or not) in this workshop? What prior knowledge do workshop participants have? |
| 00:10 | Introduction |
How can we describe teaching and learning how to teach?
What common vocabulary do we need to talk about teaching and learning? |
|
| 00:40 | Novices and Formative Assessment | How can we describe the difference in learning between a novice and competent practitioner? | |
| 01:40 | Morning Coffee | Break | |
| 01:55 | Teaching as a Performance Art | How do teachers improve? | |
| 02:55 | Morning Wrap-Up | What have we learned? | |
| 03:10 | Lunch | Break | |
| 04:10 | Expertise and Memory |
How can we describe the difference in learning between a novice and expert?
How is memory a limiting factor in learning? |
|
| 05:25 | Afternoon Coffee | Break | |
| 05:40 | Performance Revised | How does having a concept map change the way you teach? | |
| 06:25 | Cognitive Load |
How does inquiry-based learning perform compared to guided learning?
What is cognitive load theory? What is the split-attention effect, and how should it affect the design of teaching materials? |
|
| 07:05 | Afternoon Wrap-Up | What have we learned? | |
| 07:20 | Finish | ||
| Day 2 | 00:00 | Live Coding | How do we teach programming using live coding? |
| 01:15 | Morning Coffee | Break | |
| 01:30 | The Carpentries | How are Software and Data Carpentry organized and run? | |
| 02:30 | Carpentry Teaching Practices | What teaching practices are common to Software and Data Carpentry? | |
| 03:00 | Morning Wrap-Up | What have we learned? | |
| 03:15 | Lunch | Break | |
| 04:15 | Motivation and Demotivation | What motivates and demotivates learners and instructors? | |
| 05:00 | Lessons and Objectives |
How can I design more effective lessons?
What lessons do Software and Data Carpentry currently contain? |
|
| 06:00 | Afternoon Coffee | Break | |
| 06:15 | Afternoon Wrap-Up |
What have we learned?
What do we do next? |
|
| 07:00 | Finish |