tl;dr for writing article or preparing a talk Audience
Know their level of knowledge
Why they should want to know this
How does that reason get them closer to their goal
(Maybe those last 2 are the same?)
Books
Teaching what you dont know
The discussion book - 50 great ways to get people talking
On average, 7 \(\pm\) 2 things can be kept in short term memory
Teach chunks of your concept map. Each new chunk should be adjacent to the previous chunk.
Sacrifice truth for clarity to give learner actionable concept
Explaining an unclear concept from the homework or reading (Gelman)
Better to work through an example than to try to clarify a definition or restate it, etc.
Then, ask the students to get into pairs and explain to each other the meaning of each of the concepts in question
Then, if students want to ask questions on the concept, we could do it in the context of this example that they’ve just been talking about. We could also loop back to their homework assignment.
Mathematical explanations should flow from the more concrete to the more abstract (3Blue1Brown)
Where categories are the most abstract and quanties are the most concrete.
Example: Adding Fractions
Has two levels of abstractions: numbers and quantities. So the explanation of adding fractions should start with quantities and end with numbers
Explain using portions of pie, then move to numbers.
Steps
State goalpost
Split goalpost into concepts
Connect concepts to form map
If more than 7 \(\pm\) 2 concepts, then group in chunks
The next chunk of concepts you present should be adjacent to previous chunk
Summarize
Characterize the Audience
General background
relevant experience
perceived needs
special consideration
Mental Model
Draw a concept map. Concepts and connections between them
Examples: Venn diagrams, flow charts
Assessments
Summative
Summary of what you want to be learned. Goalpost
Guide to creating formative assessments by working backwards from the endpoint
Formative
Is the learning working?
Types of mistakes or questions are clues to the types of misconceptions that learners are thinking and what you should say next.
Diagnosing misconceptions by checking in every few minutes with questions. Think about what those answers might be and they mean.
Questions should have diagnostic power
Tells you if its okay to move on to the next lesson.
Forces for Learning
Positive
Intrinsic Motivation - Learner isnt being made to learn something, theyre choosing to learn
Utility - Moves them towards their goals
Community - Not alone in learning, connection to peers, more comfortable about not knowing someting
Negative
Unpredictability - “What i do doesnt seem to affect the outcome”, learned helplessness
Unfairness - Teacher Bias
Indifference - Feeling that the teacher doesnt care about your problem
