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

This course was brilliant. Perhaps the most exciting new concept was that of dopamine, a hormone presented by the media as the one in charge of pleasure and reward, but within the context of learning. I did feel pleasure while learning this element and I shared this thought with my students and teachers colleagues and enjoyed furthermore their reactions. I almost could see the tiny dopamine explosions and it is just a conversation starter, an excellent “hook”, as the uncommon sense teachers would claim. Thanks so much for this wonderful set of courses. Going for the third and final one.

I have to say though, there are several topics in which I would love to discuss alternatives in Education Design. For instance, direct instruction, as a patter of conferences and active session is rather simplistic. Fusing the concepts from uncommon sense teaching with the conversational learning framework from Laurillard (2012) would make marvelous to further synthesize and improve the communication among educators as collaborators.

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!

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!

Though I’ve been an educator for 25 years, I never learned this crucial information about how people and particularly students learn, e.g. the declarative and procedural systems, the role of rewards, what motivates students, the impact of dopamine —how it stimulates learning, how the amygdala sparks feelings of fear, flight, and other negative memories that can distort our thinking, neurodiversity — never assuming students’ responses should be the “norm.”

I strongly recommend that all educators take this course to become more knowledgeable and effective as teachers of our very diverse population of students — because one size does not fit all and because we all need to be aware of our biases and limitations when working with the delicate and different minds of students.

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....

I believe this course is a must attend for inspiring educators to gain fruitful insights on making their lessons more engaging for their students; coupled with the essential skills taught that help diverse learning styles of students learn more effectively.
Kudos to Profs Barb, Beth, and Terry for making this training insightful and informative for learners worldwide who are able to access the training. I am intrigued by the scientific studies and outcomes made available as part of the resources that reinforced why Uncommon Sense Teaching is relevant and credible for learning and implementation.
Not forgetting to give credits to Coursera for making this training make available for all who inspired to be a life-long learners in their personal and professional life.

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!