Links (1/2)

• Guild of educators
• Sheena's blog
• Mastodon: @sheena@fosstodon.org
• X/Twitter: @sheena_oconnell
• LinkedIn

Links (2/2)

• Learning how to learn: free course
• Make it stick: Brilliant book on the science of learning
• Illusions of competence - don't fool yourself
• Protege effect - why teaching is a great way to learn
• Mastery based learning

Hi, I'm Sheena

Coding since young teen Worked in a lot of startups Spent the last 5 years in tech education

Education work

• Training and mentoring learners
• Training and mentoring teachers
• Science of learning => Engineering of learning
  • Building the stuff
  • Human processes

Passionate about empowering those who empower others

When it comes to education everyone is an expert

Common practices

• Reading and re-reading
• Passively watching videos
• Memorization and pattern-matching over understanding

Why?

• When learning feels hard, people lose faith
• Learning how to learn is a whole thing

Learning how to learn effectively => Compounding effect

Make it stick == brilliant book

Goals

• Teaching ++
• Learning ++
• Inspire people to try teaching

Dawn Wages

DjangoCon Organiser Wagtail core team member PSF President

"The Django community and specifically Django Girls at DjangoCon US started career as a programmer."

A perfectly normal classroom

• A bunch of learners
• Steep teacher : learner ratio
• Sage on the stage
• Projects and tests at certain times (eg: quarterly exam)
• Everyone at the same pace

A perfectly normal classroom

Improving pass rates

• Lower expectations on learners
• Improve quality of education

Bloom's 2 sigma problem

Let's always do that!

Mastery learning techniques

Skills stack on top of skills

Skills stack on top of skills ...a lot

One to one?

• More engaging for the learner: No gazing out the window
• The teacher can focus on one learner and what they need

Lectures and classrooms...

• Hard to get right
• Hard to know if you are doing a good job
• Still useful

"Education is Not the Filling of a Pail, but the Lighting of a Fire"

All we have is time

What is teaching?

• knowledge transfer?
• answering questions?
• solving problems?

Teaching is planting seeds

Goal

At the end of a good "class" a learner should...

• Feel that it is worth getting good - enthusiasm / curiousiosity
• Feel confident that they can move forward
• Know what steps to take
• Be able to take those steps

Growth mindset vs Fixed mindset

• Fixed Mindset == Belief that you either have it or you don't
• Growth Mindset == Belief that you have the ability to grow and learn

Huberman Lab podcast

People with a growth mindset...

• Don't take failure personally - it's a lesson
• Look at a struggle positively
• More willing to seek out help (instead of hide deficiencies)
• Less judgemental when others struggle
• A lot more

It's a spectrum

It's a lot of spectrums

Foster a growth mindset in...

• The people you teach: it amplifies their rate of growth
• Yourself as a teacher: You can become a better teacher

Mastery based learning
=> Growth Mindset

Zooming in

Meta... what?

Practically speaking...

• Help the learner be a better learner by teaching them how to learn
• Some teaching techniques are more powerful than others

Assess 🧪

• Be a detective/mind-reader/scientist
• Maintain good signal to noise ratio
• We are training coders, not parrots
• What will the code PRINT

Illuminate 🪙

• Try to be a guide rather than give a mini lecture
• In your pocket
• Trust no one!

=> Catalyse further growth 🪴

• Retrieval practice
• Push it further
• Learning is hard!

Foundational practices and mindsets

• The opportunity to be wrong
• Psychological safety
• Celebrate small wins
• You can do this yourself!