Course Creators Weekly #42 🗓 April 12th, 2021 - Activating Prior Knowledge

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  Understand Advance organisers, which help us make sense of and organise knowledge
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  Use relatable stories, or, if introducing entirely new concepts, explain how they relate
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  Start by presenting general ideas, from first principles, and gradually add complexity

4 techniques to activate prior knowledge:

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  Ask students to predict what you'll be teaching + justify their thinking
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  Ask questions to test your students' intuitive knowledge about unfamiliar concepts
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  Ask students to compare the new ideas that you present, with what they already know
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  Ask 'why' questions before introducing new material—prime them for new knowledge

Final takeaways:

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  Direct your students' attention to the most important ideas they must take away
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  Highlight relationships between concepts to help students connect the dots
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  Remind students of the existing knowledge they can use to grasp new ideas

In this article, Caroline and Jason Zook talk about mindset "poisons" and "antidotes", which are analogous to toxic mindsets and the ways in which we can overcome them.

Jason and Caroline's 5-step process to overcome any toxic mindset:

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  Identify the "poison"—recognise the problem
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  Get to the root fear—find the source, perhaps going as far back to your childhood
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  Identify the "antidote"—new thoughts and actions that'll help you fight the "poison"
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  Visualise the new result—imagine the new world when you shift your mindset
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  Put that antidote in action—new habits/practices/processes to apply the antidote

A quick rundown of 12 toxic mindsets and some potential antidotes:

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  Perfectionism: define "good enough" for you, and focus on completion over perfection
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  Self-doubt: trust in your ability to learn, grow, and build confidence through practice
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  Need for validation: prioritise your opinion of yourself above the opinion of others
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  Comparison: consume less, create more, focus on your own journey and story
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  Procrastination: set a timer, focus on taking the first step, and start ugly
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  People-pleasing: know your limits, prepare "no scripts" and a "not okay" list
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  Over-thinking: stop trying to think your way to a solution—take action, learn and adjust
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  Need for control: recognise the positive things about getting help from someone else
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  Disappointment: setbacks don't define you—focus on helping/serving others
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  Over-committing: choose where you place your focus—opportunities are everywhere
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  Giving up easily: offer yourself time to work through setbacks and reach your goals
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  Feeling of unworthiness: practice self-love—you deserve it, like everyone else

To keep this summary as short (!!) as possible, I had to remove a lot of context. If you're intrigued, you should definitely check out the original article!

Ben Collins shares what he's learnt about cohort-based courses through his participation in Keystone Accelerator, and five key takeaways that he plans to apply to his own course:

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  World-class content, community, feedback, accountability → transformative experience
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  New human connections and the diversity of the group are as valuable as the content
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  Learning together is more fun, and we learn best when we're having fun
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  The experience itself + the tangential learnings are just as valuable as the core content
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  When it comes to content, less is more—prioritise transformation over information