Zoun, which you can follow here:
posted the following comment on yesterday’s newsletter:thanks for sharing! i'd love to learn more about this. can you also include examples of how you incorporate these questions into your own work?
I’m actually working on a video showing day-to-day in my own life as a Pedagogical Coordinator and Designer of Learning Experiences, and on an essay on that same topic. For today, I’ll just answer Zoun’s question.
I train people (young high schoolers) to help other people (middle school students) to develop projects that can have an impact on their community. To learn more, you can read this.
Because of it, I have 2 different layers when it comes to learning goals:
What are the learning goals for the students?
What are the learning goals for the mentors?
To both of them, we then add another layer:
Skills;
Theory;
Behaviors;
That’s the first part of our pedagogical model.
Then, the 4 questions I talked about yesterday come into play.
To better pick the skills we want them to develop, the kind of theoretical knowledge we think they need to have, and, above everything else, the kind of behaviors and practices we want them to do, we need to know:
Who are the learners?
What will they be able to do afterward?
What are the contexts where their performance is going to be evaluated and practiced?
What are the tools they need to learn how to use?
Part of my job is revisiting these every other month and making sure they’re aligned with reality and our goals at Entrepreneurial Gym.
I also do this as a freelance, every time I’m hired to give a specific course or workshop.
In fact, one of the most interesting and meaningful skills I’ve learned in 3 years of working as a Trainer was how to build these experiences without being an expert in the specific skill. I’ve been interviewed and talked about this at length with a friend. I’m waiting for her to release the episode and you guys can check it out if you want.
If there are any more specific questions about this topic, please, let me know. I would love to answer more of them! I truly believe, as I mentioned before, that Education is the number one propeller of a Modern Golden Age and I want to make sure I fulfill my role in helping it come to life.
Since my interest is in learning how to learn better, I think I can modify your framework as follows:
1. before i start anything, define the following:
what skill am i trying to learn?
what theory do i need to do so?
what behavioral change am i aiming at?
2. the idea of the minimum viable project from your GE post is also interesting to incorporate while planning:
what is the time frame?
what are the test? (or, how will i know if i failed or succeeded?)
Thanks for sharing these posts! They're helpful in jumpstarting my thinking on how i can personally become a better learner.