Teach your class to fish, and they'll have food for a lifetime.
From Open Source Bridge wiki
You have so much you want to teach, how do you structure it so that your training course is both interesting and challenging? How much theory can you squeeze into an hour before your attendees have forgotten where you started? How do you structure your course to account for classes which move slower or faster than average? This talk will cover all of these answers and more.
Speaker: Jacinta Richardson
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Contributed notes
can't afford to get lost in intensive training, no hallway track6-6.5 hours of training per day define pre-requisites
cognitive load
intrinsic - some things are harder to learn than others extraneous - thingts can be made easier to understand germane - easier to learn when building on existing knowledge
use the right medium to teach a concept
building cognitive framework takes time build strong framework so advanced topics can be explained
reserve time for breaks and lunches, and late people break every 90 minutes, end after an exercize make people leave the room, breathe and move without breaks, people stop learning
most interesting and important info early in the day coffee + morning = more receptive also trainer is fresher in the AM provide less important, easier info at the end
Essential material should come first, even if it requires foundation don't have to go deep, but explain that X is important and why don't waste time in the morning with intros and bragging first 90 minutes most important finish with optional extras at the end of course
use diagrams! also code, pictures, comics
how to rduce germane cog. load
order material carefully group similar concepts (CL!)
mention everything, especially topics that will be discussed deeper later
use of 90-min blocks
10 min instruction, 10-20 of practice learn + practice = understand 1-3 concepts per chunk don't induce exercise fatigue max 18 concepts per day, unique exercise per concept combine exercises only after concepts understood individually start with easy exercises, increase difficulty reminder: ok not to finish all exercises minimize cross-chapter reliance provide a cheatsheet or index
new chapter = clean slate provide scaffolding to focus on the sole topic of current exercise
provide good notes (not just copy of slides)
consider training environment cold room is better! between server room temp and normal office temp
students always fit a bell curve some slow, most average, some quick
