Uncommon Sense Teaching

Memorable takeaways:

• slow learners spend more time witht he material than fast ones.
• aim to build a teaching strategy that caters to several different kinds of learners in every module
• aim to keep the volume of challenge being handled by every student about the same, because you're optimizing for time in engaged contact with the material.
  • this means for fast learners you need to give them level-appropriate chellenges
  • this also means that you need many checkpoints, to make a unit of work that creates a decent-sized feedback loop for slow learners.
    • also promotes chunking - when you can have handles for smaller concepts, you can express their interrelationships explicitly.
• this gets easier when you let students self-direct. set up material with clear signposts and feedback, and let them go forth.
• assume memory is functionally infinite - everything gets dumped into the episodic tape reels.
  • the challenge is indexing memory along all the axes where it might come into play. all retrieval is contextual retrieval.
  • therefore, when promoting retention, you're going for connection building.