 In connections, we think about the teaching and learning dynamic differently. Rather than a linear process from teacher to student, we see a spiraling dynamic process of learning, re-learning, unlearning, and new learning. This new way of thinking about teaching has roots in mind, brain, and education science, and neuroconstructivism. Our classes are centered on the belief that knowing how a person's nature, genes, and nurture, upbringing, and environment, combined with his or her own free will, your choices or decisions in life, determine learning outcomes. This philosophy of learning is compatible with most major educational best practices and mainly differs in how we interact with students and how we leverage technology. 1 plus 1 equals 3. We believe that learning is a social construct. You have a good idea and I have a good idea. But when they are exchanged, we both learn more and the result is something better than we could ever hope for on our own. Visible thinking. We believe that the person who does the work is the person who does the learning. So our courses create lots of space for reflection and interaction to make thinking visible. As authors, Rich Hart, Church, and Morrison promote, differentiation, giving every person what they need, does not mean treating them equally. We understand that brains are unique, therefore different people have different potentials in different subjects. For this reason, we use different resources and interventions at different times in order to maximize your potential in a subject area. Begin with the end in mind. Backward design. All educational planning from the most macro level of national systems planning down to the specific teaching intervention you'll be using with Johnny to help him learn to decode the phoneme B. Should use backward design. In fact, as teachers or administrators, we must decide what the objective is. Then we must choose what we want to use as success criteria and indicators that we are reaching our objective. Evaluation. Finally, we can then select the best teaching methodology, strategy, activity, and resources to meet our objective. To explain this further, let's take a tour of our classroom. Flipping. Using backward design logic, the courses in Connections are planned to maximize the best use of our face-to-face or synchronous time by flipping. This means you watch a video summarizing core theories, concepts, and ideas before coming to class, so that when we are together, we can pull those ideas apart and go deeper to explore the concepts in your own personal context. Since rote memorization knowledge, dates, facts, formulas, names, places, theories, Google-able knowledge can be learned and reinforced by frequent quizzing. We also encourage you to take a quiz in every unit as many times as necessary to learn all the basic unit concepts and to get 100% on every test. This permits us to share a basic level of vocabulary and conceptual knowledge when discussing the topic. Critical thinking through our discussion boards and class exchanges. It's for this reason that each course unit has one or more discussion board prompts. These prompts are not only meant to get you to reflect, but also to listen and exchange ideas with others. Challenge prior beliefs you might have had, and open your mind to different ways of thinking. Many libraries. In Connections, we understand that people will take our courses from different starting points of knowledge about the topic at hand. This is why we have created many libraries or bundles with a variety of resources for each topic. The libraries have beginner, intermediate and advanced level resources in video, peer-reviewed articles, books and university papers, which permit entry points to knowledge at different starting points. We encourage you to explore the material and find your own sweet spot entry point so you can build off your own existing knowledge base and grow towards more sophisticated understanding. 3-2-1 Reflection To think clearly about complex ideas, we also need reflective time, not just instruction time. In traditional learning environments, we often share lots of new information, so much so that the experience can feel overwhelming. Incorporating reflection time is a part of every best practice teaching encounter. In our courses, we often ask you to question your own belief systems. We will ask you why you do things that might have become habituated over time and to justify your actions. To reflect as well as document our growth with topics, after each encounter, we ask you to write a 3-2-1 reflection. 3 things you didn't know before. 2 things you will continue to research. 1 thing you will change about your personal or professional life. Writing is a form of thinking. Finally, we know that to write well, one has to read well. To read well, one has to read a lot. In the courses, we want to give you the opportunity to learn to both read and write better. The courses are purposefully writing intensive because it is a vital dimension of thinking. We realize some students will enter our course writing well in colloquial form, texting, but with difficulty writing academically. Thus, if you are open to the feedback, you will become a better writer through this course. To guide you, we have developed a series of videos to explain APA, American Psychological Association format, which you are encouraged to explore immediately. You should also take the APA quiz until you get 100%. Course outline, recommended process. We recommend this process so you can take advantage of the courses to the maximum before the live class. 1. Watch the video. 2. Post on the discussion board. 3. Dig into the bundles. 4. Come prepared to talk. During the live class. Participate in the discussions, talk and share ideas and or post on the chat. After the live class. 1. Complete the 3-to-1 reflection. 2. Respond to your fellow learners on the chat. 3. Retake the quiz if desired. Attitudes. We know this is a very different course format than you have likely used in the past. We also know it works. After documenting three years of this particular instructional design at the Harvard University Extension School in the Neuroscience of Learning course, we can demonstrate that this format enhances and increases student learning outcomes as reported by the students themselves. We know. If you are open to feedback, you will learn faster. If you listen and learn from your peers, you will learn broader perspectives on the topics. If you dig into the many libraries, you will learn deeper. If you participate, you are not only being generous intellectually, but you are opening yourself and your ideas to critique, and therefore you will learn more about yourself. If you reflect, you will know what you know and what you don't know, which will permit better learning the next time. Welcome to Connections.