Key Information
About the content
The Foundations of Teaching for Learning programme is for anyone who is teaching, or who would like to teach, in any subject and any context - be it at school, at home or in the workplace. With dynamic lessons taught by established and respected professionals from across the Commonwealth, this eight course programme will see you develop and strengthen your skills in teaching, professionalism, assessment, and more. As you carry on through the programme, you will find yourself strengthening not only your skills, but your connection with colleagues across the globe. A professional development opportunity not to be missed. The teacher’s work becomes meaningful when it is informed by research and theories of learning, and their relationship to actual practice. This course provides an opportunity for you to identify and understand students’ expectations and prior learning. Enhance your course by joining the Commonwealth teaching community on our website, Facebook and Twitter.
Syllabus
- Week 1 - The lives of children
How much, as teachers or parents, do we understand about the lives of children and what affects their learning? How is their identity shaped, who shapes it, and in what circumstances? How many different ‘selves’ do children inhabit and how does their ‘self’ em... - Week 2 - How children learn
We know a lot about children’s learning, but there is a lot that we still have to learn. How important is self-confidence and self-esteem? What do we understand by ‘agency’, the confidence to take initiative, to learn for yourself and with others? In what ways... - Week 3 - Engaging with students
The theme for this week is 'engaging with students'. We begin with the language of the classroom, the crucial issue of questioning how and for what purpose children are rewarded, and the use of paired and group work to engage students more actively in the less... - Week 4 - The power of the peer group
The four lectures this week are all related to the theme of peer groups. We look at the positive and negative effects of peer groups, including how smoking drugs and alcohol problems can affect the classroom and the school, the concerning issue of bullying, an... - Week 5 - Learning that travels
This week we consider how learning happens as it travels out of the classroom. We consider ways in which students learn at home, including the thorny problem of homework, and the important understanding of how transitions, from one school to another or from on... - Week 6 - Four key thinkers
Who are the great thinkers that have shaped our understanding of education and schooling? Whose insights have benefited our thinking and practice often without even knowing it? In this sixth week of the course we will discuss four key thinkers (from Nigeria, t...
Instructors
Associate Professor George Oduro
Associate Professor of Educational Leadership
University of Cape Coast, Ghana
Professor John MacBeath
Professor Emeritus
University of Cambridge, UK
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Coursera is a digital company offering massive open online course founded by computer teachers Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller Stanford University, located in Mountain View, California.
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