About this course: Through this course you will start to critically examine your own ideas about education, teaching and learning. The critique will be developed through engagement with theories and ideas developed through educational research. You will be encouraged to use these ideas to challenge or support your own ideas about education. Each week we will focus on one key question, using video lectures, key readings and challenges to explore some commonplace notions about education. With the guidance of the course team, you will be asked to use these ideas to critically reflect on your own understandings and experience. By the end of the course, you will have developed a personal response to the main question: what is your preferred future for education? Announcement for US based teachers: Coursera and its partners are proud to offer eligible teachers free verified certificates for this course and other high-quality teacher professional development courses, through the ConnectED effort announced by President Obama. To participate in this opportunity, district leaders simply need to approve Coursera teacher professional development by completing a brief form at: www.coursera.org/tpd. Teachers interested in this opportunity are also encouraged to follow the link to learn more and complete the form. Once a district’s form has been verified, the district leader will be notified and teachers in the district will receive access to free verified certificates for Coursera professional development. Coursera and its partners thank educators for the hard work they do every day and hope this opportunity will allow them to continue developing their craft in a meaningful and flexible way. Participation in or completion of this online course will not confer academic credit for University of London programmes
Created by: University of London, UCL Institute of Education
Taught by: Dr Clare Brooks
UCL Institute of Education, University of London
| Commitment | 6-8 hours/week |
| Language | English |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
How do we learn?
This week we focus on the important question of "how do we learn?". One of our aims this week is to demonstrate the learning approach of this course as well as to get you to think about how you have learnt in the past, and to question some of your own assumptions about learning.
7 videos, 7 readings
- Reading: Syllabus
- Reading: Grading
- Reading: Glossary of Terms
- Video: Clare's introduction to What future for education?
- Reading: How do we learn? (about week 1)
- Video: Lecture 1 How do we learn?
- Video: Lecture 2 How do we learn? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 3 How do we learn? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 4 How do we learn? optional extra
- Video: Lecture 5 How do we learn? optional cont'd
- Video: Lecture 6 How do we learn? optional cont'd
- Reading: This week's readings (and lectures)
- Reading: Let's discuss...
- Reading: Reflections
Graded: Journal entry for Week 1
WEEK 2
What is intelligence and does it matter?
In this second week of the course we focus on the tricky issue of intelligence. In the resources this week, we explore what we mean by intelligence and how it can affect learning and educational success.
4 videos, 4 readings
- Reading: What is intelligence and does it matter? (about week 2)
- Video: Lecture 1 What is intelligence?
- Video: Lecture 2 What is intelligence cont'd
- Video: Lecture 3 What is intelligence cont'd
- Video: Lecture 4 What is intelligence cont'd
- Reading: This week's readings
- Reading: Let's discuss...
- Reading: Reflections
Graded: Journal Entry for Week 2
WEEK 3
What makes a good teacher?
In the third week of this course, we turn our attention from learning to teaching. In the resources this week we explore our images of "good" teachers and consider where these images come from.
6 videos, 4 readings
- Reading: What makes a good teacher? (about week 3)
- Video: Lecture 1 What makes a good teacher?
- Video: Lecture 2 What makes a good teacher? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 3 What makes a good teacher? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 4 What makes a good teacher? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 5 What makes a good teacher? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 6 What makes a good teacher? cont'd
- Reading: This week's readings
- Reading: Let's discuss...
- Reading: Reflections
Graded: Journal entry for Week 3
WEEK 4
Can schools make a difference?
In this fourth week, we turn our attention from individual classrooms and the relationship between learning and teaching, and focus on schools as organisations
3 videos, 4 readings
- Reading: Can schools make a difference? (about week 4)
- Video: Lecture 1 What makes a good school?
- Video: Lecture 2 What makes a good school? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 3 What makes a good school? cont'd
- Reading: This week's readings
- Reading: Let's discuss...
- Reading: Reflections
Graded: Journal entry for Week 4
WEEK 5
Why do governments fund education?
In this penultimate week of the course we expand our discussion still further and consider the role education plays in our societies.
6 videos, 4 readings
- Reading: Why do governments fund education? (about week 5)
- Video: Lecture 1 What are governments' priorities for education?
- Video: Lecture 2 What are governments' priorities for education? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 3 What are governments' priorities for education? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 4 What are governments' priorities for education? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 5 What are governments' priorities for education? cont'd
- Video: Lecture 6 What are governments' priorities for education? cont'd
- Reading: This week's readings
- Reading: Let's discuss...
- Reading: Reflections
Graded: Journal entry for Week 5
WEEK 6
What future for education?
In this final week of the course, we return to the question that started it all off: what future for education? The content is a little different this week, but the structure should be familiar to you.
1 video, 4 readings
- Reading: What future for education? (about week 6)
- Video: Clare introduces Week 6
- Reading: This week's TED talks
- Reading: Let's discuss...
- Reading: Reflections ... create your own TED talk
Graded: Create your own "Ted Talk"
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UCL Institute of Education
Ratings and Reviews
Very interesting.
The course certainly gives you new considerations, especially where global perspectives on education come into play. My only recommendation would be to lose the padlet - it seems trivial compared to the rest of the course functions. Thank you for everything!
The course consists of interviews of various researchers at UCL on various topics such as how do we learn, what is a good school/teacher etc
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Very good. I enjoyed it a lot.
My classmate says that I turn lecture notes into music notes to learn lessons. So he learns by turning them into music. Interesting approach.