Uncommon Sense Teaching Part 2: Building Community

This module covers motivation, stress, and character change, exploring the importance of surprise in learning, the role of dopamine in motivation, stress and the amygdala, the disparity between intellect and character, systemic problems in education, efforts to eradicate bullying, and the importance of forgetting in learning and overcoming stress. Topics include why curiosity is important and how stress affects learning.

This module explores how the brain decides whether to make mental or physical tasks conscious or nonconscious based on repetition. Topics include learning without knowing you know, compression in learning, front and back doors of the procedural system, differences between declarative and procedural learning, how to teach both pathways, and using habits mindfully in the classroom for effective classroom management.

This module explores the advantages and disadvantages of faster and slower types of learning, examining race cars versus hikers in learning. Topics include critical thinking from a neuroscientific perspective, why critical thinking is difficult, biases and fixed mindsets in research and expert educators, thinking consciously and critically in teams, and using case studies to teach students how to resolve group dysfunction.

This module covers syndromes such as dyslexia, attention deficit disorder, and autism spectrum, exploring how they affect learning and the importance of nurturing students' ways of learning. Topics include dyslexia and declarative learning, ADHD and other syndromes relying on declarative learning, autism spectrum strengthening procedural learning, focusing on objectives, assessments, bell ringers and hooks, and the main body and wrap up of lesson plans.