Mike K Smith | Learn to teach, for goodness sake | RStudio (2020)
Even though I’ve completed 4 marathons, you certainly shouldn’t come to me for a training plan on how to achieve your goals for any race you’re about to run. So why do we often turn to “experienced R users” to help us learn R or train an organization? The RStudio certified trainers have been taught modern, evidence-based teaching practices which they use in planning training sessions in order to help delegates achieve THEIR learning goals effectively in a given time-frame. My talk will illustrate some of these teaching concepts and how, by becoming a certified trainer, you can help others learn about R more effectively. A 5 minute presentation in our Lightning Talks series
image: thumbnail.jpg
Transcript#
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.
Hello everyone, my name is Mike Smith, I'm from Pfizer in the UK, and today I'd like to talk to you a little bit about becoming an RStudio certified trainer.
This isn't advancing for some reason, there you go. So what does RStudio certification training mean? Well it means that you can understand and also demonstrate that you can apply modern teaching methods and that you're a subject matter expert for the topic that you're becoming certified in.
Now in the rest of this talk I'd like to draw an analogy between learning R and teaching R and training for and running a marathon.
So the first hundred yards is awesome, you're full of energy, you've got a goal in mind, you know you're going to achieve it and it's fantastic. The last hundred yards is also amazing because you're near the finish line, you know you're going to get a medal, right? It's the 16 weeks and 26 miles in the middle that's the hard bit.
Now I have completed four marathons, okay? I wouldn't recommend that anyone in this room come and ask me how they complete a marathon in a specific time. I am not a coach for running, but I am a coach for Tidyverse. So if you want to learn about Tidyverse, come and see me.
But I believe that a lot of time when we look to find people who can do training for us, we go to people who've used R a lot. You know we'll ask them, but I would think that there's actually a lot more to teaching people R than simply getting someone who knows how to do it to tell you how they do it, okay?
there's actually a lot more to teaching people R than simply getting someone who knows how to do it to tell you how they do it, okay?
So I would say certification training has changed how I approach training quite a lot. And I want to give you some examples.
Planning your training like a running route
When you're running, when you go out the door, you better have a plan and a route in mind, right? You need to know how far you're going, roughly how long it should take, what your route is so that your three-mile run doesn't suddenly turn into a six-mile run because you took a wrong turning. There is an analogy there perfectly for training.
This is a concept map. As a learner, you want to see what are the concepts in this lesson? How are they related? As a trainer, you want to know same stuff. What am I training on in this session? How are things related? Do I have a through map? And also, is there too many things here that I'm trying to train in this one session?
In a marathon training program, you're going to build up incrementally, bit by bit, little bit by little bit. You don't go from a one-mile run to a 12-mile run. Why would you do the same in training and teaching people are? Build it up incrementally.
Also, it's really important to leave gaps so that your learners can assimilate what you're teaching, take it on board, figure out how it works for them, and get ready for the next block of training.
And also, it's really important to have little check-ins, have this kind of assessment that says, do you know what? Let's just stop. Let's check that I understand what you've done so far, and then kind of check out what bits I understand, what bits I don't understand.
Knowing your learners
Everybody that comes to your training comes with who they are, what they know already, what they want to get from the training, what they think you're going to train them on, and what, eventually, they want to get from it.
Now, on the RStudio Education GitHub, you'll see some exemplars of these learner personas. I encourage you to go and have a look. These are three of the ones that are there. And the ideas that they show you give examples of the kinds of people that might come to your training.
I encourage everyone, if you're trying to set up training, think of the people who are coming, what their goals are, and then try to address their goals.
Meeting learners where they are
Now, the first time you run a mile, it's a big deal. You may have started on the couch, and the first time you can run that mile without stopping, it's a big deal, and it should be celebrated.
I would guess that everyone in this room has completely forgotten what it's like to turn an hour on for the first time. Help these folks out. By the time you can run six miles, a three-mile session is easy. So things that we might feel are just a given. It's trivial. It's easy. But for long-term R users, it might be indistinguishable from magic for your average beginner.
for long-term R users, it might be indistinguishable from magic for your average beginner.
So the ideal in this journey is that you get your learners from that first hundred yards where they're feeling, hey, I'm going to learn something new, this is going to be awesome, to the end where they're crossing the finish line and getting their medal, and help them do that and achieve their goals, not what you want them to learn, and to do that as quickly as possible. Thanks very much.
