We were thrilled to welcome Barbara Oakley, a true pioneer in the science of learning, on the latest episode of Greatest Minds®.
Her secret to being a great teacher? Using metaphors and analogies to make even the toughest concepts click! Learn how this simple approach transformed her teaching (and earned her a Harvard invite!) in the clip below.
Be sure to check out the full episode of Greatest Minds 🧠 streaming here: https://lnkd.in/euxHqBK2 or wherever you get your podcasts!
#GreatestMindsPodcast#BarbaraOakley#LearningHowToLearn#TeachingTips#CuriosityDriven
There's this website calledratemyprofessors.com. And what I did was I found the top teachers, the top professors who were well known as gifted in conveying the, you know, in teaching about their discipline. And I looked up the emails and I got people to help me look up the emails of thousands of these professors. And I emailed them all. And I said, would you be willing to look at the manuscript? For a book I wrote, just sharking percentages of them got back to me and said I'd be glad to help you look over the manuscript for your book. And they gave me great insights. But one insight in particular I found really surprising. They said, you know, there's one particular reason I'm seen as a great teacher. It was that they used metaphor and analogy to help them in their teaching, and they didn't tell the other teachers about it. The other professors, not because I've been trying to keep it all hidden, but because the other professors would make fun of them and say, oh, well, that's why you're seen as, you know, such a great teacher is you just make it so easy for your students. Isn't always all about. Yeah, exactly like I was asked to speak. Harvard and sure enough, what did they do? They go, ohh, well, that's why you're seeing as such. That's why your courses are so popular. You just, you make it so easy and kind of fun and funny. And I'm like, well, duh.
