About Program

• Description
• Outcomes
• Tools & Techniques
• Credits
• Reviews

LEARNING FIRST is an online professional development program for educators at all levels. It consists of 75 learning experiences that educators do online and then practice in their own instructional settings. The full program is the equivalent of two graduate courses that can be completed in one year. It is possible to elect smaller units or individual learning experiences based on your interests or concerns.

The content focuses on instruction and behavior management:

• a new instructional design process that puts learning first in classrooms
• tried and true rapport techniques that help students manage their own behavior

Click on Products Info for brief descriptions of the learning experiences, a list of options, and to access our catalog.

Instruction and behavior management are integrated so that learning is increased and behavioral problems are decreased at the same time.

Instruction is transformed and behavior management is dramatically improved because this program accomplishes the following:

• shifts the instructional focus from the many requirements of teaching to the few requirements of learning ---> practice + models & feedback
  
  
• shifts the view of learning from one that is aligned with Piaget, which focuses on mental operations and maturational stages of development, to one aligned with Vygotsky, which focuses on social development and the potential to learn from social prompting: this view is summarized here from passages in Jerome Bruner’s book, In Search of Mind:
  
  We learn in context, not in isolation. We learn by first making clumsy, unconscious, and spontaneous attempts at doing [practice] the same things we see being done by those around us [models] and by picking up hints and help from others [feedback] that allow us to organize our thought processes until we can do it on our own. As a result, we begin to understand the meaning of what we are learning and gain perspective on it. Then, we begin to gain conscious, voluntary, and appropriate control of what we are learning.
  
  There is nothing preventing putting this view of learning into practice in classrooms since educators are already, if inadvertently, implementing it during extracurricular programs. It is interesting to note that these before- and after-school instructional programs are not being criticized in terms of the learning taking place.
  
  
• shifts the behavior-management focus from maintaining control of students to building rapport with them so they want to use the desired learning behavior.

Teachers actually gain enough freedom to do what so many educators say needs to be done:

• reduce paper load
• meet more content standards
• move into the higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy
• differentiate, enrich, remediate
• provide for multiple intelligences and learning styles
• make it possible for students to work at their own level and pace
• add the role of "guide on the side" to that of "sage on the stage" so students become independent learners

• How to use these simple but highly effective learning tools in the instructional design process:

  

  Practice is the key to learning.
  Models trigger practice.
  Feedback guides practice.
  Package-It is the key to rapport.
  Rapport is the key to behavior management.

  Practice, models, and feedback represent the agreements among cognitive, behavioral, and social-psychological learning theorists about how learning occurs.

  Package-It refers to creating stand-alone or self-contained learning experiences that include practice, models, and feedback; for example, on hand-outs, posters, or computers. Students work on these independently while the teacher plays the role of guide on the side; for example, mentor, coach, editor-in-chief, primary investigator.

  Rapport refers to having enough genuine and mutual liking, trust, or understanding between everyone in the classroom to at least accomplish tasks as expected in the workplace and at best to meet complex challenges that require collaboration. Brief descriptions of the rapport techniques below can be found by clicking on Products Info.

• How to build into learning experiences and use these "no-talk" rapport techniques:

• How to use these rapport "talk" techniques:

• How to pass these quality checks:

PRACTICE active repetitive holistic personal

MODELS meet criteria show product show range show process

FEEDBACK stable grade-free unambiguous thinking-oriented

RAPPORT do no harm no side effects least control shift energy

Credits: Who developed the Learning First tools & techniques?

The instructional aspects of this program are based on Teaching For Learning, a book written by Patsy Kollen. Shirley Cooper and Kollen are the co-producers of this program. Sharon Phillips is the field-tester and classroom consultant. Click on About Us if you want more information about these and other educators who served as consultants.

The behavioral management aspects of this program are based on a book written by Fritz Redl and David Wineman, Controls From Within, which is considered a classic in the field. Herbert Kohl, in Growing Minds, called Controls From Within and its preceding companion book, Children Who Hate, "the two best books I have seen on discipline." Redl and Wineman emphasized the importance of techniques that address all aspects of the "milieu" if students are to gain, maintain, and build internal controls. Their techniques are called rapport techniques in this program because they also emphasized the "power of personal rapport." Some of the examples they provided have been adapted for classrooms and used as models in the program; when this occurs, their names are used for the teachers. Their techniques are listed in the Tools & Techniques section and briefly described in Products Info.

Shirley Reynolds came up with the idea for the home page. Website and logo design were initially accomplished with the help of Rick Reynolds and later with the help of Anne Benjamin at aebdesigns.com and the independent research of Robin Barrett.

where learning comes first and keeps on going

Reviews: What do educators and students say about Learning First?

COMMENTS FROM THE FIELD by Sharon Phillips

The difference between LEARNING FIRST and other programs I have been exposed to over the last 15 years is gigantic! I don't have to change my classroom-design or my teaching "style". I don't have to change my philosophy. I don't have to be a second-hand Rose. I don't have to be a parrot. What I do and how I do it is totally up to me, which is how I like it. I have my own ideas and want to implement them. I want to find better solutions to problems I identify, but I don't want somebody else to tell me how to try them. I change the names of things--I call my feedback-devices "check-its" because that works better for me. I come up with successes that pleasantly surprise the producers of the program: I put my models and check-its on posters for my younger students and put them on easels so I can point to them and students go study them. There are a lot of new techniques I am happy to try. But, the only thing I have to do is get "yes" answers to what I call the "is its"--those darn quality checks! If I am designing a practice-challenge for a food-science lesson, I ask "is it active? is it repetitive? is it holistic? is it personal?" The most amazing thing is that the more I experiment and learn, the easier it gets. This program simplifies my life. Better yet, the work my students are producing is far better than what I am used to getting from them. Click on Video Testimonial to see some of my students working and some of their work.

COMMENTS BY SHARON'S ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

• This is a NO-TALK ZONE (because Sharon told them that she is trying not to talk so much).
• We're using the right-side of our brains.
• We wish other teachers would let us talk to each other and work together. They think if we talk we're going to cheat, or copy, or do something we're not supposed to do.
• Are we going to critique this?
• We better check the models.

COMMENTS MADE BY UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WHILE OBSERVING SHARON'S CLASSES

• I never thought students could critique their own work like this.
• I can't wait for the rest of our group to see the videotapes of our LEARNING FIRST lessons after we try them.
• I wish all the university students in our group could see this because they don't believe what I tell them about it.
• I want to student teach here because I can't get this anywhere else.
  
  

FEEDBACK FROM UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WHO WERE TAUGHT USING THIS FRAMEWORK

• I became better able to "pull out" information needed and not get bogged down with the details.
• I thought this class was harder than the test and paper type class. I really had to think! In the other classes I just had to be able to recall information for the tests that were given.
• The difference in this class is that the answers didn't come from the textbook. I had to search and think about the assignments.
• I believe I came out with more from the class than I intended to get. At times it was only during pondering that many ideas from class fell into place. A lot of things I see from a different perspective [after using a 12-step critical thinking instrument]. I might hear a song or skit and try to figure out what theory or concept might apply to it. I feel I think deeper than just what might be on the surface.
• I learned many theories which I crossed paths with in the past. It DELIGHTS me that I now have some understanding of them when I hear or see them in print.
• I really do feel as though I've learned a good bit more than I realized--not necessarily in the traditional sense of memorizing facts, but in the sense of understanding. I've become very aware of my improvement over time.
• I grasped a lot of elusive concepts I had been chasing and found a few more to chase.

COMMENTS by Mike Kollen & Bill Moy

We've agreed to be consultants for Learning First and to review the behavioral management component of the program. We've had the pleasure of reviewing several "Learning Experences. The rapport techniques hold true to how they were taught and used at the University of Michigan Fresh Air Camp (FAC). We worked at FAC with Dave Wineman, one of the developers of these techniques. We helped train teachers, educational psychologists, social workers, and correctional officers. We are confident that Dave would have been pleased with how these rapport techniques are being used for educational purposes. We are especially pleased that the indirect "no-talk" techniques that Wineman placed so much emphasis on at FAC are also being emphasized in this program. We are looking forward to reviewing the "talk-techniques" as we receive additional "Learning Experences".

We have both taught at the community college level for many years. When reviewing the "Learning Experences", we realized that we have used the rapport techniques to manage our classrooms over the years without thinking about it. Using them became second nature at FAC and we were surprised to realize how much we relied on them in our college classrooms.

COMMENTS by Beckie West

I'm one of the Learning First classroom consultants. I decided to try using Learning First with my 7th grade students. At first, I thought about using it with demonstration speeches that I had used in previous years, but I changed my mind. I decided instead to use it with a writing project with which I had already had some success. I was planning for the last nine weeks of classes, and I thought this particular project would hold the attention of the majority of my students, whereas the speeches probably would not. The project I chose was the Alphabetical Autobiography. The students used the computers to do all of their writing. For each letter of the alphabet, they wrote two paragraphs that were autobiographical in nature. Each of the two was written on the same page. For example, someone wrote about art because she was chosen as an art ambassador for the year, and she also wrote about athletics because she played on the volleyball and basketball teams. The completed books obviously had twenty-six decorated pages with front and back covers.

I was very pleased with the results of the project. These were some of the things that I noticed were different from the time I used the project before:

• the students really enjoyed having the Models to examine
• the students became engaged in the project more quickly with fewer questions
• the creativity and decoration became a contagious thing
• the students' questions were more learning-oriented rather than attention-seeking
• they used the Check-it Lists (feedback) that I taped onto the computers
• they didn't get "bent out of shape" when I added criteria to the Check-it List or when I had to remind them to check the list for answers to their questions
• there were very few misbehaviors
• I really became simply the "guide on the side"

Click on Video Introduction to see how several of the Learning First consultants summarized this program.

Book Review by Howard Harrison

Howard Harrison of Jones Valley was a public school teacher and administrator for more than 30 years.

March 28, 1993, RECORD SEARCHLIGHT [Redding CA] column "School Bell" by Howard Harrison, his column appears on the last Sunday of each month.

In her book, "Teaching For Learning", Patsy Killen [sic] goes into great detail on the methodology she has found to be successful in helping students reach "holistic" learning goals. Throughout she emphasizes three essential criteria to learning: PRACTICE, MODELS and FEEDBACK. This quote from her book helps understand the mystery surrounding learning. "Learning mechanisms, unlike teaching practices, are hidden from view. Learning is a natural phenomenon, a process found in nature rather than in the social sphere where teaching is found. Learning, unlike teaching, does not easily divulge its secrets."

Outside more purely academic pursuits are many examples of the principles that [Kollen] advocates. The accomplished musician for example could hardly achieve a level of excellence without practice, models and feedback. The athlete or athletic team that hones his or its talents to perfection does so only after hours of practice, observing models and receiving feedback from the coach. Must the learning of math, science or history be any different?

Learning is a natural thing. To be marveled, nurtured and enjoyed. What parents have not found joy and excitement from observing their infant demonstrate the learning process?

Human beings are naturally inquisitive and in the right circumstance will continually expand their knowledge. And, for the teacher there is no greater reward than when a student understands and can apply that which is taught.

It is the essence of their being and the fulfillment of a promise for a better future."