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Learning Hour Design


As a technical coach you will spend time teaching developers skills like Test-Driven Development and Refactoring. One way to do this is via short interactive training sessions we call ”Learning Hour”.

This course is a ”Train-the-Trainer” initiative where we go through brain-friendly teaching techniques and how to use them with software developers. We will learn about the ”4C” structure invented by Sharon Bowman and explained in her book ”Training from the Back of the Room”. It’s a way to plan and implement training in a way that emphasises active learner participation and doing exercises over passively listening to the trainer talking. Together with a small group of other technical coaches you’ll gain new skills in planning and leading this kind of training sessions for your team.

What is included in the course?

  • Three 3 hour workshops with an experienced trainer and technical coach
  • How to apply brain-friendly training methods to developer training
  • Identifying and using learning goals to structure training
  • Planning and implementing a learning hour you can lead for your team
  • Designing good exercises and interactive activities
  • Your future teaching – making it a normal part of technical coaching

Take this opportunity to improve your teaching skills and discover more effective ways to spread technical practices in your development team.

Homework

You will get more out of the course if you do the homework, which is to plan and lead two learning hours with your team in the days between the training sessions. When you schedule the time in your diary for this course, we suggest you also schedule these hours of ”homework” with your team. The course is deliberately spread out over three half days with a week in between each, to give opportunities for these practice sessions with your team.

Who the course is for

The course is aimed at people who already work as technical coaches or lead developers for a team. You will need to be comfortable doing Test-Driven Development on a code kata exercise like ”Mars Rover” or ”Tennis”.

Course Outline

The first session is about taking an existing learning hour, understanding how it is structured and the goals of each part. We’ll go through the theory of the 4C learning model and practice leading important elements of it on one another. After the first session the homework is for you to practice giving this particular learning hour with your team.

The second session is about designing a new learning hour based around an existing code kata that you already know. We’ll go through setting up learning goals, designing learning activities and creating a plan. After this session the homework is to hold your newly designed learning hour with your team.

The third session will help you to share your learning hour plans with others and to practice creating new learning hours. You should be able to re-use and improve the learning hours designed by others. After the session you should have a plan for topics and possible exercises for teaching further learning hours with your team.