Learning Differences
Program Description
Created by NC State’s Friday Institute for Educational Innovation, the Learning Differences online professional development course for K12 educators unravels brain science making it approachable for educators and directly applicable to students and classroom learning. By focusing on executive functions such as attention, memory, task prioritization, organization, and planning, this course helps teachers and students understand how strengths and struggles in any of these areas manifest in classroom learning and what strategies support all functions of the brain. With a deeper understanding of learning differences, you can create a whole-child approach that recognizes each student’s uniqueness and needs in the learning experience.
This course will equip you with:
- A comprehensive understanding of learning differences and executive function with a deeper look at memory, and prioritizing and organizing tasks
- Effective strategies to support students with diverse learning needs
- An opportunity to personalize the learning experience for all students in your classroom
Developed for educators and completely redesigned in 2023, this course is open to participants from all schools and grade levels globally. Join us and gain the knowledge and skills to support the unique learning differences of each student.
To earn a certificate for 20 professional development hours, you must:
- Complete an initial survey about your background, organization, and goals for taking the Learning Differences course through registration.
- Engage in the materials and course activities as suits your learning needs. Review selected background materials (videos, webcasts, readings), follow personalized pathways that suit your needs, and engage in activities to help illustrate core concepts.
- Complete the Plan, Do, Study Act (PDSA) for each unit to put application into action.
- Contribute to the Learning Differences course forums by asking questions, responding to others’ questions, and sharing ideas in the discussion forums; agreeing with or identifying comments as insightful; suggesting resources that will be useful to others; and sharing your expertise in other ways.
- Reflect on your Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) activities to identify lessons learned from student feedback.
- Complete the end-of-course survey and provide suggestions for improving it in the future.
The certificate can be submitted to your local agency with a request for CEUs. Note that granting of CEUs is subject to the policies and procedures of your state and local agency.
Course Outline
Unit 1: Thinking Differently about Student Learning
Participants will further their thinking about learning differences and the “myth of average” among their students. Educators will begin to develop and apply learning differences teaching competencies that will support student learning. The essential questions for this unit are:
- What are learning differences?
- How does thinking about students’ learning differences affect teaching practice?
- What are the benefits of focusing on students’ strengths rather than weaknesses? What are the challenges of this approach?
Unit 2: Executive Function
This unit establishes a basic understanding of executive functioning skills by explaining what they are and how they impact student learning. The essential questions are:
- What are executive functioning skills and how do they affect student learning?
- How can teachers develop students’ executive functioning skills in classrooms
- Which strategies or solutions related to executive functions best meet students’ needs?
Unit 3: Organize and Prioritize
This unit focuses on the impact of a student’s ability to organize and prioritize tasks on learning and behavior in classrooms. Participants will learn and apply strategies to better foster student organization and prioritization. The essential questions are:
- What does it mean to organize and prioritize tasks?
- How can teachers help students with this competency?
- Which strategies or solutions related to prioritizing and organizing best meet students’ needs?
Unit 4: Working Memory
This unit focuses on the impact of working memory on student learning and behavior in classrooms. Participants will learn and apply strategies to better support students’ working memories. The essential questions are:
- What is working memory and how does it affect student learning?
- How can teachers support students who struggle with working memory or leverage students with strong working memory?
- Which strategies or solutions related to working memory best meet students’ needs?
Unit 5: Reflection of Learning
The purpose of this unit is to get participants thinking about the complexities and relatedness of learning differences. Then, participants will hone their skills to identify how to leverage a student’s learning profile to best support him or her. The essential questions for this unit are:
- How do the constructs of learning work together to build a complex understanding of each student?
- How can educators collect student data to select and implement strategies to support individual student needs?