Basic profile: helping people absorb crucial ideas and the right skills efficiently, so that we can reduce talent/skills bottlenecks in key areas.
Examples:
Introductory EA program, in-depth EA fellowship, The Precipice reading group, AI safety programmes, alternative protein programmes, operations skills retreat, various workshops organised in EAGs/EAGxs, etc
How to try developing this aptitude:
I’ll split these into three areas: (a) pedagogical knowledge, (b) content knowledge, and (c) operations.
(a) Pedagogical knowledge
This specific knowledge you learn and skills you develop to teach effectively or help others learn more effectively. Examples: breaking down learning objectives into digestible chunks, how to design effective engaging learning experience, creating and presenting content, (EDIT) how to measure whether your students are actually learning .
This could be applied to classroom/workshop settings, reading and discussion groups, career guides, online courses, etc
You can pick up knowledge and skills either— formally: teaching courses, meta-learning courses, teaching assistant— or informally: helping others learn
(b) Content knowledge
This is knowledge specific to the domain you want others to learn. If you’re teaching English alphabets, you need to know what it is (symbols that you can rearrange to create meanings and associations with physical or abstract things), why it’s relevant (so you have a similar language with others to learn and communicate with), and how to apply it (“m”+”o”+”m” is mom!).
It’s sometimes not necessary that you’re an expert in this, but it helps a lot if you are above average at it.
(c) Operations A big (but sometimes forgotten) part of organising classrooms, discussion groups, or workshops is that it needs to smooth (or within an expected parameter) to reduce any friction in the learning experience. It also helps that you understand the different trade-offs of running an education project (i.e. quality of learning vs. student’s capacity vs. educator’s capacity vs. financial cost).
You can pick up knowledge and skills either— formally: operations courses, project management courses, productivity books - or informally: learning from “that friend who usually get things done and is generally reliable”
On track?
It’s hard to generalise since there’s so many different models (e.g. classroom, online courses, discussion groups) of how to educate/train a person, and each different model requires a different way of thinking. Here’s my rough take on this:
Level 1: you get positive feedback from others when you had to explain and teach a certain topic informally (e.g. with friends over dinner, homework group, helping students as a teaching assistant during office hours).
Level 2: you get positive feedback when facilitating discussions.
Level 3: you get positive feedback when teaching a workshop.
Level 4 (you’re likely on track here): you get positive feedback when teaching and running a course, online course, or lecture series with more than 50 participants
Yeah, this seems worth highlighting in addition to the aptitudes Holden highlighted (though I’m not necessarily saying it’s as important as those other aptitudes; I haven’t thought carefully abut that). And that seems like a good breakdown of relevant skills, how to tell you’re on track, etc.
Regarding examples and places to apply this, I think an additional important (and perhaps obvious) place is with actual school students; see posts tagged Effective altruism outreach in schools. (There’s also a Slack workspace for that topic, which I didn’t create but could probably add people to if they send me a message.)
This might just be an extension of the “community building” aptitudes, but here’s another potential aptitude.
“Education and training” aptitudes
Basic profile: helping people absorb crucial ideas and the right skills efficiently, so that we can reduce talent/skills bottlenecks in key areas.
Examples:
Introductory EA program, in-depth EA fellowship, The Precipice reading group, AI safety programmes, alternative protein programmes, operations skills retreat, various workshops organised in EAGs/EAGxs, etc
How to try developing this aptitude:
I’ll split these into three areas: (a) pedagogical knowledge, (b) content knowledge, and (c) operations.
(a) Pedagogical knowledge
This specific knowledge you learn and skills you develop to teach effectively or help others learn more effectively. Examples: breaking down learning objectives into digestible chunks, how to design effective engaging learning experience, creating and presenting content, (EDIT) how to measure whether your students are actually learning .
This could be applied to classroom/workshop settings, reading and discussion groups, career guides, online courses, etc
You can pick up knowledge and skills either—
formally: teaching courses, meta-learning courses, teaching assistant—
or informally: helping others learn
(b) Content knowledge
This is knowledge specific to the domain you want others to learn. If you’re teaching English alphabets, you need to know what it is (symbols that you can rearrange to create meanings and associations with physical or abstract things), why it’s relevant (so you have a similar language with others to learn and communicate with), and how to apply it (“m”+”o”+”m” is mom!).
It’s sometimes not necessary that you’re an expert in this, but it helps a lot if you are above average at it.
(c) Operations
A big (but sometimes forgotten) part of organising classrooms, discussion groups, or workshops is that it needs to smooth (or within an expected parameter) to reduce any friction in the learning experience. It also helps that you understand the different trade-offs of running an education project (i.e. quality of learning vs. student’s capacity vs. educator’s capacity vs. financial cost).
You can pick up knowledge and skills either—
formally: operations courses, project management courses, productivity books
- or informally: learning from “that friend who usually get things done and is generally reliable”
On track?
It’s hard to generalise since there’s so many different models (e.g. classroom, online courses, discussion groups) of how to educate/train a person, and each different model requires a different way of thinking. Here’s my rough take on this:
Level 1: you get positive feedback from others when you had to explain and teach a certain topic informally (e.g. with friends over dinner, homework group, helping students as a teaching assistant during office hours).
Level 2: you get positive feedback when facilitating discussions.
Level 3: you get positive feedback when teaching a workshop.
Level 4 (you’re likely on track here): you get positive feedback when teaching and running a course, online course, or lecture series with more than 50 participants
Yeah, this seems worth highlighting in addition to the aptitudes Holden highlighted (though I’m not necessarily saying it’s as important as those other aptitudes; I haven’t thought carefully abut that). And that seems like a good breakdown of relevant skills, how to tell you’re on track, etc.
Regarding examples and places to apply this, I think an additional important (and perhaps obvious) place is with actual school students; see posts tagged Effective altruism outreach in schools. (There’s also a Slack workspace for that topic, which I didn’t create but could probably add people to if they send me a message.)
This general idea seems pretty promising to me.