aboutlearning

We are introducing a new and exciting version of our Basic 4MAT training. It is now a tight and cohesive three days that is designed to flow from teacher strengths.

We have integrated the About Teaching book. Key knowledge sections of About Teaching have been added to the participant materials giving a broader knowledge base and giving our clients the added benefit of a less expensive higher quality learner book.

Teachers begin by describing the elements of a unit they frequently teach to examine the elements in light of the 4MAT framework. This unit becomes their stepping-off point for the training.

The three training days have been tightened and made more cohesive, embedding deeper work from our pre-service materials.

In Section One, Learning Styles, there is a new piece on research on occupations and style that we have gathered in our corporate and government work.

In Section Two, The Brain and Concepts, the conceptualization process has been simplified. Hemisphericity has been removed from the original Day 1 and this section now emphasizes the way the brain learns naturally including the balance of both language and image as well as the significance of designing instruction conceptually. There is further emphasis on the work of Antonio Damasio and James Zull as it applies to teaching and learning and the biological underpinnings of the Cycle.

In Section Three, The 4MAT Model, the “6 trick” of Jean Wincek and Colleen O’Malley is now in full bloom and adds considerable value to cohesion of creating units. New insights from Mike Zane in Hawaii are introduced into the importance of the “bridge” as the image of the designed outcomes adding much weight to the Grant Wiggins focus on performance.

Other significant additions include:

• The option to purchase 4MATION software as part of your training bundle and use as your instructional design tool since it now incorporates all of the elements of the 4MAT Lesson Planning Kit and much, much more!
• More right-brain activities with the Visual Explorer images.
• Suggestions and additions to make the Quadrant 2 L information delivery piece more interactive and reflective of current research and best practices.
• Sections from the questionnaire on six necessary elements for each of the four quadrants.
• All readings now require graphic organizers.
• The Movie exercise now has an added visual component.
• New work on models and how to use them to break out of our biases on what learning is and how we design instruction to encourage higher order thinking.
• new exercise on interviewing students.

Yet, all the fine working elements that have always been a part of our Basic Training remain:

• Interactions that incorporate the essentials of social intelligence
• Verbal and non-verbal techniques
• The Learning Type Measure
• The Hemispheric Mode Indicator
• The HMI Horseshoe
• The Gameboard
• The recipe for creating a 4MAT lesson or unit
• And even Moe Scott’s Four Little Pigs are back!

Add ons to the 3-day Basic Training include 1-day workshops on The Natural Cycle of Learning, 4MAT and Assessment, and Creating and Polishing your 4MAT Unit. These may be presented as additional staff development time becomes available or as ongoing coaching throughout the year. Each workshop may be purchased separately as needed and determined by yourself and your district.

As a result of our changes to Basic 4MAT Training, we have also had to rethink the prerequisites for becoming a 4MAT Trainer. Each trainer will need to be comfortable and knowledgeable about each one of our training modules. Therefore, any participant who has successfully completed the 3-day Basic Training and desires to attend Trainer Certification will have the option of completing the additional 3 modules in our online training format. Once they have successfully completed all sections of 4MAT Training and submitted a 4MAT unit, they will be eligible to attend Advanced 4MAT Training.