The Kenzie Academy Teacher\u2019s Playbook<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
In 2019, Washington Post published an article<\/a> titled, \u201cYes, we know what great teaching looks like\u2013but we have an education system that \u2018utterly fails to support it.\u2019 What\u2019s wrong and how to fix it.\u201d While the title is a mouthful, it\u2019s just a preamble to the story. Here\u2019s the story: \u2018Great teaching,\u2019 when broken down, generally consists of six features. In other words, instruction is considered effective if all or most of these practices are present, namely:<\/p>\n\n\n\n While it\u2019s easy to list what makes for great teaching, to see it in action is rare. As it happens, the traditional school structure continues to be dominated by a culture that values compliance over creativity. In a typical classroom setting, students sit in orderly rows as they are shepherded at a set pace from lecture to lecture. After this, they are expected to answer tests where performance is measured with a standard scale. This cycle goes on\u2013lecture, tests, lecture, tests, lecture, tests\u2013as students learn to play the memorization game<\/a>. As they get better at playing it, however, the gap between true understanding and memorizing widens. It\u2019s this system that Kenzie Academy, an Indianapolis-based coding bootcamp, seeks to fix and reimagine. Instead of cultivating a learning culture dominated by standardization, Kenzie Academy chooses to view education not as a mechanical system but as a human system. As a result, it advances instruction that\u2019s less about the tests and more about the students. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At Kenzie Academy<\/a>, software engineering classes run five days a week, from 9 AM to 3 PM. User experience (UX) design classes, meanwhile, run three days a week for four hours per day. On paper, Kenzie instruction resembles the traditional learning model. In practice, it\u2019s anything but. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMost days [at Kenzie Academy] are simply workdays\u2013[students sit with their] heads down, focusing on a project. When introducing a new project, we\u2019ll start with an hour-long discussion and a demo on the project,\u201d said Joe Kaufeld, a long-time senior software developer and an instructor for Kenzie Academy\u2019s Software Engineering Program. What starts as a normal workday at Kenzie soon evolves into a meaningful cycle of logical discovery and thoughtful exploration. \u201cWe cover important things that students haven\u2019t encountered yet and that\u2019ll be relevant for the project. And then, we turn them [students] loose and see what they create.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Student agency lies at the heart of Kenzie Academy. This means that instructors merely inform and facilitate learning, not dictate it. As Joe described, learning at Kenzie is, \u201cjust like learning to ride a bike.\u201d \u201c[We] take their training wheels off. And then, we show them where we want them to go and provide lots of resources [they\u2019ll need to get there]…We\u2019re right behind them the whole way, supporting and helping them to make sure they stay in the right direction,\u201d he shared. The method draws away from the standard practice of spoon-feeding students with information that they memorize 10 minutes before class and forget shortly after. It also allows students to dig in and learn the skills embedded within the content they consume. That includes learning how to collaborate with their peers and self-organize, two very important skills to have in the tech industry. In Randy\u2019s words: \u201cAs someone with a lot of experience working in development teams, I make sure to talk a lot about best development practices. This includes teaching them why a code has to be written a certain way so that while it may not be the best and clever-looking code, it\u2019s easy to understand.\u201d \u201cThey need to learn how to work with other developers and not think about their code as \u2018this is my program that I\u2019m writing, and it’s all for me.\u2019 You have to view it within a larger world of code.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because Kenzie Academy opens its doors to a wide range of communities, the school serves as a melting pot for talents of diverse backgrounds and circumstances. Binding this community are groups of instructors, coaches, and facilitators who strive to understand and address group dynamics within the classroom. For software developer and instructor Gwendolyn Faraday, the trick is in finding a common point within the diversity. \u201cYes, students are all different,\u201d she said, \u201cbut they all have the same goals: to learn how to code and graduate from Kenzie Academy. The struggles they go through along the way toward those goals are what bind the students together. These help them form a sense of camaraderie during the program.\u201d \u201cWe also try to answer a lot of questions over Slack, even those sent at odd hours. That way, we can help students who, because of their environment or because of their day job, have to do their coursework at such hours,\u201d added Randy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the pandemic hit, Kenzie Academy was among the schools that managed to immediately change gears and move all its in-person classes online. \u201cThere definitely are difficulties sometimes in staying connected with certain students,\u201d admitted Gwendolyn. Nevertheless, Kenzie Academy instructors manage to expertly leverage the school\u2019s technologies and tools to anticipate any learning challenges and address them before they come. \u201cThe biggest thing that we are doing to handle this is by formulating ways of tracking student engagement based on data that we collect.\u201d \u201cThese metrics help us improve our processes and ensure we can catch engagement issues early on before they become blockers for the student to complete the program,\u201d said Gwendolyn. Randy explained further: \u201cWe keep a close eye not just on the grades the students receive on their assignments but also their engagement. How long has it been since they turned something in? How long has it been since they logged into our curriculum or interacted with a coach or a facilitator one on one?\u201d \u201cIf we see a student that has not been engaged for a couple of days, we reach out to them and make sure everything is okay. Maybe there\u2019s an issue that they need help with. Or maybe there\u2019s a question that they\u2019re fighting to answer themselves. The technology helps us keep track of which students might need help, even though they’re not asking for it yet.\u201d Alongside this is Kenzie Academy\u2019s next strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kenzie Academy understands that there\u2019s no one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. In the words of Joe, \u201cEvery student is different and every understanding changes. Sometimes that involves changing things on the fly to make sure everybody\u2019s on board.\u201d Kenzie Academy instructors incorporate a range of initiatives to ensure that students absorb whatever it is they learn. For Randy, that includes painting a world inhabited by superheroes and using that to stir interest and creativity among his students. \u201cInside that scenario, I can show my students how to make an array with data in it. I can teach them how to loop through the array and display it on the screen. Later, when we learn about objects, I can show them how it’s probably better to use an object to [store data] instead of an array,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kenzie Academy\u2019s curriculum intersperses projects with discussions. \u201cSome of them are small and aimed at practicing a single concept,\u201d said Gwendolyn. \u201cOthers are large and let the students learn how to put all the pieces together to build real applications.\u201d In its software engineering curriculum<\/a>, for instance, students are taught to build web pages and applications using cutting-edge technologies and programming languages. The UX design program<\/a>, on the other hand, sees students creating mockups, mobile-based apps, and other design projects. Both software engineering and UX design programs culminate in a capstone project that compels students to tap into their pre-existing interests and build projects that align with these.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whereas the traditional learning model puts standard lectures and tests at the top of its priorities, Kenzie Academy puts its students first. It personalizes the learning experience in such a way that student success is not left to a game of chance. \u201cThe best kind of motivation is intrinsic motivation. We try not to rely on just grades and deadlines but rather encourage the student to want to learn and do well at Kenzie,\u201d said Gwendolyn. \u201cOne of the ways that we do this is by showing them the benefits of having a career in tech, both financially and in terms of personal fulfillment.\u201d Another way is by helping students correct what Randy refers to as their worst enemies: stubbornness and perfectionism. \u201cOne thing that I observed is that students are determined to figure new things out on their own.\u201d \u201cSo when they hit a speed bump in one of their projects, they search the web for any information that they think might apply. They spend hours watching YouTube videos or reading tutorials. The problem is that beginners often don\u2019t know enough to decide whether a certain video or tutorial applies to their situation,\u201d explained Randy. \u201cIn the end, they spend hours beating their heads for something they could\u2019ve resolved in 20 minutes if they only asked for help.\u201d To help students overcome this hurdle, Randy teaches them to think like professional developers. \u201cI tell them to picture themselves working in a development team and trying to figure something out. If they spent three days figuring it out when they could’ve just walked across the office and asked Carol who has done this before, then they could\u2019ve saved their company a lot of money. Working really hard to try to figure everything<\/em> out on your own is bad for business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n All of Kenzie Academy\u2019s instructors have worked in the tech industry prior to being hired as instructors at the coding bootcamp. This allows them to go beyond teaching theories, injecting the skills and experiences they accumulated wherever possible. The fruits of their expert teaching show, especially amid a global pandemic.
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nInside the Kenzie Academy Classroom <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Kenzie Academy Instructors Weave Concepts, Content, and Skills<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nKenzie Academy Instructors Build Classroom Community<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nKenzie Academy Instructors Are Adaptable to Changes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nKenzie Academy Instructors Use a Wide Variety of Teaching Methods<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nPerformance-Based Assessments Trump Test-Based Evaluations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nKenzie Academy Instructors Fulfill the Roles of a Teacher and a Mentor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nA Winning Formula<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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