Barbara Oakley facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Barbara Oakley
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| Born |
Barbara Ann Grim
November 24, 1955 |
| Alma mater | University of Washington Oakland University |
| Spouse(s) |
Philip Oakley (m. 1984)
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| Children | 4 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Engineering, learning, altruism bias |
| Institutions | Oakland University McMaster University Coursera |
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Barbara Oakley
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| Allegiance |  United States of America |
| Service/ |
 United States Army |
| Years of service | 1974–1981 |
| Rank |  Captain |
Barbara Ann Oakley (born November 24, 1955) is an American professor. She teaches engineering at Oakland University and McMaster University. Her online courses about learning are some of the most popular in the world. These are called massive open online courses (MOOCs).
Professor Oakley studies many things. These include how to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). She also researches how people learn best.
She helped create and teaches Learning How To Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects. This is the world's most popular online course. She also wrote a book called A Mind For Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra). This book shares ideas from her online course. Oakley has also written articles about learning for big newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Contents
Biography
Barbara Oakley was born in Lodi, California, in 1955. Her father was a bomber pilot in World War II. Because of his work, Barbara moved a lot as a child. She lived in ten different places by the time she was in tenth grade.
After high school, Oakley joined the U.S. Army. The Army sent her to the University of Washington. There, she studied Slavic languages and literature. She also learned a lot of Russian at the Defense Language Institute. After her studies, Oakley worked as a signal officer in Germany for four years. She became a captain in the Army.
After leaving the Army, Oakley wanted to try something new. She decided to study engineering. She wanted to see if her brain, which was used to languages, could learn math and science. She also wanted to understand the communication equipment she had used in the Army.
Oakley earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Washington in 1986. While studying, she worked as a Russian translator. She translated for Soviet fishing boats in the Bering Sea. She even wrote a book about her experiences there called Hair of the Dog: Tales from Aboard a Russian Trawler.
Later, Oakley worked as a radio operator at the South Pole Station in Antarctica. This is where she met her husband, Philip. They got married on February 1, 1984. They have four children: two daughters and two adopted sons who were refugees from Kosovo.
In 1989, Oakley moved to Detroit with her family. She worked for Ford for a short time. Then, she started studying at Oakland University. She also worked as a consultant. She earned a master's degree in electrical and computer engineering in 1995. She kept studying and received her Ph.D. in systems engineering in 1998.
Academic Career
After getting her Ph.D. in 1998, Oakley became an engineering professor at Oakland University. She still works in the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department there.
Professor Oakley researches many different topics. She studies how to teach STEM subjects. She also looks into how people learn in general and through online courses. She researches how MOOCs affect learning. She also studies topics like empathy and altruism.
Oakley co-created an online course called Learning How to Learn: Powerful mental tools to help you master tough subjects. She teaches this course with Professor Terry Sejnowski, who is a brain scientist. The course is offered on Coursera. When it first started in 2014 and 2015, about 300,000 students joined. By December 2015, about 1.2 million students had signed up for the course. It is now available anytime.
Works
Barbara Oakley has written many books. Here are some of them:
- Uncommon Sense Teaching: Practical Insights in Brain Science to Help Students Learn, with Beth Rogowsky and Terrence J. Sejnowski. TarcherPerigee, 2021.
- Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in School Without Spending All Your Time Studying; A Guide for Kids and Teens, with Terry Sejnowski and Alistair McConville. Tarcher-Penguin, August 2018.
- Mindshift: Break Through Obstacles to Learning and Discover Your Hidden Potential. TarcherPerigee, 2017.
- A Mind for Numbers. Tarcher-Penguin, July 2014. This book was a New York Times best-seller.
- Practicing Sustainability, edited with Guruprasad Madhavan, David Green, David Koon, and Penny Low. Springer, October 2012.
- Pathological Altruism, edited with Ariel Knafo, Guruprasad Madhavan, and David Sloan Wilson. Oxford University Press, January 2012.
- Cold-Blooded Kindness. Prometheus Books, April 2011.
- Career Development in Bioengineering and Biotechnology, edited with Guruprasad Madhavan and Luis Kun. Springer, 2008.
- Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend. Prometheus Books, October 2007.
- Hair of the Dog: Tales from Aboard a Russian Trawler. WSU Press, 1996.
See also
In Spanish: Barbara Oakley para niños
