Learning to learn. Learning to think.
LearnSmart4Life brings together, in one place, everything in the FlourishIQ family that helps a person study well, think clearly or teach well: courses from FlourishIQ, conversation decks from FlourishTalk and personal editions from InspireWell4Life, each with the owning site’s own description and price, and free material that anyone can use.
The student pathway, one course for each stage from the year before university to postgraduate study; courses on learning and thinking; Everyday Knowhow, where learning to learn and to think become a daily habit; the free LearnWell4Life chapters and the ThinkWell Practice Gym.
The courses I teach · TeachSmartThe Evidence Library of 205 studies on how people learn, Staffroom view, the course Teach with the Evidence, and courses to present to students.
TeachSmartLearnWell, Learn to Think and Think to Learn was an interactive multimedia study, thinking and life skills programme on CD, published in 2002 by EquipU4, then a business unit of Stellenbosch University. Thousands of students used it between 2002 and 2006.
LearnWell for Study Success followed on DVD in 2006, and every Stellenbosch first-year received a copy that year. In 2007 it was replaced by LearnWell4Life, Boost Your Brain for Study Success, in Afrikaans, English and isiXhosa, which was presented at the World Conference on E-Learning in Vienna in 2008. Its nine chapters, from Start Smart to Tests and Exams, are on this site in all three languages, with a free course built on them: free to watch and free to run with a class.
The thinking half of the first programme was ThinkWell, created by the EquipU4 team: Dr Ludolph Botha, Professor Charl Cilliers and Dr Alten du Plessis. Its thinking skills are taught again today in the course ThinkWell4Life, where each one is paired with the habit that makes you use it when it matters, and anyone can try one in ten minutes in the free ThinkWell Practice Gym.
The TeachSmart Evidence Library holds 205 studies on how people learn, in 13 themes. Each was checked against the published paper and graded for the strength of its evidence, from strong to contested. Every card says what the study found, what it means in a classroom or lecture hall, and one thing to try this week; where a finding has not held up, the card says so. Staffroom view, only on LearnSmart4Life, puts any study on the big screen with a question for the meeting (see it in 82 seconds).
LearnSmart4Life was founded by Dr Alten du Plessis, a creator of wellbeing tools and courses for many years: an educator, a lifelong runner and a longtime builder of multimedia learning, known to many of his students simply as Dr Flourish. His work brings the science and the soul of flourishing to the people and the pursuits he loves.
He holds a PhD in Applied Mathematics and specialised training in positive psychology: the Certificate in Applied Positive Psychology (CAPP), with certifications as a Flourishing Skills Group trainer, a resilience trainer, a wellness coach, a sports psychology coach, a golf psychology coach, a running coach and a brain health coach.
Since 1995 his work at a South African university has combined student support with institutional research. His mission is to develop evidence-based, blended learning that combines technology with psychological science, and he specialises in individualised and gamified mental skills training, designed to optimise performance and development across educational, sporting and organisational settings. His work rests on the view that so-called “soft factors” are essential for academic and workplace success.
Across 32 years his record runs to 100 conference presentations and 19 peer-reviewed publications, with work presented at the European Conference on Positive Psychology and the World Engineering Education Forum. His BeWell Mentor Wellness Project, a peer mentoring system, received a Silver Medal for Africa at the Wharton-QS Stars Reimagine Education Awards (2015).
LearnSmart4Life is part of the family of brands he created, alongside FlourishIQ, FlourishTalk and InspireWell4Life, and its courses run on the FlourishIQ platform. Read his introductions to every course and product, or find more at altenduplessis.com.