Page 107 - International Journal of Process Educaiton (Special Issue)

Figure 6 The Step for Identifying the Target Perfor- immediately afterward, with each student talking about
mance from the Appropriate Methodology for their performance at that level (see Figure 7).
Writing Performance Criteria (for a Program,
for a Course, for Individuals/Teams) Triggering of Prior Knowledge (see also the Learning
Process Methodology)
Program Level
While Step 3 of the Learning Process Methodology
Brainstorm a list of your program’s future qualities; says that a learner must “identify necessary skills and
characteristics and descriptors that reflect what the background knowledge needed to perform the learning,”
program will be about, especially those that represent (Leise, Beyerlein & Apple, 2007), as noted in the
quality (Nibert, 2007). Learning Process Methodology section, brain-based
research recommends that prior knowledge be activated
Course Level when a learning activity is started in order to increase
comprehension (see especially Maguire, Firth, and Morris,
Brainstorm qualities that describe top performing 1999).
students (Hinton, 2007).
Quantitative Reasoning and Problem Solving does this
Individuals/Teams Level with an activity section called "What Do You Already
Know?" which triggers students to explore both the
Describe the performance expected by all stakeholders, potential richness and boundaries of their prior knowledge
including the performer(s). Brainstorm to get a list of (Ellis, Apple, Watts, Hintze, Teeguarden, Cappetta &
areas of quality that can be observed within the expected Burke, 2014). Learning to Learn: Becoming a Self-Grower
performance (Utschig, 2007). (Apple, Morgan & Hintze, 2013) is also designed to trigger
prior knowledge through the use of a discovery exercise
Providing clear expectations through performance criteria and exploration questions. The discovery exercise is more
at the activity, course, and program levels allows for the immersive and experiential while the exploration questions
synergy of faculty and students to align their efforts to prompt the learner to begin thinking more analytically
meet the designed expectations (Hinton, 2007). about their experience and current understanding. Figure 8
shows the discovery exercise and exploration questions for
This practice of providing clear expectations through Experience 13: Choosing and Using Mentors Effectively.
performance criteria and modeling is seen in Foundations
of Learning (Redfield & Hurley-Lawrence, 2009). In the
first chapter, the Performance Levels for Self-Growers is
presented as a rubric. Five sample students are described

Figure 7 Performance Descriptions in a Rubric and Student Models/Examples for Each Level

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