Page 144 - International Journal of Process Educaiton (Special Issue)

concepts, producing a concept map, building concept models,
constructing skill exercises, and integrating problem solving
projects. The model was integrated into Teach for Learning
— A Handbook for Process Education (Pacific Crest, 1993)
and was used in Pacific Crest's Teaching Institutes to help
faculty create learning opportunities (courses and activities)
that strongly supported the learning process.
It is important to note that the learning process was not
assumed to be implicit nor was it considered to be a function
wholly in service to disciplinary content. Nearly from the
beginning, the assumption was made that, as students
became more accomplished learners, their performance
as learners in and with any disciplinary context would
likewise improve (see article section, Learning to Learn).
A respect for process, specifically the learning process, is
therefore maintained even as a disciplinary context for that
process is supported through learning activities, course
materials, or program curricula.
At the course level, the selection of the most important
concepts became the basis for constructing a knowledge
table (CDM Step 4), and many of the steps of the Learning
Process Model were critical to the evolution of the activity
design process (Step 14).
During the Teaching Institutes in 1993, concept maps were
used as tools to help faculty sequence learning activities
(Step 13). The handbook for these Teaching Institutes
also offered an assessment guide to help faculty measure
progress in learning by “think(ing) about assessment
of students’ learning processes in a more organized
way” (Step 19) (Pacific Crest, 1993). In 1995, Step 14,
create individual activities from a prioritized list, was
advanced with the creation of a methodology for designing
process-learning activities, where the forms of knowledge
were also identified as a way to categorize knowledge
items (Step 4) (Pacific Crest).
Taking Cues from Curriculum Design
The Course Design Methodology was significantly ad-
vanced with materials and experiences from the Curricu-
lum Design Institutes (Apple & Krumsieg, 2001; see also
the article section, Professional Development); the pro-
cess of designing high quality curricula is very similar to
that of designing a high quality course, especially with re-
Figure 2 Sample Activities Table (excerpted from Foundations of Learning Curricula/Course)
Activity Type & Venue Knowledge Table Items
1.1 Building Learning Collaborative Tool: Interview response Form
Communities
Learning (In-class) Context: Educational goals
1.2 Analyzing a Course
Syllabus Guided Discovery Tool: Syllabus
(Outside class) Context: Educational goals
2.1 Creating your Life
Vision Portfolio Portfolio Building Process: Planning a portfolio
(Outside class) Tool: Life Vision Portfolio worksheet
142 International Journal of Process Education (February 2016, Volume 8 Issue 1)
spect to design specifications and supporting activities that
achieve learning outcomes.
We discovered that transformational learning requires be-
havioral change, and as we clarified this we developed Step
1 of the CDM: construct professional behaviors. The
identification of course learning objectives became part
of Step 2: identify course intentions. The development
of a methodology to define learning outcomes became
the foundation of Step 3. The structure and presentation
of the knowledge table (Step 4) became more refined and
the identification of key themes for the curricula became
the equivalent step for a course design (Step 5). As the
methodology for creating methodologies was developed,
this thinking supported the creation of a variety of cur-
ricular activities and also supported Step 6 of the CDM:
create appropriate methodologies. Step 7: identify a set
of activities is based on defining a course as consisting of
learning activities. Step 8: identify a set of specific learn-
ing skills evolved from comfortably blending the learning
process with disciplinary content and carefully selecting
the 15 most appropriate learning skills from the Classifi-
cation of Learning Skills. Step 9 came from the idea that
a curriculum or course should offer a variety of types of
learning activities and that these activities correlate to
general content and types of knowledge.
We found that it is helpful to construct an activities table
to better organize and structure the content of a curriculum
or a course and to thereby more easily match an activity’s
content with activity types, determine which activities
work best inside or outside of class, allocate time across
themes, i.e., align each activity to a specific theme, and to
appropriately sequence the activities (Steps 10, 11, 12, and
13). Step 8 was also more fully supported and represented
in the activities table by including three learning skills (of
the 15 previously chosen) to intentionally develop during
each activity. Figure 2 shows how these steps of the CDM
correlate to the structure of a sample activities table.
Deliberate Focus on Courses
The Course Design Methodology was completed in order to
fully support a Course Design Institute (Apple, Krumsieg
& Beyerlein, 2006). The steps mentioned to this point give
us a strong course with identified learning outcomes and
purpose-built activities. Obviously lacking are the criteria
Theme Learning Skills Purpose
Collaboration taking an interest in others, Create an interactive learning environ-
Personal & profes- attending, recording ment that is responsive to student needs
sional development
Personal & profes- clarifying expectations, Develop shared understanding of course
sional development inquiring, prioritizing expectations and procedures
prioritizing, committing to Create an organizational structure for
future, defining purpose creating and maintaining a vision portfolio