Measuring Objectives
The specific learning goal for the class is for students to create a personalized strategy for mastering one relevant aspect of learning fluency. A secondary learning goal is that students are equipped with the knowledge and resources they need to continue developing learning fluency on their own. The objectives that must be met for these to happen have already been defined and the methods of measuring student progress toward these are described below. A short analysis of each objective will show what kind of assessment is used and how it will be conducted.
Learners will decide to improve their skills in learning fluency.
As an affective, enabling objective, this decision must be measured through evidence of behavior. Students that achieve this learning goal not only choose to participate in the class, but engage with every aspect in order to practice the elements of learning fluency through the course. In part this goal must be met before learners join the class, but it is also the responsibility of the instructional design to make clear that the factors of learning fluency can be developed to further levels of mastery and that the strategy presented for students to follow is effective. Evidence that this goal has not been met includes reluctant participation and unwillingness to engage with the course as a means of practicing learning fluency. The facilitator will conduct ongoing observation throughout the event and must be prepared to intervene with instructional support if students do not reach this objective as expected through the early activities.
Learners will identify their strengths and weaknesses in learning fluency through completion of a survey.
This entry-skills assessment will be given to provide students with an overview of elements that could be part of each learning fluency category and insight into their relationship with such elements. This will be a pencil/paper assessment using the “Learning Fluency Survey” [See Appendix A] as the instrument. The survey is criterion-referenced allowing students to understand their skill level relative to each factor and also to analyse the significance of each factor in their understanding.
Learners will cooperate and support their co-learners as a means of practicing interpersonal fluency.
If it is practical for the facilitator to do so, observations should be made of student participation in the group project regarding interpersonal, intrapersonal, and academic fluency. Students may also be encouraged toward reflective self-assessment in this process. Which elements of learning fluency do they primarily rely on for the group activity? This is a mastery exercise for which some students are expected to need additional support. The facilitator must observe which groups are struggling in their exercise and be prepared to provide additional scaffolding like sample questions, group facilitation methods, oversight, etc. as needed.
Learners can deconstruct the process by which they developed their strengths in learning fluency.
Because the ultimate goal of the course is to equip learners to design a strategy for future development of learning fluency, this process is a pre-assessment that will give the instructor and students insight into what kind of support learners need in the subsequent activities of strategy development. Assessment is mastery style in which student groups that struggle with the process may ask for support from the facilitator. All are encouraged to go beyond their initial understanding of learning fluency and their skill with it. The next two objectives provide the criterion-reference for the measurable product assessed for this objective.
Learners will describe the impact of their assigned learning fluency on their academic success.
This element will be assessed through completion of the next objective.
Learners will compile a list of resources that are helpful to the mastery of one or more elements of learning fluency
These two objectives receive circumstantial assessment through a group sharing process. Students are naturally incentivized toward performance with this method of assesment and through it should see opportunity for revising their work. The group will screen examples offered by individual students for relevance and quality. Those that pass this screening will be collected for sharing with the rest of the class. Class-wide sharing provides the material needed for strategy creation, and publicizes the results in a norm-referenced manner. There is no particular criterion assigned as the process in constructivist in nature. When the class uses these resources late for the personalized strategy design, the quality of the resources becomes apparent. The resources are then posted online into the strategy development database and can be ranked by current and future online users for their quality.
Learners will create a personalized learning strategy for 1 or more aspects of learning fluency.
This is a terminal objective whose purpose is to give students practice with a method they can use to continue developing other aspects of learning fluency. A portfolio style of assessment is used in which the student digitally records their strategy into a database collection for themselves and future students to reference in the future. The incentive of publication provides quality control and the potential for anonymity allows freedom of expression in this exercise.
Learners will use the OODA loop [see Appendix B] relative to the 5 aspects of learning fluency as a model of strategy development.
This element is assessed by student participation in the next learning objective.
Learners will share the strategy they have developed for mastering an aspect of learning fluency.
One of the final activities of the class gives students who wish to do so the opportunity to share the strategy that they have developed. It will be an optional open-mic style of presentation. This post-assessment is provided and critiqued by students through presentation and feedback regarding the learning strategy created by individual students. It will test the enabling objectives of using the OODA loop with the 5 learning fluencies and the terminal objective of creating a strategy. Students will be encouraged to critique the strategy on the basis of how well it incorporated the OODA loop, how easy it would be to implement, whether it is transferrable to other skill sets, and its originality.
For sake of time and depth of feedback, this post-assessment may be done in groups of 5 with one representative from each category of learning fluency or with students that are from the same school/class.
Learners will reflect on their competence and enjoyment with using the 5 categories of learning fluency as experienced throughout the instructional event.
The instructional activities have been designed to give students opportunity to practice all 5 aspects of learning fluency. However, students will be asked to reflect on their feelings of competence and enjoyment of each one through a few minutes provided near the end of the learning session. This assessment is norm-referenced (all 5 factors relative to the individual student) so that learners can discover which areas of learning fluency they are more or less comfortable with and where they might focus their efforts for further improvement.
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What is Part of The Course?
This training will be designed for teachers and instructors who want to see an increase in student engagement and performance, but will also be open to students that want to maximize their own learning experience. In addition to raising awareness of how these factors influence the success of students, the training session will include the development of tools and strategies which can be used by the individuals and classrooms that will implement this solution.
The specific learning goal for the class is for students to create a personalized strategy for mastering one relevant aspect of learning fluency. A secondary learning goal is that students are equipped with the knowledge and resources needed to continue developing learning fluency on their own.
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References
Candy, P. C. (2002). Information literacy and lifelong learning. White Paper prepared for UNESCO, the U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science, and the National Forum on Information Literacy, for use at the Information Literacy Meeting of Experts, Prague, The Czech Republic. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi:10.1.1.119.5676&rep=rep1&type=pdf
Dewey, J. (1997). Experience & Education. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Jenson, K. (2015). Behind The Screens: Developing A Digital Learning Literacy. Retrieved from https://humancenteredlearning.wordpress.com/portfolio/behind-the-screens-developing-a-digital-learning-literacy/
Moran, P. E.. (2008). John Boyd’s OODA Loop [online image]. Retrieved October 10, 2016 from https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3904554
Smith, P. L., & Ragan, T. J. (1999). Instructional design (p. 3). New York: Wiley
Appendix A
Appendix B
Figure 1. Illustration of the four-step model students will use to build a strategy for developing their skill in learning fluency. This figure includes the various factors for consideration that are included in the design of the course. From “John Boyd’s OODA Loop,” by P. E. Moran, 2008, via Wikimedia Commons. Used under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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