Unit 1: Teaching principles and techniques

 

1.1       Stages of learning – Acquisition, maintenance, fluency and generalization

1.2       Principles of teaching – concrete, iconic/representational, symbolic

1.3       Teaching methods – e.g., multisensory, play way, Montessori, Project, Teaching strategies – Principles of reinforcement, task analysis, prompting, fading, shaping chaining

1.4       Selection and use of TLM, and Information and communication technology (ICT) for teaching.

1.5       Evaluation – continuous and comprehensive evaluation, progress monitoring and documentation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1.1         Stages of learning – Acquisition, maintenance, fluency and generalization

 

1. Acquisition
During this stage, a new task is introduced to the child for the first time. Initially, you will find the child making errors and over the time, she learns to perform the activity to a higher level of accuracy. During this stage, high level of pupil-teacher interaction is necessary as the child is in the process of learning a new task.

Ways of presenting the task

Modelling (demonstration): The first procedure while teaching a new skill is to model the task for the pupil. The teacher starts by getting the child’s attention, perhaps by saying, ‘It’s my turn, watch me, are you ready?’ and then proceeds to complete the task, probably commenting on its key features as well. Introducing new tasks in this way draws children’s attention to what is to be learned and is preferred to relying solely on a verbal description. Verbal presentation are rarely as effective as showing a child precisely what to do. Usually, tasks are modeled on several occasions before moving on to the next step.

Leading: Children complete each step of the task at the same time as the teacher. While leading, the teacher says to the pupil, `Let’s do this together, are you ready?’ The teacher then starts and the pupil joins in, copying exactly what the teacher does. Teacher and pupil therefore perform the new task together.

Imitation: This is slightly different from leading. When the child imitates her teacher, the teacher performs the whole of the task first and only after it has been completed does the child have a turn. When leading, teacher and pupil perform the task together; when imitating the teacher completes it first and is then followed by the pupil.

Instructions: On many occasions teaching methods are accompanied by verbal instructions. Vocabulary and sentence structure should be within the pupil’s range of competence and should be the same or similar from one day to the next, as children can easily become confused if they are changed too often.

What may well seem like a small change in instructions will frequently lead to the nature of the task being changed quite dramatically. This can be illustrated by taking the example of teaching sight vocabulary to pupils with the aid of flash cards. Typically the flash cards are laid out in front of the pupil. The teacher points to each card in turn with the accompanying questions, `What does this word say?’. This is a recall task and the child tries to remember the name of the word. If the request is changed to `Point to the word which says_______’, the task becomes one of the recognition rather than recall. In this case the actual word is given to the child, who then scans the array of words and points to the correct one. This is an easier activity than actually reading the word.

Test: During leading and imitation the pupil performs the task after observing the teacher. Once the task is completed accurately under these circumstances, the teacher will want to see whether the child can perform it on her own, following the appropriate instructions. Typically the pupil is told, `Now it is your turn, are you ready?’ An instruction is given and the child then tries to finish the activity without any teacher assistance.

2. Fluency
Once the child learns to perform the activity to a higher level of accuracy, you need to concentrate on building fluency. Children work independently and are provided with plenty of opportunities to practice. Unfortunately, many of these activities that help increase fluency are repetitive and so are perhaps not as enjoyable and interesting as we might want. To keep children’s motivation high during this essential stage of learning, give regular feedback and rewards for their progress. It is important that children learn to perform an activity to a higher level of accuracy, as it makes all the difference between children learning well or continuing to experience difficulties.

Teaching procedure for fluency building

Practice: Once a task is performed accurately, it needs to be practiced, so it can also be completed fluently. Haring (1978) has defined practice as `the opportunity to perform a task repeatedly until the quality and fluency of performance increased to a specified level’. The purpose of practice therefore, is to give the pupil as many opportunities as possible to perform the task.

At the acquisition stage of teaching, a high level of pupil-teacher interaction is required when students perform a task in order to monitor their responses carefully. This is not necessary for fluency-building. Pupils will already be able to complete the task accurately. Therefore, a particular feature of providing practice during fluency building is students working independently with as few distractions as possible.

Feedback: A possible drawback of providing repeated opportunities for practice, is where children lose motivation and interest through the repetitive nature of the activities involved in developing fluency. Unfortunately, however, this stage is essential for future progress and cannot be left out just because it might not be appealing. Many children will acquire fluency very quickly and will require little time devoted to practice activities.

Rewards: Feedback is usually paired with rewards, the two procedures combining to sustain the child’s enthusiasm to work. The most likely combination of rewards is social with token (points, starts, tokens, etc.) since they can be given immediately and so are particularly effective during fluency building.

3. Maintenance

We cannot afford the time to let children forget what they have learnt and keep going back and reteaching skills. Over time, we want to ensure that children maintain their levels of performance without any further teaching taking place. However, we cannot wait for this to happen by chance, and so this stage of the hierarchy aims to teach children to reach this position.

At the end of the maintenance stage, children should be able to complete tasks on their own, with accuracy and fluency, without receiving any help whatsoever from their teacher. Further more, it is to be hoped that as they progress through each of these stages, they will become increasingly motivated to learn new skills for themselves.

Teaching procedure for maintenance

Maintenance represents a change in role for the teacher from the active involvement of acquisition and fluency to the more passive position of facilitator. The teacher provides time during the school day for children to work on activities so that they reach a point where no further practice is required. It should be seen as a period where `learning’ can occur, a time where the pupil performs a skill to high levels of accuracy and fluency, but without being supported directly by the teacher and her use of teaching methods. Pupils should be engaged with the same type of practice tasks that were used during fluency building. However, any rewards that had been used previously are gradually withdrawn. The aim is for students to continue using a skill and derive intrinsic satisfaction, rather than being motivated by the teacher and her use of rewards. At the end of this stage, pupils will be able to complete tasks with accuracy and fluency without any help at all from the teacher.

 

4. Generalization
While the first three stages of hierarchy concentate on skill/activity learning, generalization represents a change in emphasis to skill/activity.

Up till now, children have been working on a single task. During generalization they are presented with two or more tasks (which have both been taught separately and progressed to the maintenance stage) and have to select the right response. To do this pupils are shown to discriminate the critical features of each task, for example, the signs for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division in numerical operations.

A second type of generalization activity is known as differentiation. Children give the same response to a task even through various aspects of it have changed. For example, children are taught to identify/read a numeral 8, presenting in different colour, size and or background. Another example is to teach a child to cut on the straight line using different paper or cloth materials. The child’s response will be same though the material presented is different.

We, the teachers should take entire role in teaching children how to generalize skills, whether it is via the process of discrimination or differentiation. Therefore, the teaching periods need to be followed by intensive practice sessions where children are given a large number of generalization activities to complete on their own.

Teaching Procedures for Generalization
The first three stages of the instructional hierarchy focus on presenting a pupil with a single task within a familiar format which requires a single type of response. However, eventually children need to use those skills in different and more complex settings than the ones they have hitherto experienced. Several teaching procedures can be adopted to teach children to generalize (modeling, instructions, cues, testing, prompting, practice, feedback, rewards and a correction procedure) which represent procedures used both before and after the child completes the task. However, it is likely that suitable instructions alone will be sufficient for most pupils with perhaps the occasional prompt or use of cues.

 

 

 

1.2            Principles of teaching – concrete, iconic/representational, symbolic

 

Each child is different from the other and hence requires individualized instruction, there are certain fundamental principles that have to be born in mind while imparting any skill to the child and so the teaching must always proceed from:

·      Simple to complex: Always start with a step in which the child is bound to meet with success. This would motivate the child to learn further. Goals which are too high for the child should be avoided. As the child learns the simpler steps, gradually introduce the complex or different steps.For ex. – While teaching brushing teeth, one should start from front teeth and slowly proceed to the teeth on either side, then the inside of the teeth.

·      Known to unknown: The child’s current level of functioning must be the starting point for teaching the skill. Consider what he knows in a skill as a beginning for teaching the rest of the skill. Thus, if a child need to be taught reading the word ‘dog’, one has to start with the identification of picture of the dog which is known to the child, match the word dog to the picture and let him identify the written word dog in two choice or multiple choice situation.

·      Concrete to abstract: Every teaching must have concrete examples associated with it.For ex. To give the child the concept of Sunday which is abstract, associate it with the activities of Sunday such as father won’t go to office on Sunday and there is no school on Sunday and so on.

·      Whole to part: Any concept taught must be introduced as a whole. Before teaching about the various parts of our body, introduce the whole self-This is the man, this is hand, this is head, these are your eyes and so on. Similarly, words must be introduced as a whole before the letters that makeup that word. These principles must be remembered while teaching any topic to the child.

·      From analysis to synthesis: When we divide a thing into easy parts or separate elements in order to understand it easily is called analysis. It is the process which helps in understanding the hidden elements of a thing or the cause of some incident or behavior. Synthesis is just opposite of analysis. All parts are shown as a whole. For example while teaching digestive system, we should first analyse the different parts of digestive system one by one and then gives the synthetic view of it. Hence a good teacher always proceeds from analysis to synthesis.

·      From particular to general: A teacher should always proceed from particular to general statements. General facts, principles and ideas are difficult to understand and hence the teacher should always first present particular things and then lead to general things. Suppose the teacher is teaching continuous tense while teaching English, he should first of all give few examples and then on the basis of those make them generalize that this tense is used to denote an action that is going on at the time of speaking.

·      From empirical to rational: Empirical knowledge is that which is based on observation and first and experience about which no reasoning is needed at all. It is concrete, particular and simple. We can feel and experience it. On the other hand rational knowledge is based upon arguments and explanations. For example suppose the students are to be taught that water boils on heating. They should first be made to heat the water and see it boiling. Then the teacher should explain the process.

·      From induction to deduction: The process of deriving general laws, rules or formulae from particular examples is called induction. In it if a statement is true in a special situation, it will also be true in other similar situations. It means drawing a conclusion from set of examples. For example when hydrogen reacts with boron, it gives Boron hydride, potassium reacts hydrogen, it gives potassium hydride, we come to the conclusion that all elements when reacts with hydrogen they from hydrides. While using this process in teaching, a teacher has to present particular examples or experiences and tell about similarity of their attributes. Deduction is just opposite of induction. In it, we derive a certain particular conclusion from general laws, rules or principles. For example in language teaching, before giving the definition of noun, the students are acquainted with the example of noun like man, chair, Delhi etc and then they are led to general definition of noun

·      From psychological to logical: Modern education gives more emphases on psychology of the child. The child`s psychological development is of utmost important than any other thing. A teacher while teaching should follow this maxim viz from psychological to logical. Psychological approach takes into consideration the pupil his interests, abilities, aptitudes, development level, needs and reactions. The teacher should keep in mind the psychological selection of the subject matter to be presented before the pupils. Logical approach considers the arrangement of the choosen content into logical order and steps. It is child centered maximum. For example a teacher tells the story of a poem to students when they are not interested in reading, with this a teacher proceeds from psychological to logical sequence.

·      From Actual to Representative: First hand experiences makes learning more vivid and efficient than to give them representative ones. A teacher while selecting the content for presentation should make all efforts possible to present it through actual, natural or real objects than from their improvised representative one’s like pictures, models etc. For example to teach about ‘Golden Temple Amritsar’, a teacher should try his best to visit the actual place and that learning will be more vivid and the pupils will retain it for a long time inspite of teaching through sketches, model or a picture. Representative forms should be used at the higher classes than in lower classes.

 

Jerome Bruner and Education

Cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner felt the goal of education should be intellectual development, as opposed to rote memorization of facts.

This lesson will discuss Bruner's theory of development and his three modes of representation. We will also explore his beliefs on learning, language, and discovery and differentiate his views from those of Jean Piaget.

Bruner held the following beliefs regarding learning and education:

Three Stages of Representation

Jerome Bruner identified three stages of cognitive representation.

1.     Enactive, which is the representation of knowledge through actions.

2.     Iconic, which is the visual summarization of images.

3.     Symbolic representation, which is the use of words and other symbols to describe experiences.

The enactive stage appears first. This stage involves the encoding and storage of information. There is a direct manipulation of objects without any internal representation of the objects.

For example, a baby shakes a rattle and hears a noise. The baby has directly manipulated the rattle and the outcome was a pleasurable sound. In the future, the baby may shake his hand, even if there is no rattle, expecting his hand to produce the rattling sounds. The baby does not have an internal representation of the rattle and, therefore, does not understand that it needs the rattle in order to produce the sound.

The iconic stage appears from one to six years old. This stage involves an internal representation of external objects visually in the form of a mental image or icon. For example, a child drawing an image of a tree or thinking of an image of a tree would be representative of this stage.

The symbolic stage, from seven years and up, is when information is stored in the form of a code or symbol such as language. Each symbol has a fixed relation to something it represents. For example, the word 'dog' is a symbolic representation for a single class of animal. Symbols, unlike mental images or memorized actions, can be classified and organized. In this stage, most information is stored as words, mathematical symbols, or in other symbol systems.

Bruner believed that all learning occurs through the stages we just discussed. Bruner also believed that learning should begin with direct manipulation of objects. For example, in math education, Bruner promoted the use of algebra tiles, coins, and other items that could be manipulated.

After a learner has the opportunity to directly manipulate the objects, they should be encouraged to construct visual representations, such as drawing a shape or a diagram.

Finally, a learner understands the symbols associated with what they represent. For example, a student in math understands that the plus sign ( + ) means to add two numbers together and the minus sign ( - ) means to subtract.

 

 

1.3         Teaching methods – e.g., multisensory, play way, Montessori, Project, Teaching strategies – Principles of reinforcement, task analysis, prompting, fading, shaping chaining

 

Multi-Sensory Approach

Multisensory Approach is the simultaneous use of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic-tactile to enhance memory and learning.

 Links are consistently made between the visuals (what we see), auditory (what we hear), and kinesthetic- tactile (what we do or feel) which enable the learner to store the information directly to the brain in its real sense.

MONTESSORI METHOD

Montessori is a method of education that is based on self-directed activity, hands-on learning and collaborative play. In Montessori classrooms children make creative choices in their learning, while the classroom and the teacher offer age-appropriate activities to guide the process. Children work in groups and individually to discover and explore knowledge of the world and to develop their maximum potential.

Montessori classrooms are beautifully crafted environments designed to meet the needs of children in a specific age range. Dr. Maria Montessori discovered that experiential learning in this type of classroom led to a deeper understanding of language, mathematics, science, music, social interactions and much more. Most Montessori classrooms are secular in nature, although the Montessori educational method can be integrated successfully into a faith-based program.

Every material in a Montessori classroom supports an aspect of child development, creating a match between the child’s natural interests and the available activities. Children can learn through their own experience and at their own pace. They can respond at any moment to the natural curiosities that exist in all humans and build a solid foundation for life-long learning.

Hallmarks of Montessori

Components necessary for a program to be considered authentically Montessori include multiage groupings that foster peer learning, uninterrupted blocks of work time, and guided choice of work activity. In addition, a full complement of specially designed Montessori learning materials are meticulously arranged and available for use in an aesthetically pleasing environment.

The teacher, child, and environment create a learning triangle. The classroom is  prepared by the teacher to encourage independence, freedom within limits, and a sense of order. The child, through individual choice, makes use of what the environment offers to develop himself, interacting with the teacher when support and/or guidance is needed.

Multiage groupings are a hallmark of the Montessori Method: younger children learn from older children; older children reinforce their learning by teaching concepts they have already mastered. This arrangement also mirrors the real world, where individuals work and socialize with people of all ages and dispositions.

Dr. Montessori observed that children experience sensitive periods, or windows of opportunity, as they grow. As their students develop, Montessori teachers match appropriate lessons and materials to these sensitive periods when learning is most naturally absorbed and internalized.

In early childhood, Montessori students learn through sensory-motor activities, working with materials that develop their cognitive powers through direct experience: seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching, and movement.

In the elementary years, the child continues to organize his thinking through work with the Montessori learning materials and an interdisciplinary curriculum as he passes from the concrete to the abstract.  He begins the application of his knowledge to real-world experiences.

This organization of information—facts and figures—prepares the child for the world of adolescence, when thought and emotion evolve into understanding more abstract, universal concepts such as equity, freedom, and justice.          

Inside A Montessori Classroom

Montessori classrooms are peaceful, happy places designed to meet the developmental needs of each child in every stage of life.

They contain many places for children to learn and play, in many different ways: by themselves, in pairs, in small groups, in large groups, inside, outside, at tables, on the floor. All items in the environment are scaled to the child’s size, including furniture, shelves, utensils, dishware, cleaning implements and the Montessori materials themselves. There is no focal center to the classroom; this reflects that the teacher is not the focus of the children’s attention, but that they are all one community together. Bright and attractive colors, natural materials, fascinating cultural objects and interesting pictures on the wall all offer the children complex sensory and intellectual experiences. When children first enter a Montessori environment, there is an immediate and touching moment when they realize that this place is for them.

In Montessori classrooms, children are taught how to regulate their own social interactions. Through fun role-playing activities and appropriate modeling, the teacher demonstrates the best way to respond to arguments or new situations, giving the child the ability to act confidently and pro-socially when the actual problem arises. The result is a self-regulating classroom, in which natural social tensions are resolved mostly by the children themselves.

Children move freely throughout the environment, choosing activities that interest them, or working with the teacher, individually, or in small groups. Their movement is unrestricted by the teacher unless it endangers themselves, other people, or their surroundings. Outdoor environments are important in Montessori schools, and offer opportunities to engage with the natural world.

Guiding Principles

The guiding principles of Montessori education are the same across all age levels, and are grounded in over one hundred years of work with children around the world.

RESPECT: Maria Montessori profoundly respected children and the developmental powers that drive them to seek certain experiences. Montessori education reframes the adult/child relationship to place the child at the center of his own learning. In Montessori classrooms, teachers respect children as separate and unique individuals. They guide children to respect the people and objects in their environment, and as the child grows older, to respect and understand the connectedness between all living and non-living things, leading to the adolescent’s profound awareness of the complex web of human existence.

PREPARED ENVIRONMENT: Children’s needs change as they move through stages of development. At each level of Montessori education, this difference is honored through the preparation of the classroom environment. The environment is prepared in every way for optimal development: physically, cognitively, socially and emotionally. By aligning the activities in the environment with what each child needs at any moment, Montessori prepared environments liberate children’s energy for growth and learning.

HANDS-ON LEARNING: Montessori classrooms are interactive environments in which hands-on exploration is not only encouraged, it is necessary. By using the mind, the body, and the senses, learning becomes an activity that engages the whole self. Any parent will agree that children do; Montessori environments follow this natural inclination of children towards activity by offering an appropriate variety of objects and activities for meaningful engagement.

DISCOVERY: One of the most profound differences between Montessori education and conventional education is that, in Montessori, children are given the experience of discovering the answer for themselves. This leads to a much deeper learning experience, and creates a lifelong love of learning as a self-directed process of problem-solving and discovery. 

A MONTESSORI-TRAINED ADULT: The trained Montessori teacher links the child to activities and experiences in the prepared environment. Specialized training results in a deep knowledge of child development, the purposes and use of each activity, and an understanding of how to foster and maintain social harmony in the classroom.

IMAGINATION: Montessori classrooms support the development of imagination and creativity at every stage of learning. The open-ended activities allow children to explore new ideas and relationships, providing a foundation for self-expression and innovation. In the early years, the building blocks of imagination are firmly established through sensory exploration of the world, launching both imagination and creative self-expression.

FREEDOM OF CHOICE: Maria Montessori recognized that when allowed freedom of choice within clear, firm and reasonable boundaries, children act in positive ways that further their development. Freedom is frequently misunderstood, and many people take it to mean that children can do whatever they want. Montessori believed that freedom without boundaries was abandonment. In Montessori classrooms, expectations are clear, and children experience the natural and logical consequences of their choices. This freedom within limits allows for the natural development of self-regulation within the society of the classroom, as well as mirroring behaviors expected by society in general.

INDEPENDENCE: From the moment of birth onwards, humans strive towards independence. Children feel this need very strongly; they want to do things for themselves, and to participate in the world around them. In Montessori classrooms, this natural drive towards independence is fostered through practical, social and intellectual experiences. The child becomes an active agent in her own education, saying, “Help me to do it myself”. We honor this by helping children move to increasingly higher levels of independence and self-reliance.

 MONTESSORI LEARNING MATERIALS: Throughout the room, children will be sorting, stacking, and manipulating all sorts of beautiful objects made of a range of materials and textures. Many of these objects will be made of smooth polished wood. Others are made of enameled metal, wicker, and fabric. Also available to explore are items from nature, such as seashells and birds’ nests.

Montessori teachers make a point to handle Montessori materials slowly, respectfully, and carefully, as if they were made of gold. The children naturally sense something magical about these beautiful learning objects.

Ingenious 

Each learning material teaches just 1 skill or concept at a time. For example, we know that young children need to learn how to button buttons and tie bows. Dr. Montessori designed “dressing frames” for children to practice on.

The frame removes all distractions and simplifies the child’s task. The child sees a simple wooden frame with 2 flaps of fabric—1 with 5 buttonholes and 1 with 5 large buttons. His task is obvious. If he makes an error, his error is obvious.

Built-in “control of error” in many of the Montessori materials allows the child to determine if he has done the exercise correctly. A teacher never has to correct his work. He can try again, ask another child for help, or go to a teacher for suggestions if the work doesn’t look quite right.

Materials contain multiple levels of challenge and can be used repeatedly at different developmental levels. A special set of 10 blocks of graduated sizes called “the pink tower” may be used just for stacking; combined with “the brown stair” for comparison; or used with construction paper to trace, cut, and make a paper design. The pink tower, and many other Montessori materials, can also be used by older children to study perspective and measurement.

Montessori materials use real objects and actions to translate abstract ideas into concrete form. For example, the decimal system is basic to understanding math. Montessori materials represent the decimal system through enticing, pearl-sized golden beads.

Loose golden beads represent ones. Little wire rods hold sets of 10 golden beads—the 10-bar. Sets of 10 rods are wired together to make flats of 100 golden beads—the hundred square. Sets of 10 flats are wired together to make cubes of 1,000 golden beads—the thousand cube.

 Children have many activities exploring the workings of these quantities. They build a solid inner physical understanding of the decimal system that will stay with them throughout school and life.

Later, because materials contain multiple levels of challenge, the beads can be used to introduce geometry. The unit is a point; the 10-bar is a line; the hundred square a surface; the thousand cube, a solid.

Montessori learning materials are ingeniously designed to allow children to work independently with very little introduction or help. The students are empowered to come into the environment, choose their own work, use it appropriately, and put it away without help.

Invite Activity

Maria Montessori believed that moving and learning were inseparable. The child must involve her entire body and use all her senses in the process of learning. She needs opportunities built into the learning process for looking, listening, smelling, touching, tasting, and moving her body.

When you look at Montessori materials, you are drawn to explore them with your senses. For example, you would want to pick up the sound cylinders and shake them. They consist of 2 matched sets of wooden cylinders containing varying substances that create different sounds when shaken.

The child sorts the sound cylinders using only his listening skill. Two cylinders have the barely audible sound of sand. Two have the slightly louder sound of rice inside them. Others contain beans or items that sound louder still. After matching the cylinders, the child can grade the cylinders—that is, put the cylinders in order of softest to loudest, or loudest to softest.

“Grow” with the Child

Montessori materials are designed to follow the students throughout their education; they are like familiar faces greeting them in their new classrooms as they advance.

For example, exploring the “binomial cube”—made up of 8 red, black, and blue cubes and prisms—the early childhood student develops visual discrimination of color and form. The elementary child labels the parts to explore, concretely, the algebraic formula (a+b) 3. The upper elementary child uses the binomial cube as the foundation for work with more advanced materials to solve algebraic equations.

Invite Discovery

Montessori-structured lessons are the “work” or procedures for each set of materials. A teacher may give a lesson to a child or small group of children, another child may give a lesson, a child may learn how a lesson works by watching others, or a child may explore certain types of materials freely.

For a young child, the Montessori-structured lesson may be silent and may be only a few moments long. This lesson models a method for laying work on a mat or table in an orderly fashion. The lesson helps children develop work habits, organization skills, and general thinking strategy, but it never teaches children the answers.

Teaching children the answers steals their chance to make exciting discoveries on their own—whether the child is a baby wondering “Can I reach that rattle?,” a preschooler contemplating “Why did this tower of cubes fall down?,” an elementary school student pondering “When you divide fractions, why do you invert and multiply?,” or a high school student puzzling “How does city council operate?”

For students of every age, the Montessori environment offers the tools to discover the answers to their own questions. The teacher is their trusted ally and the learning materials are their tools for discovery, growth, and development. The teacher stays with the students for the entire span of their multi-age grouping, usually 2 or 3 years, nurturing each child’s development over that extended span of time. 

Elementary and high school materials build on the earlier Montessori materials foundation. Because older students have built a solid foundation from their concrete learning, they move gracefully into abstract thinking, which transforms their learning. Now they learn how to carry out research. At these upper levels, students broaden their focus to include the community and beyond. They learn through service and firsthand experience. The Montessori materials support responsible interactive learning and discovery.

BENEFITS OF MONTESSORI EDUCATION

Montessori education offers children opportunities to develop their potential as they step out into the world as engaged, competent, responsible, and respectful citizens with an understanding and appreciation that learning is for life.

·      Each child is valued as a unique individual. Montessori education recognizes that children learn in different ways, and accommodates all learning styles. Students are also free to learn at their own pace, each advancing through the curriculum as he is ready, guided by the teacher and an individualized learning plan.

 

·      Beginning at an early age, Montessori students develop order, coordination, concentration, and independence. Classroom design, materials, and daily routines support the individual’s emerging “self-regulation” (ability to educate one’s self, and to think about what one is learning), toddlers through adolescents.

·      Students are part of a close, caring community. The multi-age classroom—typically spanning 3 years—re-creates a family structure. Older students enjoy stature as mentors and role models; younger children feel supported and gain confidence about the challenges ahead. Teachers model respect, loving kindness, and a belief in peaceful conflict resolution.

·      Montessori students enjoy freedom within limits. Working within parameters set by their teachers, students are active participants in deciding what their focus of learning will be. Montessorians understand that internal satisfaction drives the child’s curiosity and interest and results in joyous learning that is sustainable over a lifetime.

·      Students are supported in becoming active seekers of knowledge. Teachers provide environments where students have the freedom and the tools to pursue answers to their own questions.

·      Self-correction and self-assessment are an integral part of the Montessori classroom approach. As they mature, students learn to look critically at their work, and become adept at recognizing, correcting, and learning from their errors.

Given the freedom and support to question, to probe deeply, and to make connections, Montessori students become confident, enthusiastic, self-directed learners. They are able to think critically, work collaboratively, and act boldly—a skill set for the 21st century.   

 

Role Play

Role-play is any speaking activity when you either put yourself into somebody else’s shoes, or when you stay in your own shoes but put yourself into an imaginary situation.

Imaginary people – The joy of role-play is that students can ‘become’ anyone they like for a short time! The President, the Queen, a millionaire, a pop star …….. the choice is endless! Students can also take on the opinions of someone else

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Play Way Method

Play way in education aims to introduce the spirit of play in all educational institutions. The methods and techniques used for imparting education must be able to create an environment in which the child can learn his lesson or acquire the desired knowledge.

Play-way in education insists on child centered education. It advocates educating children through activities in which children can put their heart and soul and work in an atmosphere of freedom and spontaneity.

 

Project Method

Utilizing the project method of teaching in technology education (TE) is not a new development. TE teachers have been using projects as a means of teaching technical skills, tool usage, and problem solving since the very beginning of the profession. The project method also provides an excellent means for increasing student learning. Over the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in TE, leading the profession away from its roots, the project method of teaching. With the infusion of new technology and computer modules, some TE programs have been moving away from what worked for the profession in the past. This paradigm change has caused a debate and a split in the profession related to the methods used to teach TE. An overriding question the profession must ask is, "Has this been paradigm shift been beneficial for TE students?"

The project method is a teacher-facilitated collaborative approach in which students acquire and apply knowledge and skills to define and solve realistic problems using a process of extended inquiry. Projects are student-centered, following standards, parameters, and milestones clearly identified by the instructor. Students have control over the planning, refining, presenting, and reflecting of the project. Through projects, students are engaged in innovation and creativity.

Project method of teaching has evolved from the philosophy of programatists. It is experience-centered strategy related to life-situation. This teaching strategy focus on

1.     To socialize a child

2.     To achieve cognitive, affective and psychomotor objectives

This teaching strategy is based on the following principles

1.     Principle of Utility. Choose those projects which are closer to the social life.

2.     Principle of readiness. Involve the learners in finding the solution of the problem with their active participation.

3.     Learning by Doing. Learner performs certain tasks and experiences new things. This adds to his knowledge and results in learning.

4.     Socialization. It develops the feeling of cooperation and group work.

5.     Inter-disciplinary Approach. To involve the knowledge of different subjects in solving the social problems.

Types of Project Method of Teaching

According to Kilpatric, “A project is a whole-hearted purposeful activity proceeding in a social environment. Kilpatric has classified the project method in four types.

1.     Constructive. When learners have to construct some things related to social life. e.g. charts, models, maps, parcels etc.

2.     Artistic. These projects are generally allotted in the aesthetic fields of life. e.g. in music, drawing, painting art and culture.

3.     Problem-Solving. These projects are given to solve the problems related to any life-situation or related to any subject e.g. how to operate bank accounts? Or how to send an email or letter. These general problems if solved, will make a child efficient for social-life.

4.     Group-Work. A team of students is assigned a work to be performed. e.g. to develop a garden in the school.

There are four basic elements of this teaching strategy which make it purposeful 1. Spontaneity, Purpose, Significance, and Interest or Motivation.

Advantages

1.     It helps in developing social norms and social values among the learners.

2.     It provides invaluable opportunities for correlation of various elements of the subject matter and for transfer of training or learning.

3.     It helps in growing knowledge very effectively as a results of their close cooperation on social participation in the spirit of democracy.

Disadvantages

1.     The project cannot be planned for all subjects and whole subject matter cannot be taught by this strategy.

2.     It is not economical from the point of view of time and cost.

3.     It is very difficult for a teacher to plan or to execute the projects to the learners and supervise them.

 

 

Teaching Strategies

Task Analysis

Due to the intellectual impairment, the children with mental retardation have limited capacity to learn, retain and recall the learned skills. The tasks like eating, dressing or bathing, which non-disabled children learn to do by themselves after certain age are to be taught to children with mental retardation. Further, it is observed that children with mental retardation are unable to learn the task as a whole, but when presented the task in simple steps, they are able to make better progress. The process of identifying these small steps is known as task analysis.

What is task analysis?
To tell you in simple words, it is the analysis of a task into simpler steps and arranging them in a sequential order. Macarthy (1987) states that task analysis is a teaching strategy in which the task is broken down into teachable components and arranged in sequential order. It is a blueprint for instruction/ teaching, through which a student should proceed to achieve the terminal goal. It describes an end point of what must be learned but not the methods that will be employed for learning. Therefore, it is not a teaching methodology.

Need for task analysis
Task analytic approach helps us in pinpointing students functioning level on a specific task and also provides basis for sequential instruction. In addition, we can tailor-make the sub-tasks as per each students pace of learning. It is very important when we are teaching children with severe and profound mental retardation. For them, the steps must be sequenced with more precision and care, not ignoring any minute detail.

Procedure for analyzing the task
Yes, you need to, follow the steps given below.

If a task has numerous sub-tasks, take a set of only 10-12 sub-tasks sequentially at a time, to teach. When the student learns then take another 10-12 sub-tasks and finally link all of them from the total task.

Methods for analyzing the tasks
For analyzing task, a few methods have been suggested, hence, any of which you may use. After identifying and specifying the task to be taught, you have to do a systematic analysis of the task and organize the sub-tasks in a hierarchical order. The following are some of the methods.

1.     Watch a master: In this method, you observe another person performing the task and write down the steps. Ask your friend to do the task, which you have selected for the student for teaching. Observe him/her keenly and write the steps

2.     Self-monitoring: perform the selected task by yourself and list the steps. Sometimes, doing the  task and writing the steps may be difficult as the writing will interrupt the performance of task.

3.     Backward chaining: In this method, focus at the terminal objective and write down the components in the preceding level of difficulty – i.e., recording from last step to first step.

4.     Brainstorm: First, write down all the component steps irrespective of the sequence. Later, arrange the steps in a logical order.

To check whether your statements of sub-tasks are clear, or whether you have noted down all the components of the task, do the exercise as suggested below. We need two persons, one to read the statements and another to follow the instructions and perform. A few audience to observe the person performing the task will be helpful. Ask the person who has to read the statements to face the wall and the other to face audience. Instruct the person who has to perform the task to follow strictly the way the steps are read. The person will complete the task if the statements are clear, if not she will end up not completing the task. It is a very useful exercise to check the clarity of the statements and you will enjoy doing this activity, as well as correct errors in the listing.

Reinforcement 

If we were to examine the course of events in our daily lives, we would readily see that our continued performance of certain behaviours is due to the results or performing consequences of those behaviours. Every action we engage in results in some consequence. When our behaviour results in a naturally occurring, desirable consequence, this experience serves as a motivating force for our continued performance. However, some times this natural process may be insufficient to maintain all desirable behaviours and we need to look for more powerful ones that motivate learning.

What is reinforcement?
Reinforcement describes a relationship between two environmental events, a behaviour (response) and an event or stimulus (consequence) that follows the response. The relationship is termed reinforcement only if the response increases or maintains its rate as a result of the consequence.

Definition:
Reinforcement is frequently the critical component of programmatic attempts

Positive reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is the contingent presentation of a stimulus, immediately following a response, that increases the future rate and/or probability of the response. There are three operative words in this definition.

Negative reinforcement
Negative reinforcement is the contingent removal of an aversive stimulus immediately following a response that increases the future rate and/or probability of the response.

The teacher will not remove the aversive condition unless and until the requested response is produced. If teacher states the contingency “Krishna, you must stay in the room by yourself and finish all your maths problems before you may join the rest of the class in the playground”, that teacher is using negative reinforcement. The aversive condition of being left behind in the classroom while the rest of the class goes to the playground will be removed contingent upon completion of the maths assignment that Krishna should have completed earlier.

Negative reinforcement works because the student performs the behaviour to escape the aversive stimulus. It is not necessary, however, for an aversive stimulus to be present in order for negative reinforcement to work. Negative reinforcement also works when a student performs some behaviour in order to avoid an aversive stimulus.

Schedules Of Reinforcement

Continuous schedule of reinforcement
Schedules of reinforcement refer to patterns of timing for delivery of reinforcers. Delivery of reinforcement on a continuous basis is referred to as a continuous schedule of reinforcement (CRF). That is, each time the student produces the target response she or he immediately receives a reinforcer. This schedule may be seen as having an one-to-one ratio – Response: Reinforcement.

Because of this dense ratio of response to reinforcement, CRF schedules are most useful in teaching new behaviours (acquisition), especially to young and disabled tudents. It is necessary to ensure that a student who is learning a new behaviour will receive a reinforcer for each response that is closer to a correct response.

Problems with CRF schedules

Intermittent Schedules of reinforcement
In intermittent schedules, reinforcement follows some, but not all, correct or appropriate responses. Because each occurrence of the behaviour is no longer reinforced, intermittent schedules put off satiation effects. Behaviours maintained on intermittent schedules are also more resistant to extinction. In addition, intermittent schedules require greater numbers of correct responses for reinforcement. As a result, the student learns to delay gratification and to maintain appropriate behaviour over longer periods of time.

The two categories of simple intermittent schedules most often used to increase frequency of response are, ratio schedules and interval schedules.

Ratio schedules

Under ratio schedules, the number of times a target behaviour occurs determines the timing of reinforcer delivery. Under a fixed ratio schedule (FR), the student is reinforced on completion of a specified number of correct responses. Under a Variable Ratio schedule (VR), the target response is reinforced on the average of a specified number of correct responses.

Interval schedules
Under interval schedules, the occurrence of at least one correct or appropriate response plus the passage of a specific amount of time are the determinants for delivery of the reinforcer. Under a fixed interval schedule (FI), the student is reinforced the first time he or she performs the target response following the elapse of a specified number of minutes. Under a Variable Interval (VI) schedule, the intervals are of different lengths, while their average length is consistent.

Response duration schedules
Under response-duration schedules, the continuous amount of time of a target behaviour is the determinant for delivery of the reinforcer. Under a fixed-response-duration schedule (FRD), the student is reinforced following completion of a specified number of minutes (or seconds) of appropriate behaviour. Under a Variable Response Duration (VRD) schedule, continuous appropriate behaviour is reinforced on the average of a specified time period.

Modelling 

Either knowingly or unknowingly most of us acquire behaviours through modeling and imitation. Children learn behaviours by observing others deliberately or by chance. They imitate not only the behaviour of others whom they consider as important but also their own behaviour. Simple repetitions of actions are one of the earliest forms of imitation. The ability to imitate constitutes a `Learning to learn skill’ which becomes a major tool in the child’s future development.

Modelling is a method of teaching by demonstration. It can be used to teach new behaviours or to correct the performance of an already learnt behaviour in the child. Modelling prompts are slightly more intrusive than verbal prompts because the teacher must demonstrate the correct response. The model responses are not limited to human performances. The model can be printed through visual illustration.

Modelling can be an effective way to prompt behaviours if certain conditions are met.

Shaping

Shaping refers to sequential, systematic reinforcement of successive approximations of target behaviour until the behaviour is achieved. Suppose a teacher wants Harish to remain in his seat for an entire 20 minutes work period. She has observed that Harish has never remained in his seat for longer than 5 minutes with an average of 2 minutes. A programme in which Harish earns a reinforcer for remaining in his seat for 20 minutes will never happen and Harish will never earn a reinforcer. Instead of this approach, the teacher defines her target behaviour as Harish remaining in his seat for the full 20 minutes but sets up a graduated sequence of criteria.

- Harish remains in his seat for 3 minutes.
- Harish remains in his seat for 5 minutes.
- Harish remains in his seat for 10 minutes.
- Harish remains in his seat for 15 minutes.
- Harish remains in his seat for 20 minutes.

Each step in the sequence will be reinforced until established. Then the criterion for reinforcement will be shifted to the next step. Shaping procedures may be used to establish new behaviours of many kinds, ranging from verbal behaviour in severely disabled students to study behaviours in college students.

Shaping appears deceptively simple. Its efficient use requires great skill on the part of the teacher. First, the teacher should have the skill to precisely describe the target behaviour. Second is the skill required planning a shaping programme. The steps planned should be neither too small nor too large. Finally the teacher must consider how long to remain at each plateau – just long enough to establish the behaviour solidly, but not so long that the student becomes struck at that level.

There are six steps that should be followed in shaping behaviour.

1.     Select the target behaviour in precise and behavioural terms.

2.     Obtain baseline data on how often the target behaviour is occurring in the natural environment.

3.     Select appropriate reinforcers.

4.     Reinforce successive approximations.

5.     Reinforce the target behaviour each time it occurs.

6.     At the appropriate time, reinforce the target behaviour on an intermittent schedule.

Chaining

Chaining refers to the actual process by which each of the responses is linked to one another to form the behavioural chain. The identification of response sequence is done through a task analysis.

Backward Chaining
When backward chaining is used, the components of the chain are acquired in reverse order. The last component is taught first, and other components are added one at a time. For example, to teach the task “taking off shirt”. The child is given the instruction, “Raghu, take your shirt off”, and his shirt is pulled over his head until the arms are free and the neckband is caught just above this eyes. If the child does not automatically pull the short off, he is physically guided to do so. Primary and social reinforcers are then given. During the next training session, the neckband is left at his neck, in subsequent sessions, one arm, then both arms are left in the sleeves. The verbal instruction, “Raghu, take off your shirt”, is always presented and reinforcers given only when the task is completed.

Forward Chaining
When forward chaining is used, the teacher starts with the first link in the chain, trains it to criterion, and then goes on to the next. The student may be required to perform all the steps previously mastered each time, or each step may be separately trained to criterion and then the links made. To use forward chaining to teach undressing skills, the teacher would start with the student fully dressed, deliver the instruction, “Raghu, take your shirt off”, and then provide whatever prompting was required to get Raghu to cross his arms and grab the bottom of his tee-shirt. When Raghu reliably performed this behaviour, she would add the next step until Raghu shirt is.

Total task presentation
We can also use total task presentation. Here, the student performs all of the steps in sequence until the entire chain is mastered. Total task presentation may be particularly appropriate when the student has already mastered some or all of the components of a task but has not performed them in sequence. However, it is also possible to teach completely novel chains in this manner. Many academic chains are forged using a total task presentation. The arithmetic teacher working on addition with carry over usually requires her students to solve an entire problem, with whatever coaching is required, until they have mastered the process.

One cannot say definitely that which chaining technique is most effective, although there is some indication that total task presentation may be most effective in teaching complex assembly tasks to retarded students. Classroom teachers are again advised to try what seems in their professional judgment to be the best procedure.

Prompting And Fading

 A prompt is a form of temporary assistance used to help a student perform in a desired manner. When a student is unable to perform a task, a prompt (temporary assistance) is used to help the student perform the task. As the student learns to perform the task, the temporary prompt is faded (slowly removed) from use. Different types of prompts and methods of fading are discussed below.

e.g.- When a skill is taught by using ‘hand over hand’ prompt, it should be withdrawn as soon as possible so that child can perfrorm the task without prompt.

Using prompting and fading

If a student does not perform a task/activity when we make a verbal request, prompts are introduced in the following manner until the student has made the desired response.     

Level-1
Level-2
Level-3
Level-4
Level-5

Verbal Request (VR)
VR + Verbal Prompt (VP)
VR + VP + Gestural Prompt (GP)
VR + VP + Modelling Prompt (MP)
VR + VP + Physical Prompt (PP)

For example, a child is requested to wear a shirt. If the child does not wear the shirt, give verbal prompt and wait for few seconds. When no response occurs, the next level prompt (GP) is given. Similarly depending on the response the prompt levels will be increased. The prompts are introduced in the “least-to-most prompts sequence” as indicated above. This helps in finding out precisely at what prompt level the student is able to perform a task and also in gradual fading of prompts.

Giving additional instructions, emphasizing important words by saying them louder or longer, giving single word reminders, bringing attention to each important part of the instruction by pausing, are some of the verbal prompts used in teaching tasks.

Gestural prompts
Gestural prompts are pointing the place where the response is to be made, making noise by tapping finger where the response is to be made, and using finger to relate the part of the task along with a verbal prompt.

Modelling
Modelling is a method of teaching by demonstration. In this, the teacher models the performance of a task and the student imitates the model. The modelling prompt is used when student fails to perform the activity following a verbal prompt and gestural prompt.

Physical prompt
Here, a teacher uses her hands to support a student to go through the steps of a task. The teacher may give complete physical support/partial physical support depending on the type of support required by the student.

Among the above prompts the one with least assistance is the verbal prompt and that of most assistant is the physical prompt. While providing prompts, the teacher needs to check the level of assistance required by the student in the beginning so that appropriate assistance is provided and the student moves forward. As the student learn each step, the temporary assistance is faded away and the student is made to perform the task by himself.

FADING: The process of gradual decrease in assistance or help by so that the child could begins to perform the activity or behavior independently, called Fading.

For example, fading the physical prompt of guiding a child’s hands may follow this sequence: (a) supporting wrists, (b) touching hands lightly, (c) touching forearm or elbow, and (d) withdrawing physical contact altogether. Fading ensures that the child does not become overly dependent on a particular prompt when learning a new skill. One of the first decisions that should be made when teaching a new behavior is how to fade the prompt or prompts. A plan should be in place to fade the prompts in an orderly fashion. 

The approach of fading is built on studies in operant conditioning in which a new stimulus was presented alongside an existing one to which a response had been learnt. The old stimulus was gradually faded out, by a process of stimulus attenuation, its frequency or intensity reduced, and it was shown that this allowed the new stimulus to gain control of the response.

Ø Stimulus attenuation: Gradual decreasing of an external stimulus.

Ø Applied Behavior Analysis: Behavior Analysis is the scientific study of behavior. Applied behavior analysis is the process of systematically applying interventions based upon the principles of learning theory to improve socially significant behaviors to a meaningful degree, and to demonstrate that the interventions employed are responsible for the improvement in behavior.

Ø Operant conditioning: A learning process in which the likelihood of a specific behavior increases or decreases in response to reinforcementor punishment that occurs when the behavior is exhibited, so that the subject comes to associate the behavior withthe pleasure from the reinforcement or the displeasure from 

the punishment.

 

 

1.4         Selection and use of TLM, and Information and communication technology (ICT) for teaching.

 

Importance of Teaching Aids

There is a popular saying about teaching and learning, which a special teacher should note:

·      What I hear, I forget

·      What I see, I remember

·      What I do , I understand (know )

Teaching aid is a smaller and narrower term than teaching material or instructional material.

“Teaching aid is an additional help, that we use while teaching a particular task.”

Teaching material can be widely used as textbook, handbook, lesson notes, programmes, references or sources material etc

They help students in self-study and even in their distance education programme.

—  The teaching material are prepared by high level of experts or professional in their field of specialization.

—   The teaching material covers the topics as per course or syllabus to be covered by the  students and teachers.

—  They help only in teaching strategies with individual and groups.

—  They help to teacher to make Teaching-Learning process interactive.

—  When a teaching aid(any) is used for learning a concept it is technically referred to as teaching aids.

—  Once a concept is learnt the utility of the specific learning aid is reduced.

—   Planning, implementation and evaluation of the students are done with the help of these materials.

Teaching aids are useful to:

—  reinforce what you are saying,

—  ensure that your point is understood,

—  signal what is important/essential,

—  enable students to visualise or experience something that is impractical to see or do in real life,

—  engage students’ other senses in the learning process,

—  facilitate different learning styles.

Types of TLM

·      Visual Aids: “Visual  aid is a material which appeal the sense of  sight only.”

1.     Black Boards

2.     Models

3.     Charts, pictures

4.     Slides

5.     Bulletin Board

·      Audio- Visual Aids: “ Audio-visual aid are the material which appeal to the both sight and sound are called as Audio-visual aids.” It helps to make the learning more concrate, more realistic, and most dyanamic.

1.     Over Head Projector   

2.     Film Projector

3.     Television

4.     Video cassette player

·      Audio Aids: “Audio aid  is an electric device which gives out sound.”

1.     Tape Recorder

2.     Gramophone

3.     Radio

·      Activity Aids:

1.     Museum

2.     Garden

3.     Work shop

4.     Fair

5.     Kitchen

6.     Aquarium

7.     Exhibitions

Selection of Teaching Material and Aids

·      Age Appropriate

·      Suited to the level of learner

·      Motivate Children with mental retardation in learning

·      Readily available

·      Prepared from local resources

·      Inexpensive

·      Accurate in representation of facts

·      Attractive, symmetrical and colorful for children

·      Prepared in easy and simple language

·      Easy in manipulation in class

·      Appropriate in size

·      Related to curriculum

·      Easy enough to make complex and difficult concepts

 

According to UNESCO, "ICT is a scientific, technological and engineering discipline and management technique used in handling information and association with social, economic and cultural matters."

ICT refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. It is similar to Information Technology (IT), but focuses primarily on communication technologies. This includes the Internet, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication mediums. Jan 4, 2010

With knowledge come learning, skills, adaptability, understanding and activism-all factors that contribute to the growth of an equitable society. ICT offers the means to acquire this power. Since knowledge is vital, it follows that the acquisition of knowledge must be lifelong.
The National curriculum framework (NCF) 2005," ICT is an important tool for bridging social divides. ICT should be used in such a way that it becomes an opportunity equalizer by providing information, communication and computing resources in remote areas."

In many countries, digital literacy is being built through the incorporation of information and communication technology (ICT) into schools. Some common educational applications of ICT include:

 

 

1.5         Evaluation – continuous and comprehensive evaluation, progress monitoring and documentation.

 

Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation (CCE) was a procedure of assessment, directed by the Right to Education Act, of India in 2009. This assessment proposal was introduced by state governments in India, as well as by the Central Board of Secondary Education in India, for students of sixth to tenth class and twelfth in some schools.

Continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) means evaluating a student’s performance to gauge the essential domains of development. It is a continuous process planned periodically in the form of tests and assessments. Broadly, this process focuses on the development of the essential domains namely cognitive, affective, and psycho-motor.

We all know that a good assessment system includes the scholastic and co-scholastic aspects of a student’s developmental process. The scholastic aspects are the written and oral skills of a student. And the non-scholastic aspects include performance in the co-curricular activities and life-skills etc.

CCE pattern includes formative and summative assessments to keep a check on the student’s overall development. Be it digital schooling or physical school structure, without this periodic and wholesome assessment process, a teacher cannot deliver constructive feedback to the students. So, the continuous and comprehensive evaluation process highlights the strengths and addresses the pain areas of a student for constructive remedial action. 

Purposes of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation:

CCE attempts to minimize fear and anxiety among our learners about examination and evaluation. CCE helps learners, parents, and teachers in the following ways:

Most people enjoy documenting their lives through photographs and videos. In much the same way, schools have been documenting learning—both formally and informally—for decades. Teachers can ask learners to document their own learning for three purposes (Tolisano & Hale):

1.     Documentation OF learning focuses on displaying artifacts: What did the learner do? What is the result of the learning?

2.     Documentation FOR learning focuses on interpretation of artifacts: Why do I accept this artifact as evidence of my learning progress? How could someone else learn from my failures and successes?

3.     Documentation AS learning focuses on the learning process involved in capturing and reflecting on artifacts: What is worthy of capture during a learning opportunity? How can I convey my thinking visibly and audibly using media platforms and tools?

Documentation of, for, and as learning are not direct synonyms for assessment of, for, or as learning. While assessment is an integral part of documentation, the learning framework of documentation goes beyond assessment and allows student and adult learners to participate in their learning processes.