Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grade Teacher?

My career as an Instructional Designer (ID) has been heavily influenced by the field of Curriculum Design and Development. What is curriculum design and how is it different from instructional design? Curriculum design is essentially the practice of designing lessons for students. The term is most commonly used when describing K-12 education. Teachers may cover up to seven different lessons in a day with students. Each of those lessons is an instructional activity to be designed.

While many design concepts are present in both instructional design and curriculum development, they are typically labeled with different vocabulary. For example, the controversial concept of learning styles debated in instructional design might be discussed among the teaching community as multiple intelligences or differentiation of instruction. While many curriculum development concepts have influenced my own ID, there are four primary practices that have inspired me the most: protocols, illustrations, professional learning communities, and artifacts.

Protocols

I was introduced to protocols in my job at the All Kinds of Minds Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to giving teachers strategies to reach all of the students in their classroom. There, the National School Reform Faculty Protocols served as inspiration for both staff activities and instructor led training. The constructivist-inspired protocols they publish provide instructions for how to facilitate transformative small group activities. ?A protocol consists of agreed upon guidelines for a conversation,? states NSRF (www.nsrfharmony.org). NSRF has published dozens of protocols that deepen thinking, solve problems, push an issue or examine student work. The protocols are tested, and they work.

When I design instructor-led training, I often reference a book called ?The Power of Protocols: An Educator?s Guide to Better Practice?. It contains two dozen protocols. Each protocol includes the purpose, details, steps, facilitation tips and variations. Particular favorite protocols of mine include the ?Rich Text? Protocol, and ?Marvin?s Model?. Protocols are an incredible tool for facilitating social learning conversations.

Illustrations

Dan Roam?s book, ?The Back of the Napkin? tells us that 75% of the sensory part of the brain is dedicated to the sense of sight while the other 25% is shared among smell, touch, taste and hearing. Biologically, we are all visual learners. K-12 teachers ask students to draw on a regular basis to develop critical thinking skills. A group that we?re currently working with?Thinking Maps, Inc., based in Cary, NC, has been training teachers for many years on how to use eight core learning maps with students. In this model, students draw the various maps, like circle maps, tree maps and flow maps, to help them brainstorm, define, sort, describe, compare and contrast, classify and more. Research on academic achievement shows that illustrating vocabulary terms contributes greatly to comprehension and retention.

When was the last time you asked your employees or customers to draw? Think of some opportunities to incorporate this powerful instructional strategy into your upcoming learning initiatives.

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs)

Professional learning communities are small groups of teachers and administrators who assemble on a regular basis to examine student work and push their own practice. PLCs have also been referred to as ?communities of continuous inquiry and improvement?¹. PLCs are ongoing, reflective, collaborative, supportive, and focused on outcomes. Many schools post PLC norms and meeting templates on the Web. Consider implementing professional learning communities to support the transfer of skills into practice following a formal training program.

Artifacts

Corporate America is largely a testing culture. We like to know what each learner scored on an assessment at the end of a course or module. In addition, organizations might have a formal supervisor or mentor observation plan or other operational performance metrics. In the field of education, teachers are asked to produce artifacts from the classroom to show how they are implementing the Common Core Curriculum standards. These could include lesson plans and student work samples. What kind of workplace artifacts could your employees or customers share ? perhaps in a safe small group environment (PLC) ? to demonstrate performance?

There are many fields that can inspire and enhance learning design including gaming, entertainment, and K-12 Curriculum Development. The field of Curriculum Development has many tried and true methodologies including protocols, illustrations, PLCs and artifacts. I look forward to a continued sharing of design best practices.

Source: http://weejeelearning.com/2012/09/are-you-smarter-than-a-fifth-grade-teacher/

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