A Framework for Learning and Teaching

The Learning Model was created to help support faculty efforts to deepen the student learning experience. Individuals from across campus have helped develop a set of simple, practitioner-oriented tools using the framework of the Learning Model. These tools have been organized around five questions:

• 1. What are my course learning outcomes?
  Learning outcomes describe the purpose of the lesson, class, or program. They describe what your students will be able to do, or what they will have become, at the end of the learning experience. Learning outcomes answer the question: How will your students be different on the last day of class?
• 2. How can the Learning Model strengthen the architecture of my course?
  Instructors should design a course architecture that best develops their learning outcomes. This means building the cycles of Prepare, Teach One Another, and Ponder/Prove into the design of the course to support learning outcomes. These patterns frame the sequence of activities in your course. Clarifying this architecture will help the students better understand the rhythm and expectations for learning.
• 3. What is my plan to prepare?
  Before students can teach one another, they must qualify themselves through appropriate preparation. You must also prepare by structuring pre-class and in-class experiences that actively engage students in learning and teaching.
• 4. What is my plan to teach one another?
  The purpose of Teach One Another is to help students act for themselves by taking responsibility for their learning. Moreover, when students actively build their own knowledge structures, their ability to retain, apply, and synthesize their learning increases.
• 5. What is my plan to ponder/prove?
  In the Learning Model cycle, Ponder and Prove is the time to deepen, consolidate, and gain confidence in what the student has learned, even as they prepare for additional instruction. After establishing a foundation for learning through preparation and teaching one another, both you and your students should take time to ponder. It is in pondering your learning and proving your understanding that lasting insights and spiritual impressions are gained.

These five questions make-up the main navigation of the site. While every faculty member can use the five overview questions to reflect on their own learning, the specific strategies and approaches to those answers will vary considerably. An overview tool has been created for each of the five questions. Each overview tool is also supported by dozens of more specific learning tools. Use these specific tools as appropriate for your own style, overall course strategy, and discipline requirements.

Tool Sets

Many of the teaching tools group well together as a combined tool set. For example, the tool on Discussion-based Learning, is supported by several other tools, including: Creating a Participatory Environment, Developing Inspired Questions, and Including Reluctant Students. There are many of these similar groups that have been gathered as a combined tool set. These include:

All Tools Map

There dozens of teaching tools. You can navigate to each tool by using the main website navigation of: Learning Outcomes, Architecture, Prepare, Teach One Another, and Ponder/Prove. Similarly, you can find tools by considering some of the tool set groupings listed above. You can also search for a tool using key terms in the search box. However, some instructors will benefit from seeing the all of the tools at once, which are captured in the All Tools Map below.