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INFORMATION is the last step in Stage 1 of the LPM, oriented towards, bounding, and thinking through what will be learned. This includes how to tell if the learning is successful.
This step is handled very differently by a learner working on their own and an educator designing a learning activity. While the self-directed learner must seek out the resources they need to use in order to learn, the activity designer is responsible for determining and/or selecting and/or creating that information.
We tend to think of information as "stuff" that gets learned...usually by reading or listening to a lecture, when it comes to education. But the astute and creative designer of learning activities or situations knows there's a lot more to information and the knowledge a learner creates from it.
The schema we like using is Forms of Knowledge (see 2.3.9 Forms of Knowledge and Knowledge Tables in the Faculty Guidebook).
In Process Education, knowledge includes both breadth and depth, with breadth indicated by six forms of knowledge: rules, concepts, processes, tools, contexts, and ways of being. (Depth is accounted for by levels of learner knowledge or the levels in Bloom's Taxonomy.) There is strong evidence that growth of learning is demonstrated by a learner being able to represent their knowledge in a variety of forms. For this reason, we strongly recommend that activity designers and educators challenge learners with information in a variety of forms, when possible!
The first step in creating appropriate information is determining which of the six forms of knowledge the learner should achieve.
- Is it a basic rule that needs to be memorized?
- Is it conceptual knowledge?
- Is it knowledge that requires understanding a process?
- Is it knowledge that requires learning to use a tool?
- Is the knowledge unique to a specific context or multiple contexts?
- Is it knowledge that relates to an individual’s way of being?
There are learning models or instruments that are appropriate for each of the respective forms of knowledge. To illustrate what an appropriate model might look like for each form, examples from mathematics are shown below.
Rule: memorized fact or set of facts (or convention) that governs performance in a knowledge area
- EXAMPLE: The order of operations is: PEMDAS (parentheses, exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction)
Conceptual knowledge: an idea that connects a set of relationships; a generalized idea about something; the best way to gain conceptual knowledge is through process-oriented guided-inquiry learning, POGIL, which makes use of models that students can study or explore.
- EXAMPLE: multiplication, simplifying, coordinate system, etc.
Questions to ask when building a conceptual model:
- What are the important components of the concept?
- What needs to be visualized?
- What is the prerequisite knowledge upon which this concept is built?
- What knowledge item is similar or related to the concept being modeled?
- What are the boundary issues related to the concept?
- What context is useful for placement of this concept?
Process knowledge: a sequence of steps, events, or activities that results in a change or that produces something over a period of time. This is often represented by a methodology.
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EXAMPLE: finding the distance between two points, (x1, y1) and (x2, y2)
Questions to ask when building a methodology:
- Why are the starting and ending points significant?
- Why is seeing the bigger picture important?
- When modeling the process, how do you define key steps?
- How do you improve the design process?
Knowledge in the form of tools: any device, instrument, or utensil that serves as a resource to accomplish a task. This type of knowledge comes in multiple forms, but a template or application is one of the more common forms for facilitating this knowledge. Note that a specific perspective or philosophy can function as a tool if learners are tasked with explicitly using it.
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EXAMPLE: the formula for the area of a triangle: Area = (1/2) × base × height
Questions to ask when building a template or application:
- What are the tool’s most important features?
- What are the tool’s most important functions?
- What is the best simplification for presentation of the tool to highlight the key functions and features?
- What should be captured in the demonstration illustrating the tool usage?
Contextual knowledge: the whole situation, background, or conditions relevant to the process. Often this is represented through case studies or stories.
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EXAMPLE: The context for the distance formula is an application of the Pythagorean theorem in geometry, such as when calculating the area of a roof to be covered in shingles or tiles.
Questions to ask when building a case studies or story:
- What characteristics make this context unique?
- Where is the critical meaning in the story?
- What issues or concerns are addressed by the story?
- Where is it important to analyze and reflect?
- What values are being addressed and challenged and what are their implications?
Knowledge about a way of being: the set of behaviors, actions, and language associated with a particular discipline, knowledge area, or culture. This is often a profile describing how the individual possessing a given way of being behaves, what they believe, and how others perceive them.
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EXAMPLE: The mathematician values error-free calculation and ensures it through validating their work.
Questions to ask when building a profile:
- What qualities are associated with that way of being in a professional in a given discipline?
- Should there be any overlap in the behaviors?
- How many behaviors do you put into a profile?
- How do you analyze a quality?
- What are the important criteria for a professional behavior?
- How do you represent values within a professional behavior?
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