Application: Applying rules, concepts, principles, and theories in new situations

Educators must be given opportunities to apply or implement new learning.

How do I challenge participants to consider what [topic] might look like in their classroom, campus, or district?

How do I encourage participants to make a plan for their next steps, based on their new knowledge of the topic?

Choice: Learning is not overly determined by the instructional system

Choices build responsibility and commitment, and communicate respect for learners’ needs and preferences.

How do I provide participants with choice in:

● the design of their learning experience (process)

● their learning content/resources (content)

● how they show/synthesize their learning (product)

● where they explore/learn/build(environment)

Collaboration: Working together to reach a goal

Collaboration allows time to process and share ideas. Learning occurs as a result of reflection, and conversation with another person about thinking aids the process.

How do I establish a sense of community in my session from the first moment participants enter the room?

How do I create conditions for collaboration, sharing, and risk-taking?

How can I facilitate collaboration both synchronously and asynchronously?

Critical Thinking: Objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment

Learning is a consequence of thinking, and fostering critical thinking requires observation, analysis, interpretation, reflection, evaluation, inference, explanation, problem solving, and decision making.

See The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Critical Thinking for guiding questions.

Curation: The process of scanning, sense-making and sharing content

Organizing resources saves participants from the overwhelming task of looking for information on their own. Curated resources allow the learning to extend beyond the session and may provide opportunities for differentiation.

What are the best resources for my topic? 

Which tool would be the best way to share this information?

How can I best facilitate participants’ sharing of resources with each other?

Extension: A strategy intended to increase the amount of time participants are engaging with content

Learning must be extended to challenge participants to go beyond the basics and foster connections, new ideas, and innovation. Extension activities move sessions beyond “one and done” to help educators put their new learning into practice.

What activities or resources will best engage participants before the session?

How might I follow up with participants after a session?

Feedback: Information about how we are doing in our efforts to meet a goal

When embedded into every part of our work, feedback becomes a source of learning or a form of instruction. High quality feedback accelerates the learning process. Effective feedback is immediate, specific, frequent, and actionable.

Where am I going? Where do I want my participants to go?

How will we get there? What type of feedback will contribute to the learning?

Where will we go next? How will participants know the destination?