- Group Activity: Revisit the learning experiences you selected to realize the objective "Ability to apply principles of nutrition" in Module 4. Using Tyler's three criteria, appropriate central organizing elements, and applicable organizing principles, effectively organize your learning experiences into a coherent whole. To what extent was organization in the back of your mind when you initially selected the learning experiences? What thinking led you to add, delete, or modify the experiences you initially identified?
Cristy Lambert-Smith | Gregory Kirkland | Harold Culbreth
When selecting the learning experiences in module 4, organization played a large part in the process. Tyler tells us that “no single learning experience has a profound influence upon the learner” (p.83). In order to see change in the knowledge or behavior of a student, an accumulation of experiences over time is necessary. When we are planning a unit of study, we must organize the objectives we select so that when the unit is complete, all of the objectives blend together and learning has occurred. Organization is the central force that leads to the acquisition of new knowledge; the objectives must reinforce each other so that the student learns the idea or them we are trying to convey. As we selected learning experiences to assist students in gaining the ability to apply the principles of nutrition, it was essential that we checked for continuity, sequence, and integration to ensure that we had built an effectively organized learning experience for our students.
Checking for effective organization led to the deletion and addition of several of the experiences we initially selected for this learning experience. When a unit is planned, it is essential that all of the experiences fit together both vertically and horizontally. In order for vertical organization to take place, the learning experiences or objectives we selected should mesh well with the objectives the students will face in the next unit so that over the course of the year, they are focused on learning about Health as a general subject. Horizontal organization takes place when the objectives we select present a continuous theme so that a concept is learned fully and without “gaps” in the information presented. The initial experiences we selected, when viewed in conjunction with the other experiences that would take place both simultaneously and directly after, were not vertically or horizontally organized. We realized that this would lead to poor integration of knowledge, leading us to select different objectives that would accomplish the educational goals set for the students taking part in this unit of study.
Overall, this exercise taught us that the selection of objectives to teach when designing a unit of study is a complex process that requires great organization. It is essential that the major elements are first identified so that the organizing threads for the learning experience are realized. The objectives must then be selected not just because they will hold the attention of the learner, but also because they are coherent and mesh with the objectives that come before and will come directly after the activity. The experiences must fit together coherently so that the overall objective is achieved and the process of learning takes place during each activity and across the duration of the entire unit. Without effective organization, learning is disjointed and the desired end result is not achieved.