The second step in your Individualized Instructional Design process is Task Analysis for learning.
Step-by-Step Individualized Instructional Design
First, gather together all of your information from your Learner Analysis. That’s because Task Analysis for learning requires your learner’s profile to determine exactly what your child’s learning program needs to include.
Let’s start with the easiest portion of the Task Analysis process–Your Child’s Learning Style(s). To get started, you will need your results from Step 1: Learner Analysis for Effective Teaching and Learning.
From each of the Learning styles inventories in Step 1, what did you learn?
Multiple Intelligences
Look at your results from the Multiple Intelligences Model tests (as determined from the tools provided in the Learning Styles section of this website). List your child’s top three Intelligences. Take note of your child’s #1 and #2 forms of Intelligence. Write them on a new page in the Task Analysis section of your notebook.
As an aside, the notes you make during this Task Analysis will be the most useful to you when creating your child’s instructional program.
VAKT Learning Styles
Make a note of your child’s VAKT Learning Style(s) on the same sheet with your child’s areas of intelligence.
I would suggest listing the Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic/Tactile styles in order. List the style most like your child first, then list in order toward the one that’s least like your child.
When planning instruction, you will search for programs that use your child’s learning style(s), whether visual, auditory, or kinesthetic/tactile. However, when you’re down to one or two programs, weigh the choice that matches your child’s better learning styles over less effective learning paths. As a bonus, doing this can help you pick more easily.
Dunn & Dunn Learning Styles
As a last step, look through your Dunn & Dunn Learning Styles Inventory results. Make notes about the changes you can to make in your child’s learning environment to better meet his needs. Consider each area carefully. Below are some general questions to get you thinking. Try to figure out how your child’s learning preferences relate to your home and the changes you may need to make:
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His learning environment: light, sound, temperature, seating.
Do you need to make his environment brighter, dimmer, natural, sunny or provide softer lighting?
Will background music or noise reduction help your child?
Do you need to make the environment warmer or cooler?
Does your child need a desk or a big comfy chair? -
His physiological learning needs: perceptual, intake, time of day, and mobility
Is your child is auditory, visual, kinesthetic or tactile according to this model?
Does your child need to be well-fed or have drinks and snacks handy while studying?
When does your child learn best: early in the day, mid-day, or late in the day?
Does your child prefer sitting still, moving around, or lying down while learning? -
His emotional learning needs: motivation, responsibility vs. conformity, task persistence, structure:
Does your child have intrinsic motivation to learn, or does he need encouragement through incentives?
Does your child conform by following provided instructions, or does he prefer to be self-directed in his learning?
Can your child drive forward and stay with a task, even when it is difficult, or does he give up fairly easily?
Does your child need a regimented routine to move through his studies effectively, or does he respond better to going with the flow of the moment? -
Sociological: self, pairs, peers, teams, adult directed, or a variety:
Does your child prefer to do things by his self?
Does your child learn better when interacting with another child or a small group of children?
Is your child able to learn better when he’s part of a team working together or when challenged by a group of peers?
Does your child learn best when instruction is provided one-on-one by an adult?
Does your child get bored with any one social scenario and prefer a variety of social settings for learning? -
Psychological: Analytical vs. Global, Reflective vs. Impulsive
Does your child focus on the details and step-by-step learning, or is he a big-picture thinker?
Does your child do more thinking or is he an active doer?
Wrapping Up Phase 1 of this Task Analysis for Learning
Once you’ve created a great learning environment, decided the time of day, identified your child’s overall learning needs, found your child’s primary Intelligences, his VAKT Learning Style,etc., you can use this information to create instructional programs that will most effectively meet your child’s needs.
There is more to Task Analysis for learning though. In order to move through Part B of the Task Analysis phase, you must have an evaluation report from a qualified evaluator. To create a proper educational program, someone must assess your child’s specific learning strengths, aptitude, achievements, and disabilities. Without such a report, your work in Part B will be guesswork at best.
At this point, your Task Analysis for learning is half done. The second phase of the Task Analysis is quite involved, SO Part 2 of the Task Analysis for learning is on the next web page. Click here to go to Task Analysis – Part 2 when you have your child’s formal educational evaluation.