Elements of Notes to the Schedule: A Guide for Effective Teaching Unit Design
Description of the Study Unit
This section should indicate the specific topic or name of the unit, the background knowledge that students should have to achieve the learning objectives, motivational activities, etc. It should also include reference to the number of sessions that make up the unit, its position within the course or cycle, and the time allocated for its implementation.
Learning Objectives
The learning objectives state what students are expected to acquire during the course of the study unit. It is important to ensure that learning objectives take account of all aspects related to cross-cutting themes.
Learning Content
Learning content must be collected on concepts, procedures, and attitudes.
Conceptual Content (Knowledge)
This content refers to three clear categories:
- Facts: Events that happened in history.
- Data: Concise information.
- Concepts: Concepts or ideas we have of an event or object.
Procedural Content (Know-How)
Procedural content includes actions, ways of acting, and problem-solving strategies. It encompasses rules, techniques, methodologies, skills or abilities, strategies, procedures, and sets of sequentially ordered actions aimed at achieving a goal or completing a task.
Procedural content can be classified based on three axes:
- Axis Motor-Cognitive: Sorts procedural content based on the actions to be taken as more or less motor or cognitive.
- Axis Few Actions-Many Actions: Determined by the number of actions that constitute the procedural content.
- Axis Algorithmic-Heuristic: Considers the degree of preset order of the sequences. Algorithmic content follows a consistent pattern, while heuristic content adapts to the situation.
Attitudinal Content (Be)
This content refers to values that are part of the cognitive, affective, and behavioral components that can be observed in students’ interactions. Attitudinal content guides the learning of other content and allows the incorporation of values in students, contributing to their comprehensive training.
Attitudinal content can be classified into values, attitudes, and norms:
- Values: Ethical principles or concepts that guide behavior and its meaning.
- Attitudes: Relatively stable predispositions of individuals to act in certain ways. They reflect how a person expresses their conduct in accordance with determined values.
- Norms: Patterns or rules of socially acceptable behavior by convention. They indicate what is permissible and what is not.
Sequence of Activities
This section is crucial for establishing a learning sequence in which activities are closely interrelated. The sequence of activities should not be a mere sum of activities related to learning addressed in the unit.
Material Resources
It is important to note the specific resources required for the development of the unit.
Organization of Space and Time
This section should indicate the specific aspects of space and time organization required for the unit.
Assessment
Activities that enable the assessment of student learning, the teacher’s teaching practice, and the instruments used for this purpose should be placed in the context of the unit. The criteria and indicators for evaluating these aspects should be clearly stated. It is also essential to provide self-assessment activities to develop students’ reflection on learning.
Features of Assessment
- Initial Assessment: Performed at the beginning of each learning stage, it provides information on students’ background to determine the level at which new educational content needs to be developed and the relationships that need to be established between them. Initial assessment can also have a motivational role, as it helps to understand the possibilities offered by new learning.
- Summative Evaluation: Its purpose is to ascertain and assess the results achieved by the student at the completion of the teaching and learning process. It is also known as the final evaluation.
- Formative Assessment: It emphasizes educational guidance and proper evaluation. It refers to the entire process of student learning, from the detection phase of needs to the final or summative assessment. It has a diagnostic function in the early stages of the process, provides guidance throughout the entire process, and even in the final stage, when the analysis of the results achieved should provide clues for reorienting all the elements that have contributed to it.
Diversity
Diversity is a characteristic of human behavior and the human condition that is manifested in the behavior and lifestyle of individuals and in their ways of thinking. This diversity occurs at all developmental levels of life and in all situations.
Diversity has broad implications in the classroom, as it is a continuous and permanent manifestation of student diversity.
Attention to Diversity
The education system must adapt to the characteristics of students who have special educational needs. This includes providing appropriate support and resources to ensure their success.
Concept of Competence
According to the official definition of the European Commission,”demonstrated competence is the ability to use knowledge and skills” Knowledge is the result of information assimilation that takes place in the learning process. Skill is the ability to apply knowledge and techniques to perform tasks and solve problems.
Swiss sociologist Philippe Perrenoud defines competence as the ability to deal with complex situations and construct an appropriate response. It is not simply the ability to reproduce a previously memorized response.
The term competence originates from Chomsky’s linguistic theory. The development of skills aims to train people not only to participate in the world of work but also to be able to develop a personal life project.
Schools must foster individuals with the ability to learn continuously: critical thinkers, participatory and supportive citizens, involved parents, responsible and innovative workers.