Intent |
Structure team working sessions.
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Motivation |
Student teams waste time by not planning the work that they will do in
a time-bound activity session. They also tend to focus so much on the
work products they are creating that they are unaware of the process of
their own learning.
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Applicability |
Use a PDR when student teams are trying to apply what they have learned
by doing an activity - an exercise, project, or case study assignment.
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Structure |
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Consequences |
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Implementation |
The total time to schedule for the PDR session should include expected
time to complete the technical assignment, plus time for the Planning
and Reflection. Sample 90-minute PDR: Plan (10 min.), Do (60 min.),
Reflect(20 min.). A structured Reflection session is usually more effective than open discussion ("Ok, what did we learn?"). Either the team or a faculty mentor can supply the structure. A page with open-ended questions and space for writing answers works well. Students answer the questions individually; and then may share their answers with the group and discuss. Sample questions: "What was the most interesting thing you learned in this session?" "What was the coolest thing your team came up with today?" "If you could start this session over, what is one thing you would do the same? One thing you would do differently?"
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Related pattern |
The PDR can be used to structure the Activity component(s) of the
Extended Unit pattern.
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[Source: Susan Lilly, "Patterns for Pedagogy", Object Magazine, Jan 96, p93] |