Session 4, Part 3: Conditions and Processes for Student Learning

Create Your Ideal Curriculum, Session 4: Create Conditions for Learning

Preparing a unit of study that we believe will lead to student engagement is one thing. Actually implementing the lessons and activities successfully is quite another. Our plans are no guarantee for deep student learning. We can increase our odds for success by creating the conditions and processes for engagement. They can be employed wherever our classroom exists, in person or online. 

Conditions for Learning

It’s important to clarify what we mean by “conditions”. We are referring to the environment, the community, and the routines we develop together to ensure everyone is successful. This is not the same as developing an eight-part sequential lesson that describes how the teacher and the students will spend every minute together, each day. This is a script and it can lead to instructional rigidity. What we are seeking here instead is a responsive environment, structured just enough that we are guided toward what students should know and be able to do. 

Brian Cambourne, an educational r…