Generate and Use Agreed Strategies/OG

Generate and Use Agreed Strategies
Contributors	Mary Webb
Last modification	May 15, 2017
Source	Webb (2014)
Pattern formats	OPR Alexandrian
Usability
Learning domain
Stakeholders

Students are enabled to review and develop their own strategies for tackling a set of tasks through a series of small group and whole group interactions that lead to a shared understanding and to recommendations for strategy. All students have opportunities to share and discuss their ideas so that a wide range of ideas can be reviewed.

Problem

The problem was to enable students to review and develop their own strategies for tackling a set of tasks. In the design narrative that this pattern was derived from, the problem was to enable students to develop strategies for reading academic papers in order to obtain material for their assignments. There were two key features of this problem that lead to its solution. Firstly, there were both general elements of strategy that many people might use and also individual preferences, so each person needed to review their own strategy and develop something that worked for them. Secondly, the group had a range of different experiences and expertise relevant to the problem. Other problems that could benefit from applying this pattern might include developing: study skills, problem-solving strategies, approaches to dealing with people in particular situations.

Context

The pattern can be applied wherever a group of students needs to develop strategies for tackling a set of tasks and half or more of the group have had some experience of carrying out these tasks or similar tasks. If there is very limited experience in the group then the pattern would be inappropriate or would need to be modified because the group would be unlikely to generate sufficient ideas.

Solution

The solution depends on alternating between small group and whole group interaction. During small group work all students have opportunities to share and discuss ideas so that a wide range of ideas can be reviewed. The more promising ideas can be identified and weaker ideas can be examined and discarded. The teachers’ role is to monitor, assess and feedback either into the small group discussion or into the whole class discussion. In whole class discussion ideas can be pulled together, unresolved issues reviewed by the larger group, and the group can move towards a shared understanding. The teacher may steer this process to a greater or lesser extent based on assessment of the range of students’ needs within the class. The solution proceeds in steps:

– In pairs or small groups brainstorm strategies for approaching the task.

– As a whole group, share strategies or ideas from the small groups. One idea from each group in turn is proposed, displayed on screen and discussed. Thus a list or set of ideas is developed and adjusted through the discussion. This shared construction is supported by technology that allows all students to view the developing ideas of the class on a large screen and later to view them on their own computers, e.g. wiki or shared word processor such as Google Docs. This results in a list of shared and agreed strategies/guidelines, perhaps with exceptions or caveats.

– Pairs or small groups use the guidelines developed in Step 2 to support them in carrying out a specific example of the task. This is supported by a word processor. While they do this task they not only discuss and make notes for the task itself but also on how well the strategy works.

– As a whole group, students share their comments from Step 3 and discuss them. Again they are supported by technology that allows edits made by any group of students to be viewed instantly by the class on a large screen and later on their own computers, e.g. a wiki, or shared word processor such as Google Docs.

– Individuals practise using the strategy and possibly iterate from Step 2 if the students or teacher judge that further development of the strategy is needed.

Support

Source

The source for the pattern Generate and Use Agreed Strategies (Generate and Use Agreed Strategies) is the design narrative ‘Reading academic papers’.

Theoretical justification

The solution focuses on 1) enabling students to reflect on their own strategies and skills and whether they need to develop or improve them and 2) generating a range of ideas from students’ own varied experiences. Using an approach based on Vygotskian social constructivist theory of learning (see Sullivan Palinscar) it is important that all students have an opportunity to share and discuss their own ideas and compare them so that they are aware of, and reflect on, their own thinking. Furthermore, this process of sharing supports participatory knowledge creation that may enable one or more of the following: commonalities to be identified, agreed principles to be specified or improved approaches or strategies developed. Students are ‘activated as instructional resources for one another’. The resulting outcomes from this process can be used by a group in practice and the results of applying the strategies can also be shared amongst the group.

Related patterns

This pattern is related to two patterns described in the project ‘Scoping a vision for formative e-assessment’ – Round and Deep (Round and Deep) and Use My Stuff (Use My Stuff).

The {[Patternlink|Round and Deep}} pattern, in common with this pattern, is concerned with enabling students to review and develop their own understanding through examining ideas from their own and their peers’ previous experiences. There are two essential differences between these patterns. One difference is that the round and deep pattern is focused on developing understanding of one concept with all its complexity and application, whereas this pattern is concerned with developing a strategy that may involve understanding various concepts as they apply to this strategy. The other difference is that in generating a strategy, the description of the agreed strategy is co-constructed by the whole group and is evaluated by all participants as an essential part of the process. In the Round and Deep (Round and Deep) pattern there are various presentations produced by students from different perspectives.

The Use My Stuff (Use My Stuff) pattern, in common with this pattern, invites students to share their approaches and tools. In both patterns this sharing provides the teacher with important assessment information. However, the Use My Stuff (Use My Stuff) pattern is concerned with learning particular techniques that need to be demonstrated rather than developing approaches and strategies through discussion. The two patterns are complementary and in deciding which one to use a key consideration is whether the learners need to learn more specific techniques or whether they need to think about how to deploy them. Within a teaching sequence focused in enabling students to solve problems or tackle complex tasks switching between these two patterns may be a productive approach.