Page 122 - Making Instruction Work

chap 10 3/11/97 4:57 PM Page 108

108 making instruction work

3. Find another way for them to learn the basics while you
teach the advanced material.

So set up screening criteria (prerequisites), only when:
a. there are one or more things students should be able
to do before entering your course, and

b. you have decided it’s reasonable to expect them to be
able to do them, and therefore you won’t need to
teach those things in your course.

How to Do It

1. Review the task analyses and the list of skills that anyone
would have to have before practicing those tasks.

2. Review your target population description.

3. For each skill answer the question, “Is it reasonable to
expect that entering students will already have this skill?”

4. If so, add that skill to your list of prerequisites, and
design your course on the assumption that the skill will
already be in place.

5. If it is not reasonable to assume that entering students
will have this skill, decide how it will be taught—in your
course or by some other remedial means?

6. Then, as you develop or modify your course, keep an
Assumption List handy. Whenever you decide to assume
that students will know something or be able to do
something when they enter your course, add it to the list.

7. Write the prerequisites in the form of objectives.