Pedagogical patterns

In the last years the scope of pattern languages has expanded to include domains as diverse as group work, software design, human computer interaction, education, etc. Pedagogical Patterns have education as the field of interest. They seek to find best practices of teaching.

According to Joseph Bergin:

:"“The intent [of pedagogical patterns] is to capture the essence of the practice in a compact form that can be easily communicated to those who need the knowledge. Presenting this information in a coherent and accessible form can mean the difference between every new instructor needing to relearn what is known by senior faculty and easy transference of knowledge of teaching within the community“."

Although widespread in the software industry, patterns are still crawling along in the educational field. Whereas software developers make regular use of mature patterns, the educational community as a whole is still far from including patterns in their everyday tool-box.

A particular effort to define pedagogical content in terms of design pattern is the one by Mitchell Weisburgh. In [http://ifets.ieee.org/discussions/discuss_june2004.html Documenting good education and training practices through design patterns] , he proposes nine potential aspects to building a pattern around a certain skill. Not every pattern needs to include all nine. We reproduce his listing below:

* "Name" – single word or short phrase that refers to the pattern. This allows for rapid association and retrieval.
* "Problem" – definition of a problem, including its intent or a desired outcome, and symptoms that would indicate that this problem exists.
* "Context" – preconditions which must exist in order for that problem to occur; this is often a situation. When forces conflict, the resolutions of those conflicts is often implied by the context.
* "Forces" – description of forces or constraints and how they interact. Some of the forces may be contradictory. For example: being thorough often conflicts with time or money constraints.
* "Solution" – instructions, possibly including variants. The solution may include pictures, diagrams, prose, or other media.
* "Examples" – sample applications and solutions, analogies, visual examples, and known uses can be especially helpful, help user understand the context
* "Resulting Context" – result after the pattern has been applied, including postconditions and side effects. It might also include new problems that might result from solving the original problem.
* "Rationale" – the thought processes that would go into selecting this pattern, The rationale includes an explanation of why this pattern works, how forces and constraints are resolved to construct a desired outcome.
* "Related Patterns" – differences and relationships with other patterns, possibly predecessor, antecedents, or alternatives that solve similar problems.

See also

* Design pattern
* Pedagogy

References

* David Jones, Sharonn, Stewart, Leonie Power (1999), [http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/brisbane99/papers/jonesstewart.pdf Patterns: using proven experience to develop online learning] , Proceedings of ASCILITE’99, Responding to Diversity, Brisbane: QUT, pp 155-162
* [http://lp.noe-kaleidoscope.org/outcomes/litrev/LP-LitReview-v2-desdep-20060314.pdf Learning patterns for the design and deployment of mathematical games] 130 pages report prepared by Kaleidoscope ( [http://www.citeulike.org/tag/mathgamespatterns citeUlike] ).
* Frizell, S. S., & Hubscher, R. (2002), [http://www.auburn.edu/~frizess/frizell-elearn.pdf . Aligning Theory and Web-based Instructional Design Practice with Design Patterns.] Proceedings of E-Learning 2002: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, HealthCare, & Higher Education.
* Scott, B., Shurville, S., Maclean, P. and Cong, C. (2007), [http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/viewContentItem.do?contentType=Article&contentId=1640456 Cybernetic Principles for Learning Design.] Kybernetes, Volume 36, Issue 9/10, pp 1497 - 1514.
* Yishay Mor and Niall Winers (2007), [http://telem-pub.openu.ac.il/users/chais/2007/after_noon/AN_8.pdf Games for learning: a design pattern approach]
* Yishay Mor (2007), [http://lp.noe-kaleidoscope.org/outcomes/chais/ Design for learning: a pattern approach] , Workshop 'Games for learning: a Design Pattern Approach] (conference presentation)

External links

* [http://www.pedagogicalpatterns.org Pedagogical Patterns Site]
* [http://www2.tisip.no/E-LEN/tutorial/ E-LEN, tutorial on making e-learning design pattern]
* [http://lp.noe-kaleidoscope.org/ Learning Patterns for the design and deployment of mathematical games]
* [http://csis.pace.edu/~bergin/PedPat1.3.html Fourteen Pedagogical Patterns] by Joseph Bergin