Designing a Course with Significant Learning

After reading and reflecting on Fink’s “A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning,” I see the value in truly designing a course that considers environment factors, course objectives, and learner needs and desires. In order to create the most effective plan for my 4th Grade Recorder course, I looked at the six significant areas of learning that Finks suggests: Foundational, Application, Integration, Human Dimension/Caring and Learning-How-to-Learn.

Since I only see my learners one day a week, my course will continue throughout the school year. My Big Harry Audacious Goal (BHAG) for this course is: Learners will be able to use technology skills and live performance to show competency in music literacy and recorder playing.

As an experienced educator, I really like the format of this plan. It is a very basic outline that gets both the learner and educator started on the right path to success, but it leaves a lot of room for flexibility and the potential for learner choice. I personally like a little more details in my plans, but that is often not doable given the number of learners I teach and the very few times I get to see them each week. This Fink's 3 Column Table is a great solution if I can get my administrators on board.