Using the L-by-D pedagogical tools, teachers ‘mark up’ their learning designs with four-by-two ‘knowledge processes’.
We call the mindful and considered use of these knowledge processes ‘learning-by-design’ in which the teacher becomes a reflective designer of learning experiences (teacher-as-designer) and classroom plans become shareable designs-for-learning. These plans can be rewritten after teaching, thus capturing the best and most successful learning practices. There are two aspects to documentation using the Learning Element: a prospective (planning) aspect and retrospective aspect (saving best practices to a knowledge bank).
The Learning Element also has two sides (literally, in the sense of facing pages): one side that speaks in the language of teacher-professional talk (so learning designs can be shared with colleagues), and the opposite side that speaks directly to learners in the language of the classroom (so learners can access learning element take a relatively autonomous role in their learning).
The overall architecture of the Learning Element is as follows:
This translates into a documentation template which looks like the following, and which you can access online here
Of course, it’s a longer story than we can tell here on this website, and if you want to know more, you can purchase or borrow a copy of the book and the teacher’s guide.