Saturday, June 14, 2014

Goal-Based Scenarios by Jennifer Christensen

Goal-based scenarios (GBS) are a model of constructivism, where case-based learning is combined with learning by doing. Under the school of constructivism, students build knowledge based on their own personal experiences and interactions. GBS was introduced by Roger Schank, who states "The intent of a goal based scenario is to provide motivation, a sense of accomplishment, a support system, and a focus on skills rather than facts. Facts can be deceptive, they give the sense of knowing without the significance of knowing. Understanding why you are doing something, having a clear goal that is more than the recitation of facts, truly knowing why and wanting to know more so that one can become curious about more "whys" is what education is all about. Goal based scenarios, interrupted by good telling of important cases, offer a reasonable framework for courses that are meant to be the means of education" (http://cogprints.org/624/1/V11ANSEK.html).

GBS teaches students a series of steps that are needed to attain the desired goal.  When designing a GBS you must develop the following six steps:

1.  Identify a set of target skills - these are the skills that the teacher/designer wants to convey to the students.

2.  Develop Missions which require the target skills - the mission is different from the skills. The mission is the desired attainment that will motivate and inspire the student to participate and attain the target skills.

3.  Choose a Focus - the focus determines the necessary steps needed to achieve the GBS.

4.  Create a Cover Story which envelops the Mission - the cover story connects all of the other pieces of the GBS.

5.  Plan the Operations - this is the students' efforts, how they will connect with the GBS, how they will achieve the goal.

6.   Build learning environments to support the target skills - this is where the teacher decides how the student will attain the mission and gain the target skills. The teacher will determine what support will be available to the students and how it will be made available.

Below is a diagram with the different parts of a GBS.



Target Skills | | Goal Based Scenario / \ / \ Scenario Scenario Context Structure / \ / \ / \ / \ Mission Cover Focus Operations Story An interesting note is that the teacher would view the diagram from the top down, but a student would view the diagram from the bottom up.

Practical example:

Target skills - Making sense of problems and persevering in solving them, and constructing viable arguments.  Students will be able to create equations that describe numbers or relationships.

 Mission - Develop a system of equations, analyze the equations and develop a summary supporting your decisions.

Focus - Research the various cell phone providers, gather the necessary pricing and plan information, compile your data, create your equations, evaluate them and develop your analysis.  Research all four cell phone providers and find an exact or very similar plan among the four providers. Develop a system of equations for how much each call costs per minute and how much each text costs per minute. You will need to develop the aforementioned system of equations for all four the of the cell phone providers. Once you have completed the systems of equations, analyze them, select a provider and write a short response explaining why you chose the plan and provider that you did.  

 Cover story - 

Part 1:You are in need of a new cell phone and you have to stay within your budget.  Compare a cell phone plan from four of the major providers, AT&T Wireless, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, through examples of texting versus calling. You will use this real life example to write a system of equations for how much each call is per minute and how much each text costs. After researching the plan and developing the system of equations, analyze the equations, select a provider and plan and explain why you chose that particular plan and provider.

Part 2: Follow the same guidelines and outline that were completed for the above mentioned cell phone plans, but now you can choose something that is relevant to your life. Research and write a system of equations for four different objects, providers, etc. In addition to providing an analysis of the equations, provide an explanation of why you chose to research that particular object and how your research benefits your life. 


 Operations - Students will need access to a computer, tablet, and/or smartphone along with access to the internet.
  •   AT&T Wireless – www.att.com
  •   Verizon Wireless – www.verizonwireless.com
  •    Sprint – www.sprint.com
  •    T-Mobile – www.t-mobile.com

They will also utilize Microsoft Excel to input all of their researched findings.

 Learning environment - Information will be delivered to students through lecture, PowerPoint presentation, and examples of how to look up the necessary information on the internet.  Students will be graded on the accuracy in the development of your system of equations and your analysis of the equations. Be sure to show all of your steps, points can be earned for showing your work even if the end result is not 100% correct. If there is no work shown, then you will not receive any credit if the end result is incorrect. Your analysis will be graded on your reasoning for making the choices you did, be sure to provided support for the reason for your choices. Points will be deducted for misspelled words and incorrect punctuation. Please be sure to articulate how you solved the equations and explain your steps.

Relevant Links for GBS



References



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