Four Blueprint Components

Chapter 2 Ten Steps

Summary

The four blueprint components of Ten Steps are:

• learning tasks These are the tasks that reflect the real world in which they would be performed (though possibly simplified and highly supported). They can be case studies, projects, problems, or professional tasks, etc.
• supportive information Supportive Information is the bridge between what you know and what you don’t know. It is what starts you along the path to leveling up the task that you have set for yourself. This information supports problem solving and desicion making/reasonning that learners must perform during a task.
• procedural information Procedural information is the step by step application of skills / concepts that don’t change when performing a task. “When I refactor a component I… create a file, cut and past code, export code, import code.”
• part-task practice Part-task practice is applied to tasks that are very complex and need a high level of automaticity. This is the breaking down of a task into an isolated (usually very procedural) aspect of the task. It’s hard to come up with examples of this in programming with my current understanding. Studying algorithms comes to mind with the hopes that it helps your general problem solving abilities but in reality it’s to just pass that next technical interview..

Snippets

A learning task may refer to a case study that must be studied by the learners, a project that must be carried out, a problem that must be solved, a professional task that must be performed, and so forth.

The supportive information helps learners perform nonroutine aspects of learning tasks that often involve problem solving, decision making and reasoning (e.g., information about the teeth, mouth, cheeks, tongue, and jaw helps a student in dentistry with clinical reasoning)

The procedural information enables learners to perform the routine aspects of learning tasks, that is, those aspects of the learning task that are always performed in the same way (e.g., how-to instructions for measuring blood pressure help a medical student with conducting physical examinations).

part-task practice pertains to additional practice of routine aspects in order to help learners develop a very high level of automaticity of these aspects and so improve their whole-task performance (e.g., practicing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) helps a nurse to be better prepared for dealing with emergency situations).