Faculty Development Workshop

Learning Contracts Home

Learning Contracts

Step 1 - Diagnosing Learning Needs

A learning need exists when there is a gap between what we know and what we need to know. To close the gap, we must first understand what competencies are necessary for successful task mastery. A competency includes achieving a level of task proficiency composed of  knowledge, understanding, skill, attitude and values.

First, build a list of essential competencies needed for task proficiency. This list can be created by the individual learner or taken from an existing model. Often teachers, as content experts, set up the competency model. For the more self-directed learner, it is appropriate to use some other resources to define the model. These resources may be books, magazines, subject matter experts, other learners or any other resource appropriate to the learning task.

Second, after a competency model is in place, the student determines the gap between their current level of knowledge or skills and the specified proficiency level for each item in the list. This determines learning needs. Each of these learning needs then becomes a learning objective. If no gap exists between a specific needed competency and the student's current level, the objective is already meet and is not usually include in the individual's contract. However, a prescribed model listing academically required competencies might be incorporated in each learner's contract.

For this workshop we will assume the learning task is that you want to "Understand the use and implementation of  learning contracts."

An example of a partial competency model for developing this expertise in using learning contracts would include the following:

Example Competency Model for Learning Contracts Workshop (not comprehensive)

1. Purpose of learning contracts:
   1. Ability to describe learning theories underlying the use of learning contracts
   2. Ability to explain the benefits of using learning contracts
   3. Ability to explain the pitfalls of using learning contracts
2. When to use learning contracts:
   1. Ability to recognize student characteristics that suggest success with learning contracts
   2. Ability to recognize student characteristics that suggest failure using learning contracts
   3. Ability to recognize when learning contracts lend themselves to course content
3. How to use learning contracts.
   1. ...
   2. ...
4. Skills for creating learning contracts.
   1. ...
   2. ...
5. Skills for negotiating learning contracts.
   1. ...
   2. ...

Now that the competency model is established, how do we determine the gap between the student's level and the desired levels?

Let's go to Step 2 where we perform a gap analysis and set the learning objectives.

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© 1998, PSTL Lab, University of Colorado at Denver