[Edu-sig] The Pedagogical Patterns Project

[Jason Cunliffe]

What are Pedagogical Patterns

Patterns are designed to capture best practice in a specific domain.
Pedagogical patterns try to capture expert knowledge of the practice of
teaching and learning. The intent is to capture the essence of the practice
in a compact form that can be easily communicated to those who need the
knowledge. Presenting this information in a coherent and accessible form can
mean the difference between every new instructor needing to relearn what is
known by senior faculty and easy transference of knowledge of teaching
within the community.
In essence a pattern solves a problem. This problem should be one that
recurs in different contexts. In teaching we have many problems such as
motivating students, choosing and sequencing materials, evaluating students,
and the like.
These problems do recur and in slightly different form each time. Each time
a problem pops up there are considerations that must be taken into account
that influence our choice of solution. These forces push us toward or away
from any given solution to a problem. A pattern is supposed to present a
problem and a solution. The problem together with the forces must apply to
make that solution beneficial to the problem.

 http://www.pedagogicalpatterns.org/