Taking Learning to Task: Creative Strategies for Teaching Adults

by Jane Vella

"Reading this wonderful book is like having Jane Vella at your side. She gives us the courage to risk changing our established habits of teaching."
--Clifford Baden, director of programs for professional education, Harvard University

"By marrying theory and practice, Vella has shown how to design learning that takes hold of the learner--mind, heart, and muscles."
--Jack McCall, professor, Principals' Executive Program, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

"You'll feel as though you've found the keys to creating profound and powerfully effective learning experiences. Anyone responsible for engaging a group of adults in learning will find this book invaluable!"
--Rod Brooks, vice president for administration, EXPLORIS

Known for her work in popular education and her worldwide teaching experience, Jane Vella has significantly changed the way we view adult learning. In her three bestselling books--Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach, Training Through Dialogue, and How Do They Know They Know?--she writes with one basic assumption: that learning is most effective when teachers involve their students in the learning process.

In Taking Learning to Task, Vella shifts the spotlight from teaching tasks to learning tasks. Unlike traditional teaching methods, learning tasks are open questions leading to open dialogue between teacher and learner. To illustrate this unique approach, Vella provides seven steps to planning learning-centered courses, four types of learning tasks, a checklist of principles and practices, critical questions for instructional design, key components for evaluation, and other tools. She also shares real-world examples of successful learning programs, including online and distance-learning courses. Taking Learning to Task is a hands-on, practical guide to designing effective learning tasks for diverse learners and diverse content. Teachers, trainers, and all types of instructors will find a wealth of advice for refining their day-to-day practice.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Teaching

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

JANE VELLA is adjunct professor at the School of Public Health of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is also CEO of Global Learning Partners, a consulting and training company that has grown out of JUBILEE Popular Education Center.

Reviews

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to experiment with creating learning tasks. I wonder if others have used this in teaching math. I feel that I have used learning tasks in the past not knowing them as such. I am also curious about the time needed to create lessons that use learning tasks. Glad I read it.

[Barry Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

In short, Vella describes a learning task as “a way to structure dialogue...ensuring engagement of learners with the new content” (p. xiii). Vella suggests that “teaching is not telling” (p 112). This exceptional book presents the basis assumptions and definition of learning tasks. The four assumptions are 1) learners arrive with the capacity to learn, 2) learners learn when actively engaged with the content, 3) new content can be presented through learning tasks, and 4) learning tasks promote accountability. Highlighting the distinctions between teaching tasks and learning tasks, Vella then introduces and demonstrates what she describes as the Four I’s in learning task types - Inductive Work, Input, Implementation, and Integration.

Learning tasks are demonstrated throughout this practical book Vella says, “the verb’s the thing,” focusing on the importance of action in learning. She provides principles for the design of learning tasks, insights on what she calls the “art” of leading learning tasks, and the issue of time as it relates to task design. In this intensely practical book, Vella provides guidance for matching tasks to the group, the use of distance learning, closing with twenty reasons and twenty principles for the use of learning tasks. Appendix C provides a technical guide for the design and use of learning tasks.

[Brenna Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded to 3. Read for class. Maybe it’s the fact that I had to read a PDF version, but the way that this book was set up and presented felt very confusing and jumbled. I struggled to work my way through the text and figure out what section I was in and found that I had to keep scrolling back up to figure out the connection between the introduction and the rest of the chapter. It felt pretty disjointed and confusing overall, but I do think the concept is there. I understood the overall sentiment, but I felt that the execution was a little muddy and could have been clearer. I would say that I recommend it if you’re looking for an interesting take on lesson design for adult education.

[Benjamin Shurance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane Vella is on my Mount Rushmore of inspiring theological women (alongside Marva Dawn, Marilynne Robinson, and Marlene Enns) and has been there firmly since I did a paper on her Dialogue Education methods in 2009. Nothing new here for me in this book, but a good refresher as I'm designing a course for adult learners.

[Timothy Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

So here I am, a guy who lectures and enjoys listening to lectures. I think lectures are the bedrock of education. They transmit information from one generation of scholars to the next in a form that has passed through and been augmented by multiple hands. My lectures are an amalgam of sources and ideas. Some of the ideas are mine and some I learned from someone else. When I listen to a lecture I take notes and try to think about what is being said.

The literature of the day insists that lectures are self-centered grandstanding of teachers creating only passive learners, if anything is being learned at all. This critique of my preferred style of education I find offensive and likely highly biased coming from someone who could not reconcile the difficulty of lectures with their own responsibility to remain active in learning.

Now, all that said, Taking Learning to Task is a good book which has raised some thoughts I must try. Engaging the learners in their own work and using their own resources to develop a body of knowledge for themselves is truly attractive. Whether the seven steps of creating learning tasks or the four Is in types of learning are completely necessary, I don't know, but I will try some of these ideas.

Learners creating their own knowledge seems to devealue the role of the teacher. If the teacher is there only to organize an activty, what is the point in gaining expertise in a subject? Can we not just gather resources and turn students loose on a pre-packaged set of tasks that are somewhat altered to fit the day, group and topic? I am afraid the bases upon which a person embarks on a life of academic learning is completely disrespected in this model. So I am torn. I, as a teacher know that alternating styles of classroom activity is good. It keeps the student alert and engaged. However, to have all of traditional education from Plato forward bashed to make way for a system that "respects" students so much more is brash, arrogant.

[Whitney · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a "duh!" book. I kept thinking, I know, I know, I know. I didn't teach me much. I guess good teaching is simply good teaching. I had to read this as part of my job, and thought it was kind of a waste of time.

[Wiji Suprayogi · Rating 3 out of 5]

menstrukturkan benang kusut

[Margaret Bean · Rating 4 out of 5]

A practical, how-to book on HOW o “do” dialogue education.