View Content #27909

By Christopher Daradics, CASLS Development and Learning Strategist

Spontaneous negotiation of discourse, skillful problem solving, and quality work are all enhanced through an understanding of the value of process and how circumstances evolve (often in patterned ways) over time. Consequently, by directing learners’ attention to the processual nature of social interaction and skill development, we illuminate a powerful means for co-constructing knowledge, igniting participation, and improving the quality of work. In other words, focusing on process leads to higher quality work and social relationships.

Various frameworks exist for understanding how social and environmental relationships evolve and play out over time. At CASLS we often point to pragmatics (i.e., the interpretation and communication of meaning) as one such paradigm for understanding the process-based nature of social and cultural relationships. Another approach many educators are familiar with, which also highlights the process-based dynamics of experience, is the functional behavior analysis (FBA) framework. Across a variety of learning environments FBAs are used to understand and design interventions to scaffold positive behavior support (PBS). FBAs scaffold social problemsolving by allowing practitioners and students to work together to explore and understand how the context-specific processes unfold over time. 

Frameworks like language pragmatics and functional behavior analysis that emphasize the dynamic, process-based nature of social interaction and experience hold the power to generate higher quality social and material outcomes by giving learners greater context awareness and prime the mind for alternative paths of action. This week’s activity of the week will guide students to attend to process by revising a favored past assignment, extending the work in a new meaningful direction while increasing its quality and reflecting on the transformation.