Choose Your Own Adventure

“An interest is a terrible think to waste.”  

(Shank, Fano, Bell, & Jona)

In the article “The Design of Goal-Based Scenarios”,  Schank, Fano, Bell, and Jona provide an overview of the Goal-Based Learning model in their description, “GBSs are problems in the domain of a student’s interest that present definable goals and encourage learning in service of achieving those goals.  A GBS is a type of learn-by-doing task with very specific constraints on the selection of material to be taught, the goals the student will pursue, the environment in which the student will work, the tasks the student will perform, and the resources that are made available to the student.”

The model is very clearly and intentionally laid out.  The components include:

• The Learning Goals (process & content knowledge goals)
• The Mission (motivational & realistic)
• The Cover Story (create a need & allow for opportunities to both practice skills and seek knowledge)
• The Role (the part of the person who will use the skills)
• The Scenario Operations (activities that relate to the mission & goals that have decision points with consequences)
• Resources (provide useful, story based information necessary to be successful)
• Feedback (in the form of consequence of actions, coaches, experts’ stories)

Similar to the life lines (phone a friend, poll the audience, and ask an expert) incorporated in the show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, the GBS model allows access to useful, story based information to guide students in the process of achieving their goals.

I am forever telling my students that we can learn from our mistakes (and here we have a model with an emphasis on doing just that!).  In “Learning By Doing”, Schank, Berman, and Macpherson explain the expectation failure component.  “You made a mistake, and now you have the chance to learn from it.”

This model reminds me of the choose your own adventure books that I loved as a kid.  But this model provides so much more than just a haphazard path to follow.  It allows for student engagement, opportunities to seek knowledge, a platform for testing ideas, and a means of learning from mistakes.

Hsu, C., Moore, D.  (2010).  An Example Implementation of Schank’s Goal-Based Scenarios.  Tech Trends. 54(1), 58-61.

Schank, Berman, Macpherson.  Learning By Doing. Institute for the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University. 161-181.

Schank, R., Fano, A., Jona, M., & Bell, B. (1993). The Design of Goal-Based Scenarios.  Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.