The Study
This study by Jere Brophy, university distinguished professor of teacher education, and Janet Alleman, professor of teacher education and school administration in the College of Education at Michigan State University, summarized previous studies concerning academic work and outlined principles for the design, selection and evaluation of learning activities done in or out of the classroom. Activities included work that calls for speech, writing or goal-directed action and can be done in whole-class, small-group or individual settings.

The Findings
There are necessary criteria that must be applied to each individual activity:

• The activity must be built around powerful ideas that are basic to accomplishing the overall goals of the curriculum.
• The activity must be difficult enough to provide some challenge and extend learning, but not so difficult as to leave many students confused or frustrated.
• Each activity must be feasible for implementation within the constraints under which both the teacher and students must work.
• The expected benefits to be derived from an activity must justify its anticipated costs in time and trouble for both teacher and students.

Secondary criteria may also be applied to enhance the selection process. Activities are not ends in themselves but are means for helping students to accomplish curricular goals. Ideally, they will enable students to process curricular content actively while developing personal ownership and appreciation of it and applying it to their lives outside of school.

What It Means to You
In addition to applying the necessary criteria outlined in the findings, teachers may want to employ some of the secondary criteria suggested by the researchers. They believe that activities are preferable if they:

• Simultaneously accomplish many goals;
• Are activities that students are likely to enjoy;
• Are constructed around currently or recently taught powerful ideas;
• Provide opportunities to complete whole tasks rather than practice isolated skill sets;
• Challenge students to interpret, analyze or manipulate information in response to a question or problem.

Sets of activities should have variety, progressively increase in levels of challenge as student expertise develops and should have life applications.

More Information
Consult Brophy, J. and Alleman, J. (1991), "Activities as Instructional Tools: A Framework for Analysis and Evaluation," Educational Researcher, Vol. 20, No. 4, pp. 9-23.

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