Index to the Proposal to the American President




The Four Step Method ™  **

The Four Step Method has the following steps.

These are “Illustrate, Name, Revise and Extend” (INRE):

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1) Illustrate: Find an illustrative example of a focus topic.  The focus topics are a minimally enumerated set of topics that cover the curriculum.   Each topic is distinct and yet all of the topics together will cover the complete curriculum.   

2) Name: The student gives the exercise type a name.  Naming the exercise type provides class mates with a means to talk using a common terminology.  Peer-to-Peer learning is enhanced.

3) Revise: The student develops one or more exemplars of a specific exercise type.  Some of these “illustrative exemplars” will be easier than the first exemplar.  Some will be more difficult. 

4) Extend: Develop an ability to exposit the theory, or cognitive process, underlying any specific exercise type.  Students will connect exercise types together by making a blank paper presentation involving five to ten exercise types.  The hand written presentation should start by listing the topics in a curriculum.  The student may choose to present topics in any order chosen by the student.  This selection signals synthesis and deep learning.

**Invented by Paul Stephen Prueitt, PhD (2010)


Notes on Revisions: Students present illustions and topics in a linear fashion, such as in the case with a textbook

Student use written notation, by hand, and well-formed English sentences. 

The student chooses the order. 

In handwritten tests, called Blank Paper Tests
the so called "Blank Paper Tests", are used to measure deep learning

  Blank Paper Tests are given both as take home tests and in class tests

Each student individually selects a specific ordering of topics,
from memory,
and then develops this set of topics using the four step method as a guide.

This selection of topics involves creativity. The act of creating multiple revisions, when constructed by an individual human, is thought to create an ability to perceive the associated cognitive construction.


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