A few notes on task analysis

One of the reasons we do task analysis is to take the ordinary and common and examine it. First thing we need to do is ask what the student already knows, and what they need to know so the task can be learned. We cannot assume the student already knows the subjecte to be taught. One thing to remember is that, although the analysis may be a little complex, in the instructional phase, we need to make the presentation simple.

We need to ask questions and break the steps down into steps and sub-steps.

We need to establish the entry behavior, or what the students must be able to do at the entry level. A question you can ask when determining whether it is an entry behavior, is asking if it is worth the time for you to test it. Entry behavior is different from general characteristic. General characteristic is something found in the entire population you are working with, and does not relate directly to the task.

Here are the steps we use in task analysis:

1- Define your goal (write a sentence)
2- Do a high-level goal analysis (5 to 15 steps)
3- Break it down into smaller steps
4- Analyze your learner and their context