About Learning Progressions

What are learning progressions? 

Learning progressions describe a path of increasing sophistication in student understanding in a subject matter domain. Learning progressions have been defined as the typical developmental sequence of skills and knowledge in a subject area over a span of time, based on research-conjectured hypotheses and validation studies. There are variations in the learning progressions that have been developed, however. Different types of learning progressions can be useful for different purposes.

Learning progressions describe “typical” learning paths. There can be outliers, and different ways in which students progress. There is not one path that all students will always follow in their learning. Due to differences in students’ prior knowledge, experience, and skill, there will be differences as they work through these changes in understanding from the end of one standard to the next. Thus, students may follow different learning paths and take different amounts of time as they progress in their learning. 

How do learning progressions support quality teaching and learning? 

When the teacher thinks of learning targets for a lesson as part of a broader trajectory of learning and presents this sequence to students, it helps to commu- nicate the purpose of learning this partic- ular knowledge and skill, at this particular time, in this particular way. Teachers can clarify to students how this learning will build on past learning toward a broader learning goal.

Awareness of different learning paths helps the teacher to: 

• understand how to connect the learning target for a given lesson to previous and future learning 

• identify specific concepts and skills for student learning 

• determine learning targets and success criteria 

• connect instruction to learning goals 

• collect relevant evidence of student understanding 

• provide feedback to students about the next step in their learning 

• identify and address individual student learning needs

You can open the example learning progression above in a Google Doc by clicking HERE. 

Resources related to learning progressions:

• The table above is from chapter 9 of the National Academies' A Framework for K-12 Science Education.  The Framework was drafted in 2010 and published in 2012. 

• You can download the whole framework as a pdf (for free) from National Academies Press site (select Download as a guest).

• This Berland & MacNeill article from 2010 offers an example of a learning progression for scientific argumentation. 

  • Berland, L. K., & McNeill, K. L. (2010). A learning progression for scientific argumentation: Understanding student work and designing supportive instructional contexts. Science Education, 94(5), 765-793.