Components that Interact to Establish Level of Performance

As individuals mature in a discipline, they take on the shared identity of the professional community while elevating their own uniqueness. For a learner to perform well, he or she must have a strong identity as a member of a learning community. A student demonstrates identity as a learner when engaging in learning activities, such as attending classes and studying. A student who is majoring in psychology begins to demonstrate identity within that field by using the terminology of psychology.

Skills describe specific actions that are used by individuals, groups, or organizations in multiple types of performances. Within education, the focus is on those skills that are transferable across contexts and allow individuals to improve their mastery of subject matter. These are known as learning skills. Learners who perform well work to increase their mastery of learning skills.

Knowledge involves facts, information, concepts, theories, or principles acquired by a person or group through experience or education. You are learning about the Performance Model right now and are adding to your knowledge with every word you read.

This component includes variables associated with the situation in which the individual or organization performs. Each time you perform as a learner, you do so within a specific context, which includes a number of variables. For example, your performance in this course has, as its context, the way you meet (in a classroom? online?), how often you meet as a class, the length of the term (a full semester? an intensive summer course?), and so on. Chapter 6 deals with context of performance in depth.

This component includes variables associated with the personal situation of an individual. Your performance as a student depends a great deal upon your personal factors and the life situation you are in. This can be a significant challenge. To use a simple example, how well are you able to study if you’re tired because you worked late last night? Because personal factors can present a significant challenge to performing well, Chapter 7 deals with addressing personal obstacles.

This component includes variables unique to an individual that cannot be altered. This is the only aspect of performance that cannot be altered and includes items such as the first language you learned, color-blindness, etc. While your performance as a learner is certainly affected by fixed factors, it is a mistake to assume that your performance is constrained by these factors.

Jenn has decided to become a reporter for the student newspaper, so that she can begin to learn what journalists do on a day-to-day basis. She is also looking forward to the workshops journalists from local papers give for the college newspaper staff every month. When she has established a comfortable schedule, Jenn would like to volunteer at a local Spanish-language newspaper written by middle and high school students, La Voz Latina (The Latin Voice).

Although Jennifer has studied Spanish for many years, she has not lived near to any large community of Spanish speakers. Her perceptions of individual cultures come from reading and the few Spanish speaking friends she has, mainly from Mexico. Now that Jenn has joined the Spanish-language lunch group on campus, she can meet students from all over: Spain, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. She has begun to observe and appreciate the cultural differences among these students, including the use of idioms, the sense of personal space, and general world views. Jenn notes down her perceptions once a week, and checks them against the next week’s interactions.

Jennifer now realizes that becoming a successful journalist means that she has a good deal to learn about the cultures, journalistic practices, history, and contemporary issues of the Spanish-speaking world. She is enrolled in a class on Current Issues in Latin America, and the instructor has an assignment on reading Latin American newspapers, either in Spanish or in English. Jenn is putting her new knowledge of current affairs to good use with her Spanish-language lunch group; the lunch group is always happy to share their opinions on these issues.

When Jenn does her newspaper assignment for class, she also tries to analyze the differences in writing style and use of sources between an American and a Latin American newspaper. This is more challenging than she thought it would be, but it strengthens her plan to work on a Spanish-language newspaper here in town. Jenn is now more aware of the different contexts she has worked in as journalist: the school yearbook and the college newspaper. Working on a local paper seems to be the next step, and then, maybe, writing articles in Spanish.

Jenn has a good roommate, but she still finds it hard to study Spanish at home because their space is so small. She often goes to the library or the language lab. Although she worked and saved money over the summer, Jenn is considering getting a part-time job during the semester. She is debating whether a better budget or a job would be the smartest way to have a little extra money and still succeed at her academic goals.

As a native English speaker, Jenn will always have that as her language base. She may always have a bit of an American accent in Spanish. However, Jenn has a good ear for languages, and that has helped her Spanish pronunciation. She does not have a good sense of rhythm, though. She has realized she will probably never be a world-class Latin dancer, though going to dances will be part of fitting into Latino culture.