Greetings!

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Welcome to 4mation

A Tool for Designing Balanced Instruction

This web resource offers anyone who teaches at any level...

Access to educational information about the 4MAT Instructional Method, used by hundreds of thousands teachers and instructional designers worldwide
A tool for viewing sample designs written with The 4MAT Model and for creating original instructional designs
Access to coaching tools, so you may refine your instruction with the help of an expert.

Enjoy! We sincerely hope that this resources will help you take your instruction to the next level.

Connect

Connecting to the Concept Experientially

Connect learners directly to the concept in a personal way. Capture learners' attention by initiating a group problem-solving activity before delivery of instruction. Begin with a situation that is familiar to learners and builds on what they already know. Construct a learning experience that allows diverse and personal learner responses. Facilitate the work of cooperative teams of learners.

Attend

Attending to the Connection

Elicit non-trivial dialogue from learners. Guide them to reflection and analysis of the experience. Encourage learners to share their perceptions and beliefs. Summarize and review similarities and differences.

Image

Creating a Mental Picture

Provide a metaview, lifting learners into a wider view of the concept. Use another medium (not reading or writing) to connect learners' personal knowing to the concept (i.e. visual arts, music, movement, metaphor, etc.) Involve learners in reflective production that blends the emotional and the cognitive.

Inform

Receiving Facts and Knowledge

Provide "acknowledged body of knowledge" related to the concept. Emphasize the most significant aspects of the concept in an organized, organic manner. Present information sequentially so learners see continuity. Draw attention to important, discrete details; don't swamp learners with myriad facts.

Practice

Developing Skills

Provide hands-on activities for practice and mastery. Check for understanding of concepts and skills by using relevant standard materials, i.e. manuals, workbooks, instructor prepared exercises, etc.

Extend

Extending Learning

Encourage tinkering with ideas, relationships, connections. Set up situations where learners have to find information not readily available. Provide opportunity for learners to design open-ended explorations of the concept. Provide multiple options so learners can plan a unique "proof" of learning.

Refine

Refining the Extension

Give guidance and feedback to learners' plans, encouraging, refining, and helping them to be responsible for their own learning. Maintain high expectations for completion of chosen options. Summarize by reviewing the whole, bringing learners "full circle" to the experience with which the learning began.

Perform

Creative Manifestation of Material Learned

Establish an atmosphere that celebrates the sharing of learning. Have opportunity for learners to practice new learnings. Allow learners an opportunity to create something new in the world based on the combination of the learner and the thing learned.