I am offering ten principles for writing material for educational courses. Principle ten returns focus to the begninning: the aim is to enable students to acquire knowledge and understanding.

1. Principle 10
Aims of writing/teaching
Glenn Martin
March 2017

2.  Following from Principle 9, the aim of
writing/teaching should be to enable students to
acquire the knowledge and skills that are given
as the outcomes of the course.

3.  The emphasis in writing an educational course
should be on how students are going to learn,
not simply on presenting the content to students.

4.  The content of a course should reflect an
understanding of four things:
 1. The learning process and the stages of
learning
 2.
 3.
 4.

5.  The content of a course should reflect an
understanding of four things:
 1.
 2. How this applies for different types and levels
of content
 3.
 4.

6.  The content of a course should reflect an
understanding of four things:
 1.
 2.
 3. How students may approach learning
differently (learning styles)
 4.

7.  The content of a course should reflect an
understanding of four things:
 1.
 2.
 3.
 4. Variations among
students in
pre-knowledge and
readiness

8.  There should be opportunities for students to
extend their learning as well, enriching and
deepening their understanding.
NB The word ‘educate’
comes from Latin
‘educare’, meaning ‘to
lead out’.
(There is always
somewhere further to go.)

9.  The designers of the
course should be
confident that students
who complete the
course will have a solid
grounding in the
relevant concepts and
skills, and can address a
variety of situations
involving those concepts
and skills.