Research and Pedagogy

Collaboration with Experts

Located in the Arizona State University SkySong Innovation, Technology, and Imagination Center, Adaptive Curriculum enjoys a unique partnership with nationally known faculty from the ASU Technology-Based Learning and Research (TBLR) Center.

This in-depth collaboration ensures that curriculum scope and activity structures align with current research and expert recommendations in math, science, pedagogy, and the learning sciences are incorporated on an ongoing basis.

Five-Step Pedagogical Model

Proven instructional design principles create a structured, personalized approach to math and science instruction that incorporates activity-based tasks, immediate feedback, and assessment.  Each activity object focuses on a learning objective tied to national and state standards.

At the core of our concept mastery approach is a research-based pedagogical model developed in partnership with ASU faculty. Students go through five learning steps to build engagement and deep understanding:

• Engage - initiating the learning task
• Explore - developing current concepts, processes, and skills
• Explain - focusing attention on one aspect and defining concepts, processes, skills, or behavior
• Elaborate - challenging and extending conceptual understanding
• Evaluate - determining progress toward proficiency of learning objectives

Field Research

A team of ASU researchers has been actively studying and evaluating the impact of Adaptive Curriculum in selected schools in the Phoenix area. See Student Attitudes toward Adaptive Curriculum, Isaac Middle School, Peter Rillero, Ph.D., Helen Padgett, Ph.D, and Irfan Kula, Arizona State University, 2008.