ECRIF: Seeing Learning

           "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
                                                                 - Marcel Proust (French author)

The ECRIF framework is a way of looking at how people learn. Rather than prescribing what teachers should or should not do, the aim of this framework is to provide a tool that teachers can use to see student activities and content from the perspective of student learning. In this way, ECRIF is connected to how teachers think about what is happening in their classrooms. 

Using ECRIF
The key to the ECRIF framework is the focus on the learning process that students go through as they work with the target skill or knowledge rather than what the teacher is doing during the lesson. In this way, the teacher plans activities and thinks about the content to service learning in a principled way.  ECRIF can be used

• to plan lessons and adapt course book materials = (reflecting for action)
• to assess where students are in their learning process during a lesson = (reflecting in action)
• to reflect on student learning after a lesson = (reflecting on action)

Who developed ECRIF and where is it being used?
The ECRIF Framework was developed by Josh Kurzweil and Mary Scholl between 2004 and 2005 as they wrote the book Understanding Teaching Through Learning for McGraw-Hill and the School for International Training. It has been used on many SIT TESOL Certificate Courses as well as in a variety of workshops given for government and non-governmental organizations. Although it was originally developed for English language teachers, it has also been with content teachers teaching  other subjects such as history and math as well as vocational instruction such as using computer software and operating construction equipment. 

Your thoughts?
Please share your ideas, experiences, questions, and feedback with us 
You can email us: Mary Scholl and Josh Kurzweil