This skill used in these Worksamples:

Cooperative Work

Learning Centre progress charts

Following instructions & task management

Overview of a PDHPE Unit of work (part.1)

Overview of year 5 Long Term Project

7. Task Management

Task Management is an invaluable skill that supports learning at school and at tertiary level and is essential in later life, for career and self-management. Its sub-steps are:

Planning	Performing
Interpreting the task and its objectives	Starting promptly
Selecting appropriate strategies	Staying on task
Identifying necessary resources	Monitoring progress against time path
Structuring the task into sub-tasks	Monitoring quality
Estimating time and developing a criteria path	Seeking help as necessary Completing on time to appropriate standard
Developing performance criteria	Evaluating critically and productively

Students may have difficulty with task performance if they lack sequencing skills, if they lack self-management and self-discipline, or if they are not motivated towards closure (a characteristic of concrete random mediation styles). Such students will require assistance with planning and may benefit from a teacher contract based on chunking the task into smaller tasks, with rewards (attention, praise, an audience for thinking done to this point) built into each stage.

Task Management: Teaching in the Junior School

From Kindergarten, children are taught to organise a task, although the time is managed by the teacher at this stage. In Stage 2, children are asked to take a more active role in managing their own time. In Stage 3, students are given contracts with different tasks to be completed at different times, and they have the responsibility of setting priorities and managing their time in order to complete the contract and meet its deadlines.

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