Visible Reasoning for Durable Learning focuses on making student thinking observable in meaningful ways in both instructional design and assessment.
Rather than relying only on final answers or completed work as the primary source of evidence of student understanding, this approach attends to how students interpret information, connect ideas, evaluate evidence, and explain their thinking.
This matters for instruction, assessment, and increasingly for AI-supported learning environments, where access to student reasoning is critical for understanding what students know and can do.
The Core Idea
Understanding student learning depends not only on what students produce, but on whether their work provides meaningful evidence of their thinking.
The Matrix
The Reasoning Visibility Matrix is a one-page tool for examining where student reasoning is observable in a learning task.
This tool is part of the Visible Reasoning for Durable Learning approach. Additional materials, including a brief orientation and task redesign illustrations, are provided below.
Brief Orientation
A short explanation of how to understand and use the matrix to examine where student reasoning is observable in learning tasks.
Download the Brief Orientation (PDF)
Illustrative Task Redesigns
Two examples showing how small shifts in task design can make student reasoning more visible in student work.
Download the Illustrative Task Redesigns (PDF)
Working Together
This work can be extended through collaboration with educator teams, schools, and organizations seeking to strengthen instructional design and formative assessment in ways that make student thinking more visible in practice.
I work with teams to apply these ideas in specific contexts, including task design, professional learning, and system-level instructional improvement.
If you’re interested in this work, you can reach me at team@edblogcast.com.