2. What is a Family of Learning Situations?  What FLS are used in our program?

Families of Learning Situations

Families of Learning Situations (FLS) is a term used to describe groupings of learning situations that vary in style and complexity, but share some common characteristics.  In the DBE program, these common characteristics refer to the following macro-functions of language use:

• Informing (relates to factual information)
• Expressing (relates to opinions, viewpoints, feelings and emotional attitudes)
• Persuading (relates to influencing others’ perceptions and behaviour and getting things done)

The FLS are prescriptive, meaning that the FLS targeted in a given course will be the focus of the end-of-course evaluation.  Teachers may integrate other FLS into learning situations, but they must understand that only the targeted FLS will be evaluated.  The table below summarizes the FLS evaluated in each DBE course.

Detailed information on the FLS can be found in the Program of Study (pages 11-15, 42-46, and in each individual course of the DBE program).

Families of Learning Situations