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Instructional Design Evaluation
Cheryl Calhoun, Shilpa Sahay, & Matthew Wilson
Editor's Note
This is a remixed version of an earlier chapter on evaluation in instructional design that can be found at the ADDIE Explained website, and is printed here under the same license as the original.
Evaluation sits at the center of the instructional design model. It provides feedback to all other stages of the design process to continually inform and improve our instructional designs. In this chapter we will discuss the Why, What, When, and How of evaluation. We will explore several of the most cited evaluation models and frameworks for conducting formative, summative, and confirmative evaluations. It is important to note that instruction can occur in formal instructional settings or through the development of instructional products such as digital learning tools. Throughout this chapter we will discuss interchangeably instructional programs and/or products. Effective evaluation applies to all of these forms of instructional design.
Why Do We Evaluate?
Evaluation ensures that the instruction being designed both meets the identified need for instruction and is effective in achieving the intended learning outcomes for participants. It helps to answer questions such as:
• Are our instructional goals aligned with the requirements of the instructional program?
• Are our lesson plans, instructional materials, media, and assessments, aligned with learning needs?
• Do we need to make any changes to our design to improve the effectiveness and overall satisfaction with the instruction?
• Does the implementation provide effective instruction and carry out the intended lesson plan and instructional objectives?
• Have the learners obtained the knowledge and skills that are needed?
• Are our learners able to transfer their learning into the desired contextual setting?
These questions help shape the instructional design, confirm what and to what extent the learner is learning, and validates the learning over time to support the choices made regarding the design—as well as how the program holds up over time.
What Is Evaluation?
Evaluation is the process of reviewing both the instructional components and the resulting outcomes of instruction to determine whether instruction achieves the desired outcomes. Kirkpatrick’s model of evaluation proposes four levels of evaluation: reaction, learning, behavior, and results (Kirkpatrick & Kirkpatrick, 2016). While this is a fairly simplistic model, it provides a framework for understanding evaluation and has provided a significant model of evaluation to the field of instructional design.
Reaction
In order to have effective instruction, one requires frequent feedback from the learners to check learning progress and monitor efficacy of the pedagogical process selected for instruction (Heritage, 2007). An instructional designer can evaluate both the teacher and the learner’s reaction to a new pedagogical instruction. Once it is determined that there is engagement by the learners, one may assume that learners will not drop out due to their reaction to the quality or applicability of instruction. It also helps the evaluator to control the pace of the program as one moves ahead in the training phase. It leaves less frustration and vagueness in the evaluator’s mind if one knows that all the learners are positively oriented towards undertaking the training.
Learning
Evaluating learning is an ongoing process in instructional development. It is important to evaluate whether materials developed solve the problems that were identified. When learners master the content of the training or exhibit proper learning through assessment, one can assume the effectiveness of the program and identify what did not work if the learning outcomes show adverse results. Several studies in the field of educational measurement have suggested that assessments and evaluations lead to higher quality learning. Popham (2008) called this new aspect of assessment in the evaluation process as “Transformative Assessment” where an evaluator identifies learning progression of the learners by analyzing the sequence of skills learned over the period of study program. This also helps the evaluator or the instructional designer to develop methods to assess how much the learners mastered the learning material.
Behavior
Attitudes and behavior are important indicators towards the acceptance and success of an instructional program. Dick, Carey, and Carey (2015) mentioned that an evaluator needs to write directions to guide the learner’s activities and construct a rubric (e.g. a checklist or a rating scale) in order to evaluate and measure performance, products, and attitudes. A learner develops several intellectual and behavioral skills, and an evaluation can uncover what changes have been brought in the attitude and behavior of the learners.
Results
With every instructional product, evaluating results is the most significant task by an evaluator, and is done to determine how closely one has been able to achieve success in the implementation of the program. An evaluator conducts an evaluation in order to test the effectiveness of the instruction to create the desired learning outcome (Morrison et al., 2019). Morrison et al. (2019) suggested evaluators measure the efficiency of learning by comparing the skills mastered with the time taken; cost of program development; continuing expenses; reactions towards the program; and long-term benefits of the program.
When Do We Evaluate?
Three commonly used types of evaluation for instruction are formative, summative, and confirmative (Morrison et al., 2019; Ross & Morrison, 2010). Formative evaluation is conducted during the design process to provide feedback that informs the design process. Summative evaluation is conducted at the end of the design process to determine if the instructional product achieves the intended outcomes. Confirmative evaluation is conducted over time to determine the lasting effects of instruction. Each of these stages of evaluation is examined in detail here, both through the definition of the form itself and through a discussion of some of the key tools within each.
“When the cook tastes the soup that’s formative; when the guests taste the soup, that’s summative.” – Robert E. Stake (M. Scriven, 1991, p. 169)
Formative
Formative evaluation occurs during instructional design. It is the process of evaluating instruction and instructional materials to obtain feedback that in turn drives revisions to make instruction more efficient and effective. One way to think about this is to liken it to a chef tasting his food before he sends it out to the customer. Morrison et al. (2019) explained that the formative evaluation process utilizes data from media, instruction, and learner engagement to formulate a picture of learning from which the designer can make changes to the product before the final implementation.
Boston (2002, p. 2) stated the purpose of formative evaluation as “all activities that teachers and students undertake to get information that can be used diagnostically to alter teaching and learning.” Formative evaluation results in the improvement of instructional processes for the betterment of the learner. While making formative changes are best conducted during earlier stages of the design process, these changes may come later if the situation dictates it. According to Morrison et al., (2019), when summative and confirmative evaluations demonstrate undesirable effects, then the results may be used as a formative evaluation tool to make improvements.
Instructional designers should consider a variety of data sources to create a full picture of the effectiveness of their design. Morrison et al. (2019) proposed that connoisseur-based, decision-oriented, objective-based, and constructivist evaluations are each appropriate methodologies within the formative process. More recently Patton (2016) introduced developmental evaluation which introduces innovation and adaptation in dynamic environments.
Types of Formative Evaluation
Connoisseur-Based
Employs subject matter experts (SMEs) in the review of performance objectives, instruction, and assessments to verify learning, instructional analysis, context accuracy, material appropriateness, test item validity, and sequencing. Each of these items allow the designer to improve the organization and flow of instruction, accuracy of content, readability of materials, instructional practices, and total effectiveness (Morrison et al., 2019).
Decision-Oriented
Questions asked may develop out of the professional knowledge of an instructional designer or design team. These questions subsequently require the designer to develop further tools to assess the question, and as such should be completed at a time when change is still an option and financially prudent (Morrison et al., 2019).
Objective-Based
Through an examination of the goals of a course of instruction, the success of a learner’s performance may be analyzed.
Constructivist
Takes into account the skills students learned during the learning process as well as how they have assimilated what is learned into their real lives.
Developmental
Responsive to context and more agile, allowing for quicker response and support of innovative designs (Patton, 2011).
Summative
Dick et al. (2015, p. 320) claimed the ultimate summative evaluation question is “Did it solve the problem?" That is the essence of summative evaluation. Continuing with the chef analogy from above, one asks, “Did the customer enjoy the food?" (M. Scriven, 1991). The parties involved in the evaluation take the data and draw a conclusion about the effectiveness of the designed instruction. However, over time, summative evaluation has developed into a process that is more complex than the initial question may let on. In modern instructional design, practitioners investigate multiple questions through assessment to determine learning effectiveness, learning efficiency, and cost effectiveness, as well as attitudes and reactions to learning (Morrison et al., 2019).
Learning Effectiveness
Learning effectiveness can be evaluated in many ways. Here we are trying to understand:
• How well did the student learn?
• Are the students motivated to change behavior?
• Did we engage the intended population of learners?
• Even, did we teach the learner the right thing?
Measurement of learning effectiveness can be ascertained from assessments, ratings of projects and performance, observations of learners’ behavior, end of course surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Dick et al. (2015) outlined a comprehensive plan for summative evaluation throughout the design process, including collecting data from SMEs and during field trials for feedback.
Learning Efficiency and Cost-Effectiveness
While learning efficiency and cost-effectiveness of instruction are certainly distinct constructs, the successfulness of the former impacts the latter. Learning efficiency is a matter of resources (e.g., time, instructors, facilities, etc.), and how those resources are used within the instruction to reach the goal of successful instruction (Morrison et al., 2019). Dick et al. (2015) recommended comparing the materials against an organization’s needs, target group, and resources. The result is the analysis of the data to make a final conclusion about the cost effectiveness based on any number of prescribed formulas.
Attitudes and Reactions to Learning
The attitudes and reactions to the learning, while integral to formative evaluation, can be summatively evaluated as well. Morrison et al. (2019) explained there are two uses for attitudinal evaluation: evaluating the instruction and evaluating outcomes within the learning. While most objectives within learning are cognitive, psychomotor and affective objectives may also be goals of learning. Summative evaluations often center on measuring achievement of objectives. As a result, there is a natural connection between attitudes and the assessment of affective objectives. Conversely, designers may utilize summative assessments that collect data on the final versions of their learning product. This summative assessment measures the reactions to the learning.
Confirmative
The purpose of a confirmative evaluation is to determine if instruction is effective and if it met the organization’s defined instructional needs. In effect, did it solve the problem? The customer ate the food and enjoyed it. But, did they come back? Confirmative evaluation goes beyond the scope of formative and summative evaluation and looks at whether the long-term effects of instruction is what the organization was hoping to achieve. Is instruction affecting behavior or providing learners with the skills needed as determined by the original goals of the instruction? Confirmative evaluation methods may not differ much from formative and summative outside of the fact that it occurs after implementation of a design. Moseley and Solomon (1997) described confirmative evaluation as maintaining focus on what is important to your stakeholders and ensuring the expectations for learning continue to be met.
How Do We Evaluate?
Formative Evaluation
Formative evaluation is an iterative process that requires the involvement of instructional designers, subject matter experts, learners, and instructors. Tessmer (2013) identified four stages of formative evaluation including expert review, one-to-one, small group, and field test evaluation. Results from each phase of evaluation are fed back to the instructional designers to be used in the process of improving design. In all stages of evaluation, it is important that learners are selected that will closely match the characteristics of the target learner population.
Expert Review
The purpose of the expert review is to identify and remove the most obvious errors and to obtain feedback on the effectiveness of the instruction. The expert judgment phase can include congruence analysis, content analysis, design analysis, feasibility analysis, and user analysis. Results from expert review can be used to improve instructional components and materials before a pilot implementation. This phase is conducted with the instructional designer, the subject matter experts, and often an external reviewer. Target learners are not involved in this stage of evaluation.
Figure 4
One-to-One
The one-to-one evaluation is much like a usability study. During this evaluation, IDs should be looking for clarity, impact, and feasibility (Dick et al., 2015, p. 262; Earnshaw, Tawfik, & Schmidt, 2017). The learner is presented with the instructional materials that will be provided during the instruction. The evaluator should encourage the learner to discuss what they see, write on materials as appropriate, and note any errors. The ID can engage the learner in dialog to solicit feedback on the materials and clarity of instruction. There are many technological tools that can facilitate a one-on-one evaluation. The principles of Human Computer Interaction and User Center Design can inform the instructional design review (Earnshaw et al., 2017). In Don’t Make Me Think, Krug (2014) described a process of performing a usability study for website development. The steps he provided are a good guide for performing a one-to-one evaluation. Krug recommended video recording the session for later analysis. If instruction is computer based, there are tools available that can record the learner interaction as well as the learner’s responses. Morae from Techsmith (https://edtechbooks.org/-oPnH) is a tool that allows you to record user interactions and efficiently analyze the results.
Small Group
Small group evaluation is used to determine the effectiveness of changes made to the instruction following the one-to-one evaluation and to identify any additional problems learners may be experiencing. The focus is on consideration of whether learners can use the instruction without interaction from the instructor. In a small group evaluation, the instructor administers the instruction and materials in the way they are designed. The small-group participants complete the lesson(s) as described. The instructional designer observes but does not intervene. After the instructional lesson is complete, participants should be asked to complete a post-assessment designed to provide feedback about the instruction.
Field Trial
After the recommendations from the small group evaluation have been implemented, it is time for a field trial. The selected instruction should be delivered as close as possible to the way the design is meant to be implemented in the final instructional setting, and instruction should occur in a setting as close to the targeted setting as possible. Learners should be selected that closely match the characteristics of the intended learners. All instructional materials for the selected instructional section, including the instructor manual, should be complete and ready to use. Data should be gathered on learner performance and attitudes, time required to use the materials in the instructional context, and the effectiveness of the instructional management plan. During the field trial the ID does not participate in delivery of instruction. The ID and the review team will observe the process and record data about their observations.
Summative Evaluation
The purpose of a summative evaluation is to evaluate instruction and/or instructional materials after they are finalized. It is conducted during or immediately after implementation. This evaluation can be used to document the strengths and weaknesses in instruction or instructional materials, to decide whether to continue instruction, or whether to adopt instruction. External evaluators for decision makers often conduct or participate in summative evaluation. Subject matter experts may be needed to ensure integrity of the instruction and/or instructional materials. There are several models we can consider for summative evaluation including the CIPP Model, Stake’s Model, and Scriven’s Model.
CIPP Model
The CIPP evaluation model by Stufflebeam (1971) describes a framework for proactive evaluation to serve decision making and retroactive evaluation to serve accountability. The model defines evaluation as the process of delineating, obtaining, and providing useful information for judging decision alternatives. It includes four kinds of evaluation: context, input, process, and product. The first letters of the names of these four kinds of evaluation gave the acronym - CIPP. The model provides guidelines for how the steps in evaluation process interact with these different kinds of evaluation.
The CIPP Model of Evaluation by Mallory Buzun-Miller
Stake’s Model
Stake in 1969 created an evaluation framework to assist an evaluator in collecting, organizing, and interpreting data for the two major operations of evaluation (Stake, 1967; Wood, 2001). These include (a) complete description and (b) judgment of the program. W. J. Popham (1993) defined that Stake's schemes draw attention towards the differences between the descriptive and judgmental acts according to their phase in an educational program, and these phases can be antecedent, transaction, and outcome. This is a comprehensive model for an evaluator to completely think through the procedures of an evaluation.
Dr. Robert Stake by Education at Illinois
Scriven’s Goal-Free Model
Scriven provides a transdisciplinary model of evaluation in which one draws from an objectivist view of evaluation (Michael Scriven, 1991a, 1991b). Scriven defined three characteristics to this model: epistemological, political, and disciplinary. Some of the important features of Scriven’s goal free evaluation stress on validity, reliability, objectivity/credibility, importance/timeliness, relevance, scope, and efficiency in the whole process of teaching and learning. Youker (2013) expanded on the model to create general principles for guiding the goal-free evaluator. Younker proposed the following principles:
1. Identify relevant effects to examine without referencing goals and objectives.
2. Identify what occurred without the prompting of goals and objectives.
3. Determine if what occurred can logically be attributed to the program or intervention.
4. Determine the degree to which the effects are positive, negative, or neutral.
The main purpose of the goal-free evaluation is to determine what change has occurred that can be attributed to the instructional program. By conducting the evaluation without prior knowledge of learning outcomes or goals, the evaluator serves as a check to see if the program produced the outcome desired by the instructional designer(s).
Confirmative Evaluation
The focus of confirmative evaluation should be on the transfer of knowledge or skill into a long-term context. To conduct a confirmative evaluation, you may want to use observations with verification by expert review. You may also develop or use checklists, interviews, observations, rating scales, assessments, and a review of organizational productivity data. Confirmative evaluation should be conducted on a regular basis. The interval of evaluation should be based on the needs of the organization and the instructional context.
Conclusion
Evaluation is the process of determining whether the designed instruction meets its intended goals. In addition, evaluation helps us to determine whether learners can transfer the skills and knowledge learned back into long-term changes in behavior and skills required for the target context. Evaluation provides the opportunity for instructional designers to ensure all stakeholders agree that the developed instruction is meeting the organizational goals.
In this chapter we reviewed what evaluation looks like and its relationship within the instructional design process. We looked at several models of evaluation including Kirkpatrick's Model and the four levels of evaluation: Evaluating Reaction, Evaluating Learning, Evaluating Behavior, and Evaluating Results. We also looked at the three phases of evaluation including formative, summative, and confirmative evaluation, and introduced several different models and methods for conducting evaluation from many leading evaluation scholars.
Discussion
• Where does evaluation stand in the instructional design model? How will your flow chart look when you describe evaluation in relation to the other stages of instructional design?
• Describe the three stages of evaluation. Give an example to explain how an instructional designer will use these three stages in a specific case of a learning product.
• Which are the five types of formative evaluation methods mentioned in the chapter that assist in collecting data points for the initial evaluation? Which two of these methods will be your preferred choice for your formative evaluation and why?
• What will be the parameters to evaluate the success of the instructional training?
• What are some of the techniques to conduct formative and summative evaluation?
• Several models of evaluation have been discussed in the chapter. Discuss any two of these models in detail and explain how you will apply these models in your evaluation process.
Application Exercises
For the following exercises, you may use an instructional module that you are familiar with from early childhood, k-12, higher ed, career and technical, corporate, or other implementation where instructional design is needed. Be creative and use something from an educational setting that you are interested in. Be sure to describe your selected instructional module as it relates to each of these exercises. You may need to do some additional online research to answer these questions. Be sure to include your references in your responses.
1. Describe how you would conduct the three phases of the formative evaluation. Define your strategies, populations, and methodologies for each stage within the process.
2. Draw a diagram of the iterative formative evaluation process. What specific pieces of the instructional intervention are considered within each stage of the process? How is the data gathered during this process employed to improve the design of instruction?
3. Describe the context and learner selection process you would use for setting up a formative evaluation field trial. What special considerations need to be made to conduct this stage of evaluation effectively?
4. What materials should the designer include in a field trial? How do the materials used for field trials contrast with the one-to-one and small group evaluations?
You have been asked to serve as an external evaluator on a summative evaluation of a training model designed by one of your colleagues. Explain the phases of the summative evaluation that you may be asked to participate in as an external reviewer. Imagine you have created a rubric to help you evaluate the instructional intervention. What items might that rubric contain to help you effectively and efficiently conduct a review?
Group Assignment
Conduct an evaluation study to understand how successful an instructional intervention has been in achieving the goals of the designed instruction. Keep in mind the group project conducted in the previous development and implementation chapters and conduct an evaluation study to assess the success of achieving the goals and objectives of the instruction. To achieve these goals, you should conduct several rounds of evaluation:
• Conduct a one-on-one evaluation with a student from the target population. Make observations of the student’s actions within the instruction and reactions to the materials, content, and overall design. Propose changes to the instructional intervention based on the sample student’s feedback.
• Conduct a small group evaluation with a group of 3 to 5 learners. This evaluation should reflect the changes you made after the one-to-one stage and evaluate nearly operational materials and instruction. You must recruit an instructor to deliver instruction. Make observations and have the instructor administer a summative assessment after instruction. Analyze the data gathered and create a one-page report on the results.
• Implement a field test with an instructor and a student population of at least 15 people. Instructional materials, including the instructor manual, should be complete and ready to use. Gather data on learner performance and attitudes, as well as time required for instruction and the effectiveness of the instructional management plan. Observe the process and record data, and create a final report detailing the full evaluation cycle. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/01%3A_Instructional_Design_Practice/04%3A_Evaluating/4.03%3A_Instructional_Design_Evaluation.txt |
Continuous Improvement of Instructional Materials
David Wiley, Ross Strader, & Robert Bodily
From time to time new technologies provide us with a qualitatively different ability to engage in previously possible activities. For example, 20 years ago it was already possible to publish an essay online. You simply used the command line program Telnet to login to a remote server, navigated into the directory from which your webserver made html files available to the public, launched the pico editor from the command line, wrote your essay, and manually added all the necessary html tags. Today, open source blogging software like Wordpress makes publishing an essay online as easy as using a word processor. Yes, it was possible to publish essays online before, but the modern experience is qualitatively different.
“Evaluate” is the final step in the traditional ADDIE meta-model of instructional design, and it has always been possible—if, at times, expensive and difficult—to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional materials. Modern technology has made the process of measuring the effectiveness of instructional materials a qualitatively different experience. Gathering data in the online context is orders of magnitude less expensive than gathering data in classrooms, and open source analysis tools have greatly simplified the process of analyzing these data.
Historically, any needed improvements discovered during the evaluation process would take a significant amount of time to reach learners, as they could only be accessed once new editions of a book were printed or new DVDs were pressed. Again, modern technology makes the delivery of improvements a qualitatively different exercise. When instructional materials are delivered online, instructional designers can engage in continuous delivery practices, where improvements are made available to learners immediately, as often as multiple times per day.
The modern approach to continuous improvement designed for use in the context of online services described by Ries (2011), called the “build - measure - learn cycle,” is illustrated in Figure 1.
In this chapter we adapt the build - measure - learn cycle for use by instructional designers who want to engage in continuous improvement. Because our focus is on the improvement of instructional materials, our discussion below does not include a discussion of the creation of the first version of the materials. (The first version of the materials could be open educational resources created by someone else or a first version that you created previously.)
The chapter will proceed as follows:
• Conceptual Framework: We argue that all instructional materials are hypotheses, or our best guesses, informed by research, about what instructional design approach will support student learning in a specific context. Thinking this way will naturally lead us to collect and analyze data to test the effectiveness of our instructional materials.
• Build: We describe the implications of designing for data collection, together with the instrumentation and tooling that must be built in order to collect the data necessary for continuous improvement.
• Measure: We describe the process of analyzing data in order to identify portions of the instructional materials that are not effectively supporting student learning.
• Learn: We discuss methods to use when reviewing less effective portions of the instructional materials and deciding what improvements to make before beginning the cycle again.
• Technical Note: We briefly pause to discuss the role of copyright, licensing, and file formats in continuous improvement.
• Worked Example: We demonstrate one trip through the cycle with a worked example.
• Conclusion: We end with some thoughts about the imperative implied for instructional designers by the existence and relative ease of use of continuous improvement approaches like the build - measure - learn cycle.
Conceptual Framework
Instructional Materials Are Hypotheses
People who design instructional materials (who we will refer to as instructional designers throughout) make hundreds of decisions about how to best support student learning. Each decision is a hypothesis of the form “in the context of these learners and this topic, applying this instructional design approach in this manner will maximize students’ likelihood of learning.” The ways in which these individual decisions are interwoven together creates a network of hypotheses about how best to support student learning.
Hypotheses Need to Be Tested
It reveals a fatal lack of curiosity for an instructional designer to simply say “these materials were designed in accordance with current research on learning” without following through to measure their actual effectiveness with actual learners in the actual world. While designing instructional materials in accordance with research is a positive first step, to our minds the most important measure of the quality of instructional materials is the degree to which they actually support student learning. Questions of whether or not the materials are informed by research, are finished on schedule and on budget, are stunningly beautiful, render correctly on a mobile device, or were authored by a famous academic become meaningless if students who use the materials do not learn what the designers intended.
Initial Hypotheses Are Seldom Correct
Hypotheses need to be refined in an ongoing cycle of improvement. Data collected during student use of content and from assessments of learning can be used to identify specific portions of the instructional materials (i.e., specific instructional design hypotheses) that are not successfully supporting student learning. Once these underperforming designs (hypotheses) are identified, they can be redesigned, improved, and incorporated into a new version of the instructional materials. The updated collection of instructional design hypotheses can then be deployed for student use, and the cycle of continuous improvement can begin again.
Build: Designing for Data, Instrumentation, and Tools for Data Collection
In order to be able to engage in continuous improvement, instructional materials must be designed for data collection. There must be a unifying design framework that will allow data from a wide range of sources to be aggregated meaningfully. The method we will describe throughout this chapter organizes instructional materials around a network of learning outcomes. In this method of designing for data collection, all instructional materials (e.g., readings, simulations, videos, practice opportunities) are aligned with one or more learning outcomes. All forms of assessment, both formative or summative, are also aligned with one or more learning outcomes (this alignment must be done at the individual assessment item level.)
Once instructional materials have been designed for data collection, tools and instrumentation must be created so that the data can actually be collected and managed. The system that mediates student use of the instructional materials (e.g., a learning management system) must be capable of (a) expressing the relationships between learning outcomes, instructional materials, and assessments, (b) capturing data about student engagement with these instructional materials, and (c) capturing item-level data about student engagement with, and performance on, assessments. The data collected by the system should be able to answer questions such as, for any given learning outcome, what instructional materials in the system are aligned with that outcome? (If instructional activities are “aligned with” a learning outcome, student engagement with the instructional activities should support mastery of the outcome.) For any given learning outcome, what assessment items in the system are aligned with that outcome? (If assessments are “aligned with” a learning outcome, student success on these assessments should provide evidence that they have mastered the outcome).
Measure: Using RISE Analysis to Identify Less Effective Learning Materials
As described in Bodily, Nyland, and Wiley (2017), activity engagement data and assessment performance data can be analyzed together to identify learning outcomes whose aligned instructional materials are not sufficiently supporting student mastery (as demonstrated by performance on aligned assessments). The purpose of Resource Inspection, Selection, and Enhancement (RISE) analysis is to identify learning outcomes where students were highly engaged with aligned instructional materials, but simultaneously performed poorly on aligned assessments.
Each point in Figure 2 represents a learning outcome. The x-axis is engagement with instructional materials and the y-axis is assessment performance, both converted to z-scores. The bottom-right quadrant (high engagement, low performance) indicates which outcomes should be targeted for improvement and are numbered to indicate the order in which they should be addressed.
An open source software implementation of RISE analysis is described in Wiley (2018). This greatly simplifies the process of running RISE analyses, as long as appropriate data on learning outcome names, content engagement, and assessment performance are available.
Learn: Understanding Why Learning Outcomes End up in the Bottom Right Quadrant
Once learning outcomes are identified as being in the bottom right quadrant of a RISE analysis plot, the cause of the problem can be isolated. For brevity, we will refer to learning outcomes in the bottom right quadrant of a RISE analysis plot as “underperforming learning outcomes” below. The root of the problem can generally be identified in two steps.
The first step in isolating the problem with an underperforming learning outcome is evaluating assessments aligned with each learning outcome. Are the assessments accurately measuring student learning? Questions to ask at this stage include: are there technical problems with the assessment? Are items miskeyed? Are other sources of spurious or construct-irrelevant difficulty present? Are measures of reliability, validity, or discrimination unacceptably low? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, improvements should be made to problematic assessments, after which the instructional designer can stop working on this learning outcome and move onto the next. There is likely no need to make improvements to instructional materials aligned with this learning outcome.
If the aligned assessments are functioning as intended, the instructional designer can move on to the second step—reviewing the instructional materials to determine why they aren’t sufficiently supporting student learning. This process is highly subjective and brings the full expertise of the instructional designer to bear. The instructional designer reviews the instructional materials aligned with the learning outcome and asks questions about why students might be struggling here. For example:
• Is there a mismatch between the type of information being taught and the instructional design approach originally selected? For example, if students are learning a classification task, are examples and non-examples provided without a specific discussion of the critical attributes that separate instances from non-instances?
• Is there a mismatch in Bloom’s Taxonomy level between the learning outcome, the instructional materials, and the assessment? (For example, are the learning outcome and instructional materials primarily the Remember level, while the assessments require students to Apply?)
• Have the instructional materials failed to provide learners with an opportunity to practice in a no/low-stakes setting and receive feedback on the current state of their understanding?
We cannot list every question an instructional designer might ask, but we hope these examples are illustrative. Talking with students can also be incredibly helpful at this stage. These conversations are an effective way for the instructional designer to zero in on root causes of students’ misunderstandings.
Once the instructional designer believes they have identified the problems (i.e., they have a new hypothesis about how to better support student learning), new or existing instructional materials and assessments can be created, adapted, or modified. Students can also be powerful partners and collaborators in creating improvements to the instructional materials (e.g., OER-enabled pedagogy as described by Wiley and Hilton (2018)).
When this (Build) process is completed, the new or improved materials can be released to students immediately. Once students are using the new version of the materials, this use will result in the creation of new data which the instructional designer can examine using RISE analysis (Measure). These analyses support the instructional designer in forming new hypotheses about why students aren’t succeeding (Learn). When this continuous improvement process is followed, instructional materials should become more effective at supporting student learning with each trip through the cycle.
Technical Note: The Role of Copyright and File Formats
Before adaptations or modifications can be made, instructional designers must have legal permission to make changes to the instructional materials. Because copyright prohibits the creation of derivative works that are often the result of the improvement of instructional materials, one of two conditions must hold. In the first condition, the instructional designer (or their employer) must hold the copyright to the instructional materials, making the creation and distribution of improved versions legal. In the second condition, the instructional materials must be licensed under an open license (like a Creative Commons license) that grants the instructional designer permission to create derivative works (aka improved versions of the instructional materials).
Legal permission to create derivative works can be rendered ineffective if the instructional materials are not available in a technical format amenable to editing (e.g., HTML). ALMS analysis as described in Hilton, Wiley, Stein, and Johnson (2010) includes four factors to consider regarding the “improvability” of instructional materials. The first factor is Access to editing tools—is the software needed to make changes commonly available (e.g., MS Word) or obscure (e.g., Blender)? The second factor is the Level of expertise required to make changes—is the content easy to change (e.g., Powerpoint) or difficult to change (e.g., an interactive simulation written in Javascript)? The third factor is whether or not the instructional materials are Meaningfully editable—is the document a scanned image of handwritten notes (this text is not easily editable) or an HTML file (easily editable)? The final factor is Source file access—is the file format preferred for using the resource also the format preferred for editing the resource (e.g., an HTML file) or are the preferred formats preferred for using and editing the files different (e.g., PSD versus JPG)?
If the instructional materials you are working with do not belong to you or your employer, are not openly licensed, or are available only in file formats that are not conducive to adaptation and modification, you may not be able to engage in continuous improvement.
A Worked Example
Lumen Learning, a company that offers instructional materials for college classes that can be adopted in place of traditional textbooks, offers a Biology for Non-majors course in its Waymaker platform. This platform allows instructional designers to enter learning outcomes and align all instructional materials and assessment items with the learning outcomes. A RISE analysis was conducted using the content engagement data and assessment performance data for all students who took the Biology for Non-majors course during a semester. Among the top 10 underperforming learning outcomes it identified, the RISE analysis revealed that students were performing poorly on assessments aligned with the learning outcome “compare inductive reasoning with deductive reasoning” despite the fact that students were engaging with the aligned instructional materials at an above average rate (see outcome 1 in Figure 3 below). This learning outcome was selected for continuous improvement work.
A review of the aligned assessment items by an instructional designer revealed that the items appeared to be keyed correctly and free from other problems. Following this review of the aligned assessments, the instructional designer reviewed the aligned instructional materials guided by the question, “why are students who use these instructional materials not mastering the outcome?” The analysis revealed that the instructional materials for this outcome were comprised of two paragraphs of text content, each of which defined one of the terms. No other instructional materials were provided in support of mastery of this learning outcome and students appeared to be unable to remember which of these similar sounding terms was which.
The instructional designer decided to make minor edits to the existing paragraphs to improve their clarity and also to create an online interactive practice activity (Koedinger et al., 2017) in support of this learning outcome. This activity provided students with mnemonic tools to help them remember which term is which, and combined these mnemonics with practice exercises in which students classify examples as either inductive or deductive and receive immediate, targeted feedback on their performance. The online interactive practice activitity can be viewed in context at https://edtechbooks.org/-QwUE.
These new and updated instructional materials are now integrated into the existing materials and are being used by faculty and students across the United States. After another semester is over, the RISE analysis will be rerun. This new analysis will either confirm that the improvements to the instructional materials have improved student learning, in which case other underperforming learning outcomes will be selected for continuous improvement, or they will confirm that there is still work to do to better support student learning of this outcome.
Conclusion
Modern technologies, including the internet and open source software, have radically decreased the cost and difficulty of collecting and analyzing learning data. Where evaluation alone was once prohibitively difficult and expensive, today the entire continuous improvement process is within reach of those who design instructional materials for use in online classes and other technology-mediated teaching and learning settings. While Ries (2011) described the build - measure - learn cycle as a way to rapidly increase a company’s revenue, we see a clear analog in which similar approaches can be used to rapidly increase student learning. We now live in a world where it is completely reasonable to expect instructional materials to be more effective at supporting student learning each and every term.
We invite the reader to help us make this possible state of affairs the actual state of affairs by engaging in continuous improvement activities in their own instructional design practice. And in the spirit of continuous improvement, we further invite the reader to join us in developing and refining the processes described in this chapter—in part by completing the survey at the end of this chapter and providing us feedback on how the chapter can be improved. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/01%3A_Instructional_Design_Practice/04%3A_Evaluating/4.04%3A_Continuous_Improvement_Of_Instructional_Mat.txt |
Learning Theories
Beth Oyarzun & Sheri Conklin
Learning theories are the foundation for designing instructional solutions to achieve desired learning outcomes. Analogies can assist in understanding new concepts, so imagine that you have purchased a new home and are considering the best options for furniture placement in the living room. Your desired outcome is a furniture arrangement that is aesthetically pleasing yet also functional. Many factors can play into the decision depending on how you view the problem, and there can also be more than one solution that meets the desired outcomes.
Similarly, theories and models provide a foundation and framework for any instructional design project. Theories serve as lenses to view the problem from different perspectives, much like interior design styles and preferences may affect decisions about which furniture to purchase for your new home based on your overall aesthetic. Models then provide guidance about how to build the solution or where to place the furniture in the home. Depending on the theory and model used, the solution might look different, much like a living room would look very different using modern vs. western-style decor with various arrangements. However, the desired outcomes can still be achieved. It is essential to conduct a thorough analysis to ensure the theory and/or selected strategy will support the desired outcomes and the targeted learners.
Learning theories help instructional designers understand how people retain and recall information and stay motivated and engaged in learning. There are three main families of learning theories and an emerging fourth: behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and connectivism. Referring back to the house analogy, these could be different decorative styles (lenses) used to view a room in the house or to view an instructional problem and how to address it. Much like decorative styles have evolved and changed over time, so have learning theories. This chapter will define the four main families of learning and then explore some additional social and motivational learning theories that have derived from some of the families of learning.
Behaviorism
Behaviorism grew from the work of many psychologists in the early 20th Century, such as Watson (1913), Thorndike (1898), and Skinner (1953), who hypothesized that learning occurs through interaction with the environment. Hence, observable behaviors resulting from a response to a stimulus followed by a reward or punishment based on the behavior is how a behaviorist would condition learners to elicit the desired outcome. Conversely, if the stimulus is removed, then the behavior will stop over time. This phenomenon is called extinction.
This type of behavior modification can be considered conditioning. Two types of conditioning were defined by Pavlov (1960) and Skinner (1953): classical and operant respectively. An example of classical conditioning is Pavlov’s dog in which he trained the dog to salivate with a bell ringing by providing food every time a bell rang. Extinction occurred when the food was not delivered when the bell rang over time. Operant conditioning relies on positive and negative consequences occurring to shape behavior. This method is focused on changing the learner's external behavior using stimuli (an event that evokes a specific functional reaction) with positive and negative reinforcement. Reinforcements (positive or negative) are environmental responses that increase the probability of a behavior being repeated. Punishment, on the other hand, decreases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated, yet weakens the behavior. As an illustration, a simple way to shape student behavior is to provide feedback on learner performance. Through positive feedback (e.g., praise, compliments, encouragement), students are reinforced on learning a new behavior. Over time, as the performance improves, the feedback occurs less frequently until only exceptional outcomes are reinforced. Over time the behavior changes given the response to or removal of the stimulus. In the elementary school environment, operant conditioning methods are often used for behavior modification. Behavior charts in which learners earn stickers for displaying good behavior and have stickers removed for displaying bad behavior during the week is an example. A reward or punishment is delivered at the end of the week based upon the number of stars accumulated or removed. The rewards for learners might be a class party, or the punishment might be taking away privileges.
Behaviorist theory informs key aspects of the instructional design process such as the task analysis. The task analysis involves identifying observable behaviors or steps learners need to take to achieve the desired learning outcome. A designer often observes learners from various expertise levels completing the task to create a thorough task analysis to inform the design of instruction. Behaviorism has been criticized due to the emphasis on external behaviors only, which led to the development of a new learning theory in the mid-1900s.
Cognitivism
A contrast to the external nature of behaviorism is the internal natured cognitivism learning theory. Cognitivism focuses on how the brain internally processes, retains, and recalls information based upon how the learner organizes information into existing knowledge schemas. Schemas are structures of existing information in the learner's mind. To ensure new information is retained for recall, instruction can be designed to enhance the probability that the new information will be added to the learner's existing schema. For instance, if the desired learning outcome is to explain the water cycle, then the instructor may use questions to have learners recall information in their existing schemas about water and weather by having them tell stories about storms, clouds, lakes, and oceans. Once they have activated those schemas, the instructor could then relate the new information about the water cycle to the stories they told, in order to help learners integrate this new information into their existing knowledge about water.
A common tool used by cognitivist learning theorists are taxonomies of learning outcomes that specify what mental processes are relied upon for various types of learning. Perhaps one of the more well-known and used taxonomies is Bloom's taxonomy (1956), which was later revised (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). The revised taxonomy has six levels: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create (see Figure 1). Using this taxonomy to identify the level of desired learning can assist in writing learning objectives, selecting appropriate instructional methods, and designing assessments to increase the probability that the desired learning outcome is achieved. The taxonomy relies on the use of action verbs to ensure learning outcomes are measurable. Many resources such as this one from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln provide a variety of verbs to use for each level of the taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001, available at https://edtechbooks.org/-nhUI ).
For example, if the desired learning outcome were for a student to solve a simple algebraic equation, that would fall under the application level of Bloom’s revised taxonomy because the learners will apply previously learned concepts to solve the problem. The instructor may use the suggested verbs (eLearning Heroes, 2020, available at https://edtechbooks.org/-Ftt) to write a clear instructional objective such as “given an algebraic equation, the learner will solve the equation by selecting the appropriate method, showing work, and checking the solution.” Next, the instructor would design assessment items that measure the attainment of that objective. In this case several equations would serve as assessment items (i.e. x + 5 = 7, x - 8 = 12, 7 + x = 9). Lastly, the instructional methods would be designed to align with the objective and assessment. Here, presenting examples with and without manipulatives, and practice problems with and without manipulatives, would be appropriate.
Cognitivism also brought about the shift from learning theory to instructional theory, which focused on the design of instruction instead of how learners process information or learners' behavior. This is an important shift that provided the foundation for the instructional design field. In 1971, a revolutionary project entitled TICCIT, an acronym for Time-shared, Interactive, Computer-Controlled Information/Instructional Television, was funded by the National Science Foundation and MIT research corporation to test computer-assisted delivery of instruction using a cognitive approach. This project produced learner-controlled instruction that was adaptive to learner choices (Gibbons & O’Neil, 2014). Other projects followed that similarly sought to apply new cognitive theories to emerging educational technologies, leading to the explosion of computer-assisted instruction applications.
Constructivism
Cognitivism added a new perspective based upon research of brain functionality during the learning process. However, another learning theory gained attention in the mid-1990s, which combined learner’s interactions with the external environment and their internal learning process: constructivism. Constructivism is divided into two major schools of thought: cognitive constructivism and social constructivism.
Cognitive constructivism is based upon the work of Dewey (1938), Bruner (1966), and Piaget (1972). This theory revolves around the concept that learners construct their knowledge through individual personal experiences. For example, when learners are exploring complex concepts through project-based learning, some learners may grasp the concepts quickly while others may struggle. Facilitating knowledge development through probing questions to help learners identify where they are having difficulty is part of an inquiry method to alleviate misinterpretation. It can also help learners reflect on their knowledge, misconceptions, and progress. Anchored instruction is an example of a cognitive constructivist theory that incorporates instructional technology such as video (Bradsford et al., 1990). Anchored instruction suggests that learning is anchored in a realistic, evolving context with guiding resources available to help the learners solve the instructional problem presented. The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury is a mathematics video series that was designed using the anchored instruction theory (Cognition and Technology Group at Vanderbuilt, 1992, available at http://jasper.vueinnovations.com/).
Social exchange and collaboration are foci of the social constructivist theory grounded in the work of Vygotsky (1978). A major theme of social constructivist theory is that social interaction plays a fundamental role in the development of cognition. Vygotsky postulated that cultural development happens twice, first on the social level (between people), then later on the individual level (inside the mind). One example of social constructivist theory is the development of language. If you are building a house, you may have basic language skills but may be unaware of terms associated with construction. As you continue to work with your peers, you begin to learn various tools and terms associated with construction through your interactions with them. Think about learning another language. Language mobile applications now offer the ability to have conversations with a native speaker electronically. This social interaction allows learners to first hear and engage with correct grammar and pronunciation. Over time, the learner can begin to process and think in another language, using proper grammar and pronunciation.
This perspective deepens our experiences in the world and aids our construction of new knowledge through the exchange of ideas with others. Often group activities such as projects, experimentation, and discussions are utilized. Learners engage with the content and then decompress with one another to develop or construct meaning from various activities. The teacher acts as a guide or translator by setting up the instruction to allow the learners to explore concepts. As the learners explore the concepts, the teacher then assists the learners in translating what they have found into the learner’s current state of understanding.
Quest Atlantis is an example of an instructional design and technology product based on social constructivist theory (Barab et al., 2005). The goal of Quest Atlantis was to provide an immersive learning environment that combined academics and play with interdisciplinary cultural quests that supports learning, development, and social transformation. Players created a persona and by completing quests they engaged in educational activities while interacting with other users and mentors. The authors described the design as socially responsive because the quests adapted to the decisions of the players.
Connectivism
Early in the 21st Century, a new learning theory emerged from the digital age: connectivism. Connectivism is based on the work of Siemens (2004) and is the first theory that defines learning as more than an internal and individual process (see https://edtechbooks.org/-oCyT for a republishing of this article). The connectivist theory posits that learning takes place when learners make connections between ideas located throughout personal learning networks (e.g., other individuals, databases, social media, Internet, learning management systems). The connection of the right individuals to the right resources can enhance the learning for all within the network.
Technology increases learners’ access to information and their ability to be a part of a greater learning community (Siemens, 2004). There are premises around connectivism. One premise is that learners need to distinguish between important and unimportant information, as well as valid information, since there is a continuous flow of new information. If we go back to the house example, you are working on building your house, and you want to install a fireplace. You can go to the Internet and join a builder’s community on YouTube or a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) forum. You may also be able to access reviews for various types of fireplaces and what has worked and what has not. Once you have built the fireplace, you can share your experience with these communities to enhance the experiences of others.
To summarize the four families of thought on learning theories, Figure 2 identifies some possible instructional methods for each learning theory presented so far.
Additional Readings and Resources
1. Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology Book - Chapters 9, 10, 11 and 19. (West, 2018)
2. Learning Theory and Instructional Design (Mcleod, 2003)
3. Understanding the practices of Instructional Designers through the lens of different Learning Theories (Yeo, 2013)
4. How People Learn I (National Research Council, 2000)
Social Learning Theories
As noted above, interaction with both individuals and the environment is embedded in learning theories. From these types of interactions, multiple social learning theories emerged during the late 1990s that enhanced or deepened some of the ideas from the major families of thought around learning at that time. We will discuss the following social learning theories: social cognitive theory, social development theory, collaborative learning, and cooperative learning.
Social Cognitive Theory
Social cognitive theory teaches that people learn by observing others and is based upon the work of Bandura (1986). He believed that people construct knowledge from learning from others' experiences. By observing others' behavior, learners derive conceptions regarding the behavior being modeled. This observation can happen directly or through the media. Reflection is a crucial component of this theory as once the learner observes the action, they reflect and determine whether this is something they want to incorporate or use. Four processes coincide with observational learning techniques: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. Within the social cognitive theory, motivation is seen as depending upon one's self-efficacy and agency. In order to proceed through all four processes, the learner must have the confidence to exhibit control over a desired behavior or self-efficacy. Social cognitive theory is rooted in the view of human agency in which individuals are agents proactively engaged in their development and can make things happen through individual actions. For example, if a learner struggles with learning a particular behavior or task, allowing the learner to work with another person that has mastered the behavior or task will allow the learner to view how the ideal behavior or task is performed successfully.
Collaborative Learning
Instructors and designers sometimes want learners to work together to construct new knowledge deliberately. Collaborative learning is a social learning theory that involves learners grouping themselves together to explore a concept or to work on a project collectively. Collaborative learning is a loosely structured, discovery learning approach in which learners have much control. It is an “umbrella” term that encompasses a variety of educational approaches involving joint efforts by learners working together. Group members capitalize on the skills of one another through the sharing of information and ideas that build towards a common group goal.
Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning is a carefully structured type of collaborative learning. In both of these social learning theories, the instructor's role is that of facilitator, and the tasks for the groups should be open-ended and complex. Cooperative learning is rooted in social interdependence theories (Deutsch, 1949; Lewin, 1935). Johnson and Johnson (1989) conducted extensive research on defining the parameters of cooperative learning, which requires these five components: interaction, positive interdependence, group processing, individual accountability, and social skills. In other words, groups need to interact, depend on one another, monitor their progress, be responsible for their work, and be able to work together. For example, a team research project could require each team member to find several resources, and an annotated bibliography of those resources could be submitted individually (individual accountability). The team could then co-write and edit the research paper with all of the resources (interaction, social skills, and positive interdependence). The group could use a cloud-based text editor to ensure all team members are contributing in a timely fashion (group processing). Cooperative learning requires intentional planning by the instructor or the designer to ensure all five components are present.
Additional Readings and Resources
1. Collaborative vs. cooperative learning video (wufei87, 2018)
2. Social Cognitive Theory video (Bandura, 2010)
Motivational Theories
Keeping learners motivated and engaged is just as important as understanding how they learn best. Therefore, motivation and engagement theories are essential to include when discussing learning theory. We will discuss three motivation theories (self-determination, hierarchy of needs, ARCS), and one engagement theory (flow).
Self-Determination Theory
Self-determination theory is a motivational theory that suggests learners can become self-determined when their needs for competence, connection, and autonomy are satisfied (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Self-determination theory views internalization as a process for transforming external regulations into internal regulations and thereby integrating them into one’s self (Deci, Eghrari, Patrick, & Leone, 1994). Social support, along with intrinsic and extrinsic motivators are important factors for developing self-determination. Extrinsic motivators can hinder self-determination, whereas intrinsic motivators can enhance self-determination. Intrinsic motivators such as joy and self-fulfillment allow learners to be autonomous and engage with learning. When learners complete their work or a challenge, they feel competent. Both competence and autonomy are components necessary to maintain intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivators can hinder self-determination, whereas intrinsic motivators can enhance self-determination. External motivators, such as being rewarded for making an A on a test, can hinder learning. Social support should be considered over extrinsic rewards to foster self-determination. For example, ensuring every member of a team can play a role and understand their contributions are valuable. Methods to complete that could be establishing roles based on team member talents and providing positive feedback. Allowing individual learners and teams to set their own learning goals can also be beneficial. Another example of utilizing intrinsic motivators is giving learners an assignment where learners teach the concepts to other learners (internal) rather than teaching the learners to take a test on the concepts (external). This type of motivation is fostered and encouraged by fostering autonomous support for the learners rather than controlling.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Creating an autonomous environment may not always motivate learners as there are basic needs that need to be in place before learners can begin to move in the direction of self-fulfillment. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Maslow, 1943) is a second motivational theory. Maslow stated that some needs take precedence over others, such as basic needs for survival. Maslow developed a hierarchy stating the needs at the bottom should be met first and then move their way up (see Figure 3).
At the bottom of the pyramid are the physiological needs such as air, food, shelter. Next is safety needs, such as protection from the elements, order, and freedom from fear, followed by love and belongingness. Next, are esteem needs, which are achievement, mastery, and the desire for reputation or respect from others. Finally, the self-actualization needs are realizing personal potential or the ability or desire to become capable. Although the order of the needs seems rigid, they are flexible, depending on the external circumstances or individual differences. For example, if a learner is concerned about where they are going to sleep or eat that night, they will not be as inclined to learn new concepts as their basic needs are not met. However, if a learner who is well-fed and is loved and has a sense of belonging, whether it is part of a social group or family, they are more inclined to strive to learn new concepts.
Keller’s ARCS Model
Within the motivational theories, there are models that provide guidance to assist designers in planning to ensure learners’ motivation. For example, Keller’s Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction (ARCS) is a motivational model that can be used to guide instructional planning to be intentionally motivational for learners (Keller, 1987). This model focuses on promoting and sustaining motivation throughout the learning process. First, gain the attention of the learner by piquing their curiosity. Games, roleplay, humor, or the use of inquiry are all techniques to gain learner attention, particularly when introducing a new concept. Next, to increase the learner’s motivation, relevance needs to be established. To establish relevance, you need to present the worth of knowledge gained, what does it mean to the learner? How will this knowledge directly affect the learner? Next, provide confidence and give the learners control over their learning while providing feedback. The instructor can achieve this by providing the learner’s opportunities for short term wins and small steps of growth during the learning process. Finally, the learning needs to be rewarding or satisfying in some way, either from a sense of achievement or external means; however, without patronizing the learner through over-rewarding easy tasks.
Flow
Once a learner’s attention is gained, the instructor or designer’s focus should turn to keep the learner engaged. Flow is an engagement theory that is sometimes described as “being in the zone.” Flow was defined by Csíkszentmihályi (1990), who was inspired by watching artists, athletes, chess players, and others who become immersed in completing tasks. Flow tends to happen when someone is engaged in an activity they enjoy, either due to their skill level or other intrinsic stimuli. Csíkszentmihályi defined 10 components of flow, but not all 10 have to happen for flow to occur. These 10 components are: (1) clear and challenging goals, (2) strong concentration, (3) intrinsic motivation, (4) serenity feeling, (5) timelessness, (6) immediate feedback, (7) a balance between challenge and skill level, (8) feeling of control, (9) loss of awareness of other needs, and (10) complete focus. To create flow for learners, designers should allow some choice of activity to build on the learner’s strengths and interests and strive to match and personalize the challenge level of the learning to the learner’s abilities. “Genius Hour” (West & Roberts, 2016) is an example of applying Flow theory to education. In this approach, learners are given an hour each day, or every other day, to be “geniuses" in whatever topic they are excited about. They work for an extended period of time to complete a major project in their area before sharing their ideas with the class or families. These types of projects often produce substantial learning benefits by encouraging conditions where learners are more likely to be in flow.
Conclusion
Learning theories and models are tools that help to shape and guide learning. Like decorating a living room in a new house, various tools can be employed to move an empty room to one with a functional design and a pleasing look and feel to the designer and client. Instructional designers can rely on learning theories and models to design learning solutions that meet the needs of their clients. The theories and models also give designers language and structure to communicate their designs and research to give evidence that their designs will be effective. Consider if you were the client that bought the house and received several proposals from interior designers for the living room decorations. Proposal 1 was a diagram and a budget. Proposal 2 had a narrative description that justified the attached diagram and budget. The justification was based on their interior design philosophy and detailed how the diagram would prove to be functional for the client. Provided the design philosophies match, you would probably select proposal 2. Using instructional design theories and models helps guide your design or learning solution and helps justify your design solution as an effective one for potential clients.
Additional Readings and Resources
1. Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology Book - Chapters 12, 13, 14 and 16. (West, 2018)
2. Development and use of the ARCS model in instructional design article (Keller, 1987)
3. Flow TED talk (Csikszentmihalyi, n.d.)
4. Edward Deci—Self-determination theory (Deci, 2017)
Application Exercises
1. Create a reference guide or chart of theories, characteristics, methodologies, and how you may best apply them to your own design context and situation.
2. Create a timeline of the evolution of learning theories. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/05%3A_Sources_of_Design_Knowledge/5.01%3A_Learning_Theories.txt |
The Role of Theory in Instructional Design
Trudy K. Christensen
Editor's Note
This is a version of Christensen, T. K. (2008). The role of theory in instructional design: Some views of an ID practitioner. Performance Improvement47(4), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.199, and has been republished here with permission from the publisher.
This article describes how an experienced instructional designer thinks about and uses learning theories to inform instructional design decisions. It uses a vision metaphor to provide a simple heuristic framework for identifying the nature of instructional problems and relating different types of problems to useful theoretical perspectives, methods of instructional analysis, and assessment strategies. Finally, it provides a synopsis of major learning theory perspectives and situations that could be addressed by applying models and strategies representing the different theoretical perspectives.
There has been considerable discussion in recent years about the role that learning theories play in instructional design practice (Wilson, 2005; Christensen & Osguthorpe, 2004; Reigeluth, 1999; Hannafin, Hannafin, Land, & Oliver, 1997; Bednar, Cunningham, Duffy, & Perry, 1992). Do instructional designers actually think about and apply the theories they learned in college? Are these theories really useful? In a recent survey of over 100 instructional designers, about half of the designers indicated that they regularly use specific learning or instructional theories or research to make instructional strategy decisions (Christensen & Osguthorpe, 2004). This study did not reveal, however, when and how instructional practitioners use these theories. What theories do they think about? How do they think about the theories? Do they use more than one theory at a time? How do they use these theories to inform their decisions? After almost 25 years of instructional design practice, I have developed some ways of thinking about learning theories that have proven useful for me. I have shared these ideas with students and other designers over the years, and many have found them helpful. I share them here as a type of think-aloud exercise, not to claim they are the only way to think about and apply theory to instructional practice but as a type of heuristic that might help novice designers. I encourage other experienced practitioners to reflect on and record their strategies for applying theory to practice as a means of documenting and comparing best practices.
When I design instruction, I do not usually start with a particular theory. My main focus is the problem and the problem situation. I start by considering the nature of the instructional problem and then ask: “What theory or models would be most useful and appropriate to help address this problem?” Deciding on a theoretical perspective early in the design process not only helps later when it comes to designing the instruction, but also serves as a guide for deciding how to analyze the learning tasks or content and how to assess learning.
What Is the Nature of the Problem?
I have found it useful to use a vision metaphor when considering the nature of instructional problems. I decided on this metaphor because I am very conscious of vision issues since I have poor eyesight and come from a family of eye doctors. One time I visited my eye-doctor brother for help with my worsening vision. In the process of discussing what would be the best solution for my problems, he mentioned that he is continually confronted with a range of trade-offs and alternatives when trying to come up with the most appropriate prescription for his patients. He described one occasion when a woman walked into his office with a thread and needle and simply stated, “Doctor, I want glasses that will help me thread this needle.” That was all she seemed to care about. She had specific and measurable criteria for the solution, and in no time he was able to determine the most appropriate prescription for her.
My brother admitted that these kinds of cases are the most straightforward to solve. But most often he must devise an all-purpose prescription that will allow his patients to perform in many situations—some known, but most of them unknown. This is when it is more difficult to determine the appropriate solution. It is usually less clear in these cases what the optimal solution should be because it is impossible to evaluate the adequacy of the prescription in all the potential situations where the glasses may be needed.
I often think of instructional problems according to the continuum shown in Figure 1. On one end of the continuum are problems that are usually fairly easy to describe: the nature of the task can be defined, and the conditions under which it must be performed can be specified. I call these training problems. On the other end of the continuum are the problems that may require a more all-purpose prescription, where it is not possible to define or anticipate all the task requirements or the conditions under which the tasks may need to be performed. I refer to these types of problems as education problems. The importance of evaluating the overall goal or nature of an instructional problem at the outset should not be underestimated. Other designers have advocated a similar strategy. For instance, Wilson, Teslow, and Osman-Jouchaoux (1995) advise:
Distinguish between educational and training goals. Acknowledge that education and training goals arise in every setting. Schools train as well as educate; and workers must be educated—not just trained in skills— to work effectively on the factory floor. Discerning different learning goals in every setting provides a basis for appropriate instructional strategies. (p. 149)
I refer to the middle of the instructional problem continuum as the preparation domain. Problems that fall near the center are not as focused or easily measured as the training problems, but they still represent more readily definable ranges of needs than the education problems. For example, using the vision metaphor, if someone came to the doctor and asked for help passing the driver’s vision exam so that she would later be able to drive, that would be a preparation problem. Preparation problems represent an intermediate range of goals—ones that may be necessary to achieve the more application-oriented ends of training and education. Preparation goals undergird or provide critical prerequisite skills or knowledge for training and education. Clearly many instructional problems have elements of all of these instructional goals, but I try to identify the overriding goal, the goal with the highest priority, in the problem situation I am addressing. This helps me focus and optimize my efforts throughout the remaining design process.
How Does Learning Theory Relate to the Different Types of Problems?
It is important to remember that unlike the field of physics, which has been fairly successful in finding unifying theories to help guide work in that area, there is no one unifying theory of learning or instruction. Many theories have been devised over the years, with varying degrees of success in guiding practice. As these theories prove inadequate to explain or help with some types of learning, they usually fall out of favor. This is just what Thomas Kuhn (1996) in his famous treatise, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, would predict. Most often there is a current favorite theory or paradigm that guides practice in education. However, we should not be so eager to use a particular theory just for the sake of being current. We may be ignoring or overlooking some effective and important strategies for the situation at hand. Many of the earlier learning paradigms and theories (e.g., behaviorism) are still useful for certain types of learning problems.
Many theories and models of learning and instruction have been developed over the years—so many that it is often difficult to assimilate and remember them all, let alone use them to help guide instructional practice. Fortunately, some educational psychologists group these theories and practices into three or four main categories. For instance, Ormrod (2008) categorizes learning theories according to three main perspectives of learning: cognitive psychology, behaviorism, and social cognitive theory. Woolfolk (2007) describes four main views of learning: behavioral, information processing, psychological/individual constructivist, and social/situated constructivist views.
Figure 2 summarizes my synthesis of different learning theory perspectives as they relate to instructional design and metaphors that I have found useful. The figure also lists assumptions regarding the nature of knowledge underlying each perspective, as well as the role of the instruction, the role of the learner, and the main instructional and motivational strategies suggested by these perspectives. When reading about a new idea or model, I ask myself, “What are the assumptions underlying this model, and where would it fit under these major theoretical perspectives?” Finally, I ask, “Does this theory or model reveal a useful new idea that distinguishes it from others?” Then I try to remember that idea so I can apply it in my designs if appropriate.
Figure 3 shows the theoretical perspectives that seem to have the most to say about each type of problem. Training problems, as I have defined them, represent more limited, specific behaviors or tasks to be completed under definable conditions. Therefore, many of the strategies underlying behaviorism are still very useful to help address these types of problems. In addition, some aspects of social cognitive theories (e.g., Bandura, 1986), such as vicarious reinforcement and modeling, can be useful to address many training problems. Learners benefit from seeing others model specific tasks or behaviors and noting the consequences of correct or incorrect actions.
Many preparation problems may be addressed by strategies suggested by an information-processing perspective that focuses on the capabilities and limitations of human memory and cognitive processes. These theories (e.g., Norman, 1982) suggest strategies for presenting and chunking information for optimal encoding and retrieval, assimilating new information into existing schemas, and encouraging and enhancing meaningful learning. In addition, as social cognitive theory suggests, learners may benefit from having others model how to apply effective learning strategies for remembering, understanding, and extending ideas.
Constructivist approaches, both cognitive and social, provide strategies for addressing many education problems. They suggest ways of helping learners develop expertise and problem-solving skills to function effectively in complex, social, unpredictable, and nuanced real-world environments. In addition, education problems may be addressed by emphasizing aspects of social cognitive theory that focus on strategies for helping students become self-regulated learners—able to define problems effectively, identify possible solutions, predict consequences, choose best solutions, identify how to carry out the solution, implement solutions, and evaluate results (Bandura, 1986).
To some, this high-level synopsis may sound like a gross overgeneralization, but it helps me address a vast and complex array of theories, models, and strategies. This high-level approach is just a heuristic. When I design, I still may draw from multiple theories or perspectives to address a particular problem. For instance, I might decide to use a particular social constructivist strategy such as team-based learning (Michaelsen, Knight, & Fink, 2004) as my main strategy to help students learn to solve real-world problems by coconstructing knowledge as learning teams. But in the process of implementing this approach, I might also incorporate the use of incentives, such as posting team scores or giving extra points for exceptional team performance, motivational strategies derived from behaviorist theories.
How Do the Theoretical Perspectives and Problem Types Guide My Design?
It is important to remember that there is no formula for great design. By definition, this is a problem-solving process that cannot be described step-by-step. Nevertheless, Figure 3 summarizes what I think the major theoretical perspectives and learning goals generally imply for the type of assessment strategies and analysis techniques most appropriate for each problem type. The instructional analysis strategies listed—job, procedural, and skill analysis; content analysis; learning analysis; cognitive task analysis; and activity analysis—reflect the main categories of analysis outlined by Jonassen, Tessmer, and Hannum (1999). Job, procedural, and skill analyses are frequently the best approaches to use for training problems because they involve creating specific task, skill, or procedural descriptions as they relate to an organizational context or larger system. For preparation problems, content and learning analyses, which focus on hierarchical relationships among concepts, principles, tasks, or behaviors, are useful strategies for analyzing content or skill domains that may be prerequisites to training or problem-solving tasks. These approaches focus more on ways of representing content for optimal retention and retrieval rather than sequencing tasks for actual performance. Finally, cognitive task analysis (CTA) techniques and strategies are best suited to capture the explicit and implicit knowledge that experts use to perform complex tasks (Clark, Feldon, van Merriënboer, Yates, & Early, 2007). CTA is often used to create expert systems and complex simulations. In addition, activity analysis, based on activity theory, is frequently used to analyze education problems. Activity analysis focuses on understanding the rich contexts in which people live and work; it is used to examine the activities in which experts engage, the tools they use, and the social context and interrelationships among participants in real-world environments (Jonassen et al., 1999).
Thinking in terms of the instructional problem continuum shown in Figure 3 also helps to identify useful assessment strategies. Training problems generally lend themselves to performance assessment or mastery-testing strategies. Performance assessment “is assessment based on observation and judgment” (Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis, 2004, p. 191). The main goal in using performance assessment is to describe a skill or task and the criteria that will be used to judge the performance. This type of assessment may use checklists, rating scales, or rubrics to measure achievement or mastery.
Since it is often not practical or even possible to test mastery of large areas of underlying content knowledge or expertise, preparation problems are frequently assessed by sampling from a domain of potential terms, concepts, and principles that represent critical content underlying an area of study. This approach is sometimes referred to as domain-referenced assessment. According to the technical definition, domain-referenced assessment “requires the specification of rules that determine membership in the domain and a procedure for sampling individual elements so that inferences can be made from the sample to the domain” (Gipps, 1994, p. 82). I use this term more loosely to describe an attempt to sample from a content domain by using a table of specifications or other forms of systematic analysis to represent critical content in an area of study. Typically, domain-referenced assessment uses standard written test item formats, such as multiple-choice, true-false, or short-answer questions, to test learner knowledge or understanding. Finally, education problems lend themselves to alternative forms of assessment, including holistic assessments, or portfolio or authentic assessments, where the goal is to measure the application of principles and concepts through the production of outcomes or performance of behaviors in realistic, complex settings.
To illustrate how the three main problem categories I have defined could be applied to different settings and situations, Table 1 shows how I might use the problem types to categorize representative situations, examples, and instructional models.
Table 1
Example Situations, Applications, and Models Related to Different Types of Instructional Problems
Types of Instructional Problems
Training
Preparation
Education
When to use
To improve performance on a specific job or task
To know or learn skills to achieve mastery
To know how to use a new product, process, or skill to some required level of mastery or proficiency
To achieve automaticity in a critical skill
To gain fluency in the vocabulary, concepts, skills, and strategies of a particular subject area
To promote in-depth understanding of a subject matter or content domain
To acquire critical prerequisite concepts necessary for performing a job or pursuing a profession
To provide needed background knowledge for completing a task or solving a problem
To know how and when to apply content or process knowledge under differing circumstances
To be able to solve a variety of unique problems
To learn how to work cooperatively to solve problems in a given area
Examples
To learn
• The features and functions of a new computer program
• How to handle a new machine
• The steps of a new development process
To learn about
• Human anatomy in preparation for a health care profession
• Different types of computer networks to become a systems analyst
• Various learning theories to become an educator
• Mathematical concepts and principles in preparation for a science career
To learn
• How to diagnose a disease
• How to conduct a technical systems analysis for a large corporation
• How to apply principles of physics to daily life
Useful teaching or instructional models
Bloom’s mastery learning model (Bloom, 1976)
Programmed instruction (Skinner, 1968)
Personalized systems of instruction (Keller, 1968)
Ausubel’s meaningful reception learning (1978)
Gagné’s theory of instruction (1985)
Cognitive
• Discovery learning (Bruner, 1966)
Social
• Cognitive apprenticeship (Collins, Brown, & Newman, 1989)
• Goal-based scenarios (Schank, 1992)
• Problem-based learning (Savery & Duffy, 1995)
• Team-based learning (Michaelsen et al., 2004)
• Service-learning (Campus Compact, 2003)
When Might It be Useful to Combine Approaches?
Now that I have differentiated problem types and theoretical approaches, I want to highlight a connective thread that has emerged in recent years to help me tie these approaches together when circumstances allow. The emphasis on situated cognition (Wilson & Myers, 2000) proposed by social-constructivist approaches to learning has implications for combining strategies from the different learning perspectives. Situated cognition suggests that learning should be taking place in the context in which it is used. Therefore, when I am creating learning environments to address educational needs, I try to find ways of incorporating preparation activities into the setting where the problem solving takes place. Strategies for accomplishing this goal include using simulations, apprenticeships, internships, service-learning, and other approaches. The implication of this perspective for both training and educational goals has also led to an emphasis on work-based, just-in-time learning. With the increasing speed and accessibility of electronic media, this notion has become the basis of a new field emphasizing the design and development of electronic performance support systems (Gery, 1991). Whenever possible, I watch for opportunities to use an electronic performance support system or even non-electronic job aids to help learners achieve preparation objectives in training and educational contexts.
If I were to show the implications of situated cognition on the problem continuum, I would show more preparation goals being addressed at the ends of the continuum in the performance contexts, as illustrated by Figure 4. This means learners would have ready access to important supporting skills or knowledge in the same context where they are performing the training task or trying to solve problems.
Summary and Implications for Practice
In summary, I use learning theory to guide design by first deciding on the nature of the instructional problem and the main goal of the instruction. Then I decide which theoretical perspective or perspectives best match the needs of the situation. Next, I often investigate specific teaching models that reflect the theoretical perspectives I have determined are most useful and appropriate for addressing the problem. I may apply a particular model or simply rely on basic strategies related to the different theoretical perspectives to help guide, inform, and justify my design. I also watch for opportunities to use technology to help support and achieve preparation goals in performance contexts. HPT professionals who use this type of process can balance instructional decisions with the time, cost, and contextual constraints of the situation.
In reflecting on the use of theory in instructional design practice, I tend to concur with Wilson and Myers’s (2000) assessment of the way practitioners generally use theory:
Most clinical psychologists are reportedly “eclectic” in their stance towards the various theories of psychotherapy. Many teachers and instructional designers take the same non-committal stance toward theory. They prefer a menu or toolbox metaphor instead of an application/consistency metaphor. Practitioners tend to be opportunistic with respect to different theoretical conceptions. This stance toward theory might be termed “eclectic” or “grab-bag,” but we prefer to think of it as problem- or practitioner-centered. People rather than ideologies are in control. The needs of the situation rise above the dictates of rules, models, or even standard values. (p. 82) | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/05%3A_Sources_of_Design_Knowledge/5.02%3A_The_Role_Of_Theory_In_Ins.txt |
Making Good Design Judgments via the Instructional Theory Framework
Peter C. Honebein & Charles M. Reigeluth
Many instructional designers who design innovative learning experiences, and then conduct research that investigates the usefulness of those learning experiences, fail to fully apply the instructional theory framework as a design foundation. This reduces the usefulness of their designs and ultimately leads to learners and other stakeholders not fully adopting and benefitting from the designer’s learning experiences.
The aims of this chapter are to (1) help both designers and researchers improve the usefulness of their instructional designs and subsequent research, and (2) reduce diffusion barriers that impact the dissemination and adoption of learning experiences. The sections of this chapter include:
• Real Instructional Designers Use Theory
• Using the Instructional Theory Framework for Good Design
• Conclusion
Formally linking instructional design and research to the instructional theory framework and its related design principles enables designers and researchers to answer questions about the relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability, and trialability of their innovations (Rogers, 2003).
Real Instructional Designers Use Theory
What is a theory? Simply put, it is a set of ideas about how something might work. For example, Darwin’s theory of evolution contains the ideas of genetic variation and natural selection, among a host of others. In the education field, learning theory is a set of ideas about how people learn, such as behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. However, what should most interest instructional designers is instructional theory, a set of ideas for how best to help people learn.
Here is a simple example of an instructional theory: Drill-and-practice is a useful method for efficiently helping a learner memorize such things as the names of all the U.S. states. This theory contains the idea of an instructional method (drill-and-practice) to help a person remember things. How well will it work? We will not know until we actually deliver our instructional theory to learners in the intended type of situation.
Yanchar et al. (2010) suggested some instructional designers feel that instructional theory has little relevance in how they design instruction: “There is clearly an uneasiness about the applicability of theories and other conceptual tools in everyday design work” (p. 41). Honebein and Honebein (2014), on the other hand, suggest designers do use instructional theory, “but their usage of theory is tacit—e.g. not apparent, even to them” (p. 2).
Thus, the number-one job for instructional designers is to create or modify instructional theories more overtly in a way that meets a client’s requirements. To accomplish this, designers should consider using the instructional theory framework (Honebein & Reigeluth, 2020; Reigeluth & Carr-Chellman, 2009a), illustrated in Figure 1.
Note. We call the product (outcome) of this framework an instructional theory.
The instructional theory framework is a design theory, a set of ideas focused on how to “create” instruction rather than “describe” instruction. Central to this idea of creating things is the concept of a method, which encapsulates the know-how a designer uses to create something.
There are several categories of methods that instructional designers use in their design work, such as process methods (e.g., ADDIE), instructional methods (e.g., demonstrations and practice with feedback), media methods (e.g., words, pictures, or video to communicate content), and data-management methods (e.g., gradebooks and learning management systems). While the instructional theory framework guides all of these types of design decisions, our specific interest in this chapter is instructional methods, for example lecture and project-based instruction, which promote learning.
Designers use the instructional theory framework as a way to select instructional methods that promote learning. To select the most useful instructional methods, designers rely on the instructional situation to guide them. Front-end analysis (the “A” part of ADDIE) is where the instructional theory framework begins its journey to deliver value. As shown in Figure 1, the instructional situation has two parts: conditions and values.
Conditions are matters of fact about the situation that a designer can elicit empirically and objectively from stakeholders and documents. Conditions include information about:
1. Learners, such as number, demographics, geographics, psychographics, and behaviors, potentially represented as “personas”
2. Content, the subject matter the learning experience will teach
3. Context, which reflects place, resources, and tools
4. Instructional development constraints, which includes money, time, and person-hours
This type of information is usually what designers and clients focus on collecting during front-end analysis.
However, what designers often fail to collect during front-end analysis is information about values. Values are matters of opinion that are subjective in nature. For example, a client might say “I hate lectures and I don’t want them in my course!” In that statement, the client is expressing a value—an opinion—that is true for them but may not be true for others. A designer elicits values empirically and multidimensionally from a variety of stakeholders. Values can have a huge impact on the success of an instructional design project. The instructional theory framework specifies four unique types of values:
1. Values about learning goals, which reflect different opinions stakeholders have about what the learners should learn
2. Values about priority, which reflect different opinions about whether a learning experience should favor effectiveness (mastering the behavior), efficiency (delivering the lowest time or cost), or appeal (whether people like the learning experience or not)
3. Values about methods, which reflect what instructional methods stakeholders see as being most useful (or not)—the “I hate lecture” example above
4. Values about power, which reflect which stakeholders should have the most power to get their way regarding the learning-experience design.
Like conditions and values, instructional methods have their own unique characteristics, such as:
1. Scope, which describes whether a method teaches a single idea (micro) or multiple ideas (macro)
2. Generality, which describes whether the designer should use a method broadly or only within specific narrow situations
3. Precision, which reflects the detail to which a designer specifies a method, in terms of its parts, kinds, and criteria
4. Power, which describes how much a method contributes to attaining a learning goal
5. Consistency, which describes how reliable a method is in attaining a learning goal within a specific situation.
Once a designer understands the situation (conditions and values), the designer uses their knowledge of the situation in combination with method characteristics to select the best methods. In other words, the instructional theory framework is like a conditional heuristic (Figure 1) whereby a manager or client gives a designer a situation (a mess), and the designer must then consider the conditions and values to select methods that enable the designer to create a solution that cleans up the mess.
The framework shown in Figure 1 is a pattern that produces and characterizes all instructional theories. Essentially, an instructional theory is the product of the instructional theory framework. It contains a collection of one or more instructional methods that best fit one or more designated situations. An instructional theory is different from learning theories, such as behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism. As shown in Figure 2, learning theory descriptively explains the “what happens” of the learning process, typically what might be going on in one’s head. For example, a cognitivist learning theory suggests that information received by a learner is first processed in short-term memory, and then transferred to long-term memory. Also, notice that a learning theory does not include any methods.
Note. The arrow indicates the flow of knowledge. Instructional theory prescribes possible methods for “how” one might effectively, efficiently, and appealingly learn. The arrow indicates that drill & practice is a possible instructional method that enables a learner to recall U.S. state names.
Examples of instructional theories include those summarized in the four volumes of the “Green Book” (Instructional-Design Theories and Models) (Reigeluth, 1983; Reigeluth 1999; Reigeluth & Carr-Chellman, 2009a; and Reigeluth et al. 2017), such as Shank and colleague's (1999) goal-based scenarios, and Huitt and colleague's (1999) direct approach to instruction. Instructional theories do not need to be published in a book to be instructional theories. Because instructional theory is situational, anyone can create instructional theories for situations that are narrow or wide in scope, and they can improve, change, or “mash up” existing instructional theories in any way they want to fit the situation. In fact, we believe that all people have their own personal theory of instruction, often as tacit knowledge, based on their experiences as a learner or instructor. The challenge for designers is to improve and expand their personal instructional theories.
Using the Instructional Theory Framework for Good Design
Applying the instructional theory framework is not hard. In some regards, the instructional theory framework is like a checklist of good practices. To elaborate our ideas about how to use the framework, we have synthesized six core principles that will help instructional designers embrace the ideals of the instructional theory framework:
1. Understand learning experiences as complex systems
2. Value learning-experience-design fundamentals
3. Practice unbiased consideration of instructional methods
4. Respect the instructional design iron triangle
5. Differentiate between methods and media
6. Know your personal instructional design theory
These principles facilitate the transition between situations and methods that leads to superior instructional solutions, as well as demonstrating a solution’s value. We suggest instructional designers find renewed inspiration to embrace the instructional theory framework through these six principles.
Understand Learning Experiences as Complex Systems
Instructional designers conduct the work they do in a living, self-organizing, complex system (You, 1993; Rowland, 1993, 2007; Solomon, 2000, 2002; Honebein, 2009). What this means is that learning experience designs will behave in ways that designers cannot predict or expect; their nature is emergent “…in that [it is] shaped and developed over time through an evolutionary process” (Honebein, 2009, p. 29). For example, an instructor can design and teach a class one semester, and then the very next semester teach the same class again, and the experience for the instructor, the learners, and any other stakeholders will likely be different.
Reigeluth and Carr-Chellman’s (2009b) and Honebein’s (2019) explorations of the “galaxy” question, which is about whether some instructional methods have universal properties, provide evidence to support the proposition that the instructional theory framework represents a complex system. Merrill (2002, 2009) has argued that some instructional methods are universal, that they are present in all good instruction, such as his first principles. However, those principles are described on a very imprecise level. The implementation of any of those principles will vary from one situation to another, making any reasonably precise description of the principle situational, in recognition of the complexity of instructional situations. Furthermore, given that the instructional theory framework provides categories for conditions, values, and methods, the permutations of instances for each category a learning-experience designer could combine is immeasurable. In other words, situations and methods represent a complex system (Honebein & Reigeluth, 2020).
This idea of complexity is expanded upon philosophically by Cilliers (2000), who distinguishes a system as simple, complicated, and complex based upon the distance from which one observes that system. For example, an aquarium seen in one’s home, observed as a decoration, is simple. That same aquarium can seem complicated when observed by a person who needs to repair it, in terms of heaters, pumps, tubes, and chemicals. The aquarium becomes complex when a person observes the aquarium as an ecosystem, with an immeasurable number of variables.
What does this mean for designers? It means that designers should be comfortable knowing their design situation qualitatively, whereby a variety of learning-experience “experiences” are possible due to the number of elements present in a situation and the interaction between those elements (Honebein & Reigeluth, 2020).
Value Learning Experience Design Fundamentals
A design fundamental is a “good practice” that one expects a learning-experience designer to overtly apply when designing a learning experience. For us, learning-experience-design fundamentals focus on three key instructional design practices: (1) clearly synthesized situations (conditions, including the nature of the content, and values) that should be stated as instructional objectives, (2) aligned assessments, and (3) formative evaluation that demonstrates a learning experience can achieve the mastery standard specified in the objective.
Instructional Objectives
When a learning-experience designer conducts an instructional analysis, the designer gathers data about the situation in the form of conditions and values. The designer then synthesizes the situation’s primary, actionable factors into a form that enables the selection of instructional methods, an instructional objective.
A well-formed instructional objective has three parts: the conditions for performing the behavior, the behavior, and a standard of performance (criteria for mastery). There are specific rules for each part that maintain logical consistency and hierarchy of the instructional objective (Mager, 1984). In instructional theory framework terms, the specification of mastery is called values about goals, and since it is a value (a matter of opinion), a designer can define it quantitatively, qualitatively, or some mixture of both.
Aligned Assessments
Instructional designers must specifically link and align instructional objectives with assessments. Assessments not only confirm mastery of desired behaviors, but also provide data about formative improvements.
What is typically missing in criterion-referenced assessments is an indication of acceptable mastery. For example, learning experience “A” might report test performance of 83%, while learning experience “B” might report test performance of 89%. If the instructional objective guiding both learning experiences lacks mastery criteria, it becomes very difficult to assess the efficacy of each learning experience across the outcomes of effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal. Designers must identify acceptable mastery so that other designers and researchers can assess the improved learning effects within the context of efficiency and appeal. You can learn more about this in the Measuring Student Learning chapter.
Formative Evaluation
Learning-experience design must be more about “improving” and less about “proving”. Research methods to prove the usefulness of an instructional method or theory make little sense when the instructional situation surrounding the learning experience can vary so much that the level of usefulness does not generalize (Honebein & Reigeluth, 2020; Reeves & Lin, 2020). What makes more sense is research that aims to improve the instructional theory, such as formative evaluation using single-subject techniques (Brenneman, 1986) or expert reviews, and formative research (Reigeluth & An, 2009; Reigeluth & Frick, 1999). This improvement orientation is particularly important when a method or theory is at a relatively early stage in its development. However, the iterative nature of research to improve also allows a general method to be tailored to a specific situation. This enables designers to, over time, offer multiple versions of the general method for different situations. Designers can learn more about this in the Continuous Improvement of Instructional Materials chapter.
When designers implement a learning experience (delivery to actual learners), they should collect formative data about all three metrics: its effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal. From that point, the learning experience may undergo any number of formative improvements over various iterations in its design lifecycle. Why? Because the learning experience will never be perfect; the situation (a complex system) is always changing, forcing the learning experience to change and adapt to deliver the right proportions of effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal. Thus, designers must not only consider the changes in methods and the resulting changes to effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal, but also how the changes in the situation influence the various effects of those methods.
What do these three design fundamentals mean for designers? It means that no matter where you work or who your clients are, you will have core data that enables you to defend your designs against nit-picking know-it-alls. And if the client has new or additional data, you will have a structure by which to collaboratively improve the design rather than a fight to prove a design.
Practice Unbiased Consideration of Instructional Methods
Instructional designers must adopt a mindset that considers all instructional methods as having unknown or neutral usefulness until the instructional situation is known. It is only at this time when data is present that a designer can assess an instructional method’s usefulness (Honebein, 2016, 2019).
This practice helps avoid philosophical bias. Honebein’s research showed that designers have a pre-existing bias toward certain instructional methods; the instructional theory framework calls this values about methods. For example, as shown in Figure 3, many designers view authentic tasks as very useful, whereas those same designers view peer-based or cooperative methods as less useful. This type of biased thinking can lead designers to reject instructional methods that might be very useful in a given situation, just because those methods are incompatible with their biases. There are situations in which behaviorist methods (e.g., drill and practice) are useful and many situations in which they are not.
Note. Instructional designers in introductory and capstone instructional design courses at two different universities were asked to rate the usefulness of various instructional methods in the absence of any type of “condition.” This chart illustrates designer bias (values about methods), where more useful (powerful) methods are to the left, and less useful methods are to the right. If there was no bias, all bars in the chart should be the same, at 3.5. From Honebein (2019).
What does unbiased consideration of instructional methods mean for designers? It means that the solution to a thorny instructional design situation might just be an instructional method that you or your client hates. So, anytime you find yourself saying, “I hate lectures,” watch Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture (20+ million viewers), and find the hidden value and inspiration present in all instructional methods.
Respect the Instructional Design Iron Triangle
All instructional designs involve some sort of sacrifice (Gropper & Kress, 1965; Tosti & Ball, 1969; Clark & Angert, 1980; Hannifin & Rieber, 1989). Honebein and Honebein’s (2015) research into this topic suggested that an instructional design iron triangle likely exists in all instructional design projects (see Figure 4). The theory of the iron triangle is that if you have three competing factors, you can only maximize two of them; you always sacrifice one. In instructional design, the competing factors (outcomes) are effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal. For example, if a designer favors effectiveness and appeal, the designer will sacrifice efficiency. Favoring efficiency and appeal sacrifices effectiveness, and favoring effectiveness and efficiency sacrifices appeal.
Note. The triangle depicts the three outcomes (or constraints) associated with instructional methods: effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal. An instructional theory, model, or method typically involves the sacrifice of one or more of the outcomes.
What does the iron triangle mean for designers? It means that you’ll always have to give up something in your designs, and that is okay. Perfect is the enemy of the good.
Differentiate between Methods and Media
Methods and media have a unique influence on effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal. We have already defined instructional methods earlier in this paper. Examples of instructional methods include lecture, drill and practice, and apprenticeship, as well as others depicted in Figure 3. Media is, of course, the communication channel that carries instructional methods to learners (Heinich et al.1989). Media itself is a method, and as such one should differentiate between instructional methods and media methods. Media methods include such things as words, diagrams, pictures, films, models, and realia—organized across categories of enactive, iconic, and symbolic (Bruner, 1966).
There has been much debate in our field about how instructional methods and instructional media contribute to effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal (Clark, 1985, 1986, 1994). Following Clark’s arguments and our own design experiences, we feel that instructional methods influence effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal, whereas instructional media influence only efficiency and appeal.
Why should the designer be aware of this point of view? Because as designers explore our field’s research to help construct their own personal instructional theory, they will find studies and examples that describe what Tennyson (1994) calls “big wrench” solutions, which take the form of a panacea. Big wrenches, which are typically media methods, are sprinkled throughout the history of our science, from Thomas Edison’s “motion pictures” which promised to make books obsolete, to today’s mobile game-based learning (mGBL) solutions. The studies and examples may suggest it is the media method that drives effectiveness, whereas in reality it is more likely the instructional method that does.
What does this mean for designers? It means that you should be cautious about media in terms of touting its influence on effectiveness. No one doubts its strong impact on efficiency and appeal. As noted previously, learning experiences are complex systems that mash together a variety of methods to deliver results. A designer may never know what design element (or more likely, combination of elements) served as the secret sauce for effectiveness. But more than likely, it will be an instructional method (or combination of instructional methods).
Know Your Personal Instructional Design Theory
For more than 15 years now, the authors have taught a capstone instructional theory framework course for graduate students at Indiana University. The course culminates in students writing their own personal theory of instruction (see the application exercise below). In writing their personal theory paper, students consider the conditions (learner, content, context, constraints) and values (about goals, outcomes, methods, power) associated with their situation, and discuss the instructional methods that reflect their “stamp” as a designer.
Application Exercise
Your Task:
Write a reflection paper that outlines your personal theory of
instruction. This should be an in-depth, APA-style paper that answers the questions
below and provides citations and references describing the literature that has
influenced your personal theory of instruction.
1. What is the nature of the situation (conditions and values) that governs your instructional design work?
2. How do you think you are “wired” to design instruction?
3. What “stamp” does the instruction you design have, in terms of the methods you use, that enables others to recognize it was you who designed it?
Rubric for Quality:
• Paper is equal to or less than eight, single-spaced pages.
• Paper is logically structured in APA style, with clear sequence and clear organization of thoughts. Reader can read it once quickly and comprehend its contents.
• Paper is free of grammar and spelling errors.
• Cites/references in APA style literature from readings to support positions and ideas described in the personal instructional theory.
• Clearly describes the personal instructional theory through the situation-methods structure.
• Clearly discusses and references the theoretical foundations and influences of the personal theory.
• Gives an example of the “stamp” one would see on instruction one would design.
The activity our students complete should be an activity that all designers regularly engage in as well, since the activity is all about drawing a line in the sand about your design principles (Brown & Campione, 1996; Stolterman & Nelson, 2000; Collins et al., 2004; Boling et al., 2017). We see such design principles connected to important emerging ideas from the above authors related to design character, design judgment, core judgment, and accountability. As we understand these terms, one’s design character represents inherent, assumed responsibilities for both creative process and outcomes. Design judgment involves creativity and innovation, integrating multiple forms of judgment associated with those aims. Stolterman and Nelson (2000) refer to design judgment as “an act of faith” (p. 8). After a designer experiences the results of their design judgments, design judgments contribute to core judgment, in which certain judgments over time become fixed and very hard to change. For example, the learning-experience-design fundamentals we discuss in this paper are, for us, core judgments. Ultimately, designers must be accountable for their designs in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal, and avoid the temptation to move, hide, or remove accountability to some other stakeholder. The aggregate of these ideas represents one’s design character and one’s belief “in his or her capacity to make good judgments” (p. 8). That belief is reinforced in terms of how one reflects on their actions.
What does this mean for designers? We think one’s design principles were meant to be dynamic, not static. As the comedian Groucho Marx once said, “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them …, well, I have others.” Groucho was wise, as he appears to have known the instructional theory framework’s foundational idea that situation drives methods, or in this case, principles. Whether a learning-experience designer is eclectic or orthodox in their adoption of learning theories and instructional methods (Yancher & Gabbitas, 2011; Honebein & Sink, 2012), the designer’s choice of methods must be dependent on the situation. Designers should not assume even Merrill’s (2002, 2009) first principles to be appropriate in all situations (Honebein, 2019). It is through the ideas of formative evaluation, design research, and reflection-in-action/reflection-on-action that one’s principles increase and decrease in strength.
Conclusion
The instructional theory framework is a cornerstone that must guide our field’s practice and research. The foundations of situation and methods are simple, logical, and aligned with good practice. Philosophically, the instructional theory framework addresses both the objective world (conditions) and the subjective world (values), which mimics what instructional designers encounter in the real world. It provides designers a means to assess and articulate their design judgment, enabling them to be more confident in assuming accountability (Stolterman & Nelson, 2000). And as shown by Honebein and Honebein (2014, 2015) and Honebein (2017, 2019), the instructional theory framework functions as expected. The instructional theory framework’s key benefit is that it guides designers in creating learning experiences that have a higher relative advantage (effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal), better compatibility, lower complexity, easier observability, and actionable trialability.
However, a word of advice: avoid using the “theory” word when you are talking with your clients and subject-matter experts about how you design learning experiences. It will scare them. Keep it as your little, tacit secret. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/05%3A_Sources_of_Design_Knowledge/5.03%3A_Making_Good_Design_Judgme.txt |
The Nature and Use of Precedent in Designing
Elizabeth Boling
As a student, or as a practicing designer, you may have noticed that moment when, even if you are following a detailed model, you have to figure out what is this material, this experience, this system I am designing actually going to be? Whether you have consciously done so or not, you have turned to your own memories, your store of precedent knowledge, in order to tackle these questions. Precedent knowledge is a form of knowledge specific to the activities and goals of design—and you do have some, whether you realize it consciously or not. When you do understand what precedent is and think about how you obtain it and use it, you have increased both the discipline and the imagination that you bring to the act of designing.
Precedent as a Form of Design Knowledge
One of the fundamental elements of design knowledge is precedent (Lawson, 2004; Lawson, 2019). Unlike in law, where the term precedent refers to the accretion of decisions made over time and constraining future decisions, in design precedent refers to the store of experiential (episodic) memories each designer accumulates over time—expanding their future possibilities for actions or decisions. And unlike in science, where past discoveries or established facts form a solid foundation of knowledge which must be accepted or definitively proven incorrect, precedent knowledge in design is gathered by individual designers through their experiences of the world. Each designers’ store of experiences is unique to that designer. Even when multiple designers share the same experiences, they do not necessarily pay attention to the same aspects of those experiences, or recall them later in the same way. Some designers possess more experience and some less; no single designer's store of experiences is comprehensive or the same as any other one, and none can be transferred in an abstract way to another designer. Consider something you have experienced yourself, something that left a vivid memory with you. If you want to share this memory with someone else, you will likely use concrete means to do so—photos, video, audio—providing you have those means. If you do not, it can be difficult to transmit to another person the quality of what you have experienced. Now think about how you might share a career full of design experiences with another designer. You might summarize your memories as principles, or as lessons learned, but this would not reproduce for that other designer what you know. Some design knowledge, like principles, can be stated in abstract form for the benefit of others. But precedent knowledge, a designer's store of experiences, cannot be communicated easily or completely to someone else.
In architecture education, building precedent knowledge has long been a highly structured activity, overtly and rigorously pursued by means of memorization (Lawson, 2019), and of the requirement to refer to celebrated structures from the past in support of, or in contrast to, decisions made in the present (Eastman, 2001). Conflict persists over the canon, the body of works deemed worthy of this intensive study. Some argue that the canon is narrow and discriminatory (Gürel & Anthony, 2006), while others bemoan moves in architecture education to eliminate the canon because they argue that the benefits of this form of education outweigh the drawbacks (Breitschmid, 2010).
Although fields like instructional design do not maintain a canon, less formal means of noting, storing, and applying precedent knowledge in architecture also exist. Reviewing publications across multiple fields in which design is the primary practice, it is possible to see that building and using precedent knowledge is common across all of them (Boling et al., 2019), although the term precedent is not always the term used and sometimes the references are just brief glimpses of how precedent is actually used. For example, Rowe (1987) talks about architects and other designers using literal analogies, “borrowing known or found forms” either in canonic form (“‘ideal’ proportional systems” as in the architectural canon), or iconic form (“objects from the natural world … imagery from some scene, painterly conception, or narrative account of real or imagined circumstances”) (p. 80-83).
In the canonic form of precedent use, an architect may use forms (columns, arches, proportions) from classic structures in a current design. Without an existing canon in instructional design, it does not make sense to offer an example of canonic precedent use by instructional designers. Consider, however, examples of the iconic use of precedent. Madhavan (2015) quotes engineer John Shepherd-Barron, inventor of the ATM cash dispenser as saying, “I hit upon the idea of a chocolate bar dispenser, but replacing chocolate with cash” (p. 70), and Zimmerman (2003) mentions in passing that the graphics in his widely-known video game SiSSY FiGHT were “inspired by Henry Darger’s outsider art and retro game graphics” (p. 178). And as an instructional designer, a co-instructor and I used our experiences with buffet restaurants to offer multiple mini-lessons on technology to our students, letting them choose a "plateful" of learning in the multimedia production class we were developing.
How Precedent Is Collected
Goldschmidt (2014, p. 1) addresses the way informal, or iconic precedent is collected, saying the “designer possesses a ‘prepared eye’ which is able to take advantage of stimuli it encounters, randomly or intentionally, in any environment.” In other words, building precedent knowledge is a disciplined practice in which the preparation of experience allows designers to notice more that is potentially useful and relevant to them than novices or non-designers do. To picture this, imagine that an instructional designer working for an insurance company takes her children to a theme park where employees explain to guests, quickly but clearly, how to enter each ride and buckle themselves in safely. This designer is experiencing a happy day with her kids as many parents do, but because she is a designer, she is also noticing these just-in-time instructions. Without knowing when she might retrieve and use this memory, she stores it automatically; she has developed the habit of noticing and remembering experiences that may be relevant to her work.
Within the mind of each designer, precedent knowledge is structured over time into multiple schemata; “precedent stored in the form of episodic schemata is used by experts to recognize design situations for which gambits are available” (Lawson, 2004, p. 1). Lawson does not imply that precedent knowledge becomes, or should become, abstract knowledge by being transformed into generalized principles. He discusses schemata as patterns in which the original experiential elements remain intact as potential “gambits,” or design actions, recognized as possibly applicable to the immediate design situation. Considering the instructional designer who took her children to the theme park, it is likely that when she noted park employees giving instructions to guests as they boarded rides, she did not simply store that memory. This memory probably joined memories of experiences she had stored previously as part of a schema that might be thought of as, perhaps, "super-condensed instructions." It may also have joined other schema, possibly "scripted instructions easy for employees to learn," or "minimal scripts."
The Nature of Precedent Knowledge
Drawing on the discussions of precedent in the literature, and the ways in which designers refer to precedent, it is possible to consider the nature of this special form of knowledge.
Precedent Is Concrete
As noted, precedent knowledge is composed of the memory of experiences, not the abstract meaning we impose on those experiences. These experiences can be ones in which an object was held and used, a building walked through or lived in, a class taken or taught, an ocean beheld or sailed upon. They may, with equal validity, be vicarious, formed through encountering pictures, diagrams and narratives that represent designs to those who are not interacting with the designs directly. Whatever way this form of knowledge has been acquired, it is stored the same way that memories of a vacation trip or a day at school would be. It contains the details that struck the designer at the time of the experience, making it flexible in the ways that it can be used because more than one aspect of the experience can be related to a new design situation.
Precedent Is Neither Good or Bad; Its Value Is Determined When It Is Used
Precedent knowledge is neutral. The original precedent experience may have been a positive or negative one, and the designer recalling that experience may have thought at the time, “That’s a weak design,” or “That’s a great design.” We call the knowledge itself neutral, however, because later it will not be confined to use as an exemplar or as a cautionary tale. A weak, or even a failed, design can yield an affordance or an analogy that proves useful in a future design situation. In some situations, therefore, a designer might need to know whether an instructional design was proven to be effective when it was implemented. However, in many more designs its value as precedent is dependent on what it offers as part of a schema, or of multiple schemata, as inspiration for a design action or as a way to frame a new design problem.
Precedent Is Relevant When It Is Used; It May or May Not Be Relevant When It Is Collected
The relevance of any precedent memory to the work of the designer who holds that memory is determined at the time the precedent is used. As we will see in the discussion of precedent knowledge in use, designers sometimes seek examples of design intentionally to use them right away as models or inspirations for the work at hand. However, they also notice and store memories of designs continuously without knowing how they are going to use those memories later. This means that the exact relevance, even the vague relevance, of much precedent knowledge cannot be assessed in advance. In order to have precedent knowledge available when it is needed, designers who have been trained and encouraged to do so form the habit of attending to their environments with a generalized focus on potentially useful experiences, but also with a productive lack of boundaries as to which experiences they should note.
Precedent Can Be Used Repeatedly, and May Be Used Differently Each Time
As a form of knowledge that is simultaneously detailed and non-specific, precedent offers rich possibilities that can be connected by the designer to multiple design situations. Unlike case-based problem-solving-in which there is a match between the problem and the case being used to solve, or illuminate, it-design precedent does not have to be well-matched to the situation where it is being used. In some cases, there may be little to indicate that the precedent is related to the design situation at all. As we will see during the discussion of precedent in use, it is the designer who perceives the possibility that precedent knowledge affords an insight, a possibility for addressing a design problem (a gambit), or a bumper that pushes their thoughts in a new direction. Therefore, the designer's perception may be different in a precedent memory based on the current design situation than based on a previous one. Because this knowledge has not been abstracted into a fixed, declarative form, the designer is free to use it differently each time they recall it.
Precedent Knowledge in Use
In a current study of precedent knowledge across the literature in multiple fields of design, Boling et. al. (2019), have identified several primary modes of precedent use.
Linear
A linear use of precedent is one in which the bridge between precedent and a design decision or action (Lawson, 2019) is conscious, direct, and simply connected to the design. A designer might face a situation in which a particular style of design is required and look for examples of that style in order to perceive and reproduce its key elements. An instructional designer may have framed a project as one for which many precedent examples already exist and decide, appropriately, that drawing on one or more prior designs known to be effective will provide a reasonable template. Similarly, designers may seek, or draw upon, precedent knowledge to understand what a class or type of design looks like, sounds like, or how it is constructed. This happens when, for example, an inexperienced designer is preparing to develop a student workbook and collects examples of existing workbooks to learn more about how this class of design is put together. This is a kind of deliberate reverse-engineering in which the application of the precedent experience is determined in advance.
Field-Specific Sources and Validation of Judgment
Using the architectural canon, or less systematized bodies of recognized precedent (sometimes the bodies of work produced by famous designers), designers can draw on precedent knowledge that they share with many other designers and use it to guide or validate their own design decisions or actions. In this type of use, schema within the body of precedent knowledge may be less personal to an individual designer than understood across a professional community. A majority of precedent experiences for many of these designers may be vicarious-gathered through photographs and descriptions made available during their studies, found in curated collections published in books and periodicals. A product designer, for example, may be well aware of a shift toward rounded surfaces and complex "dashboards" of buttons on household appliances because designs like these appear in trade magazines and win professional design awards. They do not refer to any single prior design when they develop a dishwasher for the manufacturer employing the designer, but the widely-known schema informs their design and they refer to that schema to support their decisions. It may be difficult to picture this form of precedent use among instructional designers because the field does not now build, or disseminate, organized bodies of precedent, or acknowledge individual practitioners to the extent of making them famous.
Direct Model for Invention
Engineers in particular use precedent knowledge in a combinatory way, incorporating precedent designs directly into new ones when subsystems are required for a complex situation and existing examples can be used with minimal adaption. In what is termed normal design, when the requirement for invention is low, Vincenti (1990) describes a special form of precedent termed normal configurations, in which the designer’s experience includes both the elements directly usable for the situation and examples of how those elements will work together. Every engineer who needs to include a pump in a design does not re-invent the pump if there is an existing pump design compatible with the larger system being created. It is easy to observe a similar form of precedent use among program designers who maintain, share and draw upon libraries of code. Instructional designers may recognize that this form of precedent use shares characteristics with reusable learning objects.
Abduction/Analogic Reasoning/Inspiration
Cross (2011) explains that abductive thought suggests “what may be,” instead of figuring out what must be (deduction) or determining what is (induction) (p. 33). The abductive use of precedent involves allowing the experience of what exists to suggest possibilities for that which is still to be designed. To understand this use of precedent, consider an instructional designer who is a relay runner in their off-time. They are working on a web-based design for a high-enrollment college course in which undergraduates are supposed to be learning collaboratively. As they consider that students are not always excited about group work, it occurs to the designer that the feeling of handing off a baton during a relay race is both intense (motivating) and positive (satisfying). Without literally building the course as a relay race, the designer decides to try dividing the class into small teams and incorporating "hand-off-ness" into the process of working together. The students will set a goal for their final assignment together, then use an online collaborative writing tool that is open to each of them sequentially for additions and revisions until they complete the assignment. Still inspired by their running experience, the designer builds in some practice in sequential writing ("handing off") as part of smaller assignments during the semester.
While many fruitless forays may be conducted into one’s store of precedent, or there may be only a tenuous connection between a possibility discovered there with the problem in hand, abduction is not just random exploration. Because precedent tends, with experience, to gather into schema (Lawson, 1994), analogic use of precedent is likely a key factor in the efficacy of abductive thought. Analogic reasoning “is a method of activating stored schema based on the identification of connections, parallels, or similarities between, what are typically perceived as dissimilar items” (Daugherty & Mentzer, 2008, p. 9). In the case of what we perceive as inspiration, analogic reasoning utilizing multiple schema may occur and, because these processes are not linear (not propositional or easily converted into rationalized form), they appear to be—or are experienced as—unexplainable leaps from what is known to something entirely new. Consider again the instructional designer inspired by their experiences as a relay runner. Let's suppose that in addition to being a relay runner currently, the designer also participated in improvisational theater as a high school student and performed in a short-lived jazz ensemble during college. Each of these experiences involves handing off from one participant to another (a baton, a story line, a musical theme), and by the time they begin designing this college course, the designer's use of the schema for handing off may not have been a conscious design act as described above. They may have experienced the idea of sequential authorship in this online class as something that "just came to them;" they drew on a schema for parallels between it and their design problems that are not obvious on the surface and were not deliberately sought.
Problem Framing
Dorst and Cross (2001) discuss how a “problem-solution pair is framed” (p. 435) by designers, defining the design situation by considering the insight that a possible solution can provide. Such possible solutions are drawn from, or suggested by, the designer’s store of precedent knowledge. In this use of precedent, the designer’s knowledge is not being used to guide specific design actions, but to explore, understand and define the situation overall. Many designers can bring to mind the point in a project where someone throws out an idea; "what if we put together something like a kit that the instructors in the field could use to assemble lessons on the fly? Like IkeaTM lessons!" The project may or may not follow this direction, but considering the idea can bring to light factors in the design situation that may or may not have been evident before—or suggest new information that a project team may need to gather which was not considered previously.
Design Talk
As designers work together, they engage in design talk, a specialized form of discourse described by Fleming (1989), of which a central component is discussion of the object (or system, or experience) being designed. Lawson (1994) offers a vivid description of such talk among architects in which they all used a single term derived from separate but overlapping, bodies of precedent knowledge and probably from experiential memories the team also shared. While a comparative lack of precedent dissemination in instructional design can limit this element of design talk, you may be able to recognize a discussion in which team members share an educational background and use terms like "WebQuest" or "MOOC" that carry an entire set of experiential meanings for the participants.
Design Models and Precedent
Design models are one of the most widely discussed forms of design knowledge discussed and used in the field of instructional design (Smith & Boling, 2009). These are a declarative form of knowledge, meaning that they are abstract and fixed; they can be passed from one person to another through explanation and memorization. Such models are useful (Branch, 2009), but they do not serve the same purpose for designers that precedent knowledge serves. In fact, without the judgment of designers (Archer, 1965; Holt, 1997; Merrill; Vickers, 1983; Gibbons et al. 2014; Smith and Boling, 2009) and their precedent knowledge, design models are not actually effective. Discussion of design judgment may be found elsewhere (Boling et al., 2017; Dunne, 1999; Gray et al., 2015; Nelson & Stolterman, 2014). Here we will consider the role that precedent knowledge plays within design models.
In each model of design that exists, and there are many (e.g.; Archer, 1965; Dick et al., 2000; Dubberly, 2019; Gustafsen & Branch, 2002; Lawson & Dorst, 2009; Morrison et al., 2012; Reigeluth & Carr-Chelman, 2009), close examination will uncover a point at which many aspects of a design situation may be known, but all the rational sources of knowledge and decision-making have reached the limits of their usefulness. The results of analysis, and the application of established principles or prescriptions, may have precluded some design moves, or implied fruitful directions for others (Krippendorf, 2005). But now—what to do precisely? What, exactly, will come to exist that did not exist before all the preparation was done?
Bruce Archer’s (1965) early, influential, and detailed engineering design model, created at the start of high excitement regarding systematic design, was presented as a long diagram that extended for yards, and included a short text of fifteen pages explaining it. Of those fifteen pages, ten are devoted to discussing the human activity and perspective actually required to make the model function, pointing specifically to the one place in the model where nothing but the human designer can bridge from one step to the next by saying, “there is no escape for the designer from the task of getting his own creative ideas” (p. 11). And where do those ideas come from? Archer explains that looking at other people’s end results (designs) “including phenomena and artefacts in … unlikely fields,” and “a rich, wide and fruitful experience … as well as the capacity for flexibility and fantasy in thought” (p. 12) are required; in other words, building and using precedent knowledge.
Looking at a more recent and familiar prescriptive model for developing instruction, consider the 4C-ID Model, focused specifically on designing instruction for complex tasks, and summarized by van Merriënboer et al. (2002).
Figure 1
This model is quite detailed, focusing on prescriptions for breaking down complex skills, providing practice of part-tasks and whole-tasks, and providing materials for support and for just-in-time information. Explanations for using the model do not address explicitly, as Archer did, what is required from designers to carry out the steps of the model. If we examine it, though, we will see that the model can only be used when designers employ precedent knowledge.
For example, in the case example the authors provide, the complex task to be learned is literature searching. They describe a scenario in which a designer has, in step 1, broken down “literature searching” into several “task classes,” and specified that “learners receive three worked-out (good) examples of literature searches (step 4). Each example contains an elaborate search query in which Boolean operators are used” (p. 56). Guidelines are offered as to what a task class may be, and the characteristics that practice items or informational materials should have. However, neither the model nor the explanation of it acknowledge the invention required to move from knowing what kind of example is to be offered, to actually inventing this example—or to deciding the nature of the event in which the examples will be introduced and used.
The very language—“learners receive”—masks what actually has to happen; unless the appropriate worked-out example of a literature search is readily available, one must be made to exist where previously it did not. Even if the appropriate example is readily available, its relationship to this instructional event must be created. While this is not a criticism of the model, it is important that designers recognize the additional forms of knowledge they need to use such models.
Conclusion
While precedent knowledge interacts with other forms of knowledge that designers possess (like their knowledge of guidelines, theories or principles), it is different in important ways. Designers need to understand those differences so that they can build and use this knowledge effectively.
Application Exercises
The Noticing Journal
The beginning of a disciplined practice in accumulating and using precedent knowledge is to develop the simple habit of noticing. Commit to a week of noticing and challenge yourself to notice as many kinds of instruction or performance support around you as you can for that week. Jot down a note about each one, or take a photo with your phone, so that you can see how many have built up over the week.
Not sure where to begin? Consider how many things you use or see in a day that carry instructions on them -- shampoo, instant noodles, fire extinguishers, bus and subway maps, vending machines. Pay attention to digital experiences like videogame and software tutorials, or website navigation instructions. Don't limit yourself to formal instruction either. Did you overhear a parent teaching something to a child or a child showing a parent how to use a smartphone app? It all counts!
Once you have spent a week on this exercise, consider continuing with it, adding items as you come across them. While noticing precedent becomes automatic at some point, there is no harm in remaining conscious of the discipline of noticing.
Exploring Your Existing Store
Set aside 30 minutes to an hour in a quiet place where you can bring to mind past experiences. Begin with the earliest learning experiences you can remember. From the perspective of an instructional designer, call up as many as you can. Don't worry if some of them are negative. Precedent knowledge is built from all experiences, not just exemplary ones. While I recall a great experience with the SRA Reading System in 4th grade, that same year yields the painful memory of "math races" in which two students had to run to the blackboard and solve a problem written there quickly, trying to beat each other to the answer.
As you bring these memories of learning to mind, resist the urge to try to turn them into lessons learned, to diagnose what happened, or to draw conclusions about what happened. What you are doing right now is just taking stock of how many experiences you already have in your store of precedent, and recognizing that it belongs to you. You have probably been using it; you may well be conscious of that. And if you have not been, then this exercise may prove illuminating!
As with the first exercise, consider spending 30 minutes this way more than once. You probably have more than 30 minutes of learning memories!
Deconstruct Your Present
If you are studying in school now, begin to take note of the way one of your courses is structured and of the materials you are using in this class. Don't stop there, though. The experience of a course is not the same thing as a syllabus or a textbook. It is the experience that you remember and that forms part of your precedent knowledge. Write the story of this class—take several pages to do so. While this is your experience, pretend that you are an observer trying to give someone else a vicarious experience of what it is like to be in the course.
As an example, a short time ago I participated in a square dancing club as a student for a year. While the structure of the lessons was straightforward—3-4 new calls introduced each week, with several repeated each time as a refresher, and each student dancing with an experienced partner—the experience of these lessons would take more time to describe. The experienced dancers were uniformly elderly and enthusiastic. Every student was greeted warmly at the start of the session, encouraged and praised throughout each dance, and treated to homemade goodies by the members of the club. Actually, concentrating on learning and dancing at the same time is surprisingly strenuous, so the goodies were welcome. So was the encouragement! While the steps we were learning were each pretty simple, they were not called out in a set order. The caller changed the sequence constantly and more than one student stepped on more than one toe. Every so often the entire group came to a halt when one or more students swirled left instead of right. In these instances, I'm sure some of the experienced dancers were frustrated but no one complained and we all formed up to begin again. I could go on for several more pages, explaining in more detail about the sequence of the steps we learned and how the caller handled the dances, what the room was like, the "final exam." Once you get started on this exercise, you will find that you have plenty to say as well.
If you are not studying right now, you can choose a learning experience that, like mine, took place over an extended period. Or, if you teach, complete the exercise using one of your own courses, trying to keep that observer perspective. And no matter what experience you use for this exercise, once you have completed it, read it over and ask yourself what kind of schema this experience may be, or could be, part of. You are not trying to abstract this experience, but to consider what others come to mind and what patterns they might both be part of. There could be several or many.
NOTE: As you carry out these exercises, focus on the fact that you are building awareness of your design knowledge and thinking. These exercises are not intended to become part of your design process; although I have recommended repeating them for the sake of building awareness, they will not tell you what to design or how to design. They will strengthen abilities you already have and use.
References
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Gray, C.M., Dagli, C., Demiral-Uzan, M., Ergulec, F., Tan, V., Altuwaijri, A., Gyabak, K., Hilligoss, M., Kizilboga, R. & Tomita, K., Boling, E.(2015). Judgment and instructional design: How ID practitioners work in practice. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 28(3), 25-49.
Gibbons, A., Boling, E. & Smith, K. (2014). Design models. In (M. Spector, D. Merrill, M.J. Bishop & J. Elen, Eds.) Handbook for research in Educational Communications and Technology, 4th Ed. New York, NY: Springer.
Gustafson, K. L., & Branch,R. M. (2002). Survey of instructional development models (4th ed.). Syracuse, NY: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology. ED 477517.
Gürel, Ö. & Anthony, K. (2006). The canon and the void: Gender, race, and architectural history texts. Journal of Architectural Education, 59(3): 66-76.
Holt, J. E. (1997). The designer’s judgement. Design Studies 18(1); 113-123.
Krippendorf, K. (2005). The semantic turn. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
Lawson, B. & Dorst, K. (2009). Design expertise. New York, NY: Routledge.
Morrison, G., Ross, S., Kalman, H. & Kemp, J. (2012). Designing effective instruction. New York, NY: Wiley.
Nelson, H. & Stolterman, E. (2014). The design way: intentional change in an unpredictable world. 2nd Ed. Bpston, MA: The MIT Press.
Lawson, B. (2019). The design student’s journey: Understanding how designers think. New York, NY: Routledge.
Lawson, B. (2004). Schemata, gambits and precedent: Some factors in design expertise. Design Studies, 24(5); 443–457.
Oxman, R. (1994). Precedents in design: A computational model of the organization of precedent knowledge. Design Studies, 15(2); 141-157.
Reigeluth, C. M. & Carr-Chellman, A. (2009). Instructional-design theories and models, Volume III: Building a common knowledge base. New York, NY: Routledge.
Rowe, P. (1987). Design thinking. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
van Merriënboer, J., Clark, R. & de Crook, M. (2002). Blueprints for complex learning: The 4C/ID-Model. Educational Technology Research and Development, 50(2), 39-64.
Vickers, G. V. (1983). The art of judgement. London, England: Harper & Row.
Vincenti, W. G. (1990). What engineers know and how they know it: Analytical studies from aeronautical history. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Zimmerman, E. (2003). Play as research: The iterative design process. Design research: Methods and perspectives, 2003, 176-184.
Additional Readings and Resources
Cross, N. (2011). Design thinking: Understanding how designers think and work. Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers.
Lawson, B. (2019). The design student’s journey: Understanding how designers think. New York, NY: Routledge. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/05%3A_Sources_of_Design_Knowledge/5.04%3A_The_Nature_And_Use_Of_Pre.txt |
Standards and Competencies for Instructional Design and Technology Professionals
Florence Martin & Albert D. Ritzhaupt
Students entering the field of instructional design must possess a wide array of competencies to be successful in their future roles (Ritzhaupt & Martin, 2014). Competencies are the knowledge, skills, and abilities professionals need in their roles, while standards speak to a pre-defined level of quality or attainment of those competencies. Competencies and standards are essential aspects to advance professionals in this field. Several professional organizations guide the development of competencies and standards. They also have certification programs for instructional designers and instructional programs. In this chapter, we review the instructional design standards and competencies both from professional organizations and those proposed by researchers who guide the educational preparation of instructional designers and also support their academic and work experiences.
Competency and Standard
In this section, we review the term competency and standard before we introduce instructional design competencies from professional organizations and from research. Richey et al. (2001) defined competency as “a knowledge, skill or [ability] that enables one to effectively perform the activities of a given occupation or function to the standards expected in employment” (p. 26). Spector and De la Teja (2001, p. 2) refer to the term competency as “a state of being well qualified to perform an activity, task or job function” and competency refers to the “way that a state of competence can be demonstrated to the relevant community.” Thus, competencies are specific to a community of endeavor in which professionals determine the competencies valuable to the profession. As competencies are identified and developed, professionals express these competencies as standards to assist professionals, professional associations, academic programs, and the larger community to better understand the domain of interest.
The KSA framework, comprised of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities, has been used by researchers to study competencies in the field. Ritzhaupt et al. (2010) used the KSA framework to categorize educational technology competencies into knowledge, skills and abilities statements. Figure 1 illustrates this framework in light of three domains used to characterize the field: creating, using, and managing. The KSAs represent the core processes and resources used by those practicing in the field, which are the creation of instructional materials, learning environments, and instructional products using systematic approaches and based on research to improve learning and performance. Using refers to selecting, using, and implementing educational technologies and processes to support student learning and to enhance their pedagogy. Management refers to managing people, processes, physical infrastructures, and financial resources to create diverse learning environments and provide supportive learning communities to improve learning and performance (AECT Standards 2012, 2008).
Standards are critically important to establish a foundation for a field. For instance, the field of project management established the well-known American National Standards Institute’s (ANSI) Guide to The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), which is used as the basis for the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification program and as the official body of knowledge for the profession.
Instructional Design and Technology Competencies and Standards From Professional Organizations
The field of instructional design is comprised of several professional organizations, several of which define competencies and standards for the profession. Table 1 provides a summary of these professional organizations and the following section provides more details about each. Each organization has a different focus and provides standards and competencies for their relevant programs. Students should be reminded that these standards and competencies serve as ideal frameworks, and should not be discouraged by their scope.
Table 1
Professional Organizations Who Publish Instructional Design and Technology Standards
Professional Organization
Website Address
International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction
http://ibstpi.org/
International Society for Performance Improvement
https://www.ispi.org/
Association for Talent Development
https://www.td.org/
Association for Educational Communications and Technology
https://www.aect.org/
Online Learning Consortium
https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/
International Society for Technology in Education
https://www.iste.org/
University Professional and Continuing Education Association
https://upcea.edu/
International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (IBSTPI)
http://ibstpi.org/
Ibstpi Vision: To be the leader in setting international standards in the areas of training, instruction, learning, and performance improvement.
Ibstpi Mission: Develop, validate, and promote implementation of international standards to advance training, instruction, learning, and performance improvement for individuals and organizations.
Ibstpi has competency sets for various learning and development roles, including the instructional designer. They also have competency sets for other roles such as training manager, evaluator, instructor, and learner. For the instructional designer, Ibstpi (2012) developed 22 competencies across five domains.
1. Professional Foundations
2. Planning and Analysis
3. Design and Development
4. Evaluation and Implementation
5. Management
Each of these competencies has detailed performance statements and a level of expertise (essential, managerial and advanced) identified for each of them. Ibstpi goes through a rigorous development model to identify and validate these competencies. The steps in the model include preliminary analysis of job roles, identification of foundational research, competency drafting by directors and experts, validation study design, translation of research instruments in multiple languages and implementation worldwide with working professionals, data analysis and competency validation, publishing final competencies and performance statements and disseminating the competencies to practitioners, researchers and organizations.
International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)
https://www.iste.org/
ISTE Vision: ISTE’s vision is that all educators are empowered to harness technology to accelerate innovation in teaching and learning, and inspire learners to reach their greatest potential.
ISTE Mission: ISTE inspires educators worldwide to use technology to innovate teaching and learning, accelerate good practice, and solve tough problems in education by providing community, knowledge, and the ISTE Standards—a framework for rethinking education and empowering learners.
ISTE has developed well-adopted standards for students, teachers, administrators, coaches, and computer science educators. The ISTE standards are widely accepted in the K-12 community, and have been transformed into assessment systems (Hohlfeld et al., 2010) and a new professional credential offered by ISTE known as the ISTE Certification, which is a vendor neutral teacher certification based on the ISTE Standards for Educators. The ISTE Standards for Educators can be accessed at https://www.iste.org > standards for more information.
They include:
1. Learner: Educators continually improve their practice by learning from and with others and exploring proven and promising practices that leverage technology to improve student learning.
2. Leader: Educators seek out opportunities for leadership to support student empowerment and success and to improve teaching and learning.
3. Citizen: Educators inspire students to positively contribute to and responsibly participate in the digital world.
4. Collaborator: Educators dedicate time to collaborate with both colleagues and students to improve practice, discover and share resources and ideas, and solve problems.
5. Designer: Educators design authentic, learner-driven activities and environments that recognize and accommodate learner variability.
6. Facilitator: Educators facilitate learning with technology to support student achievement of the ISTE Standards for Students.
7. Analyst: Educators understand and use data to drive their instruction and support students in achieving their learning goals.
International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI)
https://www.ispi.org/
ISPI Vision: Performance improvement practices are recognized globally as an essential part of every organization’s competitive strategy.
ISPI Mission: ISPI and its members use evidence-based performance improvement research and practices to effect sustainable, measurable results and add value to stakeholders in the private, public, and social sectors.
ISPI has proposed 10 Human Performance Practitioner Standards for instructional designers who assume the specialized role of performance consultants. The ten standards include,
1. Focus on Results or Outcomes
2. Take a Systemic View
3. Add Value
4. Work in Partnership with Clients and Stakeholders
5. Determine Need or Opportunity
6. Determine Cause
7. Design Solutions including Implementation and Evaluation
8. Ensure Solutions’ Conformity and Feasibility
9. Implement Solutions
10. Evaluate Results and Impact
In addition to the practitioner standards, ISPI also has accreditation standards for organizations and programs/courses. ISPI certifies practitioners though a rigorous peer-review process and with the opportunity for the practitioners to be re-certified every three years.
Association for Talent Development (ATD)
https://www.td.org/
ATD Vision: Create a World That Works Better
ATD Mission: Empower Professionals to Develop Talent in the Workplace
ATD certifies professionals in learning and performance (CPLP) and associate professionals in talent development. The Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) candidates are tested on ten (10) areas of expertise and include:
1. Performance Improvement
2. Instructional Design
3. Training Delivery
4. Learning Technologies
5. Evaluating Learning Impact
6. Managing Learning Programs
7. Integrated Talent Management
8. Coaching
9. Knowledge Management
10. Change Management
ATD also has a competency model for learning and development through which they identify roles, areas of expertise, and foundational competencies for professionals in learning and performance.
Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT)
https://www.aect.org/
AECT Vision: We seek to be the premier international organization in educational technology, the organization to which others refer for research and best practices.
AECT Mission: Provide international leadership by promoting scholarship and best practices in the creation, use, and management of technologies for effective teaching and learning.
Januszewski and Molenda (2007) defined Educational Technology as “the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using, and managing appropriate technological processes and resources“ (p.1).
AECT has developed standards for educational technologists in five areas. These standards can be accessed from the AECT website.
1. Content Knowledge
2. Content Pedagogy
3. Learning Environments
4. Professional Knowledge and Skills
5. Research
For each of the standards, there are several indicators provided. AECT certifies graduate certificate programs in higher education who prepare educational technologists based on these standards.
University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA)
https://upcea.edu/
UPCEA is a leading association of professional, continuing and online education. Their goal is to provide high quality, professional, continuing and online education programs of practice in higher education.
UPCEA® Purposes:
• To promote quality in professional and continuing higher education.
UPCEA has seven standards identified to provide excellence in online learning leadership.
1. Internal Advocacy
2. Entrepreneurial Initiative
3. Faculty Support
4. Student Support
5. Digital Technology
6. External Advocacy
7. Professionalism
Online Learning Consortium (OLC)
https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/
OLC® Vision: Setting the global standard in online and digital learning
OLC® Mission: Creating community and connections around quality online and digital learning while driving innovation
OLC's Five Pillars of Quality Online Education include:
1. Learning Effectiveness
2. Scale
3. Access
4. Faculty Satisfaction
5. Student Satisfaction
Instructional Design and Technology Competencies From Research
In addition to the professional organizations, several researchers have examined instructional design competencies and standards over the years. Table 2 below provides details of researchers and the competencies and standards examined for various instructional design professionals. These articles can be used to plan professional development, academic programs, and learning experiences for our professionals and emerging professionals.
Table 2
Instructional Design and Technology Competencies From Research
Authors
Audience
Research Method
Competencies Identified
Tennyson (2001)
Instructional Technologists
Development of competency worksheet
Educational foundations, instructional systems design methodology, and instructional design process experience
Liu, Gibby, Quiros, and Demps (2002)
Instructional Designers
Interviews
Problem-solving and decision-making skills
Brown, Sugar and Daniels (2007)
Media Producers in entry-level multimedia production
Biennial Survey
Authoring applications media producers regularly use and attributes that are most important to the choice of an authoring application
Kenny, Zhang, Schwier and Campbell (2007)
Instructional Designers
Literature Review
Communication skills, knowledge of instructional design models, problem-solving/decision-making skills, and technology skills
Ritzhaupt, Martin and Daniels (2010)
Educational Technologists
Job Announcement Analysis and Survey of Professionals
Multimedia competencies for educational technologists
Lowenthal, Wilson and Dunlap (2010)
Instructional Designers
Job Announcement Analysis
Instructional design experience, communication skills and collaboration skills
Wakefield, Warren and Mills (2012)
Instructional Designers
Job Announcement Analysis
Communication and interpersonal skills, managing multiple instructional
Design projects, specific traits, and collaborative skills
Ritzhaupt and Kumar (2015)
Instructional Designers in Higher Education
In-depth Interviews
Solid foundation in instructional design and learning theory, possess soft skills and technical skills, and have a willingness to learn on the job
Kang and Ritzhaupt (2015)
Educational Technologists
Job Announcement Analysis
Instructional design, project management, technical skills, and soft skills
Ritzhaupt, Martin, Pastore and Kang (2018)
Educational Technologists
Survey of Professionals
Instructional design, development, facilitation, assessment, evaluation, communication, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills
Learning theory also guides ethical decision-making when engaged in the creation of a wide-array of learning solutions. Professionals must also stay abreast in emerging learning technologies and should possess both the ability to learn independently and the commitment to lifelong learning. Other knowledge, skills, and abilities were identified in these studies, but these areas noted were frequently observed and noted.
Conclusion
Professional competencies and standards are helpful ways to communicate the value-add of our professionals to stakeholders outside of our community in various professional contexts (e.g., healthcare), to assist our professionals and emerging professionals in planning professional development and lifelong learning (e.g., which webinar to attend), and to guide our academic programs to align with the expectations of the needs in our field (e.g., selecting which topics to cover in an instructional design course). While no list of competencies and standards is complete, those enumerated in this chapter provide readers a glimpse of the status of the profession as described by our professional organizations and existing research literature. Students entering the profession should spend time on learning these competencies and standards to identify career paths and professional development opportunities. We conclude the chapter with some independent learning activities for your edification.
Application Exercises
1. How should professional competencies and standards be identified, documented, and used by professionals in our field? What forms of research methods have been used to identify and document these competencies and standards? Write a brief overview of how you think competencies and standards should be developed in our profession by reviewing the existing articles listed in Table 2.
2. Read three of the recent articles listed in Table 2. Using the competencies and standards provided in these articles, write a short list of professional learning outcomes for yourself to achieve in the next calendar year.
3. Explore one of the professional organizations discussed in this chapter to identify more detailed information about the organization, including when the professional organization hosts its annual conference, the cost of membership, the list of readings available with membership, and any of professional learning (e.g., webinars) provided by the organization for its members.
4. Some scholars, such as Ritzhaupt and Martin (2010; 2014; 2018) have expressed the competencies of professionals using knowledge, skill, and ability statements. Using this approach, search and identify 10 instructional design professional position announcements using tools like indeed.com. After identifying the announcements, code the knowledge, skill, and ability statements found in these announcements.
References
Brown, A., Sugar, B. & Daniels, L. (2007). Media production curriculum and competencies: Identifying entry-level multimedia production competencies and skills of instructional design and technology professionals: Results from a biennial survey. Paper presented at Association of Educational Communcations and Technology.
Hohlfeld, T. N., Ritzhaupt, A. D., & Barron, A. E. (2010). Development and validation of the Student Tool for Technology Literacy (ST2L). Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 42(4), 361-389.
Januszewski, A., Molenda, M., & Harris, P. (Eds.). (2008). Educational technology: A definition with commentary (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associate
Kang, Y., & Ritzhaupt, A. D. (2015). A job announcement analysis of educational technology professional positions: Knowledge, skills, and abilities. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 43(3), 231-256.
Kenny, R.F., Zhang, Z., Schwier, R.A., & Campbell, K. (2008). A review of what instructional designers do: Questions answered and questions not asked. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 31(1).
Liu, M., Gibby, S., Quiros, O. & Demps, E. (2002). Challenges of being an instructional designer for new media development: A view from the practitioners. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 11(3), 195-219.
Lowenthal, P., Wilson, B. G., & Dunlap, J. C. (2010). An analysis of what instructional designers need to know and be able to do to get a job. Presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Anaheim, CA.
Ritzhaupt, A. D., & Kumar, S. (2015). Knowledge and skills needed by instructional designers in higher education. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 28(3), 51–69.
Ritzhaupt, A. D., & Martin, F. (2014). Development and validation of the educational technologist multimedia competency survey. Educational Technology Research and Development, 62(1), 13–33.
Ritzhaupt, A., Martin, F., & Daniels, K. (2010). Multimedia competencies for an educational technologist: A survey of professionals and job announcement analysis. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 19(4), 421–449.
Ritzhaupt, A. D., Martin, F., Pastore, R., & Kang, Y. (2018). Development and validation of the educational technologist competencies survey (ETCS): Knowledge, skills, and abilities. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 30(1), 3–33.
Spector, J. M., & De la Teja, I. (2001). Competencies for online teaching. ERIC Clearinghouse on Information & Technology, Syracuse University.
Tennyson, R. D. (2001). Defining core competencies of an instructional technologist. Computers in Human Behavior, 17, 355–361.
Williams van Rooij, S. (2013). The career path to instructional design project management: An expert perspective from the US professional services sector. International Journal of Training and Development, 17(1), 33-53.
Wakefield, J., Warren, S., & Mills, L. (2012). Traits, skills, and competencies aligned with workplace demands: What today’s instructional designers need to master. In P. Resta (Ed.), Proceedings of society for information technology and teacher education international conference 2012 (pp.3126–3132).
Suggested Citation
Martin, F. & Ritzhaupt, A. D. (2021). Standards and Competencies for Instructional Design and Technology Professionals. In J. K. McDonald & R. E. West (Eds.), Design for Learning: Principles, Processes, and Praxis. EdTech Books. https://edtechbooks.org/id/standards_and_competencies | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/05%3A_Sources_of_Design_Knowledge/5.05%3A_Standards_And_Competencie.txt |
Design Thinking
Vanessa Svihla
Editor's Note
This is a condensed version of a chapter originally published in the open textbook Foundations of Learning and Instructional Design Technology. It is printed here under the same license as the original.
Introduction
Many depictions of design process, and a majority of early design learning experiences, depict design as rather linear—a “waterfall” view of design (Figure 1). This depiction was put forward as a flawed model (Royce, 1970), yet it is relatively common. It also contrasts with what researchers have documented as expert design practice.
Fortunately, as instructional designers, we have many models and methods of design practice to guide us. While ADDIE is ubiquitous, it is not a singular, prescriptive approach, though it is sometimes depicted—and even practiced—as such. When we look at what experienced designers do, we find they tend to use iterative methods that sometimes appear a bit messy or magical, leveraging their past experiences as precedent. Perhaps the most inspiring approaches that reflect this are human-centered design and design thinking. However, most of us harbor more than a few doubts and questions about these approaches, such as the following:
• Design thinking seems both useful and cool, but I have to practice a more traditional approach like ADDIE or waterfall. Can I integrate design thinking into my practice?
• Design thinking—particularly the work by IDEO—is inspiring. As an instructional designer, can design thinking guide me to create instructional designs that really help people?
• Given that design thinking seems to hold such potential for instructional designers, I want to do a research study on design thinking. Because it is still so novel, what literature should I review?
• As a designer, I sometimes get to the end of the project, and then have a huge insight about improvements. Is there a way to shift such insights to earlier in the process so that I can take advantage of them?
• If design thinking methods are so effective, why aren’t we taught to do them from beginning?
To answer these questions, I explore how research on design thinking sheds light on different design methods, considering how these methods originated and focusing on lessons for instructional designers. I then share a case to illustrate how different design methods might incorporate design thinking. I close by raising concerns and suggesting ways forward.
What is Design Thinking?
There is no single, agreed-upon definition of design thinking, nor even of what being adept at it might result in, beyond good design (Rodgers, 2013), which is, itself, subjective. If we look at definitions over time and across fields (Table 1), we see most researchers reference design thinking as methods, practices or processes, and a few others reference cognition or mindset. This reflects the desire to understand both what it is that designers do and how and when they know to do it (Adams, Daly, Mann, & Dall’Alba, 2011). Some definitions emphasize identity (Adams et al., 2011), as well as values (e.g., practicality, empathy) (Cross, 1982). In later definitions, design thinking is more clearly connected to creativity and innovation (Wylant, 2008); we note that while mentioned in early design research publications (e.g., Buchanan, 1992), innovation was treated as relatively implicit.
Table 1
Characterizations of Design Thinking (DT) Across Fields, Authors, and Over Time
Design research field characterizes DT (1992) IDEO president introduces DT to the business world, 2008 Stanford d.school (2012) & IDEO (2011) introduce DT resources for educators Education researchers characterize DT for education research & practice, 2012 Design researchers continue to develop nuanced characterizations of DT in practice, 2013
“how designers formulate problems, how they generate solutions, and the cognitive strategies they employ.” These include framing the problem, oscillating between possible solutions and reframing the problem, imposing constraints to generate ideas, and reasoning abductively.
(Cross, Dorst, & Roozenburg, 1992, p. 4)
“uses the designer’s sensibility and methods [empathy, integrative thinking, optimism, experimentalism, collaboration] to match people’s needs with what is technologically feasible and what a viable business strategy can convert into customer value and market opportunity.“
(Brown, 2008, p. 2)
“a mindset.” It is human-centered, collaborative, optimistic, and experimental.
The “structured” process of design includes discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation, and evolution (d.school, 2012; IDEO, 2011)
“analytic and creative process that engages a person in opportunities to experiment, create and prototype models, gather feedback, and redesign”
(Razzouk & Shute, 2012, p. 330)
“a methodology to generate innovative ideas.”
These include switching between design tasks and working iteratively.
(Rodgers, 2013, p. 434)
Additional Reading
For another great summary of various approaches to design thinking, see this article by the Interaction Design Foundation. This foundation has many other interesting articles on design that would be good reading for an instructional design student.
https://edtechbooks.org/-nh
Where Did Design Thinking Come From? What Does It Mean for Instructional Designers?
Design thinking emerged from the design research field[1]—an interdisciplinary field that studies how designers do their work. Initially, design thinking was proposed out of a desire to differentiate the work of designers from that of scientists. As Nigel Cross explained, “We do not have to turn design into an imitation of science, nor do we have to treat design as a mysterious, ineffable art” (Cross, 1999, p. 7). By documenting what accomplished designers do and how they explain their process, design researchers argued that while scientific thinking can be characterized as reasoning inductively and deductively, designers reason constructively or abductively (Kolko, 2010). When designers think abductively, they fill in gaps in knowledge about the problem space and the solution space, drawing inferences based on their past design work and on what they understand the problem to be
Lesson #1 for ID
Research on design thinking should inspire us to critically consider how we use precedent to fill in gaps as we design. Precedent includes our experiences as learners, which may be saturated with uninspired and ineffective instructional design.
A critical difference between scientific thinking and design thinking is the treatment of the problem. Whereas in scientific thinking the problem is treated as solvable through empirical reasoning, in design thinking problems are tentative, sometimes irrational conjectures to be dealt with (Diethelm, 2016). This type of thinking has an argumentative grammar, meaning the designer considers suppositional if-then and what-if scenarios to iteratively frame the problem and design something that is valuable for others (Dorst, 2011). As designers do this kind of work, they are jointly framing the problem and posing possible solutions, checking to see if their solutions satisfy the identified requirements (Cross et al., 1992; Kimbell, 2012). From this point of view, we don’t really know what the design problem is until it is solved! And when doing design iteratively, this means we are changing the design problem multiple times.
Other design methods that engage stakeholders early in the design process, such as participatory design (Muller & Kuhn, 1993; Schuler & Namioka, 1993) and human-centered design (Rouse, 1991) have also influenced research on design thinking. While these approaches differed in original intent, these differences have been blurred as they have come into practice. Instead of defining each, let’s consider design characteristics made salient by comparing them with more traditional, linear methods. These methods tend to be iterative, and tend to bring stakeholders into the process more deeply to better understand their experiences, extending the approach taken in ADDIE, or even to invite stakeholders to generate possible design ideas and help frame the design problem.
When designing with end-users, we get their perspective and give them more ownership over the design, but it can be difficult to help them be visionary. As an example, consider early smartphone design. Early versions had keyboards and very small screens and each new version was incrementally different from the prior version. If we had asked users what they wanted, most would have suggested minor changes in line with the kinds of changes they were seeing with each slightly different version. Likewise, traditional approaches to instruction should help inspire stakeholder expectations of what is possible in a learning design.
Lesson #2 for ID
Inviting stakeholders into instructional design process early can lead to more successful designs, but we should be ready to support them to be visionary, while considering how research on how people learn might inform the design.
Designers who engage with end-users must also attend to power dynamics (Kim, Tan, & Kim, 2012). As instructional designers, when we choose to include learners in the design process, they may be uncertain about how honest they can be with us. This is especially true when working with children or adults from marginalized communities or cultures unfamiliar to us. For instance, an instructional designer who develops a basic computer literacy training for women fleeing abuse may well want to understand more about learner needs, but should consider carefully the situations in which learners will feel empowered to share.
Lesson #3 for ID
With a focus on understanding human need, design thinking should also draw our attention to inclusivity, diversity, and participant safety.
We next turn to an example, considering what design thinking might look like across different instructional design practices.
Design Thinking in ID Practice
To understand how design thinking might play out in different instructional design methods, let’s consider a case, with the following three different instructional design practices:
• Waterfall design proceeds in a linear, stepwise fashion, treating the problem as known and unchanging
• ADDIE design, in this example, often proceeds in a slow, methodical manner, spending time stepwise on each phase
• Human-centered design prioritizes understanding stakeholder experiences, sometimes co-designing with stakeholders
A client—a state agency—issued a call for proposals that addressed a design brief for instructional materials paired with new approaches to assessment that would be “worth teaching to.” They provided information on the context, learners, constraints, requirements, and what they saw as the failings of current practice. They provided evaluation reports conducted by an external contractor and a list of 10 sources of inspiration from other states.
They reviewed short proposals from 10 instructional design firms. In reviewing these proposals, they noted that even though all designers had access to the same information and the same design brief, the solutions were different, yet all were satisficing, meaning they met the requirements without violating any constraints. They also realized that not only were there 10 different solutions, there were also 10 different problems being solved! Even though the client had issued a design brief, each team defined the problem differently.
The client invited three teams to submit long proposals, which needed to include a clear depiction of the designed solution, budget implications for the agency, and evidence that the solution would be viable. Members of these teams were given a small budget to be spent as they chose.
Team Waterfall, feeling confident in having completed earlier design steps during the short proposal stage, used the funds to begin designing their solution, hoping to create a strong sense of what they would deliver if chosen. They focused on details noted in the mostly positive feedback on their short proposal. They felt confident they were creating a solution that the client would be satisfied with because their design met all identified requirements, because they used their time efficiently, and because as experienced designers, they knew they were doing quality, professional design. Team Waterfall treated the problem as adequately framed and solved it without iteration. Designers often do this when there is little time or budget[2], or simply because the problem appears to be an another-of problem—“this is just another of something I have designed before.” While this can be an efficient way to design, it seldom gets at the problem behind the problem, and does not account for changes in who might need to use the designed solution or what their needs are. Just because Team Waterfall used a more linear process does not mean that they did not engage in design thinking. They used design thinking to frame the problem in their initial short proposal, and then again as they used design precedent—their past experience solving similar problems—to deliver a professional, timely, and complete solution.
Team ADDIE used the funds to conduct a traditional needs assessment, interviewing five stakeholders to better understand the context, and then collecting data with a survey they created based on their analysis. They identified specific needs, some of which aligned to those in the design brief and some that demonstrated the complexity of the problem. They reframed the problem and created a low fidelity prototype. They did not have time to test it with stakeholders, but could explain how it met the identified needs. They felt confident the investment in understanding needs would pay off later, because it gave them insight into the problem. Team ADDIE used design thinking to fill gaps in their understanding of context, allowing them to extend their design conjectures to propose a solution based on a reframing of the design problem.
Team Human-centered used the budget to hold an intensive five-day co-design session with a major stakeholder group. Stakeholders shared their experiences and ideas for improving on their experience. Team Human crafted three personas based on this information and created a prototype, which the stakeholder group reviewed favorably. They submitted this review with their prototype. Team Human-centered valued stakeholder point of view above all else, but failed to consider that an intensive five-day workshop would limit who could attend. They used design thinking to understand differences in stakeholder point of view and reframed the problem based on this; however, they treated this as covering the territory of stakeholder perspectives. They learned a great deal about the experiences these stakeholders had, but failed to help the stakeholders think beyond their own experiences, resulting in a design that was only incrementally better than existing solutions and catered to the desires of one group over others.
The case above depicts ways of proceeding in design process and different ways of using design thinking. These characterizations are not intended to privilege one design approach over others, but rather to provoke the reader to consider them in terms of how designers fill in gaps in understanding, how they involve stakeholders, and how iteratively they work. Each approach, however, also carries potential risks and challenges (Figure 2). For instance, designers may not have easy access to stakeholders, and large projects may make more human-centered approaches unwieldy to carry out (Turk, France, & Rumpe, 2002).
Critiques of Design Thinking
While originally a construct introduced by design researchers to investigate how designers think and do their work, design thinking became popularized, first in the business world (Brown, 2008) and later in education. Given this popularity, design thinking was bound to draw critique in the public sphere. To understand these critiques, it is worth returning to the definitions cited earlier (Table 1). Definitions outside of the design research field tend to be based in specific techniques and strategies aimed at innovation; such accounts fail to capture the diversity of actual design practices (Kimbell, 2011). They also tend to privilege the designer as a savior, an idea at odds with the keen focus on designing with stakeholders that is visible in the design research field (Kimbell, 2011). As a result, some have raised concerns that design thinking can be a rather privileged process—e.g., upper middle class white people drinking wine in a museum while solving poverty with sticky note ideas—that fails to lead to sufficiently multidimensional understandings of complex processes (Collier, 2017). Still others argue that much of design thinking is nothing new (Merholz, 2009), to which researchers in the design research field have responded: design thinking, as represented externally might not be new, but the rich body of research from the field could inform new practices (Dorst, 2011).
These critiques should make us cautious about how we, as instructional designers, take up design thinking and new design practices. Below, I raise a few concerns for new instructional designers, for instructional designers interested in incorporating new methods, for those who teach instructional design, and for those planning research studies about new design methods.
My first concern builds directly on critiques from the popular press and my experience as a reviewer of manuscripts. Design thinking is indeed trendy, and of course people want to engage with it. But as we have seen, it is also complex and subtle. Whenever we engage with a new topic, we necessarily build on our past understandings and beliefs as we make connections. It should not be surprising, then, that when our understanding of a new concept is nascent, it might not be very differentiated from previous ideas. Compare, for example, Polya’s “How to Solve it” from 1945 to Stanford’s d.school representation of design thinking (Table 2). While Polya did not detail a design process, but rather a process for solving mathematics problems, the two processes are superficially very similar. These general models of complex, detailed processes are zoomed out to such a degree that we lose the detail. These details matter, whether you are a designer learning a new practice or a researcher studying how designers do their work. For those learning a new practice, I advise you to attend to the differences, not the similarities. For those planning studies of design thinking, keep in mind that “design thinking” is too broad to study effectively as a whole. Narrow your scope and zoom in to a focal length that lets you investigate the details. As you do so, however, do not lose sight of how the details function in a complex process. For instance, consider the various approaches being investigated to measure design thinking; some treat these as discrete, separable skills, and others consider them in tandem (Carmel-Gilfilen & Portillo, 2010; Dolata, Uebernickel, & Schwabe, 2017; Lande, Sonalkar, Jung, Han, & Banerjee, 2012; Razzouk & Shute, 2012).
Table 2
Similarities Between “How to Solve it” and a Representation of Design Thinking
Polya, 1945 How to solve it Stanford’s d.school design thinking representation
Understand the problem Empathize, Define
Devise a plan Ideate
Carry out the plan Prototype
Look back Test
My second concern is that we tend, as a field, to remain naïve about the extant and extensive research on design thinking and other design methods, in part because many of these studies were conducted in other design fields (e.g., architecture, engineering) and published in journals such as Design Studies (which has seldom referenced instructional design). Not attending to past and current research, and instead receiving information about alternative design methods filtered through other sources is akin to the game of telephone. By the time the message reaches us, it can be distorted. While we need to adapt alternative methods to our own ID practices and contexts, we should do more to learn from other design fields, and also contribute our findings to the design research field. As designers, we would do well to learn from fields that concern themselves with human experience and focus somewhat less on efficiency.
My third concern is about teaching alternative design methods to novice designers. The experience of learning ID is often just a single pass, with no or few opportunities to iterate. As a result, flexible methods inspired by design thinking may seem the perfect way to begin learning to design, because there is no conflicting traditional foundation to overcome. However, novice designers tend to jump to solutions too quickly, a condition no doubt brought about in part by an emphasis in schooling on getting to the right answer using the most efficient method. Design thinking methods encourage designers to come to a tentative solution right away, then get feedback by testing low fidelity prototypes. This approach could exacerbate a new designer’s tendency to leap to solutions. And once a solution is found, it can be hard to give alternatives serious thought. Yet, I argue that the solution is not to ignore human-centered methods in early instruction. By focusing only on ADDIE, we may create a different problem by signaling to new designers that the ID process is linear and tidy, when this is typically not the case.
Instead, if we consider ADDIE as a scaffold for designers, we can see that its clarity makes it a useful set of supports for those new to design. Alternative methods seldom offer such clarity, and have far fewer resources available, making it challenging to find the needed supports. To resolve this, we need more and better scaffolds that support novice designers to engage in human-centered work. For instance, I developed a Wrong Theory Design Protocol (https://edtechbooks.org/-ub) that helps inexperienced designers get unstuck, consider the problem from different points of view, and consider new solutions. Such scaffolds could lead to a new generation of instructional designers who are better prepared to tackle complex learning designs, who value the process of framing problems with stakeholders, and who consider issues of power, inclusivity, and diversity in their designing.
Concluding Thoughts
I encourage novice instructional designers, as they ponder the various ID models, approaches, practices and methods available to them, to be suspicious of any that render design work tidy and linear. If, in the midst of designing, you feel muddy and uncertain, unsure how to proceed, you are likely exactly where you ought to be.
In such situations, we use design thinking to fill in gaps in our understanding of the problem and to consider how our solution ideas might satisfy design requirements. While experienced designers have an expansive set of precedents to work with in filling these gaps, novice designers need to look more assiduously for such inspiration. Our past educational experiences may covertly convince us that just because something is common, it is best. While a traditional instructional approach may be effective for some learners, I encourage novice designers to consider the following questions to scaffold their evaluation of instructional designs:
• Does its effectiveness depend significantly on having compliant learners who do everything asked of them without questioning why they are doing it?
• Is it a design worth engaging with? Would you want to be the learner? Would your mother, child, or next-door neighbor want to be? If yes on all counts, consider who wouldn’t, and why they wouldn’t.
• Is the design, as one of my favorite project-based teachers used to ask, “provocative” for the learners, meaning, will it provoke a strong response, a curiosity, and a desire to know more?
• Is the design “chocolate-covered broccoli” that tricks learners into engaging?
To be clear, the goal is not to make all learning experiences fun or easy, but to make them worthwhile. And I can think of no better way to ensure this than using iterative, human-centered methods that help designers understand and value multiple stakeholder perspectives. And if, in the midst of seeking, analyzing, and integrating such points of view, you find yourself thinking, “This is difficult,” that is because it is difficult. Providing a low fidelity prototype for stakeholders to react to can make this process clearer and easier to manage, because it narrows the focus.
However, success of this approach depends on several factors. First, it helps to have forthright stakeholders who are at least a little hard to please. Second, if the design is visionary compared to the current state, stakeholders may need to be coaxed to envision new learning situations to react effectively. Third, designers need to resist the temptation to settle on an early design idea.
Finally, I encourage instructional designers—novice and expert alike—to let themselves be inspired by the design research field and human-centered approaches, and then to give back by sharing their design work as design cases (such as in the International Journal of Designs for Learning ) and by publishing in design research journals . | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/06%3A_Instructional_Design_Processes/6.01%3A_Design_Thinking.txt |
Robert Gagné and the Systematic Design of Instruction
John H. Curry, Sacha Johnson, & Rebeca Peacock
To begin any study of instructional design, it is beneficial to examine the roots of the field. Where did the field originate? How did we develop into a field of study and practice? As your study continues, you can better see how the knowledge base of the field began, how it progressed, and how it was researched and when, which will help you gain a better understanding of the process and practice of instructional design as well as the field as a whole. Specifically, understanding the origins of the systematic design of instruction will give the learner a greater appreciation for today’s more robust design theories and models.
As the United States entered World War II, they faced an enormous problem: How were they going to train so many troops? The numbers are staggering. The military trained over 16 million troops. In addition, the technology of the war had changed drastically from World War I, and the troops needed to be trained on all the skills necessary to complete their tasks at hand, and FAST. They did not have the luxury of time—the training needed to be done quickly, effectively, and efficiently.
After the war ended, cognitive psychologists, many of whom had served in World War II themselves, began studying how to apply the training lessons from the war to other instructional settings to help people learn better. Combining the work of those researchers, the systematic instructional design process was born.
Gagné’s Conditions of Learning
Conditions of Learning
Robert Gagné was working on his Ph.D. in Psychology when World War II began. While assigned to Psychological Research Unit No. 1, he administered scoring and aptitude tests to select aviation cadets. After the War, Gagné joined the Air Force Personnel and Training Research Center where he directed the Perceptual and Motor Skills Laboratory. He held multiple academic positions throughout his career, ranging from the Connecticut College for Women to Princeton to Florida State University. His experiences in the military and training there guided much of his research. In 1959, he participated in the prestigious Woods Hole Conference, a gathering of outstanding educators, psychologists, mathematicians and other scientists from the United States in response to the Soviet Union launching the Sputnik satellite. The results of the conference were published in Bruner’s The Process of Education (1961). Four years later, Gagné published The Conditions of Learning (1965).
Taxonomy of Learning Outcomes
Gagné posited that not all learning is equal and each distinct learning domain should be presented and assessed differently. Therefore, as an instructional designer one of the first tasks is to determine which learning domain applies to the content. The theoretical basis behind the Conditions of Learning is that learning outcomes can be broken down into five different domains: verbal information, cognitive strategies, motor skills, attitudes, and intellectual skills (see Figure 1).
Verbal information includes basic labels and facts (e.g. names of people, places, objects, or events) as well as bodies of knowledge (e.g. paraphrasing of ideas or rules and regulations). Cognitive strategies are internal processes where the learner can control his/her own way of thinking such as creating mental models or self-evaluating study skills. Motor skills require bodily movement such as throwing a ball, tying a shoelace, or using a saw. Attitude is a state that affects a learner’s action towards an event, person, or object. For example, appreciating a selection of music or writing a letter to the editor. Intellectual skills have their own hierarchical structure within the Gagné taxonomy and are broken down into discrimination, concrete concepts, rule using, and problem solving. Discrimination is when the learner can identify differences between inputs or members of a particular class and respond appropriately to each. For example, distinguishing when to use a Phillips-head or a flat-head screwdriver. Concrete concepts are the opposite of discrimination because they entail responding the same way to all members of a class or events. An example would be classifying music as pop, country, or classical. Rule using is applying a rule to a given situation or condition. A learner will need to relate two or more simpler concepts, as a rule states the relationship among concepts. In many cases, it is helpful to think of these as “if-then” statements. For example, “if the tire is flat, then I either need to put air in the tire or change the flat tire.” Finally, problem solving is combining lower-level rules and applying them to previously unencountered situations. This could include generating new rules through trial and error until a problem is solved.
Nine Events of Instruction
Beyond his assertion that not all learning is equal, Gagné also theorized an effective learning process consisting of nine separate and distinct steps or events (see Figure 2). These events build naturally upon each other and improve the communication supporting the learning process. The events facilitate learner engagement as well as retention of the content being presented. For an instructional designer, they provide a framework or outline to structure the delivery of instructional content.
Event one: Gain attention. Before learning can happen, the learners must be engaged. To gain the learners’ attention, any number of strategies can be employed. It could be as simple as turning the lights on and off, the teacher counting down, or the teacher clapping three times. Other options could include a discussion prompt, showing a video, or discussing current events.
Event two: Inform learners of objective. Once learners are engaged, they are informed of the objective of the instruction, which gives learners a road map to the instruction. It allows them to actively navigate the instruction and know where they are supposed to end up. This could be written on a whiteboard in front of the class, highlighted on materials, spoken verbally, or posted clearly in an online context.
Event three: Stimulate recall of prior learning. Stimulating recall of prior learning allows learners to build upon previous content covered or skills acquired. This can be done by referring to previous instruction, using polls to determine previous content understanding (and then discussing the results), or by using a discussion on previous topics as a segue between previous content and new content.
Event four: Present the stimulus material. Presenting the stimulus material is simply where the instructor presents new content. According to Gagné, this presentation should vary depending on the domain of learning corresponding to the new content.
Event five: Provide learner guidance. Providing learner guidance entails giving learners the scaffolding and tools needed to be successful in the learning context. Instructors can provide detailed rubrics or give clear instruction on expectations for the learning context and the timeline for completion.
Event six: Elicit performance. Eliciting performance allows learners to apply the knowledge or skills learned before being formally assessed. It allows learners to practice without penalty and receive further instruction, remediation, or clarification needed to be successful.
Event seven: Provide feedback. Hand in hand with eliciting performance in a practice setting, the instructor provides feedback to further assist learners’ content or skill mastery.
Event eight: Assess performance. Following the opportunity to practice the new knowledge or skill (events five, six, and seven), learner performance is assessed. It is imperative that the performance be assessed in a manner consistent with its domain of learning. For example, verbal knowledge can be assessed using traditional fact tests or with rote memorization, but motor skills must be assessed by having the learner demonstrate the skill.
Event nine: Enhance retention and transfer. Enhancing retention and transfer gives the learner the opportunity to apply the skill or knowledge to a previously unencountered situation or to personal contexts. For example, using class discussion, designing projects, or by writing essays.
Gagné’s Impact on Instructional Design
The impact Robert Gagné had on the field of instructional design cannot be understated. For example, from his initial work we can trace the evolution of the domains of learning from the Conditions of Learning through other theories such as Merrill’s Component Display Theory (1994), to Smith and Ragan’s Instructional Design Theory (1992), to van Merrienboer’s complex cognitive skills in the 4C/ID model of instructional design (1997). Beyond that, Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction also paved the way for a systematic process for designing instruction. For the first time, those designing instruction had a process to follow, a blueprint. And almost 60 years later, Gagné’s work still serves as the basic framework all instructional designers who use systematic processes follow.
ADDIE
In 1965, the United States Air Force created their first major instructional system. By 1970, the system had grown into a full Five-Step Approach to designing instruction (US Air Force). The five steps for designing instruction were: Analyze system requirements; Define education training requirements; Develop objectives and tests; Plan, develop, and validate instruction; and Conduct and evaluate instruction. Reflexive within this circular model was feedback and intervention. This model gave way to the conceptual framework known as ADDIE, upon which the majority of subsequent systematic instructional design (ID) models are inherently based. It consists of five phases: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (see Figure 3). Each of these phases builds on the previous phase to systematically identify and clarify an instructional problem, develop and implement a solution, and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the solution. Additionally, evaluation occurs throughout the other phases to inform the design of the instruction.
The systematic process of designing instruction begins with the analysis of a problem to determine whether instruction is a possible solution. The analysis phase includes analyzing the needs, tasks, and learners in order to clarify the problem, goals and objectives of the instruction, the learning environment, and learner characteristics. Based on the results of the analyses, the instructional designer clarifies the instructional problem and identifies the instructional goals and objectives. During the design phase, the instructional designer writes the learning objectives and chooses an ID model. The development phase consists of creating all instructional materials. Implementation is when the instruction is delivered to learners either in a formative or summative setting. The evaluation phase is reflexive with formative evaluation, which consists of ongoing feedback as the instruction is designed and developed, and summative evaluation consisting of the final evaluation after full implementation. These phases are discussed more in-depth in their respective chapters.
Dick and Carey Model
Working from the conceptual framework of the ADDIE model and building upon a systematic approach to instruction like Gagné’s Conditions of Learning, the Dick and Carey Model is one of many systematic instructional design processes. While each model may have its own individual process, they also have many characteristics in common such as attention to detail and precision. The Dick and Carey model is comprised of nine stages incorporating elements from previous design models as well as elements from behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism (see Figure 4). This model provides the designer with a process that incorporates flexibility and allows the designer to make appropriate adaptations for their particular situation.
Instructional Goals
Instructional goals can be set using a variety of methods; however, the key is to determine whether instruction truly is the solution or if there are other factors that may be contributing to a performance issue. The designer’s job is to sift through many points of data to get to the root of the problem. For example, employees in auto manufacturing may not be meeting company-defined benchmarks due to poor training, but it could also be due to poorly defined processes that take too much time to complete. In education, students may fall behind on benchmarks due to poor teaching, but it could be that teachers are required to cover too many topics and the students are not able to retain all of this information. To help gather this information, instructional designers perform a performance analysis and needs assessment.
Performance analysis. In a performance analysis, the designer will compare a desired performance outcome to the current performance level and identify a performance gap. This process involves reviewing data to identify the gap. Some designers will use a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis framework to help define this gap.
Needs assessment. In a needs assessment, the designer works to identify what the learners will need in order to bridge the identified performance gap. Some methods to help identify this gap can be performance data, including tests, observations, interviews, surveys, and even doing the work of the learner to help identify challenges or opportunities.
Instructional Analysis
Once goals have been established, it is important to map out the step-by-step process students will need in order to achieve these goals. In an instructional analysis it often helps to use a flow-chart to map out each skill into its smallest step but also to identify any additional steps or skills, often called subordinate skills, that must be mastered before mastering the main skill.
Entry Behaviors and Characteristics
It is also essential to identify the behaviors and characteristics of the learner in order to provide the optimum learning experience. This involves determining what the learner already knows or can do—these are called entry skills. However, it is also important to gather information on their attitudes toward learning, their motivation for learning, education backgrounds, ability levels, and personal characteristics such as age or experience with technology.
Performance Objectives
Performance objectives are what the learner will be able to do following instruction. While there are variations on how to write performance objectives, a general rule is to include a condition, a behavior, and a criterion. Many designers use Bloom’s Taxonomy or Mager’s ABCD model to help define measurable behaviors in their objectives. Ultimately, objectives should be specific and measurable.
Criterion-Referenced Test Items
Criterion-referenced test items are used to measure the performance objectives. These items can be used on assessments such as pre- and post-tests as well as performance-based measures such as performance observations using rubrics or attitude changes.
Instructional Strategy
When the assessment has been defined, the designer can work on mapping out an instructional strategy. The designer will need to review and sequence the content into a meaningful lesson. They will also need to decide on the types of learning experiences and activities they want the learner to engage in. As described earlier in this chapter, Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction is one method for structuring a learning experience.
Instructional Materials
Once the instructional framework is developed, appropriate materials are created. This can include using existing print or media materials or creating new materials. This should be an iterative process, gathering feedback and making improvements. Some designers will provide rough draft outlines to graphic or multimedia designers for development.
Formative Evaluation
As mentioned previously, formative evaluation is used to help a designer measure the effectiveness of their instructional strategy and materials. The designer will work with individuals and groups to review the instruction and identify weaknesses and/or gaps. The materials are revised based on this input to make sure the instruction is appropriate and clear for the learners.
Summative Evaluation
Finally, the instruction is reviewed by experts and field-tested. The objective is to ensure that the instruction targets the necessary skills defined in the instructional analysis and produces the desired results in the field.
Conclusion
The study of instructional design is eclectic and full of history. From its roots in cognitive psychology and the training of troops in World War II to the rise of the systematic instructional design models, researchers have worked to provide those designing instruction a process by which not only could they create meaningful instruction more quickly, but also to consider the diversity of learners and learning contexts as well as the difference in the types of content to be learned.
If a student of instructional design looks critically at the models and theories in the field, it is not very hard to trace the continuing influence of these early researchers into today’s current practices. For example, Gagné’s domains of learning influenced Merrill’s Component Display Theory (Merrill, 1983), as Merrill had similar categories of learning, but gave them different names. However, the idea that all content falls into one distinct domain of learning shifted with the research of van Merrienboer (1997) who wrote about complex cognitive skills that have aspects of multiple domains. The same can be said of the systematic instructional design models. The Conditions of Learning led to the Air Force model (Department of the Air Force, 1993) and the ADDIE framework. The ADDIE framework gave way to other instructional design models like the Smith and Ragan (1992); ASSURE (Heinich, Molenda, Russell, and Smaldino, and 2001); and the Morrison, Ross, and Kemp (2012). Most recently, David Merrill (2002) distilled the similarities in each model down to what he termed the “First Principles of Instruction,” a model that encompasses all the others and provides a new framework for designing problem-based instruction.
The influence of Robert Gagné and the systematic instructional design models on the field of instructional design is clear. What was new in the 1950s and 1960s is now accepted unilaterally and generally implemented: not all instruction is equal; there are different domains of learning and each should be presented and assessed appropriately; and an intentional design process should lead to more effective and efficient instruction.
Application Exercises
1. Consider the different ID models in this chapter. What are the benefits of using these processes? What are the challenges with using these processes?
2. Compare and contrast the ID models in this chapter. How might the differences in each model impact the overall design process?
3. Consider instruction you have participated in at school, work, or in the community. Describe how you would apply Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction to improve that instruction.
4. You have been asked to design instruction for a large company on their new telephone system. Use either ADDIE or the Dick and Carey Model to describe the steps you would take to provide this instruction. Be specific and use the language of the model to frame your discussion. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/06%3A_Instructional_Design_Processes/6.02%3A_Robert_Gagne_And_The_S.txt |
Designing Instruction for Complex Learning
Jimmy Frerejean, Jeroen J.G. van Merriënboer, Paul A. Kirschner, Ann Roex, Bert Aertgeerts, & Marco Marcellis
Editor's Note
This is a condensed version of Frerejean, J., van Merriënboer, J. J. G., Kirschner, P. A., Roex, A., Aertgeerts, B., & Marcellis, M. (2019). Designing instruction for complex learning: 4C/ID in higher educationEuropean Journal of Education54(4), 513–524. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12363, and is printed here under the same license as the original.
Continuing technological and societal innovations create high demands on the field of education. In order to deal with increasing globalisation, multidisciplinarity, mobility and the complexity of current and future jobs, a strong emphasis is placed on quality and efficiency at all levels of education and training (European Union, 2009, 2018). To prepare learners for a job market that is continually evolving, it is imperative that educational programmes provide them with an extensive knowledge and skills base that they can apply flexibly when encountering unfamiliar tasks in daily practice. This requires different instructional design approaches, including a shift away from objectives‐based design approaches towards more task‐centred approaches in an attempt to better address the learning of complex cognitive skills and professional competencies.
The objectives‐based approach breaks down tasks into their constituent parts and describes desired outcomes for each of these part‐tasks in learning objectives which are often classified according to a taxonomy such as Bloom's revised taxonomy (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001) or Marzano and Kendall's taxonomy (2007). Bloom's revised taxonomy, for example, classifies objectives in the cognitive domain in six categories based on remembering, understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating and creating. These taxonomies result from the idea that different instructional methods are needed to reach objectives in different categories. Teaching concepts and principles (e.g., understanding what a scientific paper is and how it is structured) requires different instructional methods from teaching the application of procedures (e.g., carrying out a literature search for a paper). This objectives‐based approach is suitable for tasks where there are few relations between the objectives. However, it is less effective for those that require an integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes and the coordination of sometimes many different constituent skills (van Merriënboer & Dolmans, 2015). First, the compartmentalisation of learning into separate categories of objectives and using separate methods for declarative, procedural and affective learning is ineffective because carrying out a complex professional task requires more than just the stacking of these constituent elements. Instead, carrying out complex tasks generally requires an integration of knowledge, skills and attitudes in so‐called competencies. Instruction should therefore focus on developing an interconnected knowledge base that allows one to activate different kinds of knowledge when confronted with new and unfamiliar tasks (Janssen‐Noordman, van Merriënboer, van der Vleuten, & Scherpbier, 2006).
Second, the objectives‐based approach of teaching complex skills leads to fragmentation. Because it breaks up the complex tasks into separate isolated parts, students only learn a limited number of skills at the same time. Instruction is focused on parts of the task and provides little opportunity to learn how to coordinate the performance of these separate parts into a coherent whole when confronted with a professional task (Lim, Reiser, & Olina, 2009). In an attempt to address these problems of fragmentation and compartmentalisation, task‐centred approaches centre learning on whole real‐world (i.e., authentic) problems or professional tasks as a way to better connect the learning setting to the workplace setting and foster the necessary skills. This holistic approach advocates creating educational programmes that contain sequences of learning tasks that are based on authentic professional tasks. Examples of task‐centred models are cognitive apprenticeship (Brown, Collins, & Duguid, 1989), elaboration theory (Reigeluth, 1999), first principles of instruction (Merrill, 2002) and the four‐component instructional design model (4C/ID model) (van Merriënboer, 1997).
This chapter provides a brief summary of the 4C/ID model and illustrates its application in higher education by describing an educational programme that was designed using the model. The chapter concludes with a short reflection on the educational programme that was developed, a list of important considerations for implementing task‐centred curricula and a look at future developments in task‐centred learning.
Four-Component Instructional Design (4C/ID)
The basic assumption of the 4C/ID model is that educational programmes for complex learning or the teaching of professional competencies (i.e., the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitudes and coordination of skills and their constituents) can be described in four components, namely learning tasks, supportive information, procedural information and part‐task practice (see Figure 1).
Learning tasks form the backbone of the instructional blueprint and are based on authentic real‐life situations that are encountered in practice because this helps the learner to acquire the knowledge, skills and attitudes in an integrated fashion. Learning tasks can be projects, tasks, cases, problems, or other types of assignments. Importantly, they show a variation that is representative of the variation in tasks in professional or daily life because this “variability of practice” will help in the transfer of learning. Learning tasks of equal complexity are grouped together, creating task classes that are sequenced from simple to complex. Learners start with the simplest tasks that a professional could encounter and end with tasks at the level of complexity that a recently‐graduated student should be able to handle (van Merriënboer, Kirschner, & Kester, 2003). While working on these tasks, the teacher and the instructional materials provide the necessary support and guidance to help learners to carry out the tasks to completion. In a process of scaffolding, this support and guidance are gradually withdrawn until the learners are able to independently carry out tasks of a certain level of complexity before engaging in more complex tasks (i.e., the next task class). The three other components are logically connected to this backbone of learning tasks.
While Figure 1 may suggest a linear path through these learning tasks, the model allows for extensive flexibilisation and personalisation of learning. Learners may be given the opportunity to select different paths through the designed learning tasks, based on their interest or demonstrated proficiency. One way to support this dynamic selection is by using electronic development portfolios that help students and teachers to monitor progress and make informed decisions on future learning tasks that fit the learner's level and needs (Beckers, Dolmans, & van Merriënboer, 2019; Kicken, Brand‐Gruwel, van Merriënboer, & Slot, 2009).
The second component, supportive information, is often referred to as “the theory” and includes information to develop mental models and cognitive strategies that are necessary to complete the learning tasks. Supportive information aims at non‐recurrent aspects of the task that deal with problem‐solving, reasoning and decision making. It can be presented in the form of lectures, workshops, or study materials and is available for students to study before or while they carry out the learning tasks. These first two components help students to acquire highly‐structured knowledge, or cognitive schemas. Learning tasks stimulate the construction of such schemas through inductive learning: a process whereby students learn from mindful abstraction from concrete experiences and examples. Supportive information helps schema construction by elaboration: acquiring new knowledge and linking it to the existing knowledge base.
The remaining two components stimulate the automation of schemas and the development of automatic, task‐specific procedures that can be applied without much demand on cognitive resources. Procedural information aims at recurrent and procedural aspects and provides step‐by‐step instructions when the learner performs those aspects. Part‐task practice, the fourth component, can be included to provide repeated practice to train routine skills until they can be performed automatically. (For a more extensive description of the model, see van Merriënboer, 1997; van Merriënboer et al., 2003; or van Merriënboer & Kirschner, 2018).
A 4C/ID Approach to a Blended Course in Android App Development
Developing mobile applications is a typical complex skill, as it requires extensive knowledge of programming languages, databases, development environments, etc. It also requires multiple skills, such as operating the development software, writing clean and correct codes, and/or designing a user interface. A professional, critical and creative attitude is necessary to translate clients' wishes into a working application. Therefore the development of mobile applications lends itself well to teaching with a task‐centred approach. The Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands designed a course on Android app development using the 4C/ID model (www.android-development.app).
Traditionally, the design of such courses starts from the “theory”. Teachers begin with a clear picture of the information their students should know and design a series of lectures to “transmit” this theory to the students. In addition, they design homework assignments to practise with single, small aspects of the whole task. For example, these assignments could focus on how to use loops in the programming language or creating, reading, updating, and deleting information in a database. Teachers then mix lectures with small practice items until all topics have been covered. This follows the approach of traditional design models: starting with the presentation of theoretical knowledge and coupling it to specific practice items. The 4C/ID model topples this approach: it starts by specifying professional tasks, translates these into learning tasks and only then investigates which “theory” should help students to complete these learning tasks.
In their description of the design of the course, Marcellis, Barendsen, and van Merriënboer (2018) elaborate on the use of 4C/ID and the Ten Steps to achieve a blended design consisting of the four components. The learning tasks form the backbone of the curriculum. These are not small practice items focused on a particular aspect of the task (i.e., using loops or updating a database). Instead, learning tasks are whole tasks, based on professional practice, grouped in task classes that grow in complexity. The first task class starts with the least complex (i.e., simplest) whole tasks. For example, the very first task asks the student to develop a single‐screen app that simulates a dice roll and asks the user to guess whether the next roll will be higher or lower. Subsequent task classes include learning tasks of increasing complexity, imposing more demands on the user interface, interaction modes and handling of data. At the end of the course, students are asked to create multi‐screen applications that retrieve information (e.g., movie information, recipes) from remote locations and allow the user to view, swipe, and manipulate these data.
Students receive strong support and guidance when starting learning tasks in a new and more complex task class. The design achieves this by employing modelling examples and imitation tasks at the start of each task class. The teacher demonstrates the development of an application while thinking aloud and asks students to build an identical application on their computers. In subsequent tasks, students receive partially‐completed applications they must finish (i.e., completion tasks), while the final tasks in a task class are conventional tasks without any support and guidance. Hence, support gradually decreases as the student progresses through the task class.
Supportive information helps students with the non‐recurrent aspects of the task by providing domain knowledge (e.g., how databases work) and systematic approaches to developing apps (e.g., demonstrations by the teacher). Procedural information helps with the recurrent aspects (e.g., using the development environment or automatic highlighting of incorrect programming syntax). For the designers, providing supportive and procedural information constituted a serious challenge, as both are subject to frequent and unpredictable changes. For example, development software is frequently updated with changed functionality and programming languages continually evolve, requiring programmers to learn new syntax and unlearn old methods. To make sure that the supportive and procedural information reflect the most recent conventions and rules in the domain, the course designers depended less on pre‐prepared lectures or recorded videos and instead referred students to a list of external sources, including manuals and Android developer documentation. Not only is it easier to keep a list of links up to date, it also creates a more authentic situation where students learn to study official documentation, as they would do in practice.
As the course is intended for students from all over the world who are studying full‐time or part‐time, the designers chose a blended design where learning tasks, supportive information and procedural information resided in an online learning environment. Classroom activities can be followed by students on‐site and include modelling examples, imitation tasks in small groups and feedback sessions led by the teacher. Other learning tasks are presented in the online learning environment and are performed individually by students. Student evaluations show that students perceive the learning tasks as very helpful for learning how to develop an Android app. The modelling examples specifically contribute to understanding how to approach a certain challenge in Android app development, especially when they not only show the actual coding, but also make explicit the reasoning behind each step. In addition, students perceive the classroom sessions in which they discuss theory using guided questions as beneficial. This Android app development course illustrates a well‐executed application of fundamental 4C/ID principles leading to a course design that is strongly informed by educational research.
Conclusion
Designing educational programmes using the 4C/ID model is different from designing using objectives‐based approaches. It requires task‐centred thinking which may be challenging for designers, teachers and faculty who are schooled and experienced in objectives‐based instructional design. The 4C/ID model is well‐aligned with the concept of competency‐based education, but it stresses that competencies should always be clearly related to the professional tasks the student is expected to carry out after completing the programme. An educational programme taking a competency framework as a backbone for its development and assessment may still hamper the transfer of learning to the workplace if the learning activities in that programme are not strongly based on professional tasks. Designing task‐centred learning environments therefore requires assigning equal weight to tasks on the one hand and to the competencies required to carry out these tasks on the other. The Ten Steps approach starts the design by specifying professional tasks to serve as a basis for designing learning tasks. The professional and learning tasks are then explicitly linked to the competencies that are necessary to carry out those tasks up to standards, for example by generating a matrix with tasks at one end and competencies or standards at the other. As seen in the example provided in this chapter, this shifts the balance from the atomistic, compartmentalised and fragmented teaching of isolated objectives towards integrative acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Concerning the design and implementation of task‐centred curricula, Dolmans, Wolfhagen, and van Merriënboer (2013) identify 12 common pitfalls and tips that may help to make such (re)designs work. The four most significant deal with building infrastructure, multidisciplinary teaching teams, continuous progress monitoring and involving students. First, in task‐centred designs, a series of whole‐tasks forms the backbone of the programme. Therefore, the main educational activities consist of small group meetings in which students collaboratively work on these learning tasks. To facilitate this, there should be sufficient small group rooms available that are equipped with all the necessities such as whiteboards, projectors, and high‐speed wireless Internet. Other facilities could be necessary, such as lecture halls, simulation labs, or individual reading and studying rooms, but they are present in most schools. It is more often the lack of sufficient small group rooms that impedes the implementation of task‐centred learning.
Secondly, task‐centred curricula require the design of a series of learning tasks for an integrative acquisition of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Content that was previously taught separately by different teachers must now be taught in an integrated fashion and teachers should therefore work together in multidisciplinary teams that preferably also include outside domain experts working in the field. These experts can help to align the educational programme with practice and ensure the relevance of the tasks, tools and required knowledge. Teaching staff should also be prepared to adopt different roles, as teachers in task‐centred curricula generally have a tutoring or coaching role in order to facilitate small group learning or skills training. They may also be involved in whole‐task design and continuous assessment. If teachers are unfamiliar with these new roles, faculty development programmes may be needed to prepare staff members for this change.
Thirdly, in the Ten Steps approach, the assessment programme is developed simultaneously with the design of learning tasks because assessment drives learning. In a task‐centred curriculum, assessment should not be used solely for making pass/fail decisions for separate courses. Instead, it should allow for the monitoring of individual student progress at the level of the whole curriculum. This can be done by using electronic development portfolios that combine multiple assessment results and provide a dashboard that informs both students and teachers of the students' progress and improvement. This approach no longer relies on traditional assessment arrangements, such as fixed‐length semesters with pre‐planned exam weeks.
Lastly, students themselves should play an important role in the design of the whole curriculum and of individual learning tasks. Involving students in the design process provides valuable insights into the curriculum's strengths and weaknesses, as they are the only ones to experience the curriculum. As it is crucial that students experience the learning tasks as meaningful and useful, their perceptions are very informative for designers. Thoroughly informing students of the ideas behind the task‐centred curriculum may also benefit implementation, as those students can become advocates of the reform. Furthermore, just as teachers have different roles in a task‐centred curriculum, students also need to be prepared for their new roles. They need to function in small group meetings and learn how to actively contribute to group discussions, how to act as group leaders or scribes and how to provide effective feedback to peers. As is the case with faculty development, such student training preferably extends over a prolonged period.
To conclude, dealing with current and future developments in the job market requires that educational programmes produce lifelong learners who are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to deal with familiar and unfamiliar complex tasks in their domain. The way these programmes are designed must therefore match this goal of creating learners who are able to transfer their knowledge from the learning to the professional setting. Task‐centred instructional design models such as the 4C/ID model stimulate this process by prescribing learning methods that lead to a rich knowledge base allowing for creative applications of knowledge in new and innovative settings. Additionally, they create a strong alignment between education and practice by blending learning in the educational setting with learning in the workplace. This encourages cross‐institutional and international collaboration when designing educational programmes, which is especially important in those settings where tasks require international and interdisciplinary work, such as the banking, aviation, or tech sector. A clear implication for educational policy is that collaboration between employers and higher education must be strengthened: A two‐way interaction is needed where educational institutions not only prepare students for the job market, but where employers also bring state‐of‐the art knowledge, future job requirements and tasks to the educational institutions.
Future Developments
In the book Ten Steps to Complex Learning, van Merriënboer and Kirschner (2018) present an extensive systematic approach to design task‐centred educational programmes with the 4C/ID model, based on evidence from research on education and learning going back to the late 1980s. They also identify several important directions for advancing the model. Future developments will focus on the integration of new educational technologies (e.g., blended programmes, gamification), dealing with large learner groups (e.g., learning analytics, customisation), teaching domain‐generalisable skills (e.g., intertwining domain‐general and domain‐specific programmes) and promoting motivation and preventing negative emotions. With research on these topics now maturing, designers can look forward to an expanded set of guidelines to design effective, efficient, and enjoyable programmes for complex learning. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/06%3A_Instructional_Design_Processes/6.03%3A_Designing_Instruction_.txt |
Curriculum Design Processes
Bucky J. Dodd
Whether you realize it or not, we experience curriculum every single day. Curriculum influences the most obvious learning situations like classroom lessons and workplace training sessions, but it also influences a variety of less-obvious situations such as how we learn about products, how we learn from online tutorials (yes, to an extent this applies to using YouTube to fix a leaky faucet!), and how organizations plan large-scale change efforts. Curriculum influences how people learn and grow from very young ages and continues to shape learning experiences throughout our lives.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a survey of curriculum design processes across diverse educational and professional contexts and to highlight essential curriculum design skills embedded in these processes. Curriculum design is a core pillar of how we educate, train, and engage in formal learning experiences. At the core of curriculum design is a mental model for how people learn and a design representation for how knowledge and skill transfer occurs from theory into practice.
For emerging professionals in the instructional design field, curriculum design is one of a series of core competencies that are necessary for professional success (Burning Glass, 2019). In the most basic of terms, curriculum design is the process of planning formal learning experiences. Yet, there are many tacit criteria that differentiate between effective and ineffective curriculum design processes. For the purposes of this chapter, we will examine curriculum design as a strategic-level process for how learning experiences are designed. This differentiates from instructional design processes, which tend to involve more operational-level processes. For example, you can differentiate curriculum design from instructional design as curriculum design is more “big picture thinking” while instructional design is concerned with more tactical decisions within instructional materials and interactions.
Defining Curriculum Design
Curriculum design is operationally defined for this chapter as the intentional planning, organization, and design of learning strategies, processes, materials, and experiences towards defined learning and/or performance outcomes. Curriculum design is concerned with much more than learning materials. In one sense, curriculum design is creating a holistic plan for the environments where learning happens. This includes considering the physical, digital, social, and psychological factors that define the spaces and places where people learn (American Educational Research Association, n.d.).
Curriculum design is a team sport. The teams who engage in curriculum design processes are comprised of people with diverse areas of expertise. Typically, a curriculum design team will include subject matter experts (e.g. faculty member), curriculum coordinator/director, curriculum oversight groups, instructional design and development specialists, and teaching/facilitation personnel. Depending on the nature of the curriculum, this can also include information technology specialists, organizational development specialists, data and research specialists, and senior leadership.
Curriculum design, when done well, is a process that is collaborative, results-oriented and transforms diverse ideas into a focused vision for learning.
Designing Curriculum with the End in Mind
The primary goal of curriculum design is aligning learning strategies, materials, and experiences to defined outcomes. From this standpoint, good curriculum should be results-focused and efficient. To accomplish this, curriculum designers often use tools such as learner personas, needs analysis, and existing assessment data to determine the scope of a project. From there, it becomes important to develop learning strategies that connect to the characteristics of the intended learners to help them reach the desired outcomes.
Designing curriculum with the end in mind involves managing, designing, and organizing learning objectives, competencies, and standards within a curriculum. The process of designing curriculum with the end in mind is commonly referred to as “backward design” (Wiggins & McTighe, 1998). The major concept important to curriculum designers is that instead of starting with content or topics (common historical practice by many educators), backward design starts with the outcomes and then works backwards to address the content, topics, strategies, and materials.
One of the key tools important to backward design is the use of learning objectives taxonomies. One of the most widely used of these taxonomies is Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom, 1956). Bloom’s Taxonomy organizes learning objectives based on a “level of learning.” The revised version classifies these as: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. These levels describe cognitive learning processes that are demonstrated through various forms of behaviors.
Taxonomies like Bloom’s provide a framework for organizing types of learning outcomes and selecting appropriate curriculum strategies for a specific level of learning. For example, a learning objective at the understand level will likely be designed far differently than an objective at the evaluate or create levels. This not only influences the types of strategies used, but also the alignment of curriculum elements and appropriate level of learner (i.e. novice, intermediate, advanced).
Standards and competency frameworks are common resources curriculum designers use in the process of conducting their work. These frameworks vary across countries and disciplines; however, they often serve a common purpose of aligning curriculum to common outcomes and learning/performance goals (e.g. Common Core StandardsTalent Develop Capability Model).
Representing and Mapping Curriculum
Curriculum design can be a complex process that includes many different forms of data, information, and goals. On a practical level, curriculum designers often use forms of representations or diagrams to help manage the complexity and decision-making processes. Curriculum representations provide a method for communicating and collaborating with others during the curriculum design process. This often includes representing plans for how curriculum will be organized and made available to the learner.
When mapping curriculum, there are several major and interdependent variables of curriculum that can be important to visualize. These variables are referred to as design “layers” (Gibbons, 2014). While there can be many different aspects important to represent in curriculum design processes, the following list outlines major considerations, or design variables.
• Outcomes—the intended learning or performance result from the curriculum
• Content—the topics or information included in the curriculum
• Instructional Strategies—how the curriculum is organized, structured, and/or presented to achieve a defined result
• Technology—the digital or analog tools used to support the curriculum delivery, development, or assessment
• Data—how metrics and data elements are captured, organized, stored, and represented
• Media—the physical or digital assets used to present curriculum to the learner
• Policy—the guiding principles, rules, or regulations that frame the design of the curriculum
These “layers” represent the essential variables that effective curriculum designers consider when working on curriculum projects and initiatives. Each of these layers are interdependent and should be considered in concert with one another and not independently. For example, both outcomes and content should align to ensure the content being presented supports learners as they work towards achieving specified learning outcomes.
In the process of designing curriculum layers, curriculum designers often use representation tools and methods to organize ideas and communicate this information to stakeholders. While there are many different approaches to representing curriculum, the following list highlights common frameworks used in the curriculum design field.
• “The Canvas.” Canvas tools are analog or digital documents that organize various elements of curriculum design decisions in a single visual field. The purpose of curriculum canvas documents is to provide a structured way of organizing ideas at a conceptual level and establishing a common vision for the curriculum. Canvas tools are often used to support collaboration and brainstorming processes; however, they can also be used as a way to organize individual ideas and communicate those to others in structured ways.
Visit http://www.lxcanvas.com/ for an example of a canvas-based curriculum design tool. The following video explains the elements of the Learning Experience Canvas.
Elements of the Learning Experience Canvas
• “The Lesson Plan.” Lesson plans are one of the most common forms of curriculum representations across various education and training contexts. There are many, many different formats and approaches to creating curriculum lesson plans. These can range from simple outlines, to structured documents that represent many elements of curriculum including learning outcomes, instructional sequence, facilitator prompts, time markers, and teaching notes. How a lesson plan should be created is largely dependent on the intended uses and audiences for the documents.
Visit https://edtechbooks.org/-TTeu for example lesson plan formats.
• “The Curriculum Matrix.” Curriculum matrices are documents that represent relationships and alignment between key variables in the curriculum. This representation is often presented as crosstabulation tables that have one variable across the top row and another down the left column. Next, relationship indicators are placed in the interesting cells to show a relationship between the two variable elements. A curriculum matrix representation is commonly used to show how learning outcomes are represented across courses or units in the curriculum.
Visit https://edtechbooks.org/-Jewdb for an example curriculum matrix.
• “The Blueprint.” Blueprint-style curriculum representations integrate a number of design variables in a single diagram, or “blueprint.” The primary purpose of this type of representation is to create documentation that can be used to develop and implement curriculum. Blueprint representations often contain instructional elements organized in segments and sequences as well as production notes to guide how the curriculum should be developed and/or implemented. They often also represent relationships between the various curriculum elements. For example, a blueprint may note that a learner must complete a certain set of exercises successfully at a given mastery level before progressing to the next set of exercises. The blueprint represents the curriculum design strategy in an actionable format.
Visit https://edtechbooks.org/-LyV for an example curriculum blueprint.
Comparing and Selecting Curriculum Mapping Tools
Selecting the most appropriate curriculum mapping method is often determined based on the current phase and goals of the curriculum design process. The following table compares the curriculum mapping tools discussed in this chapter and presents selection considerations.
Table 1
Comparison of Curriculum Mapping Tools
Canvas Lesson Plan Matrix Blueprint
Uses Use early in the design process for brainstorming and ideation Use to plan and facilitate specific lessons Use to align curriculum to outcomes
Use for assessment of learning outcomes
Use to plan the sequence and arrangement of curriculum
Pros Encourage group collaboration and interaction Common format for many professionals in education and training Clearly shows alignment between curriculum and outcomes Visually shows curriculum elements, flows, and sequence.
Cons Can lack specifics needed to implement curriculum Some may see lesson plan as limiting creativity or adaptability of curriculum Some matrix documents can be very complex which may limit their application in practice Blueprints can be visually complex and unfamiliar for some audiences.
Learning Environment Modeling™—A Method for Creating Curriculum Blueprints
A particularly critical challenge faced by many curriculum designers is the lack of a generally accepted design language and system in the field (Gibbons, 2014). For example, many design professions have a language to represent their work so that the audience versed in the language can easily understand and build from their work. Architects, engineers, and software programmers are all examples of professionals that use design languages to communicate ideas.
Learning Environment Modeling™ was created to advance a solution to the absence of a shared design language for curriculum and instructional design. At the core of Learning Environment Modeling™ is a language that represents five “building blocks” of curriculum, four learning contexts, three transitional actions, and two standard notations. These language elements are combined together in a blueprint that shows how the curriculum is to be organized and implemented.
Visit https://edtechbooks.org/-rqn to learn more about Learning Environment Modeling™ and how it can be used to design curriculum.
Over the previous several years, a number of digital platforms have become available on the market to manage curriculum design processes. While these platforms vary in strategy, most seek to increase efficiency and provide a common digital hub for managing information and communication about curriculum processes. These platforms are currently distinct from content authoring tools used for creating materials, in that they focus solely on the curriculum organization and design, rather than content development and delivery. In addition to standalone curriculum design platforms, many learning management systems are incorporating similar features as part of their capabilities.
Examples of Curriculum Design Platforms
Examples of Learning Management Systems with Integrated Curriculum Design Capabilities
Innovation Considerations for Curriculum Design Processes
As innovations in learning design and technology are created and scaled, curriculum design processes must adapt to ensure these methods remain grounded in effective learning practices. This section discusses several innovation trends and their possible implications on curriculum design processes.
One of the foundational innovations influencing curriculum design processes is a shift from individual-focused design to team-based curriculum design. Curriculum design is becoming more and more a “team sport” where people from diverse backgrounds, professions, and areas of expertise work together to create curriculum. The increasing influence of technology continues to not only incorporate new backgrounds (e.g. technologists), but also allows people from all around the world to collaborate on curriculum more efficiently. Successful curriculum design professionals are master facilitators across different types of contexts and through the effective use of collaborative technologies.
In addition to curriculum design becoming more collaborative, it is also becoming a more strategic and holistic activity. Traditionally curriculum was viewed like a product that was self-contained and independent. As such, curriculum design processes mirrored product development cycles and approaches. As organizations, learning needs, and technologies change, curriculum design is moving more towards a holistic perspective of learning environment design. This mindset goes beyond curriculum as a product, and more about designing the collective spaces and places where people learn at a strategic level. While this may seem like semantics at first, the implications for how curriculum is designed and connected with other elements in a learning environment is profound.
Moving from curriculum design to learning environment design requires a systems thinking perspective that involves not only designing elements in the learning environment, but also designing how those elements interact together. A good example of this is the emergence of blended learning as a common instructional practice. Blended learning is the combination of classroom and digital learning experience in a unified strategy. Curriculum designers must not only be considered with the design of classroom curriculum and digital curriculum, but also how they interact together in a unified learning environment.
The broad adoption of mobile devices have also caused innovations in curriculum design. For example, designing curriculum that is responsive across different types of devices with different screen sizes is a basic innovation influencing the field. In addition, designing curriculum for other mobile device features such as geo-positioning, imaging, and content creation capabilities offer exciting and often challenging situations. Many modern mobile devices now have immersive virtual space capabilities such as virtual reality and augmented reality. These capabilities highlight the need for new curriculum design approaches that have not traditionally been required. Mobile and extended reality learning capabilities will continue to be a major consideration for tomorrow’s curriculum designers.
In addition to collaborative design processes, mobile learning, and extended reality innovations, one of the more profound innovations influencing curriculum design processes is adaptive learning. Adaptive learning is a general concept that describes the process of providing learners with dynamic learning experiences based on their prior performance (Educause, 2017). This is commonly used for recommending remediated learning experiences and encouraging peak learning performance. The reason adaptive learning is such a profound innovation for curriculum design processes is because it introduces the dynamic layers that have not traditionally been used. For example, a curriculum designer would create a defined path for learners to follow based on assumptions and requirements set forth in the design process. Adaptive learning shifts this decision making to programmatic algorithms or a more complex map of learning experience options. This requires curriculum designers to think and make design decisions about much more complex and dynamic learning environments.
Conclusion
Curriculum design processes are essential to effective learning experiences across education and professional contexts. Without effective curriculum design processes, learners often lack the structure and guidance necessary for optimal learning and organizations lack the ability to effectively measure results and optimize their return on investments. While we have all experienced curriculum, the process of designing curriculum is changing, becoming more complex, and incorporating new technologies and strategies. One of the most profound shifts is expanding the scope of curriculum design to consider how curriculum connects to broader and more networked learning environments. Curriculum design is an essential skill for emerging education and learning professionals and will continue to be a dynamic, innovative, and exciting field of practice for years to come. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/06%3A_Instructional_Design_Processes/6.04%3A_Curriculum_Design_Proc.txt |
Agile Design Processes and Project Management
Theresa A. Cullen
Due to the changes in and flexibility of computing today, software engineering and instructional design have made major changes in their approach to development. This evolution to a knowledge economy required processes to change from approaches where planning and communication happen up front to more agile processes where projects are completed in smaller chunks with greater communication between team members and clients. Adopting these agile processes may enable instructional designers to create more flexible designs that better meet the needs of clients and allow for greater collaboration with others involved in the development process (e.g., UX designers, programmers, media production).
What is Agile Development?
Agile development has its roots in a document written by 17 people at a retreat in 2001, when a group of software developers met together to decide how projects should be approached. They were frustrated by static lists of tasks that were developed early in projects that could not easily be changed, creating a process that lacked flexibility and feedback. This kind of static list was known within the industry as “Waterfall,” referring to the slow trickle of development that happens from a prescribed list of designs (Nyce, 2017). The group had championed different approaches during their extensive careers, but it was not until they came together in 2001 that they laid the groundwork that would change how many products were designed. They agreed that good programming and design had 12 key principles. As agile processes have been adopted by other fields such as business, education, health care, finance, and marketing (Oprins et al., 2019), the foundation of the approach has been based on these 12 principles, which make up the Agile Manifesto (Beck et al., 2001):
1. Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.
2. Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer’s competitive advantage.
3. Deliver working software frequently, from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
4. Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.
5. Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need and trust them to get the job done.
6. The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.
7. Working software is the primary measure of progress. Agile processes promote sustainable development.
8. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.
9. Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design enhances agility.
10. Simplicity—the art of maximizing the amount of work not done—is essential.
11. The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.
12. At regular intervals, the team reflects on how to become more effective, then tunes and adjusts its behavior accordingly.
Summary of the 4 Values of the Agile Manifesto
Agile has become a generic term for processes that adhere to the agile principles laid out in this Agile Manifesto, much like ADDIE is a basic process for instructional design or design thinking is a generic process for approaching design projects. For example, there are different instructional design approaches (e.g., Dick and Carey; Morrison, Ross, Kemp, and Kalman; and Smith and Regan), but they all include basic principles such as needs analysis and evaluation. The same is true of agile processes, as there are different approaches to realize the key components of the agile manifesto in practice.
One of the most prevalent agile approaches is called Scrum, which is used by businesses both in software engineering and other areas. The value of Scrum is that it has clear roles for different individuals and a variety of agile processes used in design. Even as agile processes are repackaged in a variety of products (Scrum, Adaptive Project Development [ADP], Kanban, etc.) they all adhere to these 12 principles that define agile development (Portman, 2019). Key components present in all products include constant communication with the client, support for the development team, a focus on deliverables that are fast enough to produce forward motion, and a focus on developing a reliable and robust product.
Review of Agile Principles
To examine designing through an agile framework, let’s look at some key components of Scrum. Scrum is defined as “a framework within which people can address complex adaptive problems, while productively and creatively delivering products of the highest possible value.” (Schwaber & Sutherland, 2017). The Scrum processes and roles defined in Table 1 support agile processes in practice.
Table 1
Key Terms Related to Scrum Processes
Backlog
A list of tasks that need to be completed as part of the project. This list is prioritized by team members at the beginning of each sprint. The backlog allows the team to communicate priorities with a client and accurately predict the timeline of a project.
Sprint
A short interval of time (often two weeks) where the team decides on a set of backlog tasks to achieve as a team. An example sprint dashboard, representing the backlog and completed items on a project, is shown in Figure 1. An example sprint team is shown in Figure 2.
Sprint Retrospective
As in all agile processes, reflection is an important part of Scrum. At the end of each sprint, the Scrum team takes time to review how the processes went and make plans to improve processes in the future. They ask questions like, “What did we do well and what should continue?” or “What could we improve?”.
Stand Up
A daily meeting that is designed to last 15 minutes or less to update the team on accomplishments, problems, and status. It is called a stand up because it is meant to be kept short by having everyone stand during the meeting. During the meeting, team members ask questions like, “What did I do yesterday?”, “Am I blocked by anything?”, or “What do I plan to do today?”.
Scrum Master
The person managing the Scrum team who makes sure that all team members are getting the resources they need and adhering to the team plan.
Definition of Done
This is an agreed-upon level of fidelity for product production in each sprint. The team must agree what is the expectation of each team member’s work.
Product Owner
This is the person who is responsible for the backlog. They work to develop an accurate timeline and keep the project on track. The Product Owner cannot be the Scrum Master.
Scrum Team
All of the people involved with the design of the product. This could include developers, UX designers, QA, and instructional designers, given the project. Different sprints could have different team members.
Scrum Basics and Roles
Note. "Sprint dashboard" by Tiendq is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Note. "The Agile PM Game (Aug '11)" by VFS Digital Design is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Need for Agile Processes in Instructional Design
By nature of their work, instructional designers (IDs) collaborate with diverse groups such as UX designers, programmers, media creators, and a variety of subject matter experts. It is to be expected that instructional design processes may be influenced by those other fields and IDs may even be required to use processes from other disciplines such as programming. One problem that many teams find is the need for quick results and to maintain good communication with a client throughout the design process. Adnan and Ritzhaupt (2018) summarized the criticism that traditional instructional design approaches like ADDIE are not flexible and are less able to produce dynamic projects—especially those that require flexibility and updating. The flexibility of an agile approach allows for both speed of design, but also better repurposing and tailoring for different design problems. Being knowledgeable about agile processes in both instructional design and other fields will enable better team collaboration and client communication (Oprins et al., 2019).
Fernandez and Fernandez (2006) examined agile versus traditional approaches to project management. In a traditional approach, instructional designers may meet with a client at the beginning of a process, and then create designs, only to unveil them when the project is done. They found that these traditional or waterfall approaches did not meet the needs of the fast-changing markets and the need to have products available quickly to stay competitive. They found that business practices were changing towards shared responsibility and team collaboration. Leaders were no longer in charge of projects, but instead they were in charge of teams that have different skills but were all committed to making the client’s project a reality. Agile is a mindset above all else that includes shared responsibility and design, regular client communication, and embracing change throughout the process.
While an agile approach is different from traditional instructional design approaches, our field has a history of flexible design approaches too. The most notable was rapid prototyping, proposed by Tripp and Bichelmeyer in 1990. Rapid prototyping comes from software engineering’s approach to design where they create prototypes, test them, and then quickly revise them based on the results. Tripp and Bichelmeyer (1990) argued that instructional problems cannot be defined fully at one time and therefore a new flexible approach would allow for more adaptability and response to deep learning issues that become apparent through the design process.
There are many similarities between rapid prototyping discussed in 1990 and agile processes now, specifically, the focus on the product and being open to change in design through regular communication with clients. That is not to say that most instructional designers do not communicate with clients regularly, but rather that choosing an agile approach places the client at the forefront while still not conflicting with key components of the instructional design process like establishing need, breaking down learning processes, and designing effective evaluation.
Now that you have some of the terminology and history, let’s compare traditional instructional design approaches to agile approaches in Table 2. Using the ADDIE acronym to compare how each method approaches important tasks in designing effective instruction allows us to see that both approaches deal with the same information and issues and both can produce effective instruction.
Table 2
Comparison of Traditional Instructional Design to Agile Processes
Task
Traditional Instructional Design
Agile Processes
Client Involvement
Utilizes a single or a few major delivery points and feedback points with the client.
Relies on delivery points to the client in short time intervals (often 2 weeks). Focuses on constant iterations.
Analysis
Perform needs and task analysis at the beginning of the design process. Emphasizes depth.
Generates user stories throughout the process to illustrate needs which are revisited at the beginning of each sprint. Emphasizes speed.
Design
Communicates overall design by producing design documentation at the beginning of the process that is used throughout the entire process.
Communicates overall design by creating a backlog of tasks that the development team chooses from to set goals for each sprint. Design is revisited at the end of each sprint.
Development
Produces large parts of a project at once based on learning objectives or content topics. Emphasizes producing a complete learning unit.
Produces small components of content throughout the process focused on delivery to address items in the backlog. Emphasizes forward movement on content development.
Implementation
Implements a complete project or complete module with all parts of instruction and assessment complete.
Releases completed components at the end of each sprint. In a web or app-based design, the team can “push out” parts of the project regularly. The release may not produce a complete product at every update, but instead focuses on continual improvement of released content.
Evaluation
Evaluated as a complete unit with feedback from users and clients.
Engaged in constant evaluation due to the retrospective process at the end of each sprint. Project is constantly going through feedback loops and adjusting based on client and updated user stories at each sprint.
An Example of Scrum in Practice
At a university where I worked, our Information Technology department used Scrum processes to manage large projects. The department set out to redesign the student and faculty portal. They started by having focus groups of faculty and students about how they used the existing tools and what they thought was missing. This would be very similar to learner and needs analysis processes in instructional design. The team used these focus groups to create user stories. Each user story highlighted a different stakeholder and what they needed from the product they were designing. Then, the Product Owner took that feedback and created a backlog of tasks with different priorities that had to be completed (see Figure 3 for an example backlog). They created these with input from all members of the team with a goal of forward movement and the ability to release improved functionality at regular intervals.
For example, in this project, the first sprints focused on interface design. Members of the sprint team included people from marketing and web design to make sure that the overall look matched the brand and other components used by faculty and students. After several sprints to design the look, the product owner moved people down the list of priorities to begin to design the functionality. Not all tools were redesigned at once. In fact, the Scrum team decided to focus on student tools first like enrollment and financial services. About halfway through the year-long project, members of the Scrum team visited faculty and student meetings to ask for input on what they had designed so far. They announced that it would be several months until faculty functions would be the priority in the backlog and continued to refine student functions based on feedback.
Throughout the process, the Scrum team published new tools and functions in the portal and had students and faculty start using them. They gained feedback, reflected on what they had already designed and changed their priorities and the product moving forward. Redesigning an entire university records and communication portal is a major undertaking, but by using Scrum processes the team was able to show results and continue to tailor their product to their stakeholders. They were also able to push out different usable products throughout the year without waiting for the entire project to be finished.
Conclusion
Following more agile processes can be a choice by an instructional designer, or it can be part of a company’s culture. Agile processes are not at conflict with good practices in instructional design. In fact, steps like creating a backlog that prioritize features, gaining customer feedback on designs during the process, and being reflective is good practice. Taking an agile approach to instructional design can benefit the team dynamic and instructional product. The team dynamic is improved through improved client communication, flexibility, and creating components that could be better reused in other projects with similar user stories. Tripp and colleagues (2016) found that a workplace that embraces agile processes could increase job satisfaction among its employees. Fernandez and Fernandez (2006) found that agile made projects more adaptable and able to produce products faster. Oprins and colleagues (2019) point out having an agile approach emphasizes the importance of people in an organization, builds empathy, and guards against automation. Agile processes, when followed, can improve team communication and keep team members from pursuing dead ends or wasting important time because all of the team were not “on the same page.”
There are also downsides to following agile processes. Regular communication with team members and clients takes time and can slow down some aspects of design. Since agile processes are designed to always be flexible, it can be frustrating to live in constant change, even if it produces a better product. For many, following agile processes requires a change in approach and communication style which can be difficult. Finally, agile is a buzzword: There are many companies that say that they use agile processes but do not have trained individuals, necessary resources for team members, and do not embrace the agile mindset. This kind of workplace can be incredibly frustrating because it can produce unpredictable results. Agile processes take commitment from all stakeholders and the leaders of an organization or company.
Next Steps
Instructional designers have many opportunities to become more knowledgeable of agile processes.
First, there are many resources available about agile processes and thought processes available online. In addition to the Agile Manifesto itself, many Scrum professionals start with the Scrum guide (https://edtechbooks.org/-rZPW) to learn about agile processes in practice.
Second, talk to people working in the industry. Reach out to alumni from your instructional design program and ask them about the project management processes that they use.
Third, for those interested in pursuing an agile philosophy further, consider pursuing a professional certification as a Scrum Master (https://edtechbooks.org/-jNf). The certification can be earned after taking a short workshop about agile processes and then passing an exam. The workshops can range from \$1000 to \$5000, but the training produces a certification that can be included on a resume or LinkedIn profile.
Takeaways
As an instructional designer, you will work with a variety of teams within a company (instructional designers, content experts, trainers, HR, etc.). Understanding different ways that projects are managed within a company not only makes you more valuable within the organization, a better team member, but also helps you to be more flexible to your approach to instructional problems. Many companies that have adopted this approach would value instructional designers who are both aware of and have practiced agile approaches to be able meet the changing needs of the organization and its clients. If this is the way that you enjoy working, then become more knowledgeable on agile processes and look for a company that clearly integrates it into their culture.
Agile Activities
Following are six activities designed to help you think critically about agile processes:
1. (A collaborative slides version of this activity is available view only at https://bit.ly/agileactivity. To be able to edit, choose make a copy from the file menu, then save it to your own Google Drive.)
An instructional design project on training about workplace bullying was handed to a team that had been designed in a traditional way. The new team uses agile processes. How could they break down this project into smaller chunks (aka create a backlog) to allow for prioritizing parts of the task and providing logical places to stop and receive feedback from the client throughout the process?
• The tasks developed by the traditional team included:
• Explain terminology: bullying, bystander, and victim.
• Outline the roles that each individual takes in a bullying incident.
• Outline what employees should do if they witness bullying.
• Outline what employees should do if they experience bullying.
• Create a design for the look of the materials to create consistency between a face to face and online learning module.
• Create a list of resources available for additional information and training.
• Outline the company policies on bullying.
• Outline the processes for reporting bullying.
• Create example stories or cases with different perspectives (bully, bystander, and victim).
• Develop face-to-face workshop that will last 90 minutes.
• Develop an online tutorial that can be used to document compliance.
• Develop discussion questions for in person training.
• Develop quiz questions for an online module which can be recorded for compliance.
• Create a video with a bullying scenario from the workplace for in person training.
• Create a video with a bullying scenario for the online training.
• Develop a script and support materials for a face-to-face facilitator.
After breaking up the task into smaller groups, then plan the backlog. Many companies use a table design to show the progression of a project. Assign priorities to the groups you created above and explain why you arranged them that way.
In Progress Soon Future Completed
Did the original team forget any task they might need? What were the tasks? How does this agile process help to refine the project and identify gaps?
2. You are designing a remote learning activity to be used by a teacher for a middle school classroom. Create a user story for the stakeholders involved. Think about parent, student, teacher, and curriculum coach. Explain what their needs may be and think about how your design may need to incorporate those needs.
3. Agile teams have been shown to be more effective than traditional teams. Why do you think this is the case?
4. Explain how agile processes value the relationship with the client.
5. At the end of a sprint, an agile team takes time to do a retrospective before starting the next group of tasks. How does scheduling time to reflect on a project in process increase efficiency when designing?
6. Read over the agile manifesto. Give examples of how it honors collaboration and the value of stakeholders. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/06%3A_Instructional_Design_Processes/6.05%3A_Agile_Design_Processes.txt |
Designing Technology-Enhanced Learning Experiences
Bohdana Allman & Richard E. West
The field of instructional/learning design has at times been conflicted about the role of technology in helping students learn (see the classic debate between Richard Clark and Robert Kozma in the “media debate” of the early 1990s—Clark, 1994; Kozma, 1994). While this debate effectively moved the field away from considering digital technologies as the primary variable affecting student learning, these technologies still play an important role in how we learn about, design for, and evaluate learners. In the 21st Century, as networked technologies undergird nearly all human activities, it is nearly impossible to conceive of most instructional situations being devoid of technology entirely.
Indeed, technology may be considered an important layer in most instructional systems, similar to how architectural buildings comprise various layers from the framing to the electrical to (nowadays) the technological. Gibbons (2014) articulated this layered approach to instructional design, arguing that just as multiple layers work together to support the purpose of the building, various design layers must similarly work together within instructional products. As we attend to different elements within instructional design layers, we should consider the content, purposes, and instructional strategies as well as how the instruction is represented and controlled through available technology tools. This enables us to design more effective and purposeful instructional solutions and promote powerful learning experiences.
In this chapter, we attempt to provide suggestions for making instructional design decisions that utilize available digital technologies effectively. We will begin by discussing what instructional technologies are, and how we can incorporate them into our designs. We will review design layers that are particularly relevant when using technology to design instruction and discuss the importance of analyzing the technology’s affordances and matching them to the underlying pedagogical purposes. We will include a discussion about utilizing different models to focus the technology choices on student learning. We then conclude with some challenges to be aware of when integrating technologies into our designs.
What Is an Instructional Technology?
The field of learning and instructional design considers “technology” to be any tool that extends human capability or assists us in achieving a desired learning outcome. In this definition, the technology or tool does not need to be digital. Experts in the field of educational technology often adopt the terms “hard” and “soft” technologies. In this dichotomy, hard technologies refer to machine-based or digital technologies, such as a computer or a web-enabled app, while soft technologies are human-driven processes, methods, and theories that similarly extend or improve our abilities to teach or learn. As an example, in the second edition of the Handbook of Educational Communication Technology, (Jonassen, 2004), there was a section for chapters on “hard” technologies, such as television, virtual reality, and internet-based learning, and a separate section for “soft” technologies such as programmed instruction and game-based learning.
Many of the chapters in this textbook are, in fact, discussing “soft” technologies to support designing instruction (see particularly the sections on instructional design knowledge and processes). However, this dichotomy is becoming less relevant, as hard and soft technologies are increasingly considered simply “strategies” for influencing learning and typically involve some combination of process, pedagogy, and digital tools. Our chapter continues to merge these ideas together by discussing “hard” digital technologies specifically, but with strong consideration for their pedagogical fit.
How Can Instructional Technologies Influence Learning?
As mentioned above, technologies are tools that extend human capability, including learning. In the past, educators and instructional designers viewed technologies as primarily hard technologies, a medium to learn from. This view was associated with the teacher-centered instruction or transmission model of education and associated theories. The focus was typically on content transmission, practice of basic skills through repetition, reinforcement of desired behaviors, and evaluation of how accurately the learners could respond to pre-programmed questions. The technology may have allowed for some interaction with peers and instructors, but mostly the learner individually interacted with the content in isolation. The learner’s role was to acquire provided information and reproduce it for evaluation. The instructor’s primary roles were to manage the content and evaluate learners’ work. This perspective is still valuable for some tasks and types of instruction. However, alone, these types of activities have only limited power in actively engaging learners in the meaning-making process necessary for successful learning and transferring knowledge to new situations.
As an alternative, Jonassen (1996) envisioned instructional technologies as mindtools that students learn with, not from, requiring attention to the underlying strategies for using the technology, i.e., soft technologies, in addition to the medium, i.e., hard technologies. This perspective acknowledges that technologies do not directly mediate learning. Learning is mediated by thinking, collaboration, and dialogue facilitated by a variety of tools. Technologies as mindtools support learners as they interpret and organize their knowledge, engage in critical thinking about the content, and actively participate in knowledge construction. Examples of such tools are semantic and conceptual maps (Hwang et al. 2011, visualization tools (Huang, 2020), microworlds and simulations (Warren & Wakefield, 2013), and even emerging technologies such as robotics (Mikropoulos & Bellou, 2013).
Building on this idea of mindtools, and reflecting a general trend in education toward a learner-centered paradigm, the instructional technology field began using technology to mediate meaningful learning experiences and to focus on supporting the learner and the process of learning. Terms such as learning design and technology-mediated instruction reflect this shift in thinking. As Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich (2013) explained, “technology integration is no longer an isolated goal to be achieved separately from pedagogical goals, but simply the means by which students engage in relevant and meaningful interdisciplinary work” (p. 176).
Learning experiences are now designed with greater emphasis on our understanding of how people learn (Bransford et al., 2000). Learners are viewed as active agents who bring their own knowledge, past experiences, and ideas into the learning process, which impacts how they learn new information. As learners engage in the learning process, they construct and negotiate new meaning individually and with others. The goal of learning is to gain new understanding, broaden perspective, and apply knowledge in practice rather than to reproduce a specific set of facts. The instructor facilitates the interactions among peers to promote deeper understanding and acts as a guide and a mentor rather than “a sage on the stage.”
In this approach, technologies are used more intentionally as tools that mediate learning in a variety of ways. In this chapter, we will briefly discuss three powerful ways that technology can improve learning through (1) simulating authentic human activity, (2) enhancing interaction among people, and (3) enriching the learning process.
Technologies Can Simulate Authentic Human Activity
Learning, and especially learning of complex professional skills, is optimal when it is contextualized and situated in real-life experiences and authentic activities. Certain approaches use varied technology tools to mimic real-world situations to support learning. For example, computer simulations and problem-based learning (PBL) use technology to create conditions that are similar to real life and encourage the learner to gain new knowledge and skills through repeated practice and solving authentic problems. Inquiry-based learning (IBL) encourages the learner to actively explore the material, ask questions, and discuss possible solutions modeling the real-life process of examining issues and systematically looking for answers. Another similar approach, project-based learning (PjBL) engages learners in authentic and complex projects, often developing a tangible product, enabling learners to actively explore real-world problems and gain deeper knowledge and skills. In all these methods, technologies can be used to create authentic or near-authentic problem-solving scenarios and simulations. Additionally, easier replication of digital problem scenarios enables multiple practice opportunities, and using the actual technological tools of the discipline supports learners as they develop professional skills to practice problem solving while in school.
Technologies Can Enhance Interactions
Digital technology has a tremendous potential to enable interactions and connections between people. Whereas individuals were previously limited by space and time constraints, they can now interact through near ubiquitous access and connection to each other. This has led to the development of several theories of digitally mediated social interaction, such as the Communities of Inquiry framework. This theory describes learning as happening within a community where technology enables different types of human presence:
• social presence (the feeling of being connected and present with each other, for example through video or text discussions designed for students and instructors to learn about each other),
• cognitive presence (the feeling of being intellectually present in the community, growing and developing meaning through interaction, for example through online question and answer sessions or group collaboration via shared documents), and
• teaching presence (the feeling of being supported by a teacher designing and facilitating the interactions and content, for example through well-designed online curriculum and opportunities for feedback).
Collaborativism (Online Collaborative Learning Theory) is another model of online learning that creates opportunities for meaningful learning experiences through technology (Harasim, 2017). In this process-oriented model, collaborative technology enables students to actively work together, create knowledge, and learn to use the language, analytical concepts, and activities of the discipline while being supported by an experienced educator who helps them move through three stages. In stage 1 (Divergent Thinking), students engage in discussions about a specific problem or a topic. They generate ideas, questions, responses, and solutions based on their personal perspectives and experiences and share them in a group setting. During stage 2 (Idea Organizing), conceptual changes and convergence of different ideas begin as students clarify, organize, and narrow down options through reflection, analysis, and negotiation of ideas that were shared previously. During Stage 3 (Intellectual Convergence), the group is actively engaged in the co-construction of knowledge. Everyone contributes as the group works on a joint knowledge product or solution, which may later extend to an authentic application or be further refined through another collaborative learning cycle.
Technologies Can Enrich the Learning Process
Technologies have a powerful potential to enrich and transform the learning process in ways that may be difficult or impossible without these tools. For example, online and collaborative technologies offer unique affordances that go beyond connecting learners across time and space by enabling easy access to multiple perspectives from diverse populations and across the globe. The asynchronous and recorded character of technology-mediated exchanges enables coherent organization of thoughts, clear and authentic expression, and deep analysis and reflection, which in turn facilitates deeper learning and enhances theory-to-practice connection. The opportunity to create multidimensional and multidisciplinary responses presents authentic evidence of a deeper understanding that goes beyond “correct” answers. Technology also enhances participation opportunities for all types of learners, not just for the traditional mainstream student. Those that may be timid, need more time, or are learning the language are automatically provided with additional support to access the material and interactions in ways that meets their needs. Furthermore, through its flexibility, technology provides access to learning for many non-traditional students as well as busy professionals who may not be able to gain credentials or participate in ongoing professional development in more traditional ways.
How Should We Incorporate Technology In Our Designs?
Entire handbooks have been written about the topic of how to effectively design learning through the support of technologies (see, for example, Bishop et al., 2020; Dillon, 2020; Mayer, 2014; and Stanley, 2013). This chapter cannot expound on all of these theories and ideas, and truthfully, the path of an instructional/learning designer is one of continuous learning—particularly in the area of instructional technologies because these technologies are continually evolving. However, we present two key ideas that will guide you in making wise technology choices in your design work, namely: (1) align technology with pedagogy and (2) focus on what students will do with the technology.
Principle 1: Align Technology with Pedagogy
The quality and accessibility of technology-mediated learning experiences is an issue of both technology and pedagogy. Whether we design a single learning experience, a course, or a full program, strategic orchestration of desired results, assessments, and instructional methods with intentional use of technology are essential. Understanding by Design (UbD) or Backward Design (McTighe & Wiggins, 2005; see also Dodd, 2020, in this book) is a useful framework that helps designers align these essential elements, focus on student learning, and attend to the underlying pedagogy. Rather than the content, materials, or tools dictating what the student should learn, designers pinpoint the most important ideas, knowledge, and skills that the students should learn, and identify appropriate assessments and pedagogies for supporting student learning..
Pedagogy
Pedagogy refers to principles and practices guiding instructional action with a goal to support learning.
Recognizing that technology is a strategic tool encourages designers to deliberately align technology with underlying pedagogical strategies. Any design can be visualized as having two main layers: a physical layer and a pedagogical layer (see Figure 1). Each layer has distinct core attributes that make the design functional. Core attributes within the physical layer exemplify the surface features of presentation and delivery of instruction and influence access and cost. The pedagogical layer core attributes represent the underlying pedagogical structures and strategies, enable learning to take place, and contribute to successful achievement of learning outcomes (Graham et al., 2014). To increase the effectiveness of any instructional design, the layers and its core attributes should be aligned during the design and development process.
Allman and Leary (2020) studied the process and identified a set of core attributes within the pedagogical layer that drive the two design layers’ alignment. This set of attributes, so-called pedagogical intent, pivot around the learning event and encompass core components, core methods, and core strategies (see Figure 2). As designers establish pedagogical intent related to a specific learning event, it is easier to recognize technological affordances that may be needed and match them with available technological tools. The alignment is achieved iteratively through purposefully utilizing available technology tools to fulfill the underlying pedagogical intent requirements.
Affordances
The concept of affordances represents what a specific technological tool can do, as well as, “afford” the user, a designer, a teacher, or a learner, to do. Affordances are determined by the properties of the tool but also by the capabilities of the user.
Although the choices of technological resources are important, it is the pedagogical purposes that should drive the form of instructional design solutions. By allowing the function to guide the form through prioritizing pedagogical purposes and aligning pedagogical and physical design layers, we can design more effective technology-mediated learning experiences and use current technologies in innovative ways.
Principle 2: Identify What Students Will Do With the Technology
In the discipline of instructional/educational technology, researchers have developed many different models for describing how teachers can integrate technology into their teaching. Most of these models focus on how teachers utilize technology. See, for example, the following:
• The TPACK model, which focuses on teacher technological pedagogical content knowledge (Koehler and Mishra, 2009);
• The SAMR model, which focuses on how teachers can use technological strategies to substitute, augment, modify, or redefine their current pedagogical practices (Hamilton et al., 2016);
• The RAT model, which similarly categorizes technology decisions according to whether the technology replaces, amplifies, or transforms the teachers’ existing teaching practices;
• The LoTI model, which depicted seven levels of technology use by teachers in the classroom (Moersch, 1995).
While these models can be helpful in teacher preparation programs, they perpetuate a teacher-centric approach to technology use, often ignoring the learner’s experience.
PICRAT. However, a new model has been proposed that builds off of the common SAMR/RAT approaches, but turns the emphasis away from what the teacher does with the technology and toward how the student utilizes the technology (Kimmons et al., 2020). In this model, called PICRAT, designers still consider how to use technology to replace, amplify, and transform the learning; but in addition, designers consider what the student is doing as part of the activity: is the student’s learning passive, active, or creative? The PICRAT model does not dictate that all good instruction must be transformative or that students must be creative while using the technology. However, it does help teachers and designers to diagnose how often they incorporate activities in each of the squares, and whether they are overusing some strategies to the detriment of others. For example, we often find that designers/teachers overuse technology to replace passive forms of learning (e.g. viewing a lecture, reading a textbook) and PICRAT can stimulate thinking about how to engage students more actively and creatively in their learning with technology.
Challenges When Designing Learning With Technology
In this chapter, we have mostly proposed technology as a powerful asset for designers as they create effective learning, as long as they first, focus on aligning the technology’s affordances with matching pedagogies; and second, focus on the students’ experiences with the technology. By maintaining these two foci, technology can have a powerful influence on student learning. However, research has provided several additional cautions. We highlight a few important ones here, but be aware that there are many more, and technology, as would be the case with any tool or strategy, should be applied judiciously after careful learner/needs analysis.
Challenge #1: Technology Can Be Distracting
While technology can enhance learning, it can also easily distract from it. We are all familiar with overworked Powerpoint slides or videos where the core message is lost amid spinning graphics, useless animations, distracting photos, or disconnected audio. Richard Mayer, and his collaborators, have outlined key principles for designing effective educational multimedia in their Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, or CTML (Mayer, 1995). These principles are based on core cognitivist assumptions and theories such as dual coding theory (Paivio, 1990) and information processing limits and activity (West et al., 2013). The core idea behind the theory is that of congruence—or that various media should work together, not at disarray, to solidify interpretation of an idea and the development of appropriate mental schemas. More specifically, Mayer and Moreno (1998) identified 5 key principles for designers:
1. Multiple Representation Principle: It is better to present an explanation in words and pictures than solely in words.
2. Contiguity Principle: When giving a multimedia explanation, present corresponding words and pictures contiguously rather than separately.
3. Split-Attention Principle: When giving a multimedia explanation, present words as auditory narration rather than as visual on-screen text.
4. Individual Differences Principle: The foregoing principles are more important for low-knowledge than high-knowledge learners, and for high-spatial rather than low-spatial learners.
5. Coherence Principle: When giving a multimedia explanation, use few rather than many extraneous words and pictures.
The research on CTML is quite extensive with a great deal of applicability to designers, and you are encouraged to continue your learning in this area by seeking out recent publications on this topic.
Challenge #2: Equity
Although technology has the potential to contribute to equity among learners, it is frequently a great source of inequality with regards to access and usage. Technology is typically adopted faster and in more engaging and innovative ways in schools serving affluent communities. Students in low-income schools may have comparable access to computers while at school but their access to computers and reliable internet may be limited at home. Additionally, low-income schools frequently employ technology for routine drills, content delivery, and in teacher-centered ways rather than facilitating access to knowledge and learning further enlarging the digital divide (Reich, 2019; Warschauer et al., 2004).
Effective use of technology can remove barriers to learning. It can make content and materials more accessible, less culturally biased, and less linguistically challenging. Technology can support educators to regularly assess their learners’ needs, promptly respond to their progress, and provide tailored support based on those needs. In order for technology to promote a more equitable learning environment, access to computers, tablets or devices and reliable fast internet connection must be ensured both at school and at home. Next, attention needs to be paid to ongoing professional development and instructional coaching to support teachers, particularly to understand how they can influence student equity.
However, change in teacher practice and effective technology integration occurs gradually. In order to create more equitable learning environments and innovative uses of technology in their classrooms, teachers need to see multiple examples and have opportunities to practice in their classrooms. Finally, to promote equity, it is imperative that we see beyond technology integration and recognize the importance of using technology-generated data to better understand where learners are and monitor their progress as well as utilize learner-centered educational approaches to promote authentic and meaningful learning experiences mediated by technology.
Challenge #3: Media Centrism
The field of instructional design evolved in part from a foundation in educational media. Perhaps for this reason, there is sometimes a bias towards overemphasizing technology in our designs. Throughout the history of our field, we see initial, frenzied excitement over a new technology that eventually is born out to be not nearly as disruptive as originally envisioned (e.g. virtual reality, moocs, interactive whiteboards, clickers, etc.).
Gibbons (2018) outlined succinctly a common pattern for new instructional designers, arguing they begin media centric, because “The technology itself holds great attraction for new designers. They often construct their designs in the vocabulary of the medium rather than seeing the medium as a . . . preferably invisible channel for learning interaction” (para. 3). According to Gibbons, designers then evolve to focus on the instructional message, then the instructional strategy, before finally learning to design according to an instructional model. “Model centering encourages the designer to think first in terms of the system and model constructs that lie at the base of subject-matter knowledge. . . . Then to this base of design is added strategy, message, and media constructs” (para 6).
Because of this inherent bias towards technology as the first solution, designers must practice discipline in not choosing the novel technological choice first before fully analyzing its true affordances.
Challenge #4: Time/Cost/Efficiency Tradeoffs
Technology is often expensive to integrate into a learning environment—particularly if it is a new technology and especially if access must be provided for a large number of students to maintain equity. For example, the ability to teach mathematics to young children using virtual manipulatives using proprietary software on expensive tablets may be superior for some learning objectives to plastic, physical manipulatives. However, would the cost of buying and replacing the tablets be worth it? In addition, how much time will it take to train teachers and students on the new software? How much instructional time will it take in the class period to conduct the activity, including charging the devices, organizing them on the media cart, and retrieving them from students afterwards?
In making decisions about integrating technology into learning environments, designers must not only analyze what decisions will help people learn best, but also which decisions are most practical.
Conclusion
It is clear that technology plays a very important role in our discipline, as many academic programs include the word in the title of their department. However, what technology designers use in the learning environments they create is less important than how they use it. In this chapter, two key principles have been outlined for designing effective instruction with technology: First, match the pedagogy to the technology’s affordances; and second, focus on what students will do with the technology, more so than the teacher. Four challenges have also been outlined that are common when technoloy is used in design, and some suggestions have been provided for confronting these challenges. Perhaps the most important idea is to remember digital technologies, like theories, processes, and models, are tools—and tools are only as effective as the builder and the blueprints that will utilize the tools.
Application Exercise
Consider a time in your life when you needed to learn something difficult. Some examples might be fractions as a child, learning another language, or learning a new routine at work. First, analyze what your needs were as a learner: what did you need to learn, and what made it challenging? Second, describe what kind of technology could have helped you? What affordances of the technology would have made it useful? Third, pick one of the challenges outlined in this chapter and discuss how an instructional designer could have utilized the technology effectively while minimizing those challenges. For example, how could they have reasonably provided equitable access? Or utilized CTML design principles? | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/07%3A_Designing_Instructional_Activities/7.01%3A_Designing_Technolo.txt |
Designing Instructional Text
Shanali Govender & Tasneem Jaffer
The term “instructional text” has been widely used to describe a wide range of textual objects, from whole texts (such as textbooks, manuals, guides and even narrative, reading scheme texts) to parts of a text. Historically, much of the research on instructional text has been in relation to the linguistic construction of texts (Tarasov et al., 2015) and document design (Misanchuk, 1992). In this chapter, we are going to narrow the focus substantially. This is not a chapter on how to write a didactic text, in other words, how to convey subject-specific information in print texts or online. Instead, this chapter will focus on the often overlooked “instructional text” that supports learning. Drawing on concepts from fields such as applied linguistics, graphic and multimedia design, and diversity studies, we’re going to focus our attention on the kind of textual features that work alongside subject-specific content to direct learners’ attention and action—instructional text.
What Does Instructional Text Do?
Instructional text is commonly found hiding inside other texts: in classroom conversation, in textbooks and learner guides, in educator-produced material such as worksheets or assignment briefs, and on websites and course sites. We often do not really notice instructional text unless it is badly written and disrupts the flow of the learning. Instructional text can play a number of roles in face-to-face, print, and online learning contexts, including:
• contributing to creating a learning environment,
• outlining the structure of a learning experience,
• directing learners’ attention to specific areas,
• directing learners' actions and behaviours, and
• creating links between different parts of a learning experience.
Issitt (2004) noted that when we are constructing instructional text for print media, we should pay careful attention to the placement, construction, and design of these texts, and this is equally true for online and multimodal media, especially in asynchronous formats.
Instructional Text: In the Classroom, in Print, and Online
While most educators pay careful attention to instructional text that conveys subject-specific content, less attention is given to instructional text that supports the learning of content.
In face-to-face spaces, instructional text often happens in direct response to learners’ actions. Moving into an online or multimodal context poses some new challenges and affordances for constructing instructional text. Poorly constructed instructional text in online and multimedia forms can be very confusing for learners but well-constructed instructional text can also open the door to a wonderful range of visual and verbal opportunities. So if you are an instructional designer, you need to think intentionally about the different spaces where instruction is needed.
Towards a Theoretical Perspective
The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework (Figure 1), developed almost 20 years ago, drew together the useful categories of Social Presence, Cognitive Presence, and Teaching Presence to describe the “dynamics of an online educational experience” in light of asynchronous, text-based group discussions (Garrison et al., 2010, p. 6).
This model remains useful today, and can be used to think about instructional text in print media, online text, and multimodal media. While most educators’ focus tends to remain resolutely on cognitive presence, attention to social presence and teaching presence when constructing successful instructional text can enhance learner satisfaction and strengthen a sense of community. Social presence in an online learning experience can help participants to “identify with the community (e.g., course of study), communicate purposefully in a trusting environment, and develop interpersonal relationships by way of projecting their individual personalities” (Garrison, 2009, p. 352). The specific textual choices that an educator makes in constructing instructional text will either support the achievement of this aim or hamper it.
Principles for Constructing Instructional Text
Additional Information
Whether you are constructing instructional text for written, online, multimodal contexts, there are a number of key principles that you will need to bear in mind. These principles come from a wide variety of research fields, including perception studies in psychology, user experience research, multimodal studies, and applied linguistics.
Principle 1: Simplify: Reduce Extraneous Load
Simplifying texts and producing ‘‘easy-to-read texts’’, or ‘‘plain language texts’’ is another way of thinking about reducing extraneous load to produce texts that align with readers’ ability levels (Arfe et al., 2017). Extraneous load or processing refers to any work that a learner might need to do that does not contribute to the learning goal or outcome (Mayer, 2019). Poorly written, excessively complicated instructional text, or instructions that are only issued verbally can contribute to extraneous cognitive load. Instructional text should
• be short and direct
• avoid jargon
• highlight key actions
• be easily “findable”
• hyperlink where appropriate
Principle 2: Personalise: Connect Through Voice and Tone
Research suggests that belonging, achieved in part through affective connection, is a key predictor of learner success (Masika & Jones, 2016; Trujillo & Tanner, 2017). In face-to-face classroom contexts, successful educators instinctively use body language and tone of voice to create connection through conveying emotion. This is particularly true for minority learners (Meeuwisse et al., 2010; Rahman, 2013) and in online learning spaces (Delahunty et al., 2014).
Instructional text, in print, online text, or multimodal texts, often suffers from an absence of emotional connection between the writer and the reader (Issitt, 2004), failing to build belonging in support of learning. Instructional text is, however, an opportunity to connect with learners on levels beyond the purely cognitive, enhancing learning through building connection, belonging and trust (see Figure 2). The use of a human (as opposed to synthesized voice) and to “you” and “I” as opposed to third person pronouns or more formal language are ways of building connections (Ginns et al., 2013).
The text, highlighted in yellow above, points to some of the language choices made in an instructional text to build connection and convey emotion. Not everyone will do this in the same ways based on factors such as the personality of the instructor, the age of your learners, and the context in which you work; but for this educator, this is an authentic example of “voice” that seeks to promote connection. In certain contexts, the use of emoticons, gifs, and memes might be an authentic and approachable way to build connection.
The pervasiveness of recording devices in the form of cellphones, cameras, lecture recording, and live video conferencing contribute to educators across the educational sector feeling increasingly under surveillance. In the context from which we are writing, a research-intensive university in South Africa, staff are hyper-aware and often uncomfortable with being recorded. This can result in both teaching and learning interactions and instructional text that is hyper-correct, hyper-formal and devoid of personality and the opportunity for connection.
Consider Multimodal Instructional Text
Instructional texts in multimodal contexts can take advantage of the affordances of video and audio to improve clarity and strengthen connection. In blended contexts, making the instructional text available in both online and face-to-face modes can support learning in a seamless manner.
Note. Image adapted from macrovector_official - freepik.com
In written text on the page or screen, Option 1 seems much friendlier than Option 2. But what if we were in a live video conference call, and Option 1 was said in a monotone, and Option 2 was said with a cheery smile and a “zip the lips and throw away the key” gesture? The tone changes entirely. The same would be true of an audio recording, video or podcast—formal language, paired with welcoming tone and visuals can have a very different impact than just the text, and of course, text, audio and visuals that work in support of each other would be the most powerful.
Principle 3: Communicate Regularly
The temptation with instructional text is sometimes to write or present long and complex screeds of instructions at the outset of a process. We would encourage you, however, to communicate regularly with learners and to offer instructional text in brief, just-in-time chunks. This is for a number of reasons. Instructional text is most likely to make sense to learners when it is directly related to what a learner needs to do immediately. While it is useful to tell learners at the beginning of the semester how it is that they will submit their final semester project, you really should be prepared to come back in the final weeks of semester and remind them. Instructional text is also a way of building a connection with learners across time. Knowing that a lecturer will email weekly with key submissions, key activities, and a summary of what went well in the previous week is something that learners, particularly in online contexts, value. Instructional communication over time is also an opportunity to acknowledge and encourage learners on an ongoing basis.
Purpose and Placement of Instructional Text
There are many places where you should consider inserting instructional design text. Given the broad role instructional text plays, it is ubiquitous in course design and delivery. There are, however, some typical placements (see Figure 4) of instructional text.
Introductory, Linking, and Concluding Instructional Texts
Instructional text is often needed at the beginning of a unit or module in a course or textbook. In this location, instructional text will usually outline the shape of the text learning experience ahead of the learner by articulating learning outcomes and identifying key aspects of the learning activities. It might alert the learner to activities such as live sessions, expected time on tasks, or equipment required for that week. Figure 5 is an example of introductory instructional text.
While the text above performs an introductory function, similar texts can perform linking functions between sections of text or activities, and to conclude learning “chunks.”
Instructional Text to Support Navigation
Both print learning texts and online learning spaces have their own rules and norms. As an educator, you may be very aware that bold text or italicized text requires particular attention, or that text in a particular shade of blue with an underline is likely to be hyperlinked. However, the norms of texts and online spaces are not always immediately apparent to all learners, who may need some assistance navigating either the text or the space. Further, learners are almost always enrolled in multiple courses, each with its own structure, rules and norms. Figure 6 provides an example of instructional text with a navigation purpose.
Being explicit about the structure, rules, and norms of your course can improve the learner experience by reducing extraneous cognitive load. That is, because of the way the content is presented, learners may have to do excessive analyzing that is not necessary to achieve the learning outcomes of the course (Mayer, 2019). It is our responsibility as instructors to limit this load, allowing learners to focus their attention and efforts on what we really want them to learn.
Learning Activity Instructional Text
If you research older articles, you will often come across instructional text articles that refer to writing the instructions of an assignment or manual for print. Each assignment or assessment created for learners contains instruction—sometimes the instruction is minimal if it is an open-ended question or more intensive if it is a step-by-tutorial. Depending on the level of the learners, the level of instruction used for assessments may differ. Figure 7 is the instruction for a small activity on learner personas.
Email as Instructional Text
In an online setting, course announcements or emails are often used by the instructor to communicate with learners on a regular basis (see Figure 8). This type of instruction typically includes, but is not limited to reminders, deadlines, changes in course information, and feedback on assessment. While other forms of instruction may be pre-planned, emails are done with a short turnaround time and therefore contextual to what is currently happening in the class. If we, as instructors, are communicating sensitive or not-so-great information about learner grades, we want to pay particular attention to our tone. It is the little things that contribute to a successful email—like the usage of greetings.
Figure 8
Example of an Instructional Text in an Email
Example:
Hello everyone
We don't have any new work/input at the moment, so I hope you are all catching your breath and writing happily!
In this week's live session, we focused on the first two sections of the Learning Design Rationale. We talked about trigger problems in relation to the introduction and started to think about the "Thinking like a designer" section. We tried two short activities to get everyone to think about the goal of both these two sections.
Seema had a great question about how to use the feedback in the blogs. Do not use this feedback to rewrite your blogs—it's totally unnecessary. The blogs are, however, actually key parts of your LDR, so use this feedback to improve your final LDR.
Next week, we are using our two live sessions to continue strengthening the LDRs
• Monday (4:30pm) - Context section (Saadiq)
• Wednesday (3pm) - Design and Develop sections (Sandiso, Widad)
Thanks to our volunteers for next week—we will have some examples to think about our work in relation to!
Also, check out the Commons tool in the left-hand menu! It's a great place for leaving messages or sharing questions and resources.
Stay strong!
Shanali
Visual Design of Instructional Text
While the content of the instructional text is central to its purpose of guiding the learner, there are many other factors that contribute to its success. An example is focusing on accessibility in the instructional text's visual design. When designing instructional text, we need to think about how it caters to the learner’s experience from a visual perspective, which affects the learner’s ability to find information (Lonsdale, 2016). These visual guidelines draw on the work of Hartley (1981), Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and the field of User Experience (UX) to name a few. Regardless of a physical or digital medium, these guidelines are important considerations for the design of your instructional text. Good instructional text will not always be noticeable to the learner, but poor instructional text or the absence of instructional text will be evident. When designing instructional text there are a few key areas that need to be considered.
Headings
Headings improve the learner's ability to scan and navigate the content. At any point, a learner should know where they came from, where they are, and where they are going. Headings signal the topic, and in many cases give you an idea of whether the information under the heading will be relevant. Before lesson planning, it is a good idea to sit down and plan the structure including the headings and subheadings for one unit or lesson. This allows you to mimic the heading structure for future lessons, creating a consistent learning experience. For optimum accessibility, here you want to make use of the heading styles provided by Word, Google Docs, or any text editor.
Numbering
Numbering aids in sequencing and organizing information. Furthermore, it is particularly valuable for referencing purposes (Hartley, 1981). Where possible, numbering is encouraged, as it provides opportunities to reference by number in announcements, emails, assignments, and other parts of the course (see Figure 9; e.g., "Please have a look at section 2.2 detailing how to use an empathy map.") If the course content changes regularly, you may want to be cautious about the upkeep of a numbering system. Numbering also provides learners with an easy reference method when emailing an instructor with queries.
Figure 9
Example Showing Content Structure Using Headings and Numbering
1. Introduction to Online Learning Design
1.1 What is online learning design?
1.2 Knowing your context
2. Understanding your learners
2.1 Personas 2.2
Empathy maps
Bullets
Break up large chunks of text into smaller numbered or bulleted lists. For example, if there are five key points for a topic, it might be a good idea to outline this using bulleted lists (see Figure 10).
Figure 10
Example Showing a Before and After of Converting a Chunk of Text to a Bulleted List
Tips for filming your online lectures
Example: Large chunk of text (Before)
Script writing is an essential part of preparing to film your lecture for an online course. Here are five key tips you need to think about when filming. If writing a verbatim script, use short sentences, short paragraphs and simple syntax. Be clear and concise: aim to convey maximum information using minimum words. Check that your script flows, that you are explaining the links between paragraphs or sections. Storytelling is a useful device to keep learners engaged—try to mimic this in your videos. Don’t use abbreviations in the spoken form—e.g., say the United States instead of the US, University of Cape Town instead of UCT.
Example: Bulleted list (After)
Script writing is an essential part of preparing to film your lecture for an online course. Here are five key tips you need to think about when filming:
• Use short sentences, short paragraphs and simple syntax.
• Be clear and concise: aim to convey maximum information using minimum words.
• Check that your script flows, that you are explaining the links between paragraphs or sections.
• Use storytelling in your videos to keep learners engaged.
• Don’t use abbreviations in the spoken form—e.g., say the United States instead of the US, University of Cape Town instead of UCT.
Spacing
Designers talk about “white space”—which is the space around text and images like in this textbook. Golombisky and Hagen (2013) phrase it really well “Too much space, and visuals and type get lost or don’t talk to each other. Not enough space and they start to fight with each other”(p. 7). White space is necessary and appropriate when placing text and images, and it contributes to the readability of the instruction. Having white space around the most important information allows it to stand out from the rest of the text. Following the methodology of chunking (see Figure 11), you should break up text into logical chunks which can provide the white space needed to maximize readability (Moran, 2016).
Fonts
Font choice can impact the readability of the text. Opt for common, highly readable fonts like Arial, Tahoma, Verdana, or others and avoid decorative fonts that are difficult to read. Some font-families are considered more readable than others, with division among those who prefer sans-serif or serif fonts. A simple web search for the most accessible fonts will give a selection of suitable fonts. Limit text to one or a few select fonts—having too many will be distracting for the reader. Although they may seem boring, they are effective and easy on the eyes. Let’s leave the decorative fonts for the kids (see Figure 12).
Font Size
Depending on the placement of the instructional text, it’s important to consider the font size. If important instructions are too small and illegible, they might be overlooked by the reader (see Figure 13).
Figure 13
Example Showing Readability of Different Font Sizes
This is 8px
This is 10px
This is 12px
This 14px
This is 18px
Emphasis Using Text Effects
When communicating important information like deadlines, it is common to boldunderline, or italicize certain parts of the text to make it stand out to the learner. For example, the bolding on this part of the sentence signals that you should focus on it. Here it is important to be consistent in the style of emphasis you are going to be using throughout your course materials in order to not confuse learners.
Colors and Highlighting
If color is used to signal important text, you want a good contrast between the colors used. Poor color contrast may not be readable and particularly affect learners who are color-blind. Using an online contrast checker like WebAIM will determine whether the text is well-contrasted (see Figure 14). As far as possible, color should not be the only way to show emphasis.
Conclusion
In this chapter, we have limited our focus to the kind of instructional text that works between subject-specific material to support learning. While we hope that the principles suggested to you will continue to be useful over a period of time, factors such as mode (face to face, blended, or online) and ever-changing technological and digital contexts, mean that what learners find appealing and supportive will change. We encourage you to pay attention to the role of instructional text in learning, and to take steps to develop your capacity with constructing instructional text by, above all, listening to your learners.
Application Exercises
Exercise 1
Refer to Figure 7: Example showing instructional text in a learning activity. Which principles for constructing instructional text do you see at work in this example? Compare your answers with a peer and see if you missed anything.
Exercise 2:
Here’s a version of the email announcement example we used earlier with some creative use of font and colour. Copy this email into a text editor, remove all the formatting and think about font colour, size and spacing to improve the read-ability.
Example:
Hello everyone. We don't have any new work/ input at the moment so I hope you are all catching your breath and writing happily! In this week's live session we focused on the first two sections of the LDR. We talked about trigger problems in relation to the introduction and started to think about the "Thinking like a designer section". We tried two short activities to get everyone to think about the goal of both these two sections. Seema had a great question about how to use the feedback in the blogs. Do not use this feedback to rewrite your blogs - it's totally unnecessary. The blogs are however, actually key parts of your LDR, so use this feedback to improve your final LDR. Next week, we are using our two live sessions to continue strengthening the LDRs - Monday (4:30pm) - Context section (Saadiq) and Wednesday (3pm) - Design and Develop sections (Sandiso, Widad). Thanks to our volunteers for next week - we will have some examples to think about our work in relation to! Also, check out the Commons tool in the left-hand menu! It's a great place for leaving messages or sharing questions and resources.
Kind regards
Shanali
Exercise 3:
Find an existing example of instructional text. This could be something you have written previously or an example from a textbook or online course. Using what you have learned in this chapter about principles for constructing and designing instructional text, edit the example you have found. Share your edits with a peer or a friend for feedback. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/07%3A_Designing_Instructional_Activities/7.02%3A_Designing_Instruct.txt |
Audio and Video Production for Instructional Design Professionals
Marshall G. Jones & Lisa Harris
Practicing instructional design professionals use digital audio and video in learning materials for a variety of reasons including content presentation, feedback, and assessment. Some audio and video materials used for purposes like feedback and assessment may have a narrow audience and may not require high production value (i.e. the editing needed to make audio and video materials professional and polished). For those uses, you simply record and share.
Depending on the resources of a project, instructional designers may create these materials themselves or work with media production professionals. Because modern smartphones have access to basic media production tools, it is possible for anybody to capture and edit audio and video. This is an acceptable solution for materials with a narrow audience or materials that will not be shared widely. However, media that is included in professional learning materials needs to have a polished and professional look and feel.
This chapter will provide an overview of audio and video tools that instructional designers can use to capture, edit, and share professional learning materials with limited resources. In addition, terms and issues associated with audio and video production will be introduced. This introductory knowledge will help guide you as you seek to enhance your skills and will also help you communicate effectively with media production professionals during your career.
Lossless and Lossy Media
Audio and video files are commonly referred to as media files. There will be other media files that you work with as an instructional design professional, but these are the foundations of most media production projects.
Because so much of the work we do is shared digitally on the Internet, working with any type of media is a compromise between the highest quality and the smallest file size. Which is why you need to learn how to compress uncompressed media files. We sometimes refer to uncompressed media as lossless and compressed media as lossy.
A lossless file is uncompressed and is at the highest digital quality. “Lossy” media has lost some of the original quality. This means that it has been exported to a file size and type that can be used and shared easily. An exported file is a compromise between file size and quality. Lossless media is media captured in its highest quality. This allows us to edit in the highest quality available and then export it in the most appropriate format. Audio and video examples are included below.
Audio
The most common lossless audio file you will work with is a .wav file (Waveform Audio Format. Pronounced wave). There are others, but .wav files are the most commonly used. (See https://edtechbooks.org/-Coyb for a list). A .wav file is uncompressed and at its highest quality. After the audio is recorded, it is edited for length, clarity, and production quality and exported to a lossy compressed format. The most common compressed audio file is an .mp3 file. The sound quality of a .wav file is higher in quality and preferred by professional musicians and audio engineers. However, a .wav file can be as much as ten times larger than an .mp3 file. Given the file size difference, instructional designers often use .mp3 files as a compromise between file size and quality.
Video
The quality of the video recorded is determined by the camera used. Video quality is referred to as video resolution and measured by pixel dimensions. See Table 1 for common types of video resolution from lowest quality to highest quality.
Table 1
Common Video Resolutions
Video Resolution
Abbreviation(s)
Pixel Dimensions
Standard Definition
SD
720x480
High Definition
HD
1280x720 (Also written as 720p)
Full High Definition
Full HD
1920x1080 (Also written as 1080p)
Ultra High Definition or 4K
Ultra HD or 4K
3840x2160
Note. See https://edtechbooks.org/-CgI and https://edtechbooks.org/-CgI for more details.
The quality of the camera determines the highest quality of the video available to you. As of the writing of this chapter, newer smartphones record in HD and Full HD, though some newer phones do allow for 4K recordings. Professional video cameras, and many consumer level cameras, will record in 4K. Once the video is edited for length, content, and production values, the final resolution can be determined when the video is exported and saved to a lossy file type to share, typically an .mp4 file.
How to Compromise Between Quality and File Size
This will depend on several factors such as:
• how you will deliver the materials,
• the content of the materials, and
• where you will be using the materials.
For example, if you were recording music and wanted to distribute it on a compact disc, you would want to export your audio file in a .wav format. You would want the highest quality so that the nuances of the music could be enjoyed by the listener. If you are recording a podcast, lecture, or some other type of voice file and your plan is to distribute that through a learning management system or some other internet-based option, an .mp3 file is preferred. An .mp3 file has levels of audio quality, or fidelity, which are measured by the bitrate. The lower the bitrate, the lower the quality or fidelity to the original recording. A bitrate of 96 would be a lower quality .mp3 while a bitrate of 320 would be the highest quality. The bitrate is chosen when the audio file is exported. For more information on bitrate, see https://edtechbooks.org/-Zavu.
When exporting video, it also depends on what you plan to do with the video. If you are broadcasting the video through a television network or streaming service, you would likely want to export in 4k or Full HD (1080p). If you are distributing your video through an online streaming service such as YouTube or Vimeo, you could likely use a lower resolution HD file. Your choice of resolution will depend on the content of the video. If you were creating a highly technical video that requires significant granular detail, such as repairing a piece of equipment, or performing surgery, you would want a higher resolution, likely 4K (Ultra HD) or Full HD (1080p). If you were recording a lecture or a narrated PowerPoint presentation a lower resolution such as HD (720p) would be fine. It would depend on the content and how you are distributing it. It is unlikely that you would ever export in Standard Definition (SD). That is the resolution that was common to many video cassette recorders. We include it here as you may see it if you are including older recorded materials in a project.
Recording and Editing Digital Audio
Before you can compress your audio as an .mp3 file, you must capture, or record the audio. On the face of it, recording audio is relatively straightforward, assuming you have a recorder:
1. Press the record button.
2. Talk.
3. Press the stop button.
4. Export it as an .mp3 file.
Recording high quality audio is more difficult. Where you record is an issue to consider. Field recording, such as interviews in offices, classrooms, or outside areas are different from recording in a single stationary place, like a studio. This chapter primarily covers the fundamentals of audio recording in a stationary space with limited resources.
Additional Resources
If you are interested in field recording, Michael Helms’ podcast and website are helpful resources (https://michaelthesoundguy.com).
To record professional sounding audio, you have to think about a number of factors such as what microphone you are using, how close you are to your microphone, where you are recording, and how to edit your audio before you export it and share it. We will cover each in turn.
Microphone Quality
For professional sounding audio, you need a better microphone than the one in your computer or your smartphone. You also need a microphone that records in stereo. Mono (also known as monaural or monophonic) audio plays in a single channel. Stereo plays in two channels, left and right. Put more simply, mono audio plays in only one ear of your headphones. Stereo plays in both. Space limits our discussion of every type of microphone, and there are many such as dynamic and ribbon microphones. For more information on dynamic and ribbon microphones, see: https://edtechbooks.org/-SHa. If you have access to recording engineers and their studio, they will have professional microphones available. We are focusing our chapter on a versatile microphone for instructional designers, the condenser microphone.
Condenser microphones have electronics inside of them to help provide a better-quality recording. They typically connect directly to your computer through a USB port. They provide for greater fidelity in sound, which means the microphone can provide a recording that is very close to the original performance. If you listen to live music and a recording of the same performance, you will hear things differently. Your ears will pick up sounds at a live performance that even the best microphone cannot capture. Better microphones will provide recordings as close as possible to the original. So higher fidelity means better quality. And better microphones produce higher fidelity.
Condenser microphones capture a wide range of frequencies well. They make the low tones richer and the high tones sound crisp without sounding “tinny.” Condenser microphones can be very expensive. You can pay thousands of dollars for a condenser microphone, and if you were a recording engineer working with symphonies or studio musicians, you would. However, for the type of recording most instructional design professionals do—mostly voice recordings for .mp3 files or voice overs for video—you need a good microphone, not a great one. There are many to choose from and an internet search for comparisons will yield many. What you choose will likely depend on your budget.
The “Snowball” microphone by Blue is an example of a compromise between cost and quality. It is an example of a good, but not great, microphone. This USB microphone provides good sound quality at a reasonable price and is a good addition to your instructional designer tool kit. It is available at many retailers or from the website directly. Our inclusion of the Snowball microphone is used as an example only and should not be considered a commercial endorsement.
Note. Visit https://edtechbooks.org/-qFv for more information.
Distance from Your Microphone
The closer you are to your microphone, the better the sound quality. How close depends on the microphone, so it is best to experiment until you get to know your microphone better, but think two–six inches away as being close.
Your microphone will record every sound in the room. When you record, think about air conditioners, fans, and other ambient noises. Also, think about air. The air between you and your microphone is recorded as dead air. If there is a lot of air between you and your microphone, you will get a hissing noise when you turn up the volume. While the microphone can and will pick up all of the sounds, the mic will pick up sounds closer to the microphone more clearly. Which is why you want to be close to the microphone. However, if you get too close to a microphone you may “pop the mic”. Popping the mic is the term used to describe the noise that you hear when hard consonants like p, td, etc. are used close to the microphone. The microphone may pick these sounds up and produce an annoying popping sound on a recording. To lessen mic popping, use a pop filter. These devices provide a mesh like fabric that rests between you and the microphone and help diffuse the sound of the hard consonants.
Note. Source: https://edtechbooks.org/-FzAV
Pop filters are relatively inexpensive. Because a person sits close to a pop filter when speaking, they are likely to spread aerosols as they speak. We recommend you treat them as personal items.
Room Size
The best place to record audio is in a recording studio. Recording studios have baffling, soft material on the walls and ceilings, to lessen echo in the room. If you do not have access to a recording studio, consider the size of your room. Large rooms may produce more echo. Small rooms will produce less. The less echo in a recording the better.
The larger the room, the greater the problems for recording. Your microphone will pick up ambient noises like your air conditioner, but it will also pick up the echoes of the room. Rooms with a lot of tile and glass and tile (think kitchens and bathrooms in your home) allow the sound to “bounce” off the hard surfaces. Audio recording in large rooms produces audio that may sound thin and produce unwanted echoes.
When possible, use a small room with carpets, drapes, and other fabrics to help absorb excess sound. You can also create a better environment with boxes to contain the microphone and soft materials to surround it. In the image below, the person has placed their microphone in a box with foam to absorb excess sound. You could also achieve this effect with a box and any kind of fabric like towels or small pillows. Notice that the microphone is close to the foam in the box. This will help keep sound on the other side of the microphone from being recorded as well and helps eliminate dead air.
Note. See https://edtechbooks.org/-Vod for more information.
Audio Software
To create a professional sounding recording, you need multitrack software to edit audio. A finished audio file is a number of tracks, or layers of audio, edited together for quality and clarity. Each track is a type of audio. One track might be your voice, and another track your background music (see Figure 4). Audio software allows you to mix your audio. Mixing audio means that you adjust levels of each track to make your voice loud enough and your background music soft enough to blend well together.
Note. The top track is a voice track and the bottom track is a background music track.
There are many professional options available, but Audacity is a free, open source tool that we recommend. It is available for both Mac and PC computers. Below are a set of tutorials that will help you get started with Audacity (version 2.3.2) and audio editing.
1. Audacity: An Introduction
A brief tutorial demonstrating the user interface and basic functions of Audacity audio software.
2. Audacity: Adding Background Music To Your Project
How to add background music to your podcast using Audacity. The video covers importing a music file and how to use "fade in" and "fade out" to make the final version sound more polished.
3. Audacity: The Effects Menu
This short tutorial introduces the Effects menu in Audacity and demonstrates how to apply a change in pitch effect.
4. Audacity: The Time Shift Tool
This tutorial introduces the Time Shift Tool in Audacity. Use the Time Shift Tool to move an audio track horizontally on your timeline.
5. Audacity: Exporting Audio as an. Mp3 File
This brief tutorial demonstrates how to export your Audacity project as an mp3 file so it can be shared with others. This is the stage of the production process when you would choose the bitrate for an .mp3 file.
Digital Video
Most people have a better-than-average video camera in their pocket or bag. Modern smartphones contain impressive cameras and can record quality video. Because everybody can create video easily now, we think of video as being easy. On the face of it, digital video is easy. Sound and lighting are hard.
Video and Expectations
Without the resources of professional videographers and filmmakers, you should not expect to make videos that will look like the ones you see on television or in the movies. Those videos require resources including multiple cameras, multiple camera angles, good field recording equipment, professional lighting kits, sophisticated video editing software, personnel, and more. However, depending on the needs of your learners and the type of content you need to create, it is possible to make compelling and professional looking videos with limited resources. What follows are some resources to help you produce video with limited resources. Experience producing video yourself will help you work with professional video production teams during your career.
Video Terminology
Below is an alphabetical list of terms used in capturing, editing, and sharing videos that you are likely to encounter. While this is far from a complete list, some knowledge of these terms will help you both produce your own video and work with professional video producers.
Table 2
Video Terminology
Aspect Ratio The relationship between the width and height of your video. It is expressed numerically such as 4:3 and 16:9.
Boom Mics High quality microphones that can attach to your camera to allow better sound while you are shooting video.
B Roll Supplemental background footage. This is stock footage that is used while voice over audio plays. For example, if there is a news report about vaping, you will often see video clips of random people not associated with the story vaping. Those clips are B Roll footage.
Clip A piece of video. You can take one long video clip and split it to make multiple small clips. You can take multiple small clips and order them to create a final product.
Compression The amount of data in a video file. Smaller files have higher compression rates. High-definition video has lower compression rates.
Credits Information at the end of a video detailing information about the creator of the video, actors, or other important information about the video.
Dissolve An editing term. A transition between two elements in your video. You might dissolve between two video clips, or between a clip and a title.
Export “Saving” your video in a format that can be shared with others or uploaded to a video sharing site, typically an MP4 file.
Fade
An editing term. It is the transition between a visual and a black screen. As in “Fade to Black”.
Filters An editing term. Color Corrections that can be made to a video clip. Much like filters you might add to an image in image editing software.
Preview Window The area of the screen in a video editor that lets you see the movie in part or in entirety within the software as you edit the video.
Project Library An area in your editing software that contains all of the video clips, still images, and audio files you have imported to use in your video.
Timeline/Storyboard In video editing software, the area of the screen that contains clips that you have moved from the library for editing and inclusion in your project. The timeline/storyboard is typically found at the bottom of the screen.
Scrub An editing term. To fast forward or rewind a video or audio clip on the Timeline/Storyboard.
Shot List A list of all of the shots, or video you need to collect, that you will need in your project.
Split An editing term. To cut a single video clip into two separate clips. You would do this to isolate the video you want to remove by splitting it before and after the video you want to remove and then deleting the piece in the middle. You would split a clip to insert something before or after the clip, such as a title, still image, or another video clip.
Titles Text that appears on a solid color or an image that helps mark the beginning of the video or provides a section break descriptor for the video.
Trim An editing term. To remove content from the beginning or the end of a video clip. Trimming does not allow you to remove video from the middle of a clip. To do that, you would need to split the clip.
Tripod A three-legged stand used to hold a camera still during filming.
Note. A more complete collection of terms is available from Vimeo.
Video Cameras
Professional video cameras used by professional videographers are more expensive and sophisticated than consumer level cameras. Nevertheless, quality video can be captured with consumer level cameras. For example, most modern Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras are capable of shooting Full High Definition video. Many mirrorless cameras are capable of shooting in 4K or Ultra High Definition video. If you are recording a speaker, you would likely need an external microphone, such as a boom microphone, for your live audio. However, if you are able to use voice over audio, the information on audio recording in this chapter would help you create your audio track.
Smartphones are capable of shooting high quality video. As with DSLRs and Mirrorless Cameras, you will need an external microphone to record live audio. When shooting with a smartphone, always orient the camera in landscape mode (see Figure 5). Recording video with a smartphone in portrait mode will produce black bars on either side of the video when you edit (see Figure 6).
Camera technology changes rapidly. While 4K video is the current highest resolution commonly available, 8K video technology is available as of the writing of this chapter. If you are considering purchasing video equipment, it is best to research current standards before you purchase. The website, digitaltrends.com, has buying guides that are a good place to begin your search.
Video Editing Tools
Once the video is recorded, you will want to edit the video for quality and clarity. To edit the video you need to import the video into a video editor. Much like word processors let you edit the length, quality, and appearance of text, video editors do the same for video. Video editors range from the basic and introductory, such as the free Windows Video App available in Windows 10 and iMovie available on Apple computers, to the professional level tools Adobe Premiere and Final Cut Pro. As you might imagine, professional video tools are more sophisticated, more complicated to use, provide better final products, and are expensive. Windows Video App and iMovie are included in your system software and require no additional purchase.
If you have never used a video editor, Windows Video App, available in Windows 10, and iMovie, available on Apple computers, are excellent places to start. Tutorials for both are widely available online, but we offer these introductory tutorials on the Windows Video App. For non Windows users, these videos can also introduce you to the basic interface of video editing software and some of the tools and features common to all video editing software applications.
Windows Video App Interface
This short video is an introduction to not only the Windows Video App interface, but also to what video editors look like. You will see examples of the Project Library, the Storyboard/Timeline, and the Preview Window.
Introduction to Editing
This short video provides an introduction on editing video with the Windows Video App. While the tutorial is specific to the Windows Video App, the terms and techniques are mirrored in most video editors.
Editing and Special Effects
This short video provides more editing options and demonstrates how to use special effects in the Windows Video App.
There are free open source video editing tools available as well. Shotcut and OpenShot are cross platform video editors with sophisticated features rivaling those of paid professional video editing software.
Screencasts
Screencasts are recordings of the action displayed on a computer or mobile device screen. They are often used as tutorials to demonstrate how to use a particular function of a piece of software. The cursor is often highlighted by a halo of color so that it is easy for a viewer to track the cursor’s movement on the screen. The person demonstrating the task on screen typically narrates these videos in real time. Screencasts may or may not include a thumbnail video image of the speaker overlaid on the screencast. The videos used to demonstrate the audio editing software above are examples of screencasts. Screencasting video can be uploaded into video editing software and used as a clip in a longer video or edited for clarity and quality.
Screencasting Software
There are multiple options for screencasting software, including free and paid versions.
Camtasia
Camtasia offers a suite of video capturing and editing tools. It is available for a free trial but does require a paid account for the most sophisticated features.
Loom
Loom is advertised as a video communication tool, but its functions include screencasting.
Screencastify
Screencastify is popular with users because of its integration of screencasts with Google products.
Screencast-o-matic
Screencast-o-matic has a free and paid version. The paid version removes the watermark, extends your recording time, and offers video editing tools. The free version is quite robust.
Video and Your Computer
Video is memory intensive and, depending on your computer’s processor and memory, may tax your computer quickly. You should save early and often. At times, your video editing software will start to do things that you know it is not supposed to do. For example, you may insert a title and it will show up in the wrong place. This is a memory management issue. Quitting and restarting the application will clear the working memory and the software should work properly. It may be necessary to do this multiple times when editing.
Tips for Creating Video
It is possible for instructional designers and developers to create good, effective learning materials with limited video resources. For example, adding titles and credits to a screencast will help give it a more polished and professional look. Editing out unwanted pieces of a video will help focus the learner. When creating video with limited tools, there are some basic things to remember.
Length
For videos produced with limited resources, typically the shorter the better. For example, instead of creating one long video that demonstrates the five functions of the Audacity audio editing software, five shorter videos were created. This allows learners to watch what they need without rewinding and fast forwarding. If you are recording an hour-long lecture, break that lecture up into shorter videos. This allows the learner to watch pieces when they have time. It can seem overwhelming to sit down to watch an hour-long lecture. If these shorter videos are labeled well when placed in a learning management system, it also allows the learner to locate and rewatch only the parts they feel they need remediation on.
Special Effects
Use them judiciously. Use them sparingly. When people first use video editing software and realize how easy it is to use special effects and transitions, it can be tempting to overuse them. We advise people new to video editing to make a video early that uses every wipe, fade, and explosion they can find and get it out of their system. After that, use them only when they make sense in context of the content.
Lighting
When shooting video with limited resources, shoot in places that provide as much indirect natural light as possible. Look for rooms with windows on multiple walls. Notice the direction the light is coming from as it may cast shadows on subjects. Avoid filming in front of windows to avoid backlights making your subject appear as a shadow. If professional lighting is not available, look for lamps that you can place on either side of your subject to balance the light and avoid shadows.
Audio
Capturing live audio will sound better in a smaller space. If you are recording in a large room, use an external microphone like a lapel microphone or boom microphone to capture your audio. Unless you have professional level skills and equipment, do not record your audio source separately from your video source. Synching the audio with the video can be difficult for users with limited resources and may result in the person's lips not matching their words. When possible, use voice-over narration and the recommendations presented in the audio section of this chapter for the best quality.
B Roll Footage
When added carefully and paying attention to the needs of your content, high quality B Roll footage can dramatically improve the look and professionalism of your video project. The websites pexels.com and pixabay.com provide free high quality B Roll footage that you can use in your projects.
Conclusion
With free and open source software and some reasonably priced pieces of equipment, it is possible for instructional design professionals to create quality audio and video learning materials with limited resources. The tools, resources, and tips provided here are a starting point for you to begin work with audio and video. Once you have worked with entry-level skills you will be able to expand upon those during your career as an instructional design professional. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/07%3A_Designing_Instructional_Activities/7.03%3A_Audio_And_Video_Pr.txt |
Using Visual and Graphic Elements While Designing Instructional Activities
Justin Sentz
The time and expense of creating and obtaining visual/graphic elements, or pictures, for use within instruction is not insignificant. Then why use visual or graphic elements during instruction at all? The use of pictures during the design of instructional activities has been shown to have a significant impact with regard to both increased learner motivation and improved learning outcomes (Carney & Levin, 2002). Pictures and graphics can serve to convey information to the learner directly or facilitate the learner's understanding of related textual information within the instruction. Different types of visual and graphic materials are particularly suited for specific functions during instruction, and there are well-established design considerations for their use within instructional activities to increase their effectiveness. The use of pictures and graphics plays an important role in helping to manage the intrinsic cognitive load and reducing the extraneous cognitive load experienced by learners, who are then able to devote mental resources to learning the material within the instruction (Sweller et al., 2019).
The Role of Visual Messages in the Communication of Information
In order to be intentional about the use of visual and graphic elements during the design of instruction, it is important to first consider some of the fundamental concepts related to the role of visual messages within the communication of information more generally. What exactly is a picture, and what purpose does it serve? Knowlton (1966) proposed that visuals, or pictures, could be categorized according to their purpose or function within instruction-realistic, logical, or analogical. Realistic pictures look like the objects they refer to in the real world outside of the instruction. If the intention is to communicate a concrete example of the concept being presented, then a realistic picture is a good option for doing so. Logical pictures, on the other hand, provide a visual depiction of the structure of a concept being presented. If the purpose is to communicate an understanding of the organization of territories within a country or how electricity flows through a circuit, then a logical picture such as a map or diagram would be effective. Finally, an analogical picture depicts relationships among complex concepts through the use of concrete visual elements that are more familiar to the person. When there is a need to compare a particular phenomenon to something a learner is more likely to encounter in everyday life, then an analogical picture is a helpful option for communicating that information.
Using Visual or Graphic Elements to Increase the Effectiveness of Instruction
Taking into consideration the role of visual messages in the process of communicating information, it is important to think about ways in which visual and graphic elements can be used to increase the effectiveness of instructional materials. Peeck (1993) has suggested that the effectiveness of pictures within instruction is dependent upon the manner in which they cause the learner to process the information contained within the visual elements provided. This, in turn, is a product of both the characteristics of the learners themselves and the graphic materials used within the design. For example, visual elements can be a powerful means of showing spatial relationships or positioning of objects that are being presented within the instruction. These types of visuals can be placed before a section of text when learners are expected to draw upon prior knowledge of the information. They may also be placed in-line with the text when learners are unfamiliar with the spatial relationships and will benefit from a picture that shows relative positioning of the objects being discussed. Depending on the complexity of the material relative to the expertise level of the learner, pictures may also serve to illustrate abstract concepts that are presented textually within the instruction. Learners can use these visual elements to supplement their comprehension of the material through these representations or confirm their understanding of the text by reviewing the graphics and pictures provided. Yet another element of effectively using visual and graphic elements within instruction is the potential to motivate learners to pay particular attention to specific material and process information from the text more deeply. A learner may prefer to clarify or reinforce their understanding of textual information through visual elements, which can in turn help with the encoding and subsequent retrieval of that information at a later time.
Types of Visual Elements and Their Functions Within Instruction
While pictures and other visual elements can be extremely effective for learner motivation and comprehension, specific types of visual elements are more effective than others based on their function relative to the ways in which they relate to the instruction. Levin et al. (1987) categorize pictures into five general types according to those functions-representation, organization, interpretation, transformation, and decoration. One of the most common types of pictures used in instruction is representational, which illustrates the textual information being presented for the purpose of reinforcement (see Figure 1). When the purpose of using a picture is to present a concrete visual representation of information contained in the instruction, a representational picture is often the way to go.
Note. Retrieved from http://www.whoinventedfirst.com/who-discovered-the-atom/
Another type of visual element is organizational, which shows relationships between different parts presented in the text (see Figure 2). These can serve the purpose of illustrating a series of steps in a procedure or provide a large set of data through graphics such as diagrams or charts.
Note. Retrieved from https://www.behance.net/gallery/3164...hart-Re-design
An interpretational picture is a third type of visual element that is often used when the intent is to clarify complex information provided within the text (see Figure 3). Much like Knowlton's (1966) idea of analogical pictures, these visual analogies can be used to ground more abstract concepts in visual elements that are easier for the learner to comprehend.
Note. Retrieved from https://www.up.ac.za/teaching-and-le...llular-biology
Yet another type of graphic element that is somewhat infrequently used is the transformational picture, which provides a mnemonic that facilitates retrieval of information from memory at a later time (see Figure 4). If the intent of the visual element is to help the learner memorize information through the association of a related picture, then the creation of a transformational picture may be worth the time and effort to design.
Note. Retrieved from shorturl.at/hluJ7
A final type of visual element that is used within instruction but has no empirical support for its impact on learning is the decorative picture, which serves to break up textual information or provide “eye candy” for the learner (see Figure 5). While it is sometimes argued that decorative images may motivate learners, their use is not directly tied to improved learning outcomes and are thus generally discouraged.
Note. "Mountain" by barnyz is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Strategies for Structuring Visual or Graphic Elements to Facilitate Processing
We can see that visual and graphic elements have the potential to increase the effectiveness of instruction, and specific types of visual elements are more appropriate based on their intended function within the instruction. However, it is also important to note that the manner in which visual and graphic elements are structured have a significant impact on the manner in which they are processed by learners. Sweller et al. (2019) describe cognitive load as the mental effort required by learning tasks that impact the learner's ability to both process new information and store it within long-term memory. They propose a set of strategies for structuring visual and graphic information to help manage the intrinsic load associated with the material itself and the extraneous cognitive load that is introduced by the instructional techniques employed:
• Integrate textual and graphic information into one element in order to eliminate the effect of splitting the learner’s attention. This could be accomplished by taking a list of procedural steps and overlaying them on a diagram to show where each step should be performed.
• Eliminate multiple stand-alone sources of textual and graphical information in order to reduce the mental effort needed to deal with redundant information. If a visual or graphic element can fully communicate a concept without additional textual information, then it should be used on its own.
• Present concepts before adding context by giving the learner increasingly realistic visual elements during the instruction. By starting with low-fidelity visual elements and building toward high-fidelity elements, the learner is able to gain an understanding of the concepts rather than being distracted by contextual details.
• Gradually present information to learners through visual and graphic elements. Through the use of this simple-to-complex strategy, the learner will be able to avoid getting overloaded by too much information before processing the required information.
• Strategies to reduce cognitive load tend to have a reverse effect on learners with greater levels of expertise, and thus need to be adjusted accordingly. An example of this would be if the instruction will be used with expert learners who are familiar with a procedural diagram, the textual instructions could be removed from the graphic element and replaced with numbers for each step.
Finding and Creating Visual and Graphic Elements
Locating or creating visual and graphic elements to enhance instructional activities according to the principles discussed in this chapter may seem like a daunting task, but there are a number of resources available to make the process manageable. If you would like to find visual elements that have already been created by someone else, a number of sites online have collections of images that can be used without having to pay for their use. A few of these sites include:
In addition to these individual sites, you can also use the Google Image Search in order to identify visual elements that have usage rights allowing you to employ them in your instruction without infringing on the copyrights of the owner. Watch this video to learn how this is done:
Google Image Search and the Usage Rights Filter Tutorial
If you are unable to locate existing visual or graphic elements for use in your instruction or have specific requirements in mind, you can always create them yourself in a number of different ways. First, you can take photos with a smartphone or digital camera and download these onto your computer for incorporation into your materials. Second, you could create the visual element by hand with a line drawing that communicates the desired information and scan that image into your computer using a digital scanner or printer. Finally, you can create visual elements in software packages such as Adobe Photoshop or through the SmartArt feature in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint and export them for use in your instruction. Google Drawings is a free, web-based alternative to these types of software that can be used to create charts, maps, or diagrams and download them as PNG or JPEG files without a great deal of design experience. Watch this video to see the basic use of this tool:
Conclusion
Employing the use of visual and graphic elements during the instructional design process is not simply a matter of finding or creating a set of pictures that are somehow related to the textual information in the instruction. Research has shown that visual elements have the potential to increase motivation and foster improved learning outcomes, but only when the appropriate role of visual messages in the communication of information is taken into account. Specific types of visual elements can be used to serve a particular function in the instruction based on the manner in which information is presented, such as showing spatial relationships or illustrating abstract concepts within the text. In addition, following basic strategies for structuring visual and graphic information can facilitate learner processing through the management or elimination of the cognitive load experienced by the learner. In the end, the creation and curation of visual/graphic elements for instructional activities will be well worth the time and effort invested when the purpose of using those elements is aligned with the objectives of the overall instruction.
Application Exercises
1. Using an existing unit of instruction or one that you are in the process of creating, explain how you would use visual or graphic elements to increase the effectiveness of the instruction by doing the following:
1. Showing spatial relationships or the relative positioning of objects
2. Illustrating abstract concepts that are presented in the text
3. Motivating learners to pay particular attention to specific material in the text
2. Using pre-existing instruction or materials you have created, explain how visual elements are used (or could be used) to serve each of the following functions:
1. Representation
2. Organization
3. Interpretation
4. Transformation
3. Within a unit of instruction that employs visual and graphic elements, explain how at least three of the five strategies for structuring visual elements outlined in this chapter could be used to reduce cognitive load and facilitate processing for the learner.
Additional Readings and Resources
Check out these resources for additional information on the topic of using visual and graphic elements while designing instructional activities: | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/07%3A_Designing_Instructional_Activities/7.04%3A_Using_Visual_And_G.txt |
Simulations and Games
Jeff Batt
Simulations present the learner with real world scenarios and allow them to explore the scenario in a "safe" environment. A basic pattern for this is to (a) present or show the desired end result; (b) allow students to safely try the result out; (c) then evaluate if the student is able to complete the task; (d) and allow them to play around with the concepts in an engaging way to deepen their learning. Let's call these: present, try, evaluate, and play.
Present: Presenting starts by showing the learner how to perform a certain action. This could be by simply showing them a video or having them click through a series of slides or steps to see how to accomplish a task.
Try: Trying happens as the learner is placed in an environment that is reminiscent of the real-world environment, but this environment has been simplified, altered to minimize or eliminate risks, or has been otherwise modified to draw out the material to be learned. This is what we mean when we say a simulation is a "safe environment." For instance, in a simulated Information Technology environment, the learner can't cause a system to crash or accidentally send out secure user data as they try things out. You do want the simualted environment to be recognizable when compared to the real-world scenario, however, so that learners get an authentic experience and can transfer what they learned back into the real environment.
Evaluate: After learners have seen the desired outcome and tried it in a safe environment, you want to evaluate them: can they do it in an environment with no extra help and with real consequences? Evaluation helps both solidify lessons learned as well as providing the teacher/instructional designer insight into whether the learner can perform the task or not.
Play: Simulations and games allow for exploration; learners don't have to just proceed through the instructional material in a linear way. And even fun, exciting games can be educational; they create engagement that helps students learn the concepts in a different manner through their simulated play. Games can even create a desire for the student to "try again" to see if they can get a higher score or if they can master a concept. Gaming, then, could be a useful technique to help solidify the concepts being taught.
Keeping these four principles in mind, let’s consider how they could be applied in some common scenarios.
Simulation—Watch
One form of an instructional simulation asks learners to watch a procedure or skill. One of the more common forms these simulations can take is the software simulation. A software simulation is essentially showing someone how to do some action on a computer by recording your screen. In Video 1 you can see an example of how to create a Watch simulation using the screen recording tool Camtasia.
Watch on Vimeo
Simulation—Try
The next kind of simulation is one that allows students to try a skill or procedure themselves. This allows the learner to engage with the content and practice it in a safe environment. There are various applications that can be used for creating a Try simulation; in Video 2 you can see an example of how to create a Try simulation using the tool Captivate.
Video 2: How to Create a Try Simulation
Watch on Vimeo
One last tip: when you create Try simulations, consider including ways that the student could possibly fail. Failing is part of learning; it can help the learner see what happens if they select various alternatives, as well as help them consider how they can recover from their mistakes.
Simulation—Evaluate
After the learner has watched a procedure and tried it out for themselves, you may need to ensure they know how to perform certain tasks. This is where the role of Evaluate simulations come into play. Evaluate simulations help both you and the learner judge if they are able to perform a task they have just learned. The most helpful evaluation simulations are ones that allow the user to fail and learn from their mistakes. The key here is to try to make the simulations as close to the real environment as possible. Video 3 shows you how to get started doing this.
Watch on Vimeo
Simulation—Play
The last type of simulation allows students to play with ideas or concepts associated with the instructional environment. Playing helps learners work with the knowledge they have gained in different, engaging ways. The goal is to help them take what they learn and apply it in novel ways so they are able to master it better. Let's walk through some important parts of a game.
There are key factors that go into creating a learning game which enables this simulated play. I don't think anyone expects you to create a World of Warcraft type game, but there are some parts you can use to make the game stand out in an engaging and fun way for the learner. Some important considerations for Play simulations include: Theme, Progression, and Challenge. Consider each of these principles using the extended example below.
Theme
A theme is a unifying core to your game that helps express its purpose, and bring a sense of harmony between that purpose and the tone, visuals, audio, video, text, and other elements you create. To immerse learners into the game, introduce a theme as soon as possible, perhaps expressed by using a clever or unique logo. This helps the learner know they are exiting the standard instructional format and entering a gamifed environment.
Review this Jeopardy-style game. Notice how a theme is introduced when the learner first begins the game, as are initially presented with a large logo that provides clues about what they will be doing.
Providing a theme has a couple of results. It sets the tone of the game through the logo and visuals that complement the logo. And the theme can help you tell the "story" of the game, or provide cues to the learners about how they should interact with the environment.
Progression
Progression is how learners move from the beginning to the end of your game, and how they navigate through the steps in between. Progression is a principle you could use in different ways. In the case of our Jeopardy game, the tool to manage progression is the game board.
As the learner moves throughout the game, they clearly see where they have been along with what levels or cards were successful or unsuccessful.
This type of progression tool is also helpful for the learner if they try the game again. They can use the progression board to gauge how they are doing each time they play.
Challenge
Challenges are how you present instructional content and allow learners to interact with that content. In our game, when the learner chooses options on our the progression board, they begin an individual challenge. These challenges can come in many different forms with varying levels of challenge between the tasks. One way to challenge the learner is through a standard question.
If the learner gets the answer incorrect, they will see some kind of visual indication, and perhaps some feedback.
If the learner gets the question correct, they will see correct feedback.
But you can present challenges in ways other than through questions. You can also add some more ambitious aspects into each challenge, like having them try a procedure or a skill.
Also, since this is a game, you might want to have an overall score that is visible to the learner. When the learner gets the challenge correct, the score increases. To make it even more challenging, points could be taken away when the learner does not answer correctly. You could also add a timer or other sense of urgency for students to complete the game.
Managing Interactions in Simulations and Games
Simulations and games require you to manage interactions that students have with the program, such as when you have to pass information from one screen to another based on how students respond to a question. Three common ways of managing interactions you should know about are Variables, Triggers, and Conditions.
Variables
Variables are storage locations. They hold information that can change or be updated later. The most common type of variable for a game is the Number variable which will store a number value. This is perfect for scoring or being able to calculate end results in a final interaction. For instance, if you create a game with a score, you want to create a variable that holds the initial starting value (probably 0), but can then be changed depending on whether learners earn points or have them taken away.
Let’s explore how to create a variable in this video in a common instructional authoring tool.
Watch on Vimeo
Triggers
Triggers are events that happen in a simulation. For instance, when a button is clicked, what should happens next? In many instructional authoring tools, you'll use triggers to show and hide different elements based on how learners interact with a page.
You have a lot of flexibility with triggers, and the key to adding different types of interactive play is to try out different types of triggers. Instead of only using standard questions in a game, for example, you can use drag and drop, timed elements, and more. This creates the interaction and intensity of simulated play.
Video 5: Using Triggers
Watch on Vimeo
One key to using triggers is deciding when the trigger will happen. This is done under the "when" part of the triggers. Figure 7 provides a list of instances when a trigger can fire.
Conditions
Triggers are great, but there may be times you only want the trigger to happen if a certain condition is true. Consider the following statement: "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands."
This is a simple statement, but it reflects so much of what a condition is. It starts with the key word if. Meaning, we only want this condition to happen if certain conditions are true, and the conditions are, "if you are happy and you know it." We are checking for two conditions, then running the action if the condition is true.
Video 6: Understanding Conditions
Watch on Vimeo
Most of the time you will use conditions when you are checking a variable value. So, with the Variable option selected, find the variable you are checking for and select the value. It will then ask you to select an operator. Let's use the score variable and check if it is greater than or equal to 100.
Now this trigger will only run if the value is 100 or greater. This is a great way for you to only have triggers run if a condition is met.
Conclusion
The goal of instruction is to help the learner first understand and then be able to apply what they are learning in safe and controlled environment. Simulations and games are great tools for doing this, allowing learners to test the new concepts before entering the real world, practice mastery through fun and engaging games, and try scenarios in an environment that allows them to fail and learn from their mistakes. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/07%3A_Designing_Instructional_Activities/7.05%3A_Simulations_And_Ga.txt |
Designing Informal Learning Environments
Seth A. Martinez & Justin N. Whiting
For the past 30 years, the prevailing 70-20-10 industry model of employee development postulates that 70 percent of individual learning and growth occurs through relevant but challenging experiences, 20 percent through relationships and social interactions, and only 10 percent through formal learning activities (Center for Creative Leadership, 2020; Watkins et al., 2014). What, then, is the implication for learning design given these trends? To assist in taking advantage of such patterns, this chapter is dedicated to the design of informal learning environments.
Defining Formal and Informal Learning
Have you ever sat outside at night and gazed up at the stars? Perhaps you have done this with a child as you talk about constellations. Now imagine you pick up a smartphone with an augmented reality app that can provide instant information and feedback on the stars that you see. Without stepping foot in a classroom or reading a textbook, personalized and on-demand informal learning has occurred. This scenario of real-time information and feedback not connected with any formal setting is one example of informal learning.
According to TrainingIndustry.com, formal learning refers to “a type of learning program in which the goals and objectives are defined by the training department, instructional designer, and/or instructor.” Informal learning can be defined as the pursuit of any knowledge, skill, or understanding that occurs outside a formal or non-formal learning event, such as a classroom, training facility, or eLearning course (Dirksen, 2015). Informal learning includes family discussions at home, Googling a topic on the Internet, seeking advice from a colleague, visits to museums, and other everyday experiences (Livingstone, 1999; Bell, 2009). Informal learning has shown to be effective across many contexts (Allen, 2004; Bell, 2009; Miller et al., 2008), especially in work environments (Carliner 2012). Examples in the workplace include “brown bag” learning, like Talks at Google; the Boeing Leadership Center, which devotes an entire portion of the learning path to an open-ended, unstructured mentoring program; and GE’s Crotenville training, which is famous for the shadowing and rotation program that was created precisely to take advantage of the informal learning that occurs between a novice and an expert.
In trying to delineate formal and informal learning, it may also be helpful to consider the formality of instruction on a scale. Sefton-Green (2004) stated that informal learning is used quite loosely to describe many kinds of learning that occur outside of schools or other formal settings. Rather than pointing to a specific definition for informal learning, he proposed that learning environments be evaluated on a scale from informal to formal on two criteria: (1) organization of the curricula and (2) the setting, as seen in Figure 1.
If we use this as a guide to identify informal learning spaces, we can determine not only if a learning environment is formal or informal, but we can see where it might sit on this spectrum. For example, schools have traditionally been highly formal on both the setting and the curricula. But recent growth of online/virtual schools may still be formal and highly structured in terms of the curricula, while the setting may be in someone’s own home and on their own time schedule. Similarly, workplaces are using more informal newsletters, podcasts, wikis, or informal professional development, rather than formal, in-person training meetings, or assigned computer-based training.
Designing for Informal Learning
With informal learning now defined, the focus of this chapter shifts to four principles that are effective guides to consider when designing environments conducive to informal learning.
Principle 1: Provide Learners a Choice in Their Learning
Instructional designers should deeply consider how learners are going to interact with content. For teachers and professors developing a syllabus, allowing the learner a choice in their learning experience can have a direct link to intrinsic motivation (Cordova & Lepper, 1996). Consider providing several options for a midterm assignment and allow the learner to decide which assignment looks most relevant to them. Or, rather than assign a topic for a project, allow the learner to submit a proposal of a topic of personal interest.
In a corporate setting, developers can provide a list of possible related topics, and only require mastery of one. Consider curating a library of resources in various media such as video, image, text, audio (podcast), self-guided modules, and then allow learners to decide how to gain mastery of the topic. Even in instances where there is a more strict set of regulations (e.g. compliance) that must be covered, there are options to allow the learner some control over their learning. For example, consider presenting the content not in a linear way, where the learner proceeds from topic A to topic Z, but instead allow them to choose the order of topics they may want to go through first. Instead of a bulleted list or outline in a computer module, consider a more visual layout where they can choose the order from a group of topics.
Museums have long been an excellent example of providing learners with a choice in their learning experience. While museums may provide courses, scripted tours, and other formal learning experiences, for many, museums are open spaces that encourage exploration and even learning through failure (Simpson et al., 2019). Museum educators carefully plan out displays, flow of the rooms, and many other factors to create fun and engaging environments. Learners in a museum choose where they go, how long they interact with a specific exhibit or section, and generally do not have many constraints.
Principle 2: Design for Collaboration, Idea Sharing, and Peer Interaction
While teamwork, collaboration, and group projects are all components of formal learning, informal learning is also well suited to benefit from social interaction. Albert Bandura argued that “most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action” (p. 22, 1977). Further, Lev Vygotsky maintained that social learning consists of learning through social interaction (1978).
When more specific knowledge is needed by an individual, a personalized informal experience in the form of coaching or mentoring will allow a novice to learn directly from an expert. A learning experience that centers on group work and peer interaction will invite informal learning to take place as individuals pose questions to and receive answers from their teammates and colleagues. To do this, consider assigning group tasks or projects, or posing problems that require multiple individuals to complete. A technique to take advantage of the unscheduled nature of informal social learning is to design a wiki or forum system that leverages the knowledge of the community in a socially constructed manner. Lastly, an emerging trend in informal learning is microlearning－small learning units such as text phrases, photos, or audio snippets－and its associated affordances for instructional designers (Giurgiu, 2017). For the specific principles of microlearning design, see Zhang and West (2020).
Principle 3: Leverage the Benefits of Constructionism and Project-Based Learning
Constructionism and project-based learning are two additional areas where we can design informal learning opportunities. With constructionism and project-based learning, learners typically become active participants in the experience and learn organically as they work through a challenge. Designers working to implement informal learning principles can include opportunities for exploration and creation. Many businesses have implemented innovation centers or creativity labs where new ideas can be tested and prototyped. For example, Pixar fosters innovation and encourages their employees to develop new skills through their Pixar University. As part of the “university,” employees can sign up for free classes in painting, ballet, or sculpting. Additionally, Lowe’s Home Improvement company has created innovation labs where employees reimagine how to help customers using augmented reality to plan virtual home renovation projects. Allowing learning through experimentation and failure can lead to better quality products and services (see April 2011 issue of Harvard Business Review).
A recent trend in schools, communities, museums, and even healthcare, is the rise of makerspaces. Makerspaces provide a physical space where many forms of constructionist and project-based learning may occur (Peppler et al., 2016). Maker Faires have been promoted and popularized by Make Magazine and other organizations around the globe. The effort to overcome constraints can often lead to creativity in these spaces (Stokes, 2005). In a makerspace, learners may be mentored by another individual on how to use a machine such as a 3D printer or laser cutter. Often, small groups may work together to prototype and test ideas.
Principle 4: Leverage the Benefits of Gamification and Playful Competition
Playful competition and gaming are proven mechanisms for increasing learner engagement (Steinkuehler & Squire, 2014). While the principle holds for formal learning, it is particularly effective in designing informal learning environments. Gamification is “a relatively recent term that describes using game thinking and game mechanisms in nongame contexts to engage users (Deterding, 2013)” (Steinkuehler & Squire, 2014, p. 389). The key criteria for an effective gamified design are exploration, immersion, socialization, and competition.
To design for exploration, it is important to design an experience that does not necessarily have a single path toward a solution. This allows the learners to truly discover, explore, make mistakes, and iterate. To design for immersion, it is important that the challenge be such that the only way to solve the problem is with dedicated, focused time, over an extended period. For example, learners can (a) build or produce an artifact from scratch, (b) solve a problem that requires the synthesis and application of multiple concepts simultaneously, (c) give or receive feedback to or from peers or experts where they must refine their work as part of the final solution, or (d) some combination of all three. (Socialization is discussed in Principle 2 above.) To design for competition, it is helpful to consider something that determines one or multiple winners. Challenges with levels, simulations, scoring, badges, and leaderboards are features of competition that you can incorporate into your design.
Designing for Informal Learning at Adobe
In late 2016, the Adobe CTO set forth a new charge: to upskill all software engineers (SWE), of which there were approximately 6,000 globally, in the machine learning (ML) discipline. To accomplish this, an ML Training Program was launched to begin the process of mass upskilling. After one year, an initial cohort of 1,000 individuals had completed the five-month e-learning courses, bringing with them many lessons learned. One consistent point of feedback across multiple stakeholders was that an opportunity for more in-person, hands-on learning was needed compared to the one-hour-per-week classroom sessions that had been available for the participants over the five months. In this instance, the challenge loomed large to introduce a more intensive in-person, hands-on experience to 1,000 people who were scattered across the globe.
To address the feedback, the training team designed and implemented a bootcamp model that incorporated a project-based competition in the form of a hackathon for the second cohort of 1,000. The bootcamps would be three consecutive days each. Over those three days, the team would spend three-fourths of one day delivering company-specific material related to the company’s AI/ML platform. The remaining two and one-fourth days for the learners would be spent in the hackathon competition, thus allowing for the immersive and dedicated time-on-task.
To start each hackathon, the training team provided the basic rules and constraints. Bootcamp attendees would divide into small teams of two to six people, organized by their shared ML interests. To gamify the hackathon, each team was asked to prepare a brief "Venture Capital Pitch" to present the ML feature they each worked on over the two or more days. There were four categories that would be awarded winners: most interesting feature, most likely to become an actual Adobe product feature, most whimsical, and best overall feature. During the course of the entire hackathon, a small number of ML experts would roam the large room and answer any questions a team may have.
By creating this environment, the learners spent two or more days laboring to develop their ML feature. The ID team observed that the competition fueled their natural interest by increasing the participants’ drive to ask project-relevant questions and to consume publicly available ML content on the internet. Numerous teams arrived hours before the days started and stayed hours past the day’s allotted block of time. Participants would extend what they had learned from the e-Learning courses by scouring publicly available websites to find help for their unique scenarios. Some would watch brief tutorials and, if relevant, immediately teach their teammates what they learned; other teams would divide and test out open-source code and, once successful, exclaim “I got it, it worked!” for the others on the team to know they need not search further.
This pattern repeated itself constantly over the approximately two days. Ultimately, the hackathon experience fostered an environment in which participants would seek out anything and everything to assist them in overcoming an obstacle and therefore advance the ML feature they were designing in hopes of building a competitive feature for the competition. In the end, knowing (and hearing) the effort put forth by all teams, the participants reported taking great pleasure in listening to the presentations and viewing the demos of each team’s ML solution developed over the hackathon.
Reflection
Table 1 below lists several informal learning activities with their associated strengths and limitations. The application exercise that follows Table 1 will assist in your thinking of when and how to apply the informal learning design principles discussed in this chapter.
Table 1
Strengths and Limitations of Informal Learning Activities
Learning Activity/Tool
Description
Strengths
Limitations
Project- or problem-based scenarios
Projects/problems allow learners to appropriately struggle through arriving at a solution. The struggle area is essentially the zone of proximal development, where informal learning occurs.
• Can address multiple learning objectives with a single problem scenario
• Can be accomplished in small groups, thus alleviating the need for a high number of experts to provide guidance or help
• Cost: potentially very expensive to execute
• Time: potentially very time-consuming to design, execute, and evaluate
Coaching or mentoring programs
An example of social learning, where a novice can learn directly from someone more expert. The cycle of practicing/trying, receiving feedback, and trying again is strongly supported by an expert who serves as a guide.
• Close proximity to relevant expertise
• Feedback that is very specific, timely, and personalized
• Often 1:1
• Time: often difficult to design a program that requires so much time of someone senior in experience
• Challenging to find one (let alone many) individuals with seniority willing to participate
Job aids, wikis, tutorials, or internal forums
A strong collection of relevant resources is generally superior to formal instruction. In contrast to formal instruction, these resources require little cost, take little time to design and produce, and are extremely tactical in nature.
• Cost: minimal
• Speed: utility is all that matters, so they can be created quickly
• Crowd-sourced information is often highly actionable
• Potential lack of monitoring/governance
• Because utility is most important, they can sometimes be poorly designed visually
Communities of practice, learning networks, or external forums
A community of practice is designed for, and by, the interested participants themselves.
• Cost: typically free or inexpensive
• Typically more broadly applicable than information in an internal forum
• Maintenance & governance
• Can be overly general (i.e., not applicable enough)
Exhibits, museums, or performances
Exhibits and museums are open spaces that encourage exploration and even learning through failure. At a performance, an individual learns through observation.
• Exhibits and displays can be highly engaging
• Socializing with other attendees/participants is common, thus inviting the social component of informal learning
• Observational learning is also very effective (Bandura, 2003)
• Cost: entry can be potentially quite expensive
• Time: to maximize learning at a performance or museum often requires multiple hours, minimum.
Application Exercise
For your reflection:
1. What is the relative amount of information intended to be taught?
1. If it is a considerable amount, consider a formal learning approach.
2. If it is a small amount, formal learning could simply be excessive. Consider a simpler solution like a wiki or job-aid that would require much less time/cost to create.
1. What needs to be learned? Is it explicit or tacit?
1. If it is explicit information (i.e., codified or written down), then consider formal instruction.
2. If it is tacit information (i.e., not codified or recorded), consider leveraging an informal learning environment.
1. How complex is the material?
1. If it is highly complex, consider formal instruction.
2. If it is not highly complex, consider leveraging a social learning component, where participants must work together or share knowledge to achieve a common goal.
1. How much/often is the content subject to change?
1. If it is not often, consider formal instruction. Taking the time, cost, and effort to design a formal experience is justified when it will have a long shelf-life.
2. If the content will change fairly often (or more), then consider an informal learning design which, by definition, embraces a changing landscape and seeks up-to-date, accurate information—regardless of the source.
Conclusion
The evidence is clear that often, learners gain knowledge predominantly outside of formal settings. As a result, instructional and learning experience designers should be intentional about taking advantage of the affordances of informal learning. To that end, as you follow the four design principles shared above, you will be able to design informal learning experiences that take advantage of the natural interests and curiosity of your learners. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/07%3A_Designing_Instructional_Activities/7.06%3A_Designing_Informal.txt |
The Design of Holistic Learning Environments
Jason K. McDonald
One of the factors that makes a design compelling is when it has a sense of harmony and completeness. When we experience the design, it does not feel like a collection of individual parts that just happen to be together. Instead, they “fit” together. In fact, we likely do not stop to consider the discrete components making up the design at all. But if we do notice the individual parts, we typically can sense how each belongs. There is a sense of balance and resonance that emerges from the precise configuration we experience. We see the design as a whole, meant to be experienced as a whole. And in the best cases, the sense of completeness and balance somehow extends into us—we feel more complete and more in balance because we have encountered something as complete and in balance as this design. Nelson and Stolterman (2012), in their book, The Design Way: Intentional Change in an Unpredictable World, call this type of experience holistic design. In this chapter, I consider some of the conditions that lead to holistic designs, along with what these conditions could mean in the context of instructional design.
Figure 1 presents a diagram from The Design Way that highlights the major conditions of holistic design. Discussion of the entire diagram is more complex than we need to consider here, but if you are interested in the topic, I encourage you to review Nelson and Stolterman’s complete treatment in their book (Nelson & Stolterman, 2012, pp. 93–102).
Note. Reprinted from Nelson, H. G., & Stolterman, E. (2012). The design way: Intentional change in an unpredictable world (2nd ed.). The MIT Press, p. 94. Used by permission; all rights reserved.
The diagram illustrates how we can design objects or services in a way that transcends the individual parts from which they are assembled to create something holistic. As Nelson and Stolterman put it, we rely on “those unifying forces that cause things to stand together . . . thus forming meaning for individuals who are part of the whole or served by the whole” (p. 94). When something is holistic, it has properties that cannot be predicted when we examine each of the pieces individually. But that does not mean the individual parts are not important. Quite the opposite, in fact. Each component contributes something to the overall sense of the whole and is necessary to achieve the effect of the whole. Removing or changing the pieces, then, could lead to a design with a completely different effect.
Holism is not often addressed in instructional design. Perhaps the closest we come is when we consider the graphic design of our instruction. In this case we do frequently consider what effect the visual components of our instruction are having, and if they are contributing to an overall pleasing visual sense. (For tips on how to create a pleasing visual design, see the articles The Building Blocks of Visual Design or 10 Basic Principles of Graphic Design). Holism is important to consider in other aspects of instruction as well. Yet despite its importance, holistic design can also be difficult to talk about explicitly. The effects it has are subtle. But using Nelson and Stolterman (2012) as our guide, let’s explore some ways that the instruction you design can inspire a sense of holistic completeness.
Connection
First, consider the effects of the connections between individual elements in your design. There is an analogy here to connections between physical objects: when joining together two pieces of wood, we connect them with a nail or a screw. When joining together pieces of metal, we connect them with a weld. We can also consider more sophisticated methods of connecting when we include the idea of an intermediary fastener. Nails and screws are a direct connector between two pieces of wood, and the result is a rigid link. But we could connect our wood using an intermediary: a hinge. We screw the hinge into adjacent pieces of wood and the result is a connection between the wood that is more flexible. When building an object, then, we need to consider what materials we are working with, and this will help us decide what kinds of connections we can make. Then we consider what we want the connection between the elements to be, and this will help us further choose an appropriate link to achieve our objective. A holistic design will choose connections that are both appropriate for the material being used as well as the type of connection that is desired.
There are at least two applications of this analogy to instructional design. The first is between different elements of an instructional product that students experience. What types of connections are possible between the different pages of an online educational activity, for instance? Or between elements on the same page? Or between different units of the same course? The types of connections that are possible will be partly a function of the material the designer is working with (images, text, web pages, etc.), and partly a function of the effect the designer wants to have (the student can choose between these three pages; or the student must go to this page, etc.). Attentive designers will consider the connections between these elements as much as a carpenter will consider the connection between wood beams supporting the structure they are creating.
Another type of connection instructional designers can consider is between the different layers of their instruction. Gibbons (2013) proposed that all instructional products or learning systems are composed of different layers that perform different functions in a design. For example, one of the layers is the representations that students experience (what they see, hear, touch, etc.). Another layer is the controls that students use to input information back into the instruction (typing into a text box, submitting a form, or answering a teacher’s question). There must be some kind of connection between these layers for the instruction to have its effect. If instructional designers pay attention to the effects they want each layer to have, they can find connections between the layers they can intentionally design to help lead to that effect. Similar to connections between individual elements, designers should both pay attention to the material each layer is made of (physical or conceptual) as well as the type of connections that are appropriate for the intended effect.
Application Exercise
Find an example of an instructional product or service (perhaps an online training module, a face-to-face classroom lesson, or a museum-type experience). Ask yourself:
• What are the individual elements of which the product is composed? (e.g. different pages in the module; different activities in the lesson)
• What is connecting those elements together?
• Why do you think they were connected in that way?
• Can you imagine alternative ways of connecting these elements?
Relationships
The second condition of holistic design is the relationships between elements in a design. Relationships are similar to the idea of connection, since every relationship connects different entities in some way. So everything just described about connections applies to relationships as well. But relationship implies more than the fact that elements are connected. The idea of relationship implies there is a structure to the connection, one that suggests an effect that transcends what the individual elements provide on their own. When two (or more) things are in relationship with each other, we can see that they belong together. Returning to our previous example of making something out of wood, we can easily nail together wood of any shape or size. But a relationship between different pieces of wood implies that we have done more. We also consider how our joint between the pieces fits together harmoniously. We might cut one board so it fits into an existing grove in the other. Or we apply stain or paint so the coloring of the wood produces a pleasing effect when placed next to each other. We can also consider the relationship of what we build with something larger than itself. For instance, when we ask whether a chair fits in a room, we usually aren’t talking about if we can actually squeeze it into the space. Rather, what we usually mean is does the chair feel like it belongs? Is the relationship between the chair and the rest of the furniture harmonious? Or does it feel like the chair came from a different family than everything else in the room?
Parrish (2005) described some ways that instructional designers can pay attention to the relationship between elements in their designs. He encouraged designers to pay attention to the “rhythms of instructional activities” in their products, to find “methods for creating dynamic tension and revealing unity within content sequences,” or to develop “strategies that provide memorable closure to learning experiences” (p. 17). In each of these cases, elements in an instructional product would not only be connected in some way, but the structure of that connection would produce an aesthetic effect. This effect transcends the actual material being interacted with in a way that communicates messages that often cannot be spoken (e.g. why a subject matters, what is beautiful about it, or how might I [the student] be changed by it).
Application Exercise
Using the example you found earlier, try identifying the relationships between elements in the instruction. Ask:
• What are the structures of the connections identified in this instruction?
• What kind of effects do those relational structures suggest?
• Can you imagine alternative relationships that can connect these elements?
Unity
The last factor to consider is unity, or the overall effect the connections and relationships have in a complete design. In considering unity we should first recognize that there will always be connections and relationships between design elements. If designers do not consider them intentionally (leaving them to chance), people will look for some kind of connection, and there is no guarantee the designer will be happy with what they find. When designers do not intentionally plan for unity between connections/relationships, often this leads to the design being experienced as disjointed. People may not be able to identify what about it is dissatisfying, but they will sense something about it that is harsh or jarring. But worse is when the connections and relationships that people find generate a sense of dissonance or incongruity, an active sense that these elements do not belong together. And more than being slightly displeased with the design, people actively dislike it, again often without knowing exactly why.
But if connections and relationships are intentionally considered, they can generate an overall, unifying effect that is pleasing and pleasurable to experience. People feel comfortable with these types of design. Wilson (2013) described this as “how elements hang together” for the person experiencing it, “and support [them having] a coherent experience” (p. 40). The word coherent is the key. Unity is a result of everything in the design seeming to belong, to be in its proper place, and be in that place for a proper reason. Let’s assume we designed and built a beautiful, ornate chair, with intricate patterns in the legs and a soft, luxurious fabric on the back and seat. If we place the chair in an elementary school cafeteria, it will stick out. Any sense of unity in the room (assuming there was one before!) would be lost. But if we place our chair in a university library, perhaps in a special collections reading room, it could contribute to a sense of unity that people experience in the room as being a place of learning.
How does unity apply in instructional design? Parrish (2009) described it as the designer’s care for experiences that are “infused with meaning, and felt as coherent and complete” (p. 511). While there might be multiple ways to do this, Parrish proposed that designers can pursue unity by intentionally considering connections and relationships between instructional elements that (a) create distinct beginnings, middles, and endings for the instruction; (b) set students in the role of being the protagonist of their own learning; (c) set a theme for the instruction through the choice of learning activities; and (d) create a context that immerses students in the instructional situation.
Application Exercise
Using the same example as before, consider the sense of unity you experience with the instruction. Ask:
• Do the connections and relationships in the instruction contribute towards an overall effect?
• How would you characterize this effect?
• Is there any evidence to suggest this effect was intentionally considered by designers? Or did they seem to leave it to chance?
• What might you change about the instruction to generate a stronger sense of unity?
Conclusion
Nelson and Stolterman (2012) concluded that a holistic design creates emergent qualities, or qualities that cannot be experienced when only considering the individual elements that are connected together in intentionally considered relationships of unity. They also stated these emergent qualities have “significance” for the people using a design. They mean something to people, and “embody [some] essence of human potential more fully” (p. 101). This seems to be sufficient justification for considering holistic design as part of the instructional design process. Instructional design is about helping people learn, or, in other words, unlocking some aspect of their human potential. And it is more than the educational content and instructional strategies that do this. To create designs that are truly remarkable and uncover at least some aspects of human potential, people need to experience instruction with emergent, holistic qualities. These are generated as designers consider the connections between individual elements of their instruction, form those connections into structured relationships, and align both into a unified whole that can produce an aesthetic, transcendent effect. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/07%3A_Designing_Instructional_Activities/7.07%3A_The_Design_Of_Holi.txt |
Measuring Student Learning
Lisa Harris & Marshall G. Jones
Measuring student learning is critical in the teaching and learning processes and can serve many purposes. Instructors can use assessment results to plan future instruction, adapt current instruction, communicate levels of understanding to students, and examine the overall effectiveness of instruction and course design. The measurement of student learning can take place before, during, or after instruction. Before lessons are even developed, instructors need to know what students already know and can do related to the content. There is no point in wasting time teaching something students already know, or in starting at a level that is so advanced students don’t have the prerequisite knowledge necessary to be successful. To that end, the learner analysis in instructional design could be considered a type of assessment. Giving a pre-assessment, also called diagnostic assessment, can provide instructors with this valuable information. Measuring student learning during instruction, a formative assessment, provides instructors with important information about how students are progressing towards the learning objectives while there is still time to adjust instruction. Instructor may ask questions such as:
• Are students getting it?
• Are they confused about something that needs to be retaught?
• Is it time to move on with new material?
Finally, measuring student learning at the end of instruction, a summative assessment, provides information about the degree to which students mastered the learning objectives.
This chapter outlines practical strategies instructional designers can use to develop high-quality assessments to measure student learning. Best practices are the same for constructing diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments. Links to additional tools and resources are also provided.
Constructing High-Quality Assessments
High-quality assessments are those that lead to valid, reliable and fair assessment results. Validity refers to the trustworthiness of the assessment results. For instance, if a student gets 80% of test items correct, does that mean they understand 80% of the material taught? Does the assessment measure what it purports to measure, or is the final score polluted by other factors? For example, consider a test that assesses mathematical ability and is made up of word problems. When taken by an English language learner or by an emerging reader, does the test assess math, reading, or a combination of both? The reliability of an assessment refers to the consistency of the measure. Multiple-choice test items, when properly constructed, are highly reliable. There should be only one correct answer and it is easy to grade. Essay items or performance assessments, on the other hand, are more subjective to grade. Finally, the extent to which an assessment is fair is a characteristic of a high-quality assessment. Fairness is the degree to which an assessment provides all learners an equal opportunity to learn and demonstrate achievement. While some aspects of validity and reliability can be measured through statistical analysis, it is uncommon that such complex measurement procedures are used for typical classroom assessments. Attending to best practices in assessment alignment and test item and assessment construction helps instructional designers increase the validity, reliability, and fairness of assessment instruments.
Assessment Alignment
One of the most important concepts in assessment is alignment. It is critical that assessments and assessment items are aligned with goals and objectives. It is impossible to determine the extent to which learners have met course or workshop goals and objectives if their knowledge and skills have not been assessed. Assessment alignment tables and test blueprints are two tools instructional designers can use to align assessments and assessment items with learning objectives.
Learning Taxonomies and Learning Objectives
Learning taxonomies assists instructional designers in constructing both learning objectives and assessment items. Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and Webb’s Depth of Knowledge (DOK) are two frameworks commonly used by educators to categorize the academic rigor of an assessment as a whole or individual assessment items. To increase the content validity of an assessment, the complexity of the individual test questions should align with the level of knowledge or skill specified in the learning goal. If a learning objective states that a student compares and contrasts information, it is not appropriate for test items to simply ask students to recall information. Likewise, if the learning goal states that students will be able to synthesize information, a paper-and-pencil test will likely not be a sufficient measure of that skill.
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy divides learning into three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor (Anderson et al., 2001). This chapter focuses on the cognitive domain which consists of six levels that vary in complexity. The three lower levels (remembering, understanding, and applying) are referred to as lower order thinking skills also called LOTS. The top three (analyzing, evaluating, and creating) are referred to as higher order thinking skills, or HOTS. Lists of verbs associated with each of these levels are readily available on the web and are very instrumental in helping instructional designers write measurable learning objectives and test questions that go beyond recalling definitions. (For an example, see: https://edtechbooks.org/-EZbp.)
Similar to Bloom, Webb divides levels of knowledge into increasingly complex categories. These include recall and reproduction, skills and concepts, strategic thinking, and extended thinking (Webb, 1999). Student tasks range from a student being able to recall facts to synthesizing information from a variety of sources. A description of tasks at each level can be found online at https://edtechbooks.org/-bVW. These descriptions can help instructional designers design assessment tasks that range in complexity.
Assessment Alignment Tables
Regardless of the assessment method, instructional designers can ensure that learning goals, objectives, and assessments align by creating an alignment table. In the example below, course goals, student learning outcomes, and assessments are aligned in a table. This example is from a college level course on teaching with technology for pre-service teachers. This table indicates there is at least one learning objective aligned with each course goal and at least one assessment method aligned with each objective. If you find that a particular learning objective isn’t being assessed, you can go back and develop an assessment to measure the learner’s progress. A link to an Assessment Alignment Table Template is provided at the end of this chapter in the Additional Resources list.
Table 1
Example Assessment Alignment Table
Course Goal
Student Learning Objective (SLO)
Assessment(s)
Plan and implement meaningful learning opportunities that engage learners in the appropriate use of technology to meet learning outcomes.
SLO1. Develop a technology integrated activity plan that meets the needs of diverse learners (e.g. ELL, at-risk, gifted, learners with learning disabilities).
Technology Integration Portfolio
SLO2. Explain how and why to use technology to meets the needs of diverse learners (e.g. ELL, at-risk, gifted, students with learning disabilities).
Technology Integration Portfolio
Midterm
Use technology to implement Universal Design for Learning.
SLO3. Describe the elements of UDL included in the technology integrated activity.
Technology Integration Portfolio
Model and require safe, legal, ethical, and appropriate use of digital information and technology.
SLO4. Describe legal, ethical, cultural, and societal issues related to technology.
Midterm
Final
Table of Specifications
In addition to creating an alignment table for all assessments in the entire course, instructional designers can also create a table of specifications, or test blueprint, to align individual test items to course objectives. A table of specifications aligns the learning objective, all items on a single test, and the level of knowledge being assessed. This is evidence of content validity. This also helps the instructional designer see if the test includes items related to all the learning goals, and if the assessment items are written to elicit knowledge at the appropriate level of complexity. If you find that you have too many questions about one topic or not enough about another, or that you are only asking lower level questions when the learning objective is focused on higher order thinking skills, the test can be edited accordingly. The figure below shows a test blueprint for a 12-item test about assessment. Each number represents the question number on the test. A link to a Table of Specifications Template is provided at the end of this chapter in the Additional Resources list.
Table 2
Sample Test Blueprint for a 12 Item Test
Learning objective
Level of Knowledge
Lower Order
Higher Order
Analyze learning objectives in terms of format, specificity, reasonableness, and alignment.
1, 2
8, 12
Explain the importance of alignment when designing lessons and assessments.
3, 5
10
Compare and contrast reliability and validity of classroom assessment
4, 6, 7
11, 9
Assessment Formats
Common assessment formats include multiple-choice and essay questions, observation, oral-questioning, and performance-based assessments. This chapter focuses on paper-and-pencil tests and performance assessments. Best practices in constructing each are described below. These guidelines help increase the validity, reliability, and fairness of assessments.
Multiple-Choice Best Practice Guidelines
Multiple-choice items are very easy to grade (assuming there is only one correct answer) but very difficult to write. Coming up with plausible distractors, or the incorrect responses, is the hardest part. If some answer choices aren’t plausible (ones that are meant to be funny, for example), the probability that a student will be able to guess the correct answer increases. It is also difficult, but not impossible, to write multiple-choice questions that assess higher-order thinking skills. Tips for constructing multiple-choice test questions that assess HOTS are provided below.
1. All answer choices should be similar in length and grammatically correct in relation to the item stem.
2. Avoid “all of the above”, and “none of the above” answer choices.
3. Avoid confusing combinations of answer choices such as “A and B”; “B and C”; “A, B and C but not D”.
4. Avoid negatively stated stems. If you must use them, bold the negative word to make it what you are asking clearer to the learner.
5. Avoid overlapping answer choices. (This most commonly occurs with number choices.)
6. The item stem should make sense on its own and not contain any extraneous information.
7. Don't include any clues in the item stem that would give the answer away.
8. Don’t include too many answer choices. Typically, multiple choice questions contain four options.
9. Ensure the correct answer is the best answer.
10. Randomize the order of the correct answers.
Table 3
Examples of Poor and Improved Items
Poor Item
Improved Item
Explanation
If a boy is swimming two miles an hour down a river that is polluted and contains no fish and the river is flowing at the rate of three miles per hour in the same direction as the boy is swimming, how far will the boy travel in two hours?
a. four miles
b. six miles
c. ten miles
d. twelve miles
A boy is swimming two miles per hour down a river relative to the water. The water is flowing at the rate of three miles per hour. How far will the boy travel in two hours?
a. four miles
b. six miles
c. ten miles
d. twelve miles
The poor item contains extraneous information and a confusing sentence structure. In the improved item, the extraneous information was removed. In addition, the prompt was broken up into several sentences and the actual question stands on its own.
Which one of the following is not a safe driving practice on icy roads?
a. accelerating slowly
b. jamming on the brakes
c. holding the wheel firmly
d. slowing down gradually
All of the following are safe driving practices on icy roads EXCEPT
a. accelerating slowly.
b. jamming on the brakes.
c. holding the wheel firmly.
d. slowing down gradually.
When reading the poor item, a test taker may not recognize that they are being asked to pick a non-example of a safe driving practice. In the improved item, the word “except” is in all caps and underlined to call attention to what is being asked.
In most commercial publishing of a book, galley proofs are most often used _________ .
1. page proofs precede galley proofs for minor editing.
2. to help isolate minor defects prior to printing of page proofs.
3. they can be useful for major editing or rewriting.
4. publishers decide whether book is worth publishing.
In publishing a book, galley proofs are most often used to
1. aid in minor editing after page proofs.
2. isolate minor defects prior to page proofs.
3. assist in major editing or rewriting.
4. validate menus on large ships.
In the poor item, each answer choice is not grammatically correct in relation to the item stem. Often, a test taker can pick out the correct answer choice because it is the only one that is grammatically correct and not because they actually knew the answer. In the improved item, the item stem and answer choices have been edited so that they are all grammatically correct.
Tips for Writing Higher Order Thinking Multiple-Choice Questions
Tip 1: Use scenarios or provide examples that are new to learners. This allows you to ask learners to do more than simply recognize the correct answer. (Note that this can be problematic if you are assessing struggling readers or ESL learners. Know your audience!)
Tip 2: Develop multiple-choice questions around a stimulus you provide such as a map, graph, diagram, or reading passage. These are called interpretive exercises. Interpretive exercises include a set of data or information and a series of multiple-choice questions having answers that are dependent upon the information given.
Best Practice Guidelines for Writing Essay Items
Essay questions are a good way to assess deep understanding and reasoning skills. Students can provide more in-depth answers in essay questions. Essay questions are also much easier to write than multiple-choice items. They are, however, harder to grade. Below are best practice guidelines for constructing and grading essay items and some real-world examples.
• Select the most important content in the workshop or unit to assess with essay times. Using essay items limits the amount of content you can cover on any one test because they take more time for a learner to answer. If one topic is less important than another, consider only asking multiple-choice questions about it.
• Write the prompt to focus learners on the key ideas they should address in their response. For example, tell learners how many reasons should they give, or how many examples should they provide. Stating directly what you want means that the learner doesn’t have to try to interpret how much is enough.
• Break multi-faceted questions up into individual items. If the question is very long, make it more than one essay question on the test. This helps focus both the test taker and the grader.
• Include scoring criteria with the prompt and assign appropriate point values. If you want someone to provide three reasons why the Renaissance began in Italy, decide how many points each reason should count and make that clear to the learner. It is very difficult to objectively grade an essay question worth 10 or 20 points without first determining the grading criteria.
• Only include essay items that require higher-order thinking. Essay questions are too time consuming to grade. If it can be assessed with a multiple-choice question instead, don’t waste valuable time reading essay answers.
• Avoid allowing learners to select which essay items they answer. This keeps learner scores comparable. If learners can choose which essay questions to answer, the test is not assessing the same thing for all students.
Note: Essay items can also be assessed with rubrics. See Performance Assessments and Rubric Development for more information on how to construct a rubric.
Essay Item Examples
Below are examples of high- and low-quality essay items. Note that the high quality examples include explicit instructions about what needs to be included in the answer. In addition, how the points will be allocated is clear. The low quality essay items are both very broad in scope. A test taker could easily answer the question without touching on any of the topics the instructor wanted them to include in their answer. In addition, it isn’t clear to the test taker or the instructor how the points are allocated. This can lead to inconsistencies in grading.
High-Quality Examples
1. Proof 1: Given ABC is equilateral, and BD is the angle bisector of angle ABC. Prove that the measure of angle ADB and angle CDB is equal to 90 degrees. Provide the statement and reason for each step using the two-column proof format. (1/2 point for each correct statement and 1/2 point for each correct reason given. 8 total points.)
1. Compare and contrast large-scale assessment and classroom assessment on the dimensions of frequency and nature of feedback. (2 points frequency, 2 points feedback. 4 total points)
Low-Quality Examples
1. Explain weather and climate. (20 points)
2. Describe the three principles of Universal Design for Learning. Do you believe they should be used to guide instruction? Why or why not? (10 points)
Best Practice Guidelines in Developing Performance-Based Assessments
Performance-based assessment allows learners to apply knowledge and skills in authentic situations. Performance-based assessment results in the creation of a performance or a product. Performance examples include public speaking, inventing something to solve a problem, putting on a play, or playing in a basketball game. Public service announcements, digital videos, and infographics created by learners are examples of products. Consider the following guidelines when constructing performance assessments:
1. Design a task that applies to real-world situations. The more authentic a performance-based assessment can be the more meaningful it will be to the learner, although access to resources and time will certainly impose project limitations. For example, writing a paper on gardening, designing a garden, and creating a garden are all examples of performance tasks with varying degrees of authenticity.
2. Develop a task description that includes the following:
1. Purpose/learning objectives. Why are the learners completing this task? Write the learning objectives in learner friendly language.
2. Clear directions. Break down the task into its component parts. Don’t assume learners know how to jump immediately into creating the final performance or product.
3. Perimeters and constraints. How much time do the learners have to complete the project? What resources are they allowed to use? Is it a group or individual project? Who are they allowed to ask for help?
4. Assessment criteria. How will the performance or product be graded? This is discussed in more detail below in the Rubrics section.
3. Develop any job aides learners will need in order to complete the task. Do you need to teach any additional skills such as how to locate articles in a database, how to measure volume, or how to use a particular piece of software?
4. If at all possible, provide learners with an example.
Rubrics
As discussed earlier in the chapter, reliability is related to scoring consistency. One way to help ensure scoring consistency is to use rubrics for grading subjective assessment items, including essay questions and performance assessments. Rubrics focus the attention of a grader on what is most important about the assignment. Rubrics include topics or elements and descriptions of levels of performance. This provides a roadmap for how to assess an assignment that is more subjective than a multiple-choice question. Without a rubric, it is easy for a grader to grade for one thing for the first 10 papers and grade for something else the last 10 papers. This occurs when an instructor has a lot of papers to grade, grading takes place over several days, and if more than one instructor is grading the same assignment. Providing a rubric up front is also beneficial to the student. They communicate to the student from the beginning what is important, on what to focus, and where to spend time and energy.
There are three types of rubrics: holistic, analytic, and single-point. This section will focus on analytic rubrics, because they allow instructors to assess the component parts of the performance assessment individually and provide the clearest grading criteria. Several additional resources about the different types of rubrics are provided below.
An analytic rubric consists of criteria, levels of performance, and descriptors.
Best Practice Guidelines for Creating Rubrics
1. Determine the criteria. Criteria can be written as a learning objective or category. Criteria should be measurable, important to the performance task, and taught. For example, creativity is often assessed in performance-based assessments. If creativity was not explicitly taught, it shouldn’t be measured.
2. Determine the weight of each criteria. Will they all be worth the same amount of points or will some count for more than others?
3. Determine the number of performance levels. How many levels of the rating scale will be delineated on the rubric? Will they be numbers such as 4, 3, 2, 1 or descriptive such as developing, meets expectations, and exceeds expectations. Typically, analytic rubrics contain three to five performance levels.
4. Write descriptors for each of the performance levels. This is the hardest part! Descriptors should address the quality of the product. It is okay to count project elements for some of your criteria (i.e. number of references, number of graphs), but not for all of them. See examples of quality and numerical descriptors below.
Numerical Descriptors vs Quality Descriptors Example
Table 4
Numerical Descriptors in an Annotated Bibliography Rubric
4 3 2 1
Quality / Reliability of Sources All sources cited are reliable and trustworthy. At least 80% of sources cited are reliable and trustworthy. At least 50% of sources are reliable and trustworthy. Less than 50% of sources cited are reliable and trustworthy.
5 points 4-3 points 2 points 0-1 point
Table 5
Quality Descriptors in a Technology Lesson Plan Rubric
Exceeds Expectations (A) Meets Expectations (B to C) Below Expectations (C- and below)
Teacher candidate develops a learner-centered, technology-integrated activity that promotes creativity, collaboration, or communication, and results in a learner-created product. Activity promotes significant learner engagement through creativity, collaboration, and communication. Actively includes opportunity for learner to create a product. Activity promotes creatively, collaboration, or communication and focuses on learner engagement with technology. Actively includes opportunity for learner to create a product. Activity focuses on teacher-use of technology but lacks opportunities for learner engagement and/or product creation
5 points 2-4 points 1 point
Note also that the rubric element directly above is written as a learning objective rather than simply a category.
Conclusion
Aligning test items and performance assessments to learning objectives, using best practice guidelines to create assessments, and using rubrics to grade complex tasks, are strategies instructional designers can use to develop high-quality assessments. High-quality assessments provide instructors with accurate information regarding the extent to which learners met the learning objectives, a critical component of the teaching and learning process. Accurate assessment results help instructional designers plan future instruction, adapt current instruction, communicate levels of understanding to students, and examine the overall effectiveness of instruction and course design. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/07%3A_Designing_Instructional_Activities/7.08%3A_Measuring_Student_.txt |
Working With Stakeholders and Clients
Lee Tran, Kathy Sindt, Rudy Rico, & Benjamin Kohntopp
Throughout your experiences as an instructional designer, you may form many different relationships with your colleagues. However, one of your most important relationships will be the one you have with your stakeholders or clients. It is important to recognize that the relationship with your stakeholders or clients is not solely based on transaction, but is also one of collaboration. In any instructional development process, there will be many different roles that each collaborator plays, as each brings a different set of expertise.
Remember, as an instructional designer, the communication style you choose to use will involve feedback from both parties. Your stakeholders or clients are looking to you for guidance in instructional design and content delivery. However, part of your work will be reliant on the content that your stakeholders or clients are giving you.
As instructional designers, we want to build trust with those we work with to better collaborate and deliver an end-product that meets the goals of a project. By building a stakeholder or client relationship, we can better understand who our target audience is, the project needs, and what our learning outcomes are.
For example, let’s say you received a set of instructional materials on how to make toast. The instructional material provided may be simple to follow, but there may be details missing needed for you to start your work, such as knowing if your target audience has access to a toaster. This detail would be important in your design to ensure that learners have access to all of the materials needed to successfully complete the course. As we continue this chapter, think about what kind of details you would need to start a course development and write them down.
Throughout this chapter, we will be looking at different aspects of the client relationship, including the process, guidance and communication, scope of work, collaborative workspaces, challenges, ethical concerns, and reviewing content.
The Process
Every instructional design project should follow an instructional design model. The most familiar model is the ADDIE model. This model includes the following components: Analyze, Design, Develop, Implement, and Evaluate (Kurt, 2017).
Another popular model and the one we use at Colorado Community Colleges Online (CCCOnline) is the backward design model (Wiggins and McTighe, 1998). In this model, the focus is on the result of the instruction, while also asking what the students should be able to understand and do after the instruction has been provided. All instruction, learning activities, and assessments direct the students toward achieving the result.
Whether you are following the ADDIE model, the backward design model, or another process to design your instruction, it is important that your stakeholders understand your process and the reasons you are using that process. It's also important to be sure your stakeholders know what you expect of them as part of the process. Getting buy-in on your process at the start will eliminate problems later. If the stakeholders understand what you expect, and the reasons for the expectations, they are better equipped to follow your procedures and processes.
There are different ways to ensure your stakeholders understand your process. One excellent option is to have initial meetings with all the stakeholders where you provide the stakeholders with information about the process and your expectations of each of them.
At CCCOnline, all of our stakeholders are required to take an orientation course that describes our processes and expectations. Once all stakeholders have completed the orientation, an initial vision meeting is held to discuss the scope of the project, to clarify the expectations from the stakeholder perspective, and to establish the duties and roles of all members of the team. After the vision meeting is completed, a kickoff meeting is held a couple of weeks later to review and finalize the project outline and scope, to set the timeline for the project, including deliverable due dates, review dates, and the final project deliverable due dates. The kickoff meeting is the beginning of the design phase of the project.
Guidance and Communication
Setting Communication Standards
As you work with your clients in your course development, you will want to ensure there is a standard of communication in place. A communication standard may include preferred methods of communication, frequency, and availability. By setting communication standards, you and your client can follow the expectations of each party in the development and promote a steady workflow. Remember that even though you are the instructional designer, your client is very much your partner throughout the development to ensure content validity and that the end product meets the needs of the target audience.
Becoming a Learning Coach
Your client will be looking at you for guidance in your expertise in instructional design. This expertise makes you what we will be calling a Learning Coach. A client may be an expert in their particular field, but may not have the same expertise with learning theories and applications to deliver their content to a mass audience. By understanding your role as not only the instructional designer, but as a Learning Coach to your clients, you are there to help guide your clients in their instruction development journey. Some clients may come to you with anxieties or questions like, “How do we engage the audience within different learning environments?” or “How do we measure the appropriate outcomes?”. Your coaching is meant to put your client at ease. As you coach your client through their concerns, you may notice your client becoming more confident in what your instructional product will be and in turn providing content that is better suited for the learning environment. This mutual understanding can ensure success.
Flexibility
Always remember that your client is human. Much like you, certain circumstances in their lives may affect the delivery of content. We want to ensure that the proper expectations are set in place, but also be flexible enough to understand that certain circumstances may get in the way. By being flexible and empathetic, you ensure that neither you nor your clients lose motivation or energy throughout the development process.
Scope of Work
When beginning work on an instructional design project, it is important to ensure that all the stakeholders agree on the scope of work (SOW) for the project. The project scope determines the goals/objectives, deliverables, and deadlines of the project.
At the start of any project, define the goals and objectives so you understand what the stakeholders are expecting. We have included some templates that can aid in defining your goals and setting the scope of your project. These include a PreMeeting and vision Meeting Guide, a Vision Scope Template, a Kickoff Call script, and a Course Map (outline of the project).
In addition to the goals and objectives, determine what deliverables you will provide as part of the project. Will you be creating a large, full-scale curriculum project, with multiple courses, or are you developing a single course? You need to know what kinds of media you will be developing. Are you expected to create video or interactive content, or will you be developing more static content? If you are developing any multimedia, be sure to determine the length/amount of this content before beginning. The more multimedia and interactive content you will be developing, the more resources your project will take. You need to be in agreement with your stakeholders on all aspects related to the scope of the work before the start of the project.
Finally, you need to determine the timeline of the project. Decide upfront when each deliverable is due, how long the stakeholders have to review the content, and how long you will need to make any revisions requested by the stakeholders. Agreement on these issues avoids conflict later in the process.
In addition to having the scope clearly defined at the start of the project, it is important that you and the stakeholders have clearly defined expectations of all members of the team. Are the stakeholders expected to write content? Are they expected to review content, and if so, at what stages of the project? Some stakeholders may only be directly involved at the beginning and end of a design project, while others may be involved during the entire process. Be sure that each stakeholder, including you, understands the expectations of them during the development process.
A major reason for clearly defining the scope of the work and your expectations of the stakeholders is to help eliminate scope creep. Scope creep occurs when a part of the project takes longer or more work than originally determined. This usually happens when one of the stakeholders expects or asks for additional work beyond the original agreement or statement of work. The best way to avoid scope creep is to have clearly defined and agreed upon scope and expectations before the project starts.
Setting up a Collaborative Workspace
In this section, we will focus on collaborating with your design team and setting up a workspace that allows each member to contribute. Depending on your situation, a collaborative workspace can include both physical and virtual spaces. Setting up a collaborative workspace is key to ensuring that all stakeholders can contribute during the design process and questions about content can be addressed before developing course materials.
The first step to consider when setting up a collaborative workspace is the types of materials that will be delivered. If the instructor or subject matter expert you are working with is delivering large files, such as MP4 video files or large text files, then a cloud-based file hosting service like Dropbox, Microsoft’s One Drive, or Google’s G Drive may be a solution. File hosting services allow the user to upload large files and share the uploaded content with members in your organization.
Once you agree on a file hosting service, set up a folder, and share the folder with the stakeholders who will be delivering content. Make sure you provide the right type of access so that the stakeholders have permission to edit and add content.
In addition to setting up a file-sharing collaborative workspace, you should set a schedule for delivering content, and schedule regular meetings to check in with your stakeholders. Having a regular meeting scheduled can help prevent any communication issues or identify issues that come up as content is delivered.
Collaboration Tools
Tools for Meeting With Stakeholders
Web conferencing software – ex. Zoom, Skype
Tools for Project Planning
Spreadsheets, Shared Calendars – ex. MS Excel, Google Calendar
Tools for Content Delivery
Cloud-based services – ex. Dropbox, MS One Drive
Depending on your institution, a face-to-face meeting can be held at the start of the project and then transition to online meetings or conference calls. Meeting with all your stakeholders face-to-face at the beginning of course development can help determine which members of the development team are essential to future meetings and which content to assign for development to each member.
Challenges
Communication with stakeholders, as stated in our section on setting up a collaboration space, is key to ensuring completion of the course development on deadline. One common issue that occurs when developing online courses is lack of communication leading to confusion on how content is delivered, when content is to be delivered, and how content is reviewed for quality. For example, while working on a teacher education course last summer, I encountered an issue with the subject matter expert’s schedule. At the initial meeting, the subject matter expert indicated she was familiar with the content from previously teaching the course and would have no issues making the content updates. However, the subject matter expert also indicated during the meeting that she would be on vacation abroad and would not be able to deliver content until after she returned. Since the subject matter expert indicated she was familiar with the content as an instructor, I recommended that she complete an initial review and submission of new content for the course’s first two modules prior to going on vacation. Knowing that the subject matter expert would be unavailable during the first phase of development prompted me to update the content delivery schedule. Therefore, setting up expectations early on is essential to catching possible scheduling conflicts and avoiding confusion later in the content delivery stage of course development.
To avoid communication issues, also speak with your stakeholders regularly. We emphasize “speak,” because long emails can lead to more confusion. Email communication is good for quick updates, but long emails chains can be more time consuming than simply talking on the phone for 5 minutes to clarify an issue. Therefore, set up a regular meeting time each week and check in with your stakeholders often by phone or web conference. After all the stakeholders are comfortable with the development process, you can hold meetings less frequently, but at the beginning stages of development avoid going more than a week between meetings.
Not communicating expectations early on with all of your stakeholders can lead to missed deadlines and content delivery falling behind schedule. Therefore, make deadlines clear and use a project plan to keep track of all the major milestones during the content delivery phase. If a deadline is missed, communicate with your stakeholders immediately and identify the issue that caused the delay. However, sometimes the stakeholder in charge of delivering the content may have fallen behind and need additional support to create the content. Courses that incorporate Open Educational Resources (OER) may be more challenging to develop content for and, therefore, may require more time. This is due to the "open" nature of OER content. While there are many free resources available to educators, not all OER content is high quality, or accessible.
Technical issues may also prevent the delivery of content; checking with your stakeholders when they miss deadlines can help identify if it is a technology issue or a content issue. Depending on the file-sharing system you selected, there may be issues updating content in the online workspace, and you may need to coach your stakeholders as to how to properly upload and share content with the design team.
When content is not delivered, and several deadlines are missed, set up a meeting with the key stakeholders, and develop a plan to get content delivery back on schedule. For this reason, it is often a good idea to set up a buffer between the end of content delivery and the start of the course launch. I typically set an early content delivery date of about 3 weeks before content is due for review.
Ethical Concerns
On some days during your course development cycle, you may feel like teacher dealing with a student. You know that the student is very skilled, but at times they may need your guidance. This is especially true when it comes to Ethical Concerns that might arise during the course development process. While a subject matter expert (SME) is exactly that, an expert in their chosen subject, they aren’t expected to know everything. This means that, regardless of the type of development (OER or otherwise), your subject matter expert will be looking for outside sources to supplement their material.
Plagiarism
Although some might think of plagiarism as a concern reserved for students, it is a reality for the individuals creating the courses as well. Any time a subject matter expert looks for material, they run the risk of plagiarizing content. In most environments, this is very problematic. Many places will take ownership of a SME’s work upon its completion; therefore, having plagiarized or stolen content can cause problems for that institution or place of business. Here a few strategies you can use when working with your SME:
1. When the content first comes in, be sure to read it thoroughly. Reading your content is the simplest way to tell if a SME has been plagiarizing. You should have a feeling for how a SME writes by now, from emails to course maps, so if anything in their content seems suspect to you, it might be time to raise a red flag and ask them about it, especially if they are missing citations for their material.
2. If you’re able, run the content through a plagiarism checker, such as Turnitin, Quetext, or Prepostseo (those last two are free). Keep in mind that while the plagiarism checker will give you a better idea of where an SME’s content came from, it doesn’t necessarily mean plagiarism has taken place.
3. As you read over the content and suspect plagiarism in a particular passage, highlight it, and paste the suspected content into a Google search. Believe it or not, the search results that come back may be bolded portions of a website where the content is from. If it is, you need to discuss this with your SME.
Catching plagiarism early is vital. SMEs may not be aware that what they’re doing is plagiarism and may continue to do it throughout the process. It might be helpful to discuss Creative Commons licenses with them to elucidate what they can and cannot do. Reading through a basic overview of the licenses (https://edtechbooks.org/-JMt) might save you from future issues.
Conflict
Unfortunately, sometimes, conflicts between you and your SME arise. Remember that during development, communication is key. More often than not, SMEs are happy to dispense their knowledge, but they also must be heard. They are not a tool to be used and discarded. Keep this in mind to save your developments from falling apart. Here is one example:
During the development of a course, the SME, who was writing an entire OER eBook, decided that she wanted links to the eBook placed in every page of the course so students could readily access it everywhere. While I immediately disagreed with her, I allowed her to finish her reasoning. Once she concluded, I explained that from a design perspective, this could cause confusion for students, regardless of her good intentions. I told her I appreciated her input and told her that if she disagreed, we could have a meeting involving the dean (her boss) and we could talk things out with him. She decided to do so, we talked it out and we came to an agreement: the links to the eBook would be placed in only the most relevant and useful places. We both walked away from the conflict satisfied with our agreement.
Reviewing the Content
Quality Assurance
We all want our students to have the best quality courses. One of the most important components of a course development comes during the quality assurance (QA) check. Whether you as the ID do it alone or you’re lucky to have someone there to help you with it, quality assurance is paramount. CCCOnline implements QA via a two-fold approach: we have a designated QA person checking the course throughout the entirety of the build. When the content first comes in, they go over all the essential components thoroughly and write feedback and recommendations. Then, once the course is in place in the LMS, they review it again. Throughout the entire process, the QA person is viewing the course as a student would and ensuring everything makes sense. As Instructional Designers, we should never forget the end user: our students.
Approval
Not only should a QA person sign off on the content, but the SME and the program leader(s) should also have a say in approving the content. Essentially, when the content is in, and before it is placed in the LMS all parties should have their voices heard:
1. The QA person should be viewing the course from the student’s perspective, giving valuable insight that might go unnoticed otherwise.
2. The SME and program leader(s) should have the best understanding of the content and should, therefore, ensure the course aligns with all objectives and hits all of its necessary deliverables.
3. As the ID, you must do some of both: ensure the content aligns with the outcomes that have been set and ensure the course will make sense from a student perspective.
Conclusion
In this chapter we discussed some strategies for collaborating with various stakeholders during a course development and provided some recommendations for solving some common issues instructional designers encounter during the collaboration phase. As the instructional designer, having a well-developed project plan, that includes deadlines for content delivery and dates for meetings with stakeholders, is essential for a successful course development. Therefore, when developing your project plan remember some of the issues we presented here and the types of challenges your stakeholders may encounter during content delivery. What can you do as the instructional designer to help your stakeholders meet the deadlines? Consider the following:
1. What type of content are your stakeholders expected to deliver?
2. When is the course expected to launch? Consider potential time constraints for stakeholders.
3. How much time will the quality assurance process take?
4. Will stakeholders be asked to review content on multiple occasions? How will reviews and feedback be managed? | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/08%3A_Design_Relationships/8.01%3A_Working_With_Stakeholders_And_Cl.txt |
Leading Project Teams
Ashley Smith
My palms were sweaty. The conference room was warm. Seated directly across the table was the Vice President of Asset Protection of Walmart US. The company had flown me from Idaho to Bentonville, Arkansas, for this moment, my first big break, and my chance to make a name for myself. I was leading a team tasked with developing a curriculum that would be implemented everywhere in the United States, and I was ready—ready to spring into action and dazzle the high-level executives with my instructional design prowess.
Finally, the VP turned to me and asked, “When do you think we can roll this out?” I gave an estimate, but that wasn’t what I thought was the most crucial part of my presentation. Then came the follow-up question. “Do you have a breakdown of who will pay for what?” I did not. Reality smacked me square across my overly confident face. I was not there to present a proposal for my innovative, custom-designed, and beautifully-built curriculum. I mean, yes, I was, but that was only a small part of my role. As this development progressed, it became more evident that the senior leadership was more concerned about milestones and deadlines than my knowledge of ADDIE. I was not only an instructional designer; I was the project manager, the bottom line. It was my responsibility to handle timelines, budgets, and all the not-so-fun, not-so-creative details that would enable my team to pull off this massive project and produce an excellent product.
When I left the corporate world behind and started to design curriculum for higher education, my project management skills were invaluable. As you join the world of instructional designers, you will often find yourself in the role of a project manager. Over the years, I have learned, leading project teams is an essential skill for an instructional designer to master. It is something to embrace and not fear.
Basics of Project Management
From the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide (PMBOK Guide), a project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result” (Project Management Institute, 4). The keyword in the definition of project is temporary. The permanent, everyday production of products and services is called operations. Project management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements” (Project Management Institute, 10).
Now let’s explore several basic concepts of Project Management: Project Phases, Project Constraints, Project Management Triangle, and Ethics of Working with Teams.
Project Phases
The textbook, Project Management for Instructional Designers, describes four typical lifecycle phases of a project: Initiation, Planning, Execution, and Closeout (or Closing) (see Figure 1).
The Initiation phase encompasses all the assignments and actions that need to occur before project planning. The Initiation phase starts “with the assignment of the project manager and ends when the project team has sufficient information to begin developing a detailed schedule and budget” (Wiley et al., p. 3.1). The Planning phase centers on developing “an understanding of how the project will be executed and a plan for acquiring the resources needed to execute it” (Wiley et al., p. 3.1). The Execution phase emphasizes “the major activities needed to accomplish the work of the project” (Wiley et al., p. 3.1). The Closeout (or Closing) phase signifies the last stage of a project and where “project staff is transferred off the project, project documents are archived, and the final few items or punch list is completed” (Wiley et al., p. 3.1). I would recommend exploring more about each of these phases in this textbook, Project Management for Instructional Designers.
Project Constraints
Scope
With every project, we must consider scope. The definition of project scope is "what tasks the project team is expected to accomplish and, just as importantly, what is not part of the project" (Wiley et al, p. 7.2).
Every project, being temporary in nature, has a beginning and ending. As the project manager, you need a clear vision of where the project needs to go. To help understand this concept, we will explore the second habit of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, "Begin with the end in mind." Stephen Covey (2013) states,
“‘Begin with the end in mind’ is based on the principle that all things are created twice. There's a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation, to all things. Take the construction of a home, for example. You create it in every detail before you ever hammer the first nail into place. You try to get a very clear sense of what kind of house you want…
The carpenter's rule is 'measure twice, cut once.' You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you've thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind” (p. 95).
Like the construction of a house, you need to plan and create a “blueprint” for your project before work can begin. After you understand the project, you will need to articulate this vision to your team. Your team will never have a better understanding of the project scope than you. As the project manager, if you are unclear about the project’s expectations, your team will also be unclear on them. This path leads to scope creep.
Dangers of Scope Creep
Scope creep happens anytime the project’s requirements change after you start the project. This creep is a subtle phenomenon. Threats to time and cost loom as you allow small changes to occur based on last-minute suggestions. These change requests are often coupled with the rationale that, “We are already adjusting the curriculum anyway.” Or “It's only one small change.” One small change can have an enormous impact on the project. In many cases, as the project manager, you will underestimate the full effect of the change. You never want to find yourself in the position where you overpromise and underdeliver. Scope creep will make you unable to fill your commitments and leave your stakeholders disappointed.
Cost
As a project manager, you have an essential role to manage budgets and cost. You will need know your budgetary constraints and work to minimize costs. As illustrated in my Walmart example, knowing your budget and costs are of crucial consideration and interest to your stakeholders.
Time
Your stakeholders also want to know whether the project is on schedule. Stakeholders’ satisfaction is often tied to project performance expectations. You need to know the timeframe you have to accomplish the project. You will need to estimate how long every stage of the project will take and find the project’s critical path.
Rapid prototyping reduces time and cost in a project. (Rapid prototyping was explored in earlier chapters.) By prototyping, you and your stakeholders can make decisions that will save time and money. This process results in higher overall quality and allows you to influence the decision-making process along the way. Prototyping enables you to make the best use of our next concept, the project management triangle.
Project Management Triangle
A common adage about project management is, “You can have it good, fast, or cheap. Pick two.” This statement derives from the concept called the “project management triangle,” or sometimes referred to as the “iron triangle.” There are several variations of the triangle. One of the most common variations is the constraints of cost, time, and scope make the sides of the triangle with the center representing quality (see Figure 2).
Let’s say you are creating a training course, and you want it to be done quickly (time constraint) and at a low cost (cost constraint.) It becomes evident that the scope needs to be limited (scope constraint). You will not be able to add a lot of extras to the course (e-learning or VR experience). If you try to do all three, the quality of the course will suffer. If the clients want the VR experience, then the costs will rise. There are always tradeoffs for every adjustment made to a project because you cannot improve all three constraints simultaneously. As the project manager, it is critical to understand the consequences of every decision made and how it affects other decisions.
Application Exercises
• Create a chart that explains what happens at each phase of the project management lifecycle.
• How can effectively managing project constraints (scope, time, and cost) help a project to be successful and prevent scope creep?
Working With Teams
Besides knowing the constraints, understanding the different teams that you will be working with on a project is imperative. There are several different types of teams that you may work with on any project. In this chapter, we will only highlight a few of those teams.
Working With Your Team
Whether you were given your team or you selected your team, your leadership will determine the team effectiveness and ultimately the success of the project. Your ability to manage and inspire people will be one of the most critical factors to the success of the project. You will need to assess what skills you will need for the project and match them with your team members.
As you identify strengths and skills of your team members, you need to allow people to play off their strengths. In the book, Strengths Finder 2.0, Gallup scientists “discovered that people have several times more potential for growth when they invest energy to developing their strengths instead of correcting their deficiencies” (Rath, 2007, p. i). I have found when people are leveraging their strengths, they are happier and more productive.
Working With SME
A subject-matter expert (SME) can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. A SME offers much-needed content knowledge; however, the project can quickly become off schedule if the SME is unavailable or unable to meet critical deadlines. Developing a relationship with an SME is explored more in the chapter called, “Working With Stakeholders and Clients.” Maintaining healthy relationships with key stakeholders, like the SME, will dramatically impact the project.
Working With the Delivery Team (Instructors, Faculty, Trainers, etc.)
As an instructional designer, rarely are you the one delivering or teaching the curriculum. Because of that, it is critical to keep the instructor/trainer in mind with the design of the materials, and how will it be implemented by the delivery team. With the excellent materials your team created, you will want the instructor training performed at the same high level. It may be necessary for you to work with your organization's delivery arm to ensure that the Train the Trainer (T3) sessions or teacher education programs happen according to plan. With this coordination, a successful implementation will allow the participants to experience the curriculum the way you design it. To explore more about implementation, read the chapter in this textbook titled, “Implementation and Instructional Design.”
Working With the Stakeholders and Clients
Your underlying goal of the project is to deliver what your stakeholders and clients want. To effectively do that, you need to answer these questions: what is the goal and how will success be assessed? You need to know the goal and design in the assessment.
When I created my first workshop for Walmart, I built it solely around the content given to me by the subject matter experts. I created beautiful workbooks and presentations. I even had the chance to attend the workshop as the material was delivered. At the end of the workshop, all the participants were ready to change the world because of my class. I thought to myself, “#LearningWasAchieved.” A few weeks later, I was asked by a senior leader what type of return on investment (ROI) metrics I had and how well did the workshop achieve the outcomes? After scrambling to pull information together about the success of the class, I was only able to generate a pitiful report. I realized the failure was not in the workshop, but that I was unprepared to report on its success. From this experience, I learned the importance of backward design. In backward design, you start with the learning outcomes or goals, create assessments to measure those outcomes, and then create the content that will enable the learners to complete the assessments successfully.
The next time I developed a class, I started the conversation by asking questions such as: “What do we want to measure?” and “What do the students need to know?” I did this questioning on the front side of the project. I designed in key outcome metrics with how they would be assessed in the curriculum. This time, I had the reports prepared, showing ROI. Of all the leadership and management skills I have learned, the ability to show value (ROI) to my stakeholders has had the greatest impact on my professional success as a designer. Another chapter, “Working With Stakeholders and Clients,” reviews more on these interactions.
Effective Strategies in Leading a Team
Figure 4 shows the strategies to use to help you successfully lead your team through a project.
Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities
Define the roles of your team. You need to understand who is ultimately responsible. Hyman G. Rickover, the “Father of the Nuclear Navy,” led a team to build the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus. He had a deep understanding of responsibility. He said, “Responsibility is a unique concept... You may share it with others, but your portion is not diminished. You may delegate it, but it is still with you... If responsibility is rightfully yours, no evasion, or ignorance or passing the blame can shift the burden to someone else. Unless you can point your finger at the man who is responsible when something goes wrong, then you have never had anyone really responsible.” (United States Congress, 1965, p. 87). Although you may have delegated tasks, the shared successes and failures of your project are yours to bear.
Streamlining Workflow
Find bottlenecks. As a leader, you can’t fully delegate responsibility away for a project. So, if tasks aren’t happening, you need to ask, “Why?” You will need to find solutions. In the book, The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement, the main character receives a critical insight from one of his professors, “What you have learned is that the capacity of the [project] is equal to the capacity of its bottlenecks” (Goldratt, 1992, p. 158). This capacity of any given bottleneck on your team or as part of your project affects the amount of work accomplished during a particular timeframe.
The speed of the project will depend on the number of bottlenecks. It would be best if you gave time and attention to improving those bottlenecks each day. The priority has to be what problems your team is having and helping them solve the issues quickly. These problems or bottlenecks will determine whether you will meet your deadline.
Communicating Effectively
Don’t keep your people in the dark. As the project manager, you will need to develop strong communication channels with your team and stakeholders. B.G. Zulch discovered that “The single most significant factor affecting the success of a project is the communication ability of the project manager. If it seems true that everything rises and falls on communication and leadership, it stands to reason that leadership communication ability is the foundational skill that must be attained for a project manager to be effective…Communication is so important to project success that it has been referred to as the lifeblood of a project…” (2014, p. 1001).
Don’t allow blind spots to develop. The responsibility of communication does not rest solely on the project manager. The entire team needs to be communicating regularly with updates on progress. Without regular updates, blind spots will occur.
Have regular meetings with your team. Many meetings are considered boring and a waste of time because the leader conducting the meeting does not know how to have a productive meeting. From the book, Death by Meeting, Lencioni (2004) asserts two ideas for more productive meetings. First, meetings need more drama. The meetings need to be centered around conflict by addressing difficult questions. Let your people be passionate about what they do. Second, meetings need contextual structure. Not every meeting is the same type. Have the right kind of meeting that addresses your needs from a daily check-in to a monthly strategic meeting.
Creating a Feedback Culture
Foster a culture of offering and receiving feedback. Feedback creates accountability. In the book, The Oz Principle, Connors et al. (2004) state, "You can gain great insight from frequent, regular, and ongoing feedback from other people. Although it can cause a great deal of pain and embarrassment at times, honest input helps create the accurate picture of reality that lies at the core of accountability" (p. 81). With any project, you need people to be accountable for their assigned tasks. With this loop of giving and receiving feedback, you, as the manager, can see the status of each part of the project. When you see epic failures with projects, many times, the lack of feedback is the underlying reason for it.
Be in the Details
Spend the majority of your time in the details of the project. Admiral Rickover, the manager who led the team to build the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, drove this point home by stating, "The man in charge must concern himself with details. If he does not consider them important, neither will his subordinates. Yet 'the devil is in the details.' It is hard and monotonous to pay attention to seemingly minor matters. In my work, I probably spend about ninety-nine percent of my time on what others may call petty details. Most managers would rather focus on lofty policy matters. But when the details are ignored, the project fails. No infusion of policy or lofty ideals can then correct the situation" (Rickover, 1982). Success is through the execution of small tasks.
Managing Conflicts
Have crucial conversations. Anytime you are dealing with people under time and money constraints, you are going to have conflict. As a project manager, you will be required to have crucial conversations. From the book, Crucial Conversations, Patterson et al. (2002) define a crucial conversation as "a discussion between two or more people where stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong" (p. 3). When leading a crucial conversation, it is imperative to stay focused on the facts and issues. Prepare ahead of time so you can stay calm and not be distracted by strong feelings and emotional appeals. A leader who approaches these difficult conversations in a non-emotional way serves his people more effectively. You can create a safe environment for a crucial conversation by validating the other person’s position. Patterson et al. (2002) recommend the STATE method to manage conflict. The STATE method is an acronym of the tools you can use: Share your facts, Tell your story, Ask for others’ paths, Talk tentatively (or speaking gently and respectfully), and Encourage testing (or invite others to talk) (p. 124).
Application Exercises
• Identify the type of support you will need to give for each of the different teams with which you are interacting.
• Which strategies do you feel are the most important and how would you apply those strategies to your situation?
Conclusion
In this chapter, we discussed that although you may be an instructional designer, you might often find yourself in the project manager role. We explored the four phases of the project management lifecycle: initiation, planning, execution, and closeout. We also studied how the project management triangle showed how the three constraints of scope, time, and cost can impact quality of a project. We reviewed the different teams you will work with on a project and provided effective strategies in leading a team.
Even if project management is new to you, becoming an effective project manager can be learned. As you master those skills, you will find yourself leading effective teams. A well-managed project will cause a positive outlook for everyone from your team down to the stakeholders and clients. Your finely-tuned project management skills will lead you to future success.
Resources
• Project Management for Instructional Designers Textbook (PM4ID)
• Project Management Institute – pmi.org
• A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge ( PMBOK® Guide) | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/08%3A_Design_Relationships/8.02%3A_Leading_Project_Teams.txt |
Implementation and Instructional Design
Brittany Eichler & Jason K. McDonald
Editor's Note
This is a remixed version of an earlier chapter on implementation in instructional design that can be found at the ADDIE Explained website, and is printed here under the same license as the original.
Instruction is designed to be used. This seemingly obvious statement carries a rather significant implication: the work of an instructional designer should not end upon the final development of the product, but must include considerations for when, where, and how the instruction will be used by real learners in actual situations. This work is called implementation. It requires planning and attention to detail—the same as found throughout the rest of the instructional design process, in fact—to complete successfully. Without implementing an instructional design, all the design work would, in large measure, be wasted.
Implementation is a frequently-skipped step of the instructional design process, however. Designers are often (understandably) ready for their next exciting assignment, and often the client or other stakeholders want to be the primary actors during implementation. The organization the designer works for may also not consider it within their scope to assign instructional designers to help in the implementation phase.
But even when someone else has the actual responsibility to implement an instructional design, the designer can (and should) still be involved, at least in some fashion. Often he or she will have information that no one else has about the design (what certain components are meant for, or how certain features behave), and that information is crucial to ensure it can be implemented successfully. Few people know the entire project as well as the designer does, and this expertise should be drawn upon during the implementation process.
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce considerations that need to be made during the implementation phase of the instructional design process. To organize our discussion we rely on the five stages of introducing a new design as described by Everett M. Rogers (2003). Additionally, it is imperative that instructional designers (or other change agents like teachers or stakeholders) are aware of how people typically use products or services as they are being implemented. So we also describe how adopters of new products or services commonly move through Rogers’s stages.
Adopting New Designs
Gibbons (2013) described the importance of implementation as follows:
Implementation is a period of intense and important change. In addition, it is a period of high-stakes decisions that affect the judgment of continued use of your product. Your product is not only making its first impression on people during implementation, but it is gathering either support or censure from those most likely to determine its viability—students, instructors, and administrators. A careful implementation plan can help your product to be introduced with the best possible chances of success (p. 410).
Similarly, Rogers (2003) suggested that, “the perceived newness of an innovation, and the uncertainty associated with this newness, is a distinctive aspect of innovation decision making” (p.161). As a result of this “uncertainty,” understanding the design adoption process can help designers plan an instructional design implementation to maximize the chances it can have its intended effect with learners. To help instructional designers create a complete implementation plan, we recommend considering the phases of innovation adoption as a framework for creating their implementation plans (see Figure 1). The five stages in Rogers’s model that will be discussed in this chapter are:
• Knowledge
• Persuasion
• Decision
• Use
• Confirmation
Note that the stage when people actually use the new material is stage four of this model! This should be evidence of how important it is to consider many factors that affect how someone will successfully use an instructional design, and encourage designers to not just complete the project and walk away.
Knowledge
The expectation within the knowledge stage is that the adopter becomes aware of the design to be implemented, and determines if a need for adopting (or implementing) the design is actually present. In the context of instructional design, this could mean the designer prepares (or helps prepare) material that is useful to decision-makers about why they should use the instruction. This could take the form of an information sheet, or be more sophisticated like a full marketing campaign. It can also be directed to the students themselves, or others who might be the primary adopter of the design who will then introduce it to students (like a teacher or a school district).
Persuasion
The persuasion stage occurs when the adopter begins to decide if they find the new design acceptable. During this process, the adopter “actively seeks information about the new idea, decides what messages he or she regards as credible, and decides how he or she interprets the information that is received” (Rogers, 2003). It is through this process that an adopter begins to decide if the design will be accepted. Instructional designers can facilitate the persuasion stage at the same time they provide knowledge about it. Why is it compelling? How does it fulfill real needs? What can be said about it that adopters will feel emotionally attracted to? (Do more than just provide the facts!) Like before, persuasion can be directed to both the student or other decision-makers.
Decision
The decision stage includes the adopter actively participating in tests that will assist them in determining if the design will be adopted or rejected. It is important to note that this process can justifiably lead to either of these results: adoption or rejection. If the design is adopted, it is evidence that it is seen as a solution to the problem or issue the adopter initially defined. If the design is rejected, it can be classified as either active or passive rejection. According to Rogers (2003), active rejection consists of considering adoption of an innovation and then actively deciding not to adopt it. Passive rejection is when no identifiable decision is made, but due to inaction the innovation is effectively rejected. Instructional designers can help with the decision phase by making it as easy as possible for students or decision-makers to try out the instruction before committing to it. Can the designer be on-site for a test of the materials? Can they demonstrate to students or decision-makers what it actually looks like when the instruction is being used? Can they give away a component for free that people can test?
Use
The next stage in this model is the actual usage of the new design. Using a new product is generally not a one-time endeavor. New design usage is generally considered a long-term process. While the definition of “long-term” can be ambiguous and is heavily determined by the context, it is important to know the use of a new innovation within instructional design is usually not simply “plug and play.” There is generally a period of continued education and professional development associated with the adoption. The instructional designer might provide getting started materials so people begin using the materials successfully, or technical support to make sure problems can be solved as soon as they are apparent. They might have to train the person leading the instruction, or at the very least show students how to use all of the features found in the instruction.
As the design is implemented, it is likely that an event referred to as re-invention may occur. Re-invention is defined in this context “as the degree to which an innovation is changed or modified by a user in the process of its adoption and implementation” (Rogers, 2003, p. 180). It is important to note that re-invention is not necessarily a negative, as it can lead to improved results. For instance, an instructional designer may have intended that students complete an online module individually, but as it begins to be used throughout a company, the employees start to gather together in groups and complete the assignments together. Even though the designer did not intend for this kind of use, evaluations could show that it is more effective—students learn more and have deeper insights as they work together. An implication of this is that designers should make their designs flexible, so they don’t break down during re-invention. They should also watch for re-invention because it might give them ideas for how they can design better in the future.
Confirmation
Confirmation occurs as the adopter evaluates the decision to adopt and implement the design. Are they satisfied with what they chose? During this stage it is possible that the design will be subsequently discontinued. The evaluation can be based on many measures: learner performance, ease of use, satisfaction, cost to maintain, etc. If discontinuance occurs, it is often a result of some kind of dissonance, or the gap adopters experience between what they expected to happen and what actually happened. It is important, then, for continued use of the design, that the instructional designer seeks methods to reduce or eliminate dissonance. Some methods to achieve reduction of elimination include helping adopters understand how to incorporate the design into their existing practices, continued support and training, and fixing problems the adopter may be experiencing with the instruction that interfere with its ability to achieve its intended outcomes.
Application Exercise
Consider an instructional design project you are either currently involved in, or one you are familiar with. Write a brief implementation plan for this project that uses all five of Rogers’s implementation phases.
Prepare a brief presentation about this implementation plan, as if you were assigned to explain to your client why each phase is important to successfully implement the project.
Attributes of Designs That Lead to Successful Implementation
In addition to the innovation-decision process, it is important for the instructional designer to consider factors in the design itself that contribute to rates of adoption. Rogers (2003) identified five such attributes: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability.
Relative Advantage
The concept of relative advantage refers to whether the design is actually an improvement over the current product or service the adopter has been using. If the adopter perceives that the design’s value does not exceed that of the current product used, the design is much less desirable and unlikely to be adopted. In contrast, a design that is determined to be of greater value is more likely to be adopted. Instructional designers should be considering the relative advantage of their instruction throughout the design process. How is what they are designing better than the status quo?
Compatibility
Compatibility is in reference to how well the design aligns with other aspects of the adopter’s life and circumstances. This could include the adopter’s professional, pedagogical, and sociocultural ideologies. Conflict with any of these schemas, whether directly impacting the design's actual use, could threaten adoption. As indicated by Rogers (2003), “any new idea is evaluated in comparison to existing practice. Thus compatibility is, not surprisingly, related to the rate of adoption of an innovation” (p. 249). Through careful attention to the adopter's (students or other decision-makers) beliefs, interests, needs, and concerns throughout the design process, designers can help prepare their instruction so it is more compatible with what adopters expect and need.
Complexity
Complexity is how difficult it is to comprehend, incorporate, and actually use the design. While complexity does not impact the rate of adoption to the same degree as relative advantage and compatibility, the complexity of a design can negatively impact how likely it is for adopters to use (or want to use) it. If a design is perceived to be too difficult to incorporate or use, it is less likely to be adopted in the first place or more likely to be discontinued if it is adopted. Good evaluation and testing of prototypes throughout the instructional design process can help minimize the complexity of their instruction. Designers, in fact, can consider how they can specifically test prototypes to help minimize complexity (such as through a usability test).
Trialability
Trialability refers to how readily a design can be tested or used with a limited commitment. For example, software is often introduced in stages, or “betas.” These stages of progressively more complete versions of a product permit its testing on a limited basis. Such testing permits users to identify issues and helps increase adoption. Trialability has a positive impact on the rate of adoption for early adopters, but is less impactful on the rate of adoption for later adopters (Rogers, 2003). As is hopefully clear, the trialability of instruction is closely associated with the decision phase described above. Designers should prepare for the trialability of their instruction as early as possible in their design process. High fidelity prototypes might be an easy and low-cost way of doing this.
Observability
Observability refers to “the degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others” (Rogers, 2003, p. 16). Designs that are more difficult to observe or difficult to explain and operationalize are less likely to be adopted. This can be especially difficult for instructional designers because so much of the learning process is invisible or hard to observe. It helps to make sure the learning goals of the instruction are as measurable and observable as possible. Regularly reporting the results of assessments of student learning can also help. While important, however, observability is the least impactful of the attributes Rogers identified.
Application Exercise
You are an instructional designer implementing a new computer-based learning tool in a K-12 classroom. The teacher is not technologically savvy and is hesitant to use this new tool. Explain what steps might be taken to support the teacher and mitigate their concerns.
Considering Rogers’ five attributes that impact the rate of adoption of innovations, please explain how these attributes would affect implementation decisions that you, as an instructional designer, would make, for this teacher.
Conclusion
In this chapter, we discussed the implementation phase of the instructional design process. We described important factors of implementation using the five stages of the diffusion of innovations: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. We also reviewed characteristics of a design itself that can impact rates of implementation: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability and observability.
Implementation is a phase instructional designers should begin planning for at the beginning of their project. By carefully reviewing the material we provide here, designers—and those they support—will be able to ensure the instruction they create is actually used by those it is intended for so the desired changes that led to its creation can be brought about. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Design_for_Learning_-_Principles_Processes_and_Praxis_(McDonald_and_West)/02%3A_Instructional_Design_Knowledge/08%3A_Design_Relationships/8.03%3A_Implementation_And_Instructional.txt |
Much of the academic curriculum in today’s schools is dictated by the respective state standards, which are frequently based on national standards, such as those from the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000); the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013); the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3); Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (NCSS, 2017); and the Standards for the English Language Arts (NCTE and IRA, 1996). However, it is often difficult to translate these standards into in IEPs because of confusion generated by their broad generality and the absence of sufficient direction for their implementation. Hence, some teachers often have a negative view of standards per se.
Our goal in this chapter is to help you modify the wording of any standard into performance terminology and then transmit it into long-term and short-term instructional objectives, all within a progressive sequence of specificity. This sequence can serve as a set of blueprints for classroom instruction. As you know, most reputable contractors would not consider building a house without blueprints, because they provide a basis for ongoing (formative) and conclusive (summative) assessment, and they also enable the contractor to determine whether corrections are in order. Instructional objectives serve the same purpose for classroom instruction.
The litmus test for any instructional objective is whether it provides for objective assessment. Hence, clear language and specific intent should be inherent in every objective at every level. Of course, the level of specificity should increase from national and CEC Standards to long-term objectives- to short-term instructional objectives, and clarity of intent should be vividly present throughout.
Some measurement specialists caution against over adhering to specificity in instructional objectives, fearing that teachers may spend a disproportionate amount of time writing objectives at the expense of preparing for instruction (Harden, 2002). We believe that this is an unwarranted fear.
As we mentioned in the Introduction, virtually all statewide assessment tests are based on state standards, which stem from the national standards. Since these high-stakes tests are criterion- referenced, aligning your lesson plans with them by using our process can enhance your students’ performance on these critical examinations. Consequently, your comfort in implementing the standards into your instruction and assessment will result in higher student scores.
1.02: Writing In
We begin with sample items drawn from the national standards of the major content and CEC areas, break them down to behavioral terms, and transfer them into long-term and, finally, short-term instructional objectives. This conversation process can be easily applied to the standards of any particular state. We now demonstrate this process for each of the major content areas, as well as the CEC areas of daily living skills and employability training.
Mathematics
Many of the examples used here are paraphrased or taken directly from the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 2000). This important document, originally released in 1989 by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), has been adopted in most states.
The following example is taken from the Measurement Standard for Grades 3-5, a verbatim portion of the actual standard.
National Standard
Each and every student should: use models, benchmarks, and equivalent forms to judge the size of fractions. (p. 148)
First, we modify this standard to include an evidenced understanding of appropriate models, benchmarks, and equivalent forms for determining equivalence.
Modified National Standard
The student will evidence an understanding of appropriate models, benchmarks, and equivalent forms to determine the size of fractions.
We use the term evidence to indicate that the student must show that he/she has met predetermined criteria for fulfilling the standard through observable behaviors. This term is used again in the long-term objective for continuity and to ensure student performance in determining measurements through the discovery of means and tools for measuring complex objects.
Long-term Objective
The student will evidence an understanding of determining the relative size of fractions through the discovery of means and tools for representing fractions.
As you see, this long-term objective includes the original standard while providing for a diversity of means for its fulfillment through short-term instructional objectives. The following objective illustrates how a high level of specificity can still include the components of the original standard.
Short-term Instructional Objective
Given a set of Cuisenaire rods, the student will compare two proper fractions and then state which is greater by orally citing at least one reason for his choice. This objective contains conditions (“Given a set of Cuisenaire rods”) behavior (“state,” “citing”) and minimal standards (“at least one reason”).
Remember, this short-term instructional objective is but one component within the long-term objective that is directed toward the achievement of the national standard.
Science
As with any other discipline taught in Grades K-12, adherence to the respective state standards or Next Generation Science Standards is imperative for any teacher of science. Let us demonstrate how broad national and state science standards can be stated in specific terms appropriate for long-term and short-term objectives.
Here is a progression using an actual standard as prescribed in the 5-8 From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes from the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013).
National Standard
Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
The complexity and wording of this standard may be confusing and even intimidating to some teachers. However, these translations are easily possible when you follow our steps of conversion. Here is an example of how to deconstruct such standards into logical and understandable guidelines for instruction.
Modified National Standard
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the interrelationships among environmental and genetic factors that influence the growth of organisms.
The verb demonstrates is a precursor of observable pupil performance in the forthcoming objectives. Then, the term interrelationships serves as a connector that brings the disjointed components of the original standard into an understandable whole while still providing for a plethora of long-term objectives, such as the following.
Long-term Objective
The student will demonstrate an understanding of the interrelationships between the growth of fish that inhabit small ponds with those that live in large ponds.
In adherence to the modified standard, this objective uses the verb demonstrate and then specifies and refines some of the previously mentioned relationships. As shown in the following short-term instructional objective, you can use a variety of specific activities for meeting the goal dictated by the national standard and refined by this long-term objective.
Short-term Instructional Objective
Following a class discussion, the student will orally cite three similarities and three differences between the genetic and environmental factors of fish from large ponds compared to those from small ponds.
Continuing the pattern of increasing specificity, this short-term instructional objective is detailed in its partial fulfillment of the original standard. It contains the conditions (“Following a class discussion”), behavior (“cite”), and minimal standards (“three similarities and three differences”).
Social Studies
In 1994, the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) released ten broad strands that became the basis for the subsequently published national standards. Building upon this seminal document, the NCSS released a comprehensive update entitled College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History (NCSS, 2017), further explaining that social studies is not a single discipline, but rather a multidimensional collection that encompasses virtually all of the social science disciplines. Understandably, such a broad sweep can be intimidating to teachers who may be puzzled as how to transfer these overarching standards to long-term and short-term instructional objectives in a comprehensible and measurable progression.
The following example is taken verbatim from the Geography Standard of the National Council for the Social Studies (2017) College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards: Guidance for Enhancing the Rigor of K-12 Civics, Economics, Geography, and History for grades 9-12. First, we will modify this example and then translate it into long-term and short-term instructional objectives.
National Standard
D2.Geo.1.9-12.
Use geospatial and related technologies to create maps to display and explain the spatial patterns of cultural and environmental characteristics.
The inclusion of the term spatial makes this national standard somewhat manageable, and it still provides for a multiplicity of long-term and ensuing short-term instructional objectives. However, modification is needed to sharpen its focus.
Modified National Standard
The student will demonstrate the ability to analyze spatial information regarding the Earth’s peoples, places, and environments.
Less confusing than the original standard, this modification focuses on student action. Moreover, it allows for a great latitude of long-term and sequential short-term instructional objectives.
Long-term Objective
The student will demonstrate an understanding of how the population density and relative climate of various regions of the continental United States influence agricultural crop production.
As a partial extension of the original standard, this long-term objective calls for student understanding of how two different phenomena, population density and climate, in various regions throughout the United States impact crop production. Much more specific than either the original or the modified standards, this objective still gives the teacher a great deal of freedom in the construction of short-term instructional objectives for its fulfillment. The following is one such example.
Short-term Instructional Objective
After viewing a film describing crop production in Africa, the student will select a single crop and cite at least two oral reasons why that particular crop would not thrive in her home state.
Detailed and specific, this objective describes the conditions (“After viewing a film”), the behavior (“cite”), and the minimal standards (“at least two oral reasons”).
English-Language Arts
The following example is taken word- for- word from Standard One of The Standards for the English Language Arts (National Council of Teachers of English and International Reading Association, 1996).
National Standard
Students read a wide range of print and non-print texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world. (p. 27)
This standard provides the teacher with unlimited options but virtually no margins of content coverage. The following modified standard adds focus and direction by including possible media sources, mentioned in the discussion following the standard (pp. 27-28), without altering or diluting the original.
Modified National Standard
The student will read novels, newspapers, magazines, and Web-based resources and engage in the study and creation of visual texts to develop her understanding of text per se, herself, and cultures of the United States and the world.
By suggesting general printed sources and recommending the study and creation of visual texts, the modified standard serves as a conduit for the sharpened focus on the long-term objective.
Long-term Objective
The student will read novels about children from a variety of religions in the United States.
Through his involvement in assigned readings, the student is directed toward the examination of a variety of printed sources, as mentioned in the original standard and specified in the modified standard. Understandably, the latitude of the original standard would not be covered in a single long-term objective. The following short-term instructional objective puts it into lesson plan terms.
Short-term Instructional Objective
After reading two trade books about children from different religious backgrounds, the student, in a conversation with her teacher, will cite at least two similarities and two differences between the two religions, within two attempts.
This objective contains the conditions (“After reading two trade books…, in a conversation with her teacher”), the behavior (“cite”), and the minimal standards (“at least two similarities and two differences, within two attempts.”)
Quite specific, the language transfers the original standard into a direct but open and measurable outcome. This objective fulfills the intent of the original standard’s dictate of the student’s building “an understanding of texts” and “religions of the United States,” through its focus and the use of various sources. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/01%3A_Deconstructing_the_Standards/1.01%3A_Introducti.txt |
In 2014, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) released the Life Centered Education (LCE) Matrix to embody the myriad of daily living skills and employability training areas contained within special education programs of study. The inherent vastness of this framework can be intimidating to teachers who may be challenged to transfer these broad standards to long-term and short-term instructional objectives in a comprehensible and measurable progression.
The following example is taken verbatim from the Life Centered Education (LCE) Matrix (CEC, 2014). First, we will modify this example and then translate it into long-term and short-term instructional objectives.
National Competency
Buying, Preparing, and Consuming Foods
This national objective provides for a plethora of long-term and sequential short-term objectives. However, modification is need to target the focus into pupil behavior.
Modified National Competency
The student will demonstrate the ability to purchase, prepare, and consume various foods.
Less confusing than the original standard, this modification focuses on student action. Nevertheless, it does allow for a great latitude of long-term and following short-term instructional objectives.
Long-term Objective
The student will demonstrate an understanding of how the unit price of a food item influences the value of the purchase.
As a partial extension of the original standard, this long-term objective calls for student understanding of how unit price is the driving force behind the overall value of the purchase. Much more specific than either the original or the modified standard, this objective still gives the teacher a great deal of freedom in the construction of short-term instructional objectives for its fulfillment. The following is an example.
Short-term Instructional Objective
After observing two comparable food products of different quantities in a store or retail-like setting, the student will calculate the unit price of each packaging to determine the better value, with at least 70% accuracy.
Detailed and specific, this short-term instructional objective pinpoints when the activity is to take place (“After comparing two comparable food products of different quantities”), the particular student behavior (“calculate”), and the minimal standards (“with at least 70% accuracy”). Such specificity provides clear understanding for both teacher and student.
The following example is taken from the LCE Curriculum Matrix, a verbatim portion of the actual standard.
National Competency
Seeking, Securing, and Maintaining Employment
This standard is relatively clear and accessible. However, we can make it more meaningful by including observable evidence of the student’s abilities.
Modified National Competency
The student will demonstrate the skillset to seek, secure, and maintain employment.
We use the term demonstrate to indicate that the student must show that she has met predetermined criteria for fulfilling the standard through observable behaviors across the continuum of employment benchmarks. This term is used again in the long-term objective for continuity and to ensure the observable proof that the student is able to demonstrate these critical employability qualities.
Long-term Objective
The student will evidence the ability to use newspapers and Web-based searches to ascertain possible employment opportunities that are commensurate with his skill set.
This long-term objective includes the original competency while providing for a diversity of means for its fulfillment through short-term instructional objectives. The following objective illustrates how a high level of specificity can still include the components of the original standard.
Short-term Instructional Objective
Presented with two different classified advertisements from a regional newspaper, the student will list one possible job for which she is qualified to apply, citing at least two applicable and pertinent qualifications.
Adhering to the long-term objective, this short-term instructional objective is specific in terms of conditions (“Presented with two different classified advertisements from a regional newspaper”), observable behavior (“list one possible job”), and minimal standards of performance (“citing at least two applicable and pertinent qualifications”). Such specificity provides a means for addressing the task dictated by the original competency, the modified competency, and long-term objective. Remember, this short-term instructional objective is but one component within the long-term objective that is directed toward the achievement of the Life Centered Education Curriculum. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/01%3A_Deconstructing_the_Standards/1.03%3A_Daily_Livi.txt |
Summary
In this chapter we have taken you through the processes that connect and align the national content and CEC Standards with long-term and short-term instructional objectives. Like an engineer or an architect you, the teacher, are allowed virtual freedom within predetermined guidelines. Again, these guidelines are the national, state, or CEC Standards and the ensuing long-term objectives; and your freedom is in your creative construction and implementation of your short-term instructional objectives. Like the engineer and the architect, however, your short-term instructional objectives should be specific and measurable.
Chapter 1 Resources
Black, P. & William, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80, 139-144.
Earl, L.M. (2012). Assessment as learning: Using classroom assessment to maximize student learning (2 nd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Friend, M. & Bursuck, W.D. (2005). Including students with special needs: A practical guide for classroom teachers (4 th edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Good, T.L. & Lavigne, J.E. (2017). Looking into classrooms (11 th edition). London: Routledge.
Gronlund, N.E. (2003). Assessment of Student Achievement. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Hallahan, D.P., Lloyd, J.W., Kauffman, J.M., and Weiss, M.P. (2004). Learning disabilities: Foundations, characteristics, and effective teaching (3 rd edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Miller, M.D., Linn, R.L. & Gronlund, N.E. (2013). Measurement and assessment in teaching (11 th edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Moss, C.M. & Brookhart, S.M. (2012). Learning targets: Helping students aim for understanding in today’s lesson. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Penuel, W.R. & Shepard, L.A. (2016). Assessment and teaching. In D.H. Gitomer & C.A Bell (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching (5 th edition) (pp. 787-850). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
Rinkema, E.A. & Williams, S. (2018). The standards-based classroom: Make learning the goal. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Spinelli, C.G. (2011). Classroom assessment for students in special and general education (3 rd edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Swanson, H.L. Harris, K.R., and Graham, S. (2005). Handbook of learning disabilities. New York: Guilford.
1.05: Profession
Professional Development Activities
Make certain that you have a copy of the state or CEC standards for the course or courses that you teach. Then break into groups of four or five according to subjects taught.
Together, select a standard and copy it verbatim. Next, modify it by making it more understandable and student-focused. Be sure to include an action verb (e.g., demonstrate ) as a precursor of the description of student performance in your long-term and short-term instructional objectives. Remember not to change the content of the original standard by deleting from or adding to it.
Keeping in mind that a number of long-term objectives can stem from a modified standard, cooperatively construct a long-term objective from any part of your modified standard. Be sure to use at least one action verb and present a general description of what you will expect of the student. You can use the content area or CEC samples in the chapter as templates.
Next, construct a short-term instructional objective, selecting a portion of your long-term objective (remembering that many short-term instructional objectives constitute one long-term objective).
Be sure to include an action verb depicting observable pupil performance and mention configuration (e.g., in groups of three or four) and context or preparation (e.g., presented with an unlabeled diagram). Also, it is very important to specify exactly what you expect of each student (e.g., with an error margin of plus or minus five miles).
After you have completed this process, each group can put its four components (national standard, modified standard, long-term objective, and short-term instructional objective) on the board or on the overhead for discussion.
Exercises
1) Which of the following indicates the most specific learning outcome?
A) Behaviorally-stated objective.
B) National standard.
C) Long-term objective.
D) Educational goal.
2) Which of the following resources should serve the greatest role in guiding instruction?
A) Textbooks.
B) Standards.
C) Teacher’s manual.
D) Interest inventories.
3) Which of the following is the most common challenge that teachers face wen translating standards into IEP’s?
A) Understanding the content.
B) Defining the broad terminology of the standard.
C) Outlining assessment accommodations.
D) Noting the requisite technology for adaptive instruction.
4) Content standards, such as those developed by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, provide which of the following for teachers?
A) A general framework for developing curriculum specifications
B) Detailed curriculum specifications
C) Specifications of standards of performance for students
D) Comprehensive instructional materials for classroom use
5) Statewide assessment tests are primarily based upon content from
A) Norm-referenced intelligence tests.
B) NAEP (National Assessment of Education Progress).
C) United States Department of Education.
D) State and national standards.
6) What is the most appropriate way to align instruction with state standards?
A) The district chooses textbooks based on the content of state standards.
B) The teacher groups several state standards into a specific leaning objective for a lesson.
C) The teacher breaks each state standard down into specific leaning objective for lessons.
D) The school evaluates teachers on the basis of students’ performance on state standards.
7) Which of the following are NOT academic standards representing a learned society?
A) Next Generation Science Standards.
B) Standards for Mathematical Practice.
C) Standards for the English Language Arts.
D) Framework for Social Studies State Standards.
8) Deconstructing the standards allows teachers to do all of the following EXCEPT
A) Determine eligible academic content.
B) Guide instructional decision making.
C) Target instructional interventions.
D) Organize curriculum planning.
9) The Life Centered Education Curriculum outlines student competencies in each of the following areas EXCEPT
A) Daily living skills
B) Driver training
C) Self-determination and interpersonal skills
D) Employment skills | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/01%3A_Deconstructing_the_Standards/1.04%3A_Summary_Re.txt |
With the nationwide dictate for standardized testing, your mandated involvement with multiple-choice items has probably already exceeded your projective powers and will likely persist indefinitely. Understandably, you may be as overwhelmed by these items as are your students. However, as this chapter will demonstrate, there is reason for the widespread use of multiple-choice items on standardized as well as teacher-made tests.
As evidenced by the disproportionate number of psychometrically approved multiple-choice items on standardized achievement and aptitude tests, this may be the most powerful, versatile, and economical test that is currently available to teachers, administrators, accountability officers, and admission officials. This does not indicate that this is the best test, however, because there is no such instrument. The best test is the one that best suits the examiner’s purpose. Still, the multiple-choice test is readily adaptable to the measurement of academic achievement in most cognitive levels within each of the major content areas, as well as the daily living skills and employability training areas. It is conducive to the use of illustrations and interpretations and can measure the understanding and application of facts and concepts, as well as the ability to separate unified wholes into connected relationships. Moreover, it provides for a wide sampling of material during a relatively brief period of time at each of the hierarchical levels, with the exception of Synthesis and Evaluation, which we perceive as the only two levels within the Taxonomy that call for divergent as opposed to convergent thinking. To clarify, convergent thinking leads to conventionally accepted test answers, such as 2 + 2 = 4. Divergent thinking, on the other hand, can travel in many different directions, such as writing a unique story or defending a political position. We will discuss the best options for divergent thinking in subsequent chapters.
A primary reason for the multiple-choice item’s effectiveness in the measurement of higher-order thinking skills is its provision for homogeneous options: the more homogeneous the options, the more challenging the item. This homogeneity gives the multiple-choice test its discriminative powers.
A criticism of this item is the difficulty of devising a single best option. As previously mentioned, homogeneity within the options of an item is essential, but there has to be one best option. It is the responsibility of the test constructor to provide for one best response while simultaneously maintaining similarity among the distractors. Another problem is the difficulty in constructing plausible distractors. If two of the distractors on a four-option item are obviously incorrect, it becomes a true-false rather than a multiple-choice item. Yet, such weakness can be avoided by a competent and conscientious teacher.
4.02: GUIDELINE
For the test to be effective, it is important that students understand it. Otherwise, the teacher has no idea of whether erring students simply do not know the answer or are confused by item wording or test format.
The stem of the multiple-choice item should vividly and succinctly present a problem that is answered by the correct option. The item can be presented as an incomplete sentence or simply as a question:
Incomplete Sentence
_____ The year Columbus first came to the New World was
A. 1865.
B. 1861.
C. 1776.
D. 1492.
Question
_____ In what year did Columbus first come to the New World?
A. 1865
B. 1861
C. 1776
D. 1492
The incomplete sentence is often preferred, but use it only if it can be stated clearly and understandably. Rather than risk an awkward statement, which can involve time-consuming and questionable interpretation, state the item in question form. In either case, the item should usually be stated positively. When a negatively stated stem is preferred, the negative word (e.g., not ) should be underlined or in italics so that the intent of the stem is clear.
_____ Which of the following is not a southern state?
A. Alabama
B. New York
C. Mississippi
D. Louisiana
Format the options vertically rather than horizontally for ease of isolation and comparison. As an additional deterrent to pupil confusion, make the options proportionately shorter than the stem, which also eases the comparison between possible solutions and the problem.
Teachers often wonder about the optimal number of options. Though there is a range of three to six options, having four or five seems to be the norm. Yet, whether you prefer four or five options, you should be completely consistent throughout the test, thus providing uniformity of structure that promotes concentration by eliminating the uneasiness that often accompanies uncertainty.
As we have stressed, students should not miss an item because of awkward wording or confusing format. They also should not make the correct response because of unintentional clues given by the test constructor, such as the patterning or consistent placement of correct responses. It does not take observant students long to discover an ABCD pattern or to see that the third option is most often the correct response. Such patterns and consistencies are understandable when you recognize the habitual nature of people (notice how students usually sit in the same classroom seats, even when not assigned). The roll of a single die will ensure that your correct answers are randomly placed.
To make certain that there is one best answer, less-competent test constructors often make the correct option considerably longer or noticeably shorter than the distractors. In either case, the students may well select the correct option not because they know the answer, but because they recognize unintentional clues.
Another attempt to provide for a best response is the inclusion of the “All of the above” option. Although this is acceptable, it should not always serve as the correct response; sometimes it should be a distracter.
“None of the above” is another favorite option of neophyte test makers. A primary reason for its favored status is that neophyte teachers have exhausted their supply of plausible distractors. Since many students understand this, the item now has three, rather than four options.
LEVELS SUITABLE FOR MEASUREMENT
A teacher-made test should be a representative sample of the material that has been taught. If it accomplishes this, it has what is known as “sampling validity,” which means that the test is a representative sample of the material covered. Nevertheless, virtually all teacher-made tests should have this quality; and an assurance to attaining this attribute is to use your instructional objectives as a basis for the actual test items.
As previously emphasized, the multiple-choice test provides for measurement of the major content, daily living skills, and employability training areas of most of the hierarchical levels within Bloom’s basic taxonomy. The following examples will demonstrate this, while simultaneously serving as models for construction of the multiple-choice item.
KNOWLEDGE: Recognition and recall of previously learned information; no comprehension or understanding of the information is implied
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
You will probably want to assess your student’s knowledge of the basic addition combinations.
_ C _ The sum of 3+4 is
A. 5
B. 6
C. 7
D. 8
A knowledge-level item in that it focuses on a memorized addition combinations, the stem is direct and devoid of ambiguities, and the options are brief, with plausible distractors and a single correct answer.
Science (May be administered orally)
After discussions about the Age of Reptiles, you may wish to see how much your student has remembered about these discussions.
_ B _ Which of the following animals lived during the Age of Reptiles?
A. Tigers
B. Pterodactyls
C. Lions
D. Wolves
Aware of their discussions, you may use written or verbally administered multiple-choice items to determine what your student has remembered from these discussions. This particular item has a proportionately long stem, short plausible decoys (they are all wild animals), and one correct answer.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
Following a discussion of U.S. Presidents, you may wish to test your student’s recall of these discussions.
_ D _ The first President of the United States was
A. Abraham Lincoln
B. George W. Bush
C. Thomas Jefferson
D. George Washington
Knowledge-level in its dictate for the recall of information, this item has a relatively long, but clear and straightforward stem, short, plausible decoys, and one correct answer.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
Aware that the recognition of memorized definitions is a knowledge-level process, you may want to test your student’s knowledge of certain definitions.
_ A _ “The name of a person, place, or thing” is
A. A noun
B. A verb
C. An adjective
D. An adverb
Since its emphasis is on a memorized definition, this is a knowledge-level item. Avoiding clues to the correct response, the indefinite articles (a, an) are placed in the options rather than in the stem, which is clear and to-the-point,
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
Early in the year, you may wish to determine whether your student knows her teacher’s name.
_ B _ Your teacher’s name is
A. Ms. Brown
B. Mr. Washington
C. Mr. Garcia
D. Ms. Jabar
Demonstrating knowledge of a person’s name reflects knowledge without understanding; and regardless of whether this item is administered orally or in writing, the stem is clear, and the options are brief, with plausible decoys and a single correct answer.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
You may wish to determine whether your student remembers the roles associated with specific occupations.
_ D _ In a supermarket, the butcher
A. Operates the cash register
B. Stocks shelves
C. Replaces produce
D. Cuts meat
This item requires that the student know, rather than understand, one of the roles of a butcher, which is knowledge-level. Furthermore, its stem is clear and to-the-point, and the options are short and easily discernable.
COMPREHENSION: The ability to understand or summarize information; translate information from one form or level to another; predict continuations in trends of data.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
Understanding that translating information from one form to another is a component of comprehension, you may decide to test your student’s comprehension of this process with different expressions of numbers.
_ C Which of the following numbers is another form of ■ ■ ■ ■?
A. 2
B. 3
C. 4
D. 5
Comprehension-level in that it requires the student to understand that the numerical 4 is an expression of four squares, this item has a clear stem and brief options with plausible decoys, and one correct answer.
Science (May be administered orally)
Fully aware that the ability to see phenomena in their concrete (the actual phenomenon), semi-concrete (a picture of the phenomenon), and abstract (written or oral name of the phenomenon) form is a component of comprehension, you may decide to determine whether your student can comprehend the same phenomenon at these different levels.
B _ Which of these animals did we see on our filed trip to the zoo?
A.
B.
C.
D.
This is a comprehension-level item because the student must make the transfer from the concrete (the actual lion at the zoo) to the semi-concrete (a picture of a lion). Whether administered verbally or in writing, the stem is proportionately long, but free of ambiguities, the options are short, the decoys plausible, and there is only one correct answer.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
After several discussions and readings regarding the U.S. Constitution and its Amendments, you may decide to determine how much of these readings and discussions your student has comprehended.
_ D _ The First Amendment provides for freedom
A. of religion
B. to bear arms
C. to hold meetings
D. of speech
By definition, comprehension is synonymous with understanding, and a component of the comprehension level is the ability to summarize information. This item dictates that the student understand a basic summary of the First Amendment. Additionally, the stem is clear and to-the-point, and the options are brief, with three plausible distracters and one correct answer.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
Whether the student is reading a story to herself, or listening to a story read by her teacher, it is important that she comprehend or understand the story. Hence, you may want to test your student’s comprehension of a given story.
_ C _ Which of the following was not used in building any of the houses of the three little pigs?
A. Bricks
B. Sticks
C. Concrete
D. Straw
Whether administered orally or in writing, this item tests the student’s comprehension of a specific element of the story: the materials used in building the three houses. Moreover, its stem is direct, and the options are short, with plausible decoys and a single correct answer; and the word not is in bold type so as to avoid confusion.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
A general understanding of where to purchase different commodities is an important life skill. After several discussions relating to this importance, you may want to test your student’s understanding of the general offerings of local businesses.
_ D _ A hardware store would most likely sell
A. Used cars
B. Fresh produce
C. Sheets and towels
D. Lawn equipment
This item necessitates a general understanding (comprehension) of the offerings of one of the local businesses. Furthermore, the item has a clear and distinct stem, along with three brief and plausible decoys, and a single best answer.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
Continuing established patterns is an element of many vocational processes. Understanding this, you may want to determine if your student can comprehend continuations in color patterns.
_ A _ What is the next color in the following sequence?
RED BLUE YELLOW GREEN RED
A. BLUE
B. GREEN
C. YELLOW
D. RED
This is a comprehension-level item because it calls for the understanding of a trend in data. Moreover, the stem is clear and unambiguous, and the options are short, with plausible decoys and only one correct answer.
APPLICATION: At this level, the student must demonstrate the ability to take information that has been acquired and comprehended, and use it in a concrete situation.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
After the student has acquired and demonstrated comprehension of her addition combinations, you may want to see if your student can use these addition skills in concrete situations.
_ D _ If Maria has 3 pencils and James has 2 pencils, how many pencils do the children have together?
A. 3
B. 2
C. 4
D. 5
Application-level whether administered orally or in writing, this item dictates that the student use her knowledge and understanding of addition combinations in a concrete situation. The stem is clearly stated and the options are brief, the decoys are believable, and there is only one correct answer.
Science (May be administered orally)
The ability to read maps, charts, and graphs is essential to virtually every subject, and science is certainly no exception. With this in mind, you may wish to introduce such skills to your student in efforts to show him another way in which scientific information may be presented.
_ A _ According to the above chart, how many inches of snow fell in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the 2012-2013 season?
A. 57.4
B. 42.7
C. 61.7
D. 49.1
This is an application-level item because the student must apply his chart-reading skills in the solution of an actual problem, which is precisely stated in the stem of the item. Moreover, the options are short, the distracters are plausible, and there is a single correct answer.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
The ability to read a road map is enhancement, if not essential to many people. Hence, you will probably want the student to develop this ability.
_ A _ From the map above, which is the direct route from Slippery Rock to Butler?
A. Route 8
B. Interstate 79
C. Route 422
D. Route 19
Since the student must use his map skills to answer this item correctly, she will be applying them in a concrete situation (application). The options are short, and the decoys are believable because all of the routes are shown on the map. Additionally, the word “direct” provides for a single correct answer.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
Aware that correct grammar usage can be both a social and a vocational enhancement, you will want to guide your student toward this proficiency and away from common misusages. Additionally, you know that the multiple-choice test is a suitable means for measuring your student’s ability to apply what she has learned in this area.
_ D _ Which of the following sentences is not correct?
A. I have no money.
B. I do not have any money.
C. I haven’t any money.
D. I do not have no money.
By selecting the correct response through examining the four options, the student is applying what she knows about negatively stated sentences. The stem clearly and succinctly specifies what the student is to do, the options are compact, the decoys are plausible, and there is one best answer. Moreover, the term not is in bold type, so as to prevent confusion.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
The ability to read a face clock is a life skill that should be mastered, if possible. The multiple-choice item lends itself to measurement of the application of this skill.
_ B _ What is the time shown by this clock?
A. 12:00
B. 6:00
C. 12:06
D. 6:12
This is an application-level item in that the student must apply his clock-reading skills to select the correct option, which is short and to-the-point. Also, the stem presents a brief and understandable problem, and the distracters appear logical.
Employablitiy Training Skills (May be administered orally)
The calculator and the ability to use it are essential components of many vocations. Recognizing this, you will probably want to test your student’s proficiency with this instrument. The multiple choice item is a suitable device for doing so.
_ C _ Using your calculator, compute the sum of 401+375+460+522
A. 1678
B. 1658
C. 1758
D. 1768
This is an application item because it requires not only the use of a calculator in a concrete situation, but the adding of four-digit numbers is also an application-level task. Additionally, the stem is direct, and the options are brief and contain realistic decoys and a single correct answer.
ANALYSIS: At this level, the student should be able to demonstrate the ability to break down a unified whole into its basic parts and understand he relationships among these parts; determine cause and effect relationships; and understand analogies and metaphor.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
When you are confident that your student is comfortable with numerical place values, you may want to find out if he can analyze groups of numbers.
_ B _ Which is the largest number?
A. 17
B. 14
C. 19
D. 15
This is an analysis-level item in that the student must compare each of the numbers and then determine which is the largest.
Science (May be administered orally)
Acknowledging that the demonstrated ability to decipher analogies is a component of the analysis level, you can use the multiple-choice item to sample your student’s ability to see analogies.
_ D _ Boy is to girl as colt is to
A. Calf
B. Cub
C. Shoat
D. Filly
An analysis-level item in that the student must see an analogous relationship, this item has a proportionately long stem, short options, plausible distracters, and provides for a single correct answer.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
You will probably want to determine the extent to which your student can see commonalities between the different levels of government (federal, state, local). The multiple-choice test is a suitable instrument for making this determination.
_ C _ President is to Vice-President as Mayor is to
A. Governor
B. Secretary
C. Mayor Protem
D. City Manager
Analysis-level in that the student must demonstrate understanding of an analogous relationship, the stem of this item tersely presents a problem that is answered by a best answer, which is situated among three plausible distractors.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
Almost infinite wisdom is to be gained through literature. Realizing this, you may wish to determine if your student has learned indirect, but intended lessons from her readings.
_ B _ The moral of The Little Engine that Could (Piper, 1978) is
A. Little engines can talk
B. Always try your best
C. Little engines go uphill and downhill
D. Never leave home alone
This is an analysis-level item in that the student must analyze the story in order to arrive at the correct response. Its stem distinctly presents a problem, which has a single, proportionately brief answer, placed among three similar and believable distractors.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
Healthful nutritional choices are important daily living skills. With this realization, you may want your student to make analytic comparisons to determine the most healthful choice among given alternatives.
_ D _ The most nutritional snack is a
A. Chocolate bar
B. Box of popcorn
C. Piece of apple pie
D. Package of raisins
In this analytic process, the student must take careful comparisons among the four options to arrive at the correct response. The stem of the item sets forth a clearly stated problem that is answered by a single, but brief, best answer that blends in with three realistic distracters. Also, it should be noted that the indefinite article “a” is in the stem rather than in the options. This exception occurs because all of the options begin with consonants.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
As an employability skill, the student should be able to classify and make discriminations among tools with respect to their purposes. Thus, you can use the multiple-choice item as a suitable means for measuring such skills.
_ B _ Which of the following does not belong?
A. Hammer
B. Nail
C. Screwdriver
D. Pliers
This is an analysis-level item because it requires the student to make fine discriminations as she classifies the tools according either to their active or passive usage. Structurally, the term not is underlined to enhance clarity in a stem that tersely presents a problem, which is answered by a single best response, placed among three brief and plausible decoys.
SUMMARY
The multiple-choice test is powerful and versatile, providing for wide coverage in a relatively short period of time and allowing for measurement of both basic and higher-order thinking processes. However, poorly constructed items can negate these strengths. The multiple-choice item is easily adaptable to any area and it also provides for measurement at the Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, and Analysis levels. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/04%3A_Writing_Multiple-Choice_Items/4.01%3A_Introduct.txt |
Chapter 4 Resources
Black, P. & William, D. (2009). Developing the theory for formative assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Accountability, 21 , 5-31.
Bookhart, S.M. & Nitko, A.J. (2015). Educational assessment of students (8 th edition). New York: Pearson.
Butler, S.M. & NcMunn, N.D. (2014). A teacher’s guide to classroom assessment: Understanding and using assessment to improve student learning . San Francisco: Josey-Bass.
Chatterji, M. (2003). Designing and Using Tools for Educational Assessment .
Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Chappuis, J., Stiggins, R.J., Chappuis, S. & Arter, J.A. (2011). Classroom assessment for student learning: Doing it right – using it well (2 nd edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Grounlund, N.E. & Brookhart, S.M. (2009). Gronlund’s writing instructional objectives (8 th edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
McMillan, J.H. (2017). Classroom assessment: Principles and practices that enhance student learning and motivation (7 th edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Miller, M.D., Linn, R.L. & Gronlund, N.E. (2013). Measurement and assessment in teaching (11 th edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Oosterhof, A. (2008). Developing and using classroom assessments (4h edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Popham, J.W. (2018). Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know (8 th edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Reynolds, C.R., Livingston, R.B., & Willson, V. (2008). Measurement and assessment in education, (2 nd edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Russell, M.K. & Airasian, P.W. (2012). Classroom assessment: Concepts and applications . New York: McGraw Hill.
Tanner, David E. (2001). Assessing academic achievement . Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
4.04: Professio
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
First, assemble into three- or four-member groups. Once assembled, each group will collectively construct two or three multiple choice items, in subject areas of your choosing, within each of the following levels: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, and Analysis. Before constructing your items, review the “Guidelines for Construction” section of this chapter. Then look over the definitions of the four cognitive levels. Now you are ready to begin the construction of your items.
When you have finished constructing your items, one representative from each group, depending on the size of the chalkboard or whiteboard, will put a Knowledge-level item on the board for discussion and constructive criticism. After these multiple-choice items have been scrutinized, other representatives will put their Knowledge-level items on the board for discussion and criticism. This will continue until there is a consensus to move on to Comprehension. These procedures should progress through the Analysis level.
As you observe the items on the board, first determine whether each item is actually measuring the cognitive level it is intended to measure. To do this, you should reexamine the definitions of the four cognitive levels. Next, you should look to see whether the items are constructed in compliance with the guidelines suggested in the “Guidelines for Construction” section of this chapter.
Exercises
Write the letter of the paper and pencil tool that would best serve your measurement purpose.
A. True-False Item
B. Completion Item
C. Matching Exercises
D. Multiple Choice Item
E. Short Answer Item
F. Essay Item
______ 1. To determine your student’s understanding of the cause and effect events that occurred in the U.S. between 1865 and 1900.
______ 2. To determine your student’s ability to compare and contrast the creative skills of two painters.
______ 3. To determine your student’s ability to associate eight states with their capital cities.
______ 4. To determine your student’s ability to write a declarative, an imperative, and an interrogative sentence.
______ 5. To determine, within a 20-minute time period, your student’s ability to recognize the capitals of 20 different states.
______ 6. To determine the student’s ability to write a haiku about spring.
______ 7. To determine the student’s ability to arrive at the moral of five different books.
______ 8. To determine the student’s ability to recognize the middle name of a given author.
______ 9. To determine the student’s ability to recall the middle name of a given author.
______ 10. To determine your student’s ability to arrive at the shortest distance between two given points, as shown on a photographed map on the test.
______ 11. To determine your student’s knowledge of 10 different authors and their respective novels.
______ 12. To determine your student’s knowledge of 30 pieces of factual information on a 40-minute exercise.
______ 13. To determine your student’s ability to discriminate among different food choices.
______ 14. To determine why your student has selected a particular occupation as her preference.
______ 15. To determine your student’s ability to define 20 vocabulary words.
______ 16. To determine your student’s ability to associate 10 tasks with the person most likely to perform them.
______17. To determine your student’s ability to compare and contrast the writing styles of two authors.
______ 18. To determine your student’s ability to recognize the correct definition of a series of 30 words.
______ 19. To determine your student’s ability to select the primary instrument for a given task.
______ 20. To determine your student’s ability to determine the last one-to-three words of a famous quote. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/04%3A_Writing_Multiple-Choice_Items/4.03%3A_Summary_R.txt |
SHORT Answer ITEMS
The following examples will demonstrate that the short answer item is adaptable to each of the cognitive hierarchical levels within the major content areas as well as the daily living skills and employability training areas.
KNOWLEDGE: At this level, the students are expected to recall information; no comprehension or understanding of information is expected at this level.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
You can use the short answer test to sample your student’s knowledge of addition facts.
What is the sum of 9+4?
13
Written in question form, this memory-level item samples the student’s knowledge of the addition combinations.
Science (May be administered orally)
During a unit on animal and plant classifications, you can use the short answer test to sample your student’s knowledge of the animal families.
Of which family is the dog a member?
Canine
This short answer question does not involve actual classification, which would be analysis; instead, it necessitates the simple recall of memorized, factual information. Structurally, this question-form item is direct in its questioning and provides for one answer without giving an unintentional clue.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
During an Early United States History unit, you can use the short answer test as a proficient and economical means for sampling your student’s knowledge of important dates.
Write the year in which the Declaration of Independence was signed.
1776
This command-form item elicits the recall of the date associated with a significant event. Moreover, it provides for a single answer without giving any clues.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
As a means of determining your student’s knowledge of books and their authors, you can use the short answer test for making such a determination.
What is the first and last name of the author of Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See? (Carle, 1967).
Eric Carle
This question form of a short answer item asks the student to recall the first and last name of the author of a familiar book. It is direct, to-the-point, and clearly requests a single answer, while simultaneously providing no clues for this answer.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
Aware that your student must know certain biographical information about herself, you will find the short answer item to be an excellent instrument for sampling such student knowledge.
Write the day, month, and year of your birth.
November 18, 2009
This command-type short answer item is direct and specific in calling for the student’s reproduction of precise personal information. Although precise in its provision for an exact answer, the item gives no unwarranted clues.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
You can use the short answer item as a vehicle for determining your student’s knowledge of the functions of specific vocations.
What is the occupational title of the individual who repairs automobile engines?
Mechanic
With the use of the term occupational, this question-structured short answer item deters irrelevant answers without providing a clue to the memorized answer.
COMPREHENSION: At this level, the student should be able to demonstrate the ability to: explain, summarize, or comprehend information; translate information from one form or level to another; predict continuations in trends of data.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
Understanding that the ability to translate information from one form to another is a component of the comprehension level, you can use the short answer test to sample your student’s understanding that numbers of objects have Arabic number counterparts.
Write the number that tells how many triangles are shown: ▲▲▲.
3
A correct response to this command-form short answer item indicates that the student comprehends that the number 3 has more than one form. Also, the item is clear, to-the-point, and provides for a single correct answer without alluding to what the answer is.
Science (May be administered orally)
Different terms may be used to name the same weather condition. With this understanding, you may wish to use the short answer test to measure your student’s ability to translate weather terminology from one form to another.
What is another scientific term for cyclone ?
Tornado
A correct response to this question-form short answer item demonstrates that the student is able to translate one weather term to a synonymous term. Clear in its structure, the item enhances provision for a correct answer with the word scientific, but it offers no clue to this answer.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
You may decide to determine the extent to which your student has comprehended the essence of certain political documents. The short answer item is a suitable vehicle for making this determination.
Basically, what is the Magna Carta’s position regarding a person who has been accused of committing a crime?
Innocent until proven guilty.
The question-form short answer asks for the essence of a political document, which necessitates basic understanding on the part of the student. Moreover, the item is direct in its questioning, provides for a correct answer, but furnishes no clues to that answer.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
You will probably want to learn the extent to which your student has comprehended a reading selection. The short answer item is a proficient and economical means for making such an assessment.
What species of owl would be further endangered by the construction of the restaurant in Hoot ? (Hiaasen, 2005).
Ground Owl
This question-form short answer samples the student’s reading comprehension, in that the book makes minimal mention as to the kind of owl that is endangered. Also, the word species assures the provision of a single correct answer, but no clue is given regarding this answer.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
Understanding that several words can be used to describe the same phenomenon or action is an important life skill. With this in mind, you can use the short answer item to assess your student’s comprehension of such terminology.
If you are told that your vehicle must be inspected annually , how often must it be inspected?
Once a year.
Specifically worded to enhance the provision for a correct answer, this question-form short answer item gives no clue pertaining to this answer.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
When providing the student with vocational information, it is important that she be able to comprehend the meaning of certain terminologies. Understanding this, you can use the short answer test to gauge your student’s comprehension of specific terminologies.
What does it mean if your employer tells you that if you miss work without a good reason, “you will be terminated ?”
Ex: I will be fired.
Although the student could phrase the above example differently, there is only one correct answer, which makes scoring the answer relatively easy for you. Hence, the wording of the item is clear and devoid of any clues regarding the correct answer.
APPLICATION: At this level, the student should demonstrate the ability to take information that has been acquired and comprehended and use it in a concrete situation.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
You can use the short answer item to sample your student’s ability to apply subtraction concepts in the concrete situation of word problems.
If Elo had a \$5.00 bill and bought a magazine that cost \$2.95, how much change should he receive?
\$5.00
-\$2.95
\$2.05
This is an application-level item in that it requires the student to apply the principles of subtraction to the solution of a word problem. Brief and direct, the problem calls for a precise answer without supplying clue to that answer.
Science (May be administered orally)
As part of a science unit, you may wish to assess your student’s ability to read a weather thermometer. The short answer item is a feasible vehicle for making such an assessment.
What is the reading on the above thermometer? Be sure to write whether it is above or below freezing.
70° above freezing
This is an application-level item because the student must record the thermometer’s reading, thus applying previously learned skills in a concrete situation.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
Despite a reliance on digital time pieces, reading the time on a face clock remains an important skill. Acknowledging this, you will probably want to determine your student’s skills in this area. The short answer item is most adaptable for making such an assessment.
What is the time according to the above clock?
10:10
This item is application-level because it calls on the student to use his previously learned skills in a concrete situation. The item is terse, avoids an irrelevant answer (“according to the above clock?”), and provides no clues.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
Using an assigned word in an original sentence is an application-level activity. Aware of this, you can use short answer items to assess your student’s application skills in this capacity.
Use the word “walk” as a noun in a complete sentence. Do your best not to make any mistakes in your writing.
Ex: My mother and I went for a walk.
Using a vocabulary word in the concrete situation of a sentence evidences that it has previously been acquired and comprehended. It should also be noted that even though the directions encourage a mistake-free sentence, it is your decision as whether to subtract points for sentence errors. However, such subtractions should be predetermined and specified.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
An important life skill is reacting appropriately to a life-threatening situation. Accepting this, you may wish to present your student with a hypothetical situation that would enable her to react in an appropriate manner to such a situation. The short answer item is applicable for this type of scenario.
You are home alone with your mother, she begins coughing and falls lifelessly to the floor. You see a telephone. What is the first number you should dial?
911
This is an application level item in that the student must respond to an emergency situation on the basis of information that she has acquired and comprehended. The item asks for a single right answer by emphasizing the word first , but gives no clues pertaining to the correct answer.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
The ability to compute the wages to which one is entitled is an important employability training skill. With this in mind, you can use the short answer item to assess your student’s ability to make such computations.
If you are entitled to a 7% sales commission, how much money should you receive if you sold one item for \$400.00 and another item for \$375.00?
\$400,00 \$775.00
+\$375.00 x .07
\$775.00 \$54.25
This is an employability training skill application-level item because the student must compute her sales commissions on two items. The problem is clear and calls for a single right answer, but gives no clues leading to this answer.
ANALYSIS: At this level, the student must demonstrate the ability to: break a unified whole down into is basic pats and understand the relationships among those parts; compare and contrast phenomena; understand metaphor and analogies; understand the relationship between cause and effect.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
The comparing and contrasting of phenomena is a component of the analysis level. With this in mind, you can use the short answer item to sample your student’s ability to grasp the presence of similarities and differences between geometrical figures.
List one similarity and once difference between a square and a rectangle.
Ex. Both have four sides. A square has four equal sides, but a rectangle does not.
It should be remembered that virtually any concept can be arrested at the knowledge level if the student simply memorizes acquired information In the above example, however, the student must analyze the two shapes to arrive at the answer, which elevates the item into the analysis level. Additionally, the item calls for a correct answer, which may include examples other than the sample answers. Nevertheless, the item is objective and involves convergent thinking, which is directed toward conventionally accepted answers. Hence, the item provides for correct answers, without supplying any clues to the answers.
Science (May be administered orally)
Understanding cause and effect relationships is a component of the analysis-level. Embracing this position, you can use the short answer item to assess your student’s ability to understand causes and effects of chemical interactions.
What occurs when baking soda is mixed with vinegar?
Ex. It fizzes, it bubbles.
The answer above reflects an understanding of the cause of a chemical reaction (effect). Although there is a predetermined correct answer, you will want to allow for different phrasings. Also, the item is specific, calls for a correct answer, and offers no clue to that answer.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
Understanding cause and effect relationships is an analysis component. Acknowledging this, you may wish to assess your student’s ability to determine the cause and effect of a historical event. The short answer is an excellent model for making this assessment.
What is the primary reason that most of the Pilgrims wanted to come to the New World?
Ex. Religious Freedom
Assuming the student was not given this answer directly, this is an analysis-level item because it calls for the understanding of a cause and effect relationship. Moreover, it is worded so that only one answer is appropriate, “ primary reason that most of the Pilgrims…;” however, no clues regarding this single correct answer are given.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
A component of analysis is the demonstrated ability to break a unified whole down into its basic parts and to understand the relationships among those parts. With this in mind, you can use the short answer item to sample your student’s ability to break down a word into syllables.
Divide the word transportation into syllables and mark the syllable that is accented.
Trans por ta’ tion
This is an analysis-level item because in breaking down the word into syllables, the student is demonstrating an understanding of the relationship between the parts. The item is specifically stated, calling for a single correct answer; but it is the teacher’s decision as whether to award partial credit for a partially correct answer.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
An understanding of the analysis level component of cause and effect relationships is an important life skill. You may use the short answer item to sample your student’s ability to demonstrate such an understanding.
If you do not pay your electric bill after several notices from the company, what is the electric company most likely to do?
Ex. Turn off my electricity.
The correct answer to this question is a demonstration of the understanding of a cause and effect relationship. Although the student’s phrasing may differ from that of the sample answer, there remains only one correct answer, which is not alluded to in the question.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
An understanding of general cause and effect relationships in the work place is an essential employability training skill component. With this acknowledgement, you can use the short answer item to sample your student’s perception of such cause and effect relationships.
What will probably happen to you if you are frequently late for work.
Ex. I’ll lose my job; I’ll be fired.
A correct answer to this question is indicative of the understanding of a cause and effect relationship. Even though each student’s phrasing may differ from that of the example, there is only one correct answer to the question because the question is clearly written, calling for a specific answer.
SYNTHESIS: At this level, the student should be able to demonstrate the ability to: assemble parts into a new whole, formulate a new hypothesis or plan of action, construct a solution to an unfamiliar problem. Hence, many synthesis-level processes involve divergent thinking, which is thinking that leads in many different directions, with no predetermination of a single correct answer. This is not to insinuate, however, that there are no item guidelines, or that all student responses are acceptable. Indeed, the item should clearly and succinctly specify what is expected of the student, and the teacher should, when appropriate, predetermine the quantitative weight of each item.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
Fully aware that a component of synthesis is the demonstrated ability to assemble parts into a new whole, you can use the short answer item to sample your student’s ability to assemble numerical parts into a designated whole.
Show two different ways that pennies, nickels, and dimes can equal a quarter.
Ex. 5 pennies, 2 nickels, and 1 dime
10 pennies, 1 nickel, and 1 dime
This is a synthesis-level item because the student must assemble individual monetary denominations into a designated whole. It is your responsibility to predetermine the point value of the item so that whole or partial credit may be awarded consistently and objectively. For example, you could provide a maximum of two points for each correct sum and one point for each sum that is within two cents of the correct answer. Whether you would award points for using only two denominations would be your decision.
Science (May be administered orally)
Enhancing the environment is a major societal concern. Aware of this you can use the short answer item to sample your student’s ability to derive creative ways for enhancing her neighborhood.
List three (3) ways that you could help clean up your neighborhood.
Ex.
1. Don’t litter.
2. Ask my friend to ask other people not to litter.
3. Get friends to go with me around the neighborhood to pick up litter.
Synthesis-level in that it taps the student’s personal creativity, this item calls for divergent thinking, which is thinking that moves in multiple directions. Nonetheless, you should predetermine a point value for this item that is conductive to both partial and full credit. For example, you could decide on a maximum of three points for each suggestion, depending on logic, originality, and feasibility.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
Regrettably, many eligible voters do not exercise their privilege and responsibility of voting in elections. Convinced that your student accepts the importance of voting, you can use the short answer item to assess the student’s skills in creatively convincing others to vote.
List two (2) techniques you could use to get more people to vote
Ex.
1. Offer to go to the polls with them.
2. Offer to help them with their chores so they can go to the polls.
This is a synthesis-level item because the student is required to demonstrate his creativity in assisting people to vote, thus formulating a solution to a problem. Despite, however, the diversity of possible answers, you should predetermine the point value of the item, possibly based on creativity, realistic potential, etc. Hence, you could allow as many as three points for each suggested technique, on the basis of creativity and realistic potential.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
Demonstrating the ability to use the parts of speech in a sentence is usually an application-level performance. However, using these parts of speech in a creative fashion is a synthesis-level activity. Understanding this, you can use the short answer item to sample your student’s ability to use selected parts of speech in a sentence that requires the use of creativity.
Write a sentence with a subject, verb, and direct object. You must label each of the three pars of speech, and the sentence must be about a soccer player.
Ex. The goal keeper caught the ball.
This item goes beyond the application-level because it requires the student to apply creatively what she has acquired and comprehended. Moreover, the required topic compels the student to be creative in a unique situation. As with any short answer item, you, the teacher, should predetermine its point value so that both partial and full credit may be earned. For example, you could specify a maximum of three points for adhering to the subject; one point for including each part of speech; and a maximum of three-points for creativity.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
The demonstrated ability to solve social problems is an essential life skill that, in some instances, can protect the student from physical harm. Aware of this, you could use the short answer item to assess your student’s ability to devise strategies for combating threatening social situations.
List three (3) things that you could do if a bully threatens you.
Ex.
1. Politely ask him to explain what I have done to offend him.
2. Apologize if I have offended her.
3. Report the bully to my teacher.
This is a synthesis-level item in that the student must solve a problem creatively. The item is direct in its instruction and calls for divergent or creative thinking. You, however, must predetermine a point value for the item that is dependent on your curricular standards. For example, you could allow up to five points for the overall sequence of the plan; and as many as three points for each of the three components, depending on creativity and feasibility.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
Tact and diplomacy on the job can often be the basis for advancement or dismissal. Accepting this premise, you can use the short answer item to sample your student’s creativity in solving potential on-the-job problems.
List three (3) things you could do if confronted with a rude, complaining customer.
Ex.
1. Politely ask him to explain his problem.
2. Attempt to take care of the problem myself.
3. Ask my boss for assistance.
This synthesis-level response necessitates the formulation of a solution to a unique problem. Although the student responses will vary greatly, it is important that the teacher predetermine a point value for the item, which could possibly include creativity, feasibility of approach, etc. For example, you could allow as many as five points for overall continuity of the three-part sequence; and three points for each of the three components, depending on creativity and feasibility of approach.
EVALUATION: At this level, the student is required to make value judgements that are based on predetermined criteria or internal consistency. It should be remembered, however, that predetermined criteria are sometimes personal, based on an individual’s likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Hence, since predetermined criteria concerning phenomena are sometimes set by the individual herself, there can be no predetermined correct answer. Rather, the correctness of an answer, in such instances, should be assessed according to the individual’s supporting rationale.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
Since there are often several methods that may be used to solve the same problem, selecting a particular method can be a value judgement. Understanding this, you could use the short answer item as a mode for assessing your student’s personally predetermined criteria for selecting a particular method for solving a problem.
How would you determine how many chips there are in three (3) stacks, with four (4) chips in each stack? Select on of the following methods for finding the answer, and list two reasons why you would choose it. Multiply the number of stacks (3) times the number of chips (4) in each stack. Add the number of chips in each stack (4) three times (number of stacks). Count the number of chips.
Ex. I would add the number of chips in each stack (4) three times (number of stacks). Because:
1. I add better than I multiply;
2. Counting takes too long, and I might miss one.
This item, with its instruction for a value judgement, is evaluation-level. Moreover, even though the student makes a good case for his choice, he has alerted you to his need for multiplication assistance. As a suggestion, the rubric could allow for up to two points for each reason, depending on the logic of the student’s rationale.
Science (May be administered orally)
Value judgements are continually made within the science areas. Realizing this, you may wish to assess your student’s evaluation of current recycling practices.
Do you think recycling should be voluntary or mandatory? List one reason for your choice.
Mandatory, because many people wouldn’t do it voluntarily.
Involving a value judgement, this is an evaluation-level item. Even though you may disagree with the position of the student, his reasoning is sound. Hence, it is imperative that you assess your student’s rationale for his position, as opposed to the position itself. Suggestively, a maximum of two points could be allotted for the student’s reasoning, depending on its logic.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
Social issues are continual targets of value judgements. With this in mind, you can use the short answer item to sample your student’s evaluations of specific social phenomena.
Do you think there should be a voluntary military, or should people also be drafted into the military? Give one reason for your position.
I favor the draft because defending your country is everyone’s responsibility who is able to serve.
This item is evaluation-level because it requires a value judgement that is based on the student’s personally predetermined criteria. You may disagree with the student’s position, but you must be objective and grade the student’s reasoning rather than her position. Additionally, you should understand that both sides of this issue have numerous supporters. As a suggestion, you could provide for as many as two points for this answer, on the basis of logical consistency.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
Interpreting literature often involves value judgements. Hence, you can use the short answer item to sample your student’s evaluation of specific literary personalities.
In your opinion, who has the greatest survival skills: Maniac McGee or Mullet Fingers? (Spinelli, 1999). List two (2) reasons for your position.
Mullet Fingers because:
1. He can survive in the wilderness without adults;
2. He never had to rely on a family or adults to survive.
This is an evaluation-level item because a case can be made for Maniac McGee (Spinelli, 1999), e.g. he survived in cities, zoos, and in confrontations with formidable peers and adults. Thus, this is a value judgement based on predetermined criteria. Suggestively, the rubric could provide up to three points for each reason, depending on the documented skills of the character, as opposed to those of the other character.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
In their daily lives, people are frequently confronted with value judgements. Thus, you can use the short answer item to assess your student’s evaluation of specific social situations.
Shortly after receiving your change from the supermarket cashier, you realize that he has given you \$20.00 too much: the exact amount that you need for your mother’s birthday present. Would you keep the money or return it? List two (2) reasons for your choice.
Keep it because:
1. My mother is more important than the supermarket;
2. I need the money more than the supermarket does.
This is an evaluation-level item in that it necessitates a value judgement. In scoring the item, you must take into account that despite the student’s reasoning, he has been dishonest. However, you should also recognize that the student has made a case for his position. A rubric could possibly provide up to two points for each reason, on the basis of rationality; and a total of three points for continuity between the two reasons.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
On-the-job personal relations can be crucial to job performance. However, maintaining personal relations can sometimes conflict with vocational ethics and honesty. With this in mind, you can use the short answer item to assess your student’s value judgement in such conflicts.
If you saw a co-worker taking money from the cash register, would you report him/her? List two (2) reasons for your position.
I would ask the person to put the money back or I would report him/her because:
1. He/she should be given a chance;
2. I want to avoid trouble with my co-workers.
This is an evaluation-level item because it requires a value judgement. Even though you may disagree with the student’s position, you should assess the student’s reasoning rather than his position per se . As for scoring, you could designate up to two points for each reason, depending on rationale; and as many as three points for consistency between the two reasons.
ESSAY ITEMS
Levels Suitable for Measurement
A well-constructed essay item allows for an analytic examination of specified content areas, daily living skills, and employability training areas; and it serves as a vehicle for the assessment of both creative and persuasive expression at the Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation levels. (To assess performance at the Knowledge, Comprehension, and Application levels, we recommend that you select from among previously discussed items.)
ANALYSIS : At this level, the student should be able to demonstrate the ability to: breakdown a unified whole into its basic parts and understand the relationships among the parts; determine cause and effect relationships; understand analogies and metaphor; categorize phenomena.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
Questioning whether or not your student can conceptualize both similarities and differences between the processes of addition and multiplication, you may use the essay item to assess his ability to determine such similarities and differences.
EXAMPLE
Explain how you can either add or multiply to find the total number of squares in these three rows. Then, explain how multiplying and adding are both alike and different. Include in your explanation, one similarity and one difference between addition and multiplication.
Analysis-level in that it instructs the student to compare and contrast two phenomena, so as to understand both a commonality and difference between them, this item is specific in its requirements. It begins with a task-directed statement and then proceeds to call for an explanation that includes one similarity and one difference between the two. Such clarity makes for an understandable rubric, which could provide a maximum of three points for the explanation, depending on its clarity and detail, and up to two points for each noted similarity and difference. Nonetheless, it is your professional prerogative to predetermine a personally designated number of points to each section of the rubric.
Science (May be administered orally)
With the awareness that a component of the analysis level is a demonstrated ability to classify phenomena, you can use the essay item to assess your student’s ability to determine whether a particular planet is capable of sustaining human life.
EXAMPLE: Within two or three paragraphs, discuss whether the planet Mars is suitable for sustaining human life. In your discussion, decide whether human needs could be met by each of the following properties of Mars: (1) atmosphere (2) water (3) climate (4) food sources.
Involving classification, this is an analysis-level item. Moreover, with its task-directed statement, the item is clear in terms of what is expected of the student, which is conducive to an easily constructed rubric. For example, you could decide to provide a maximum of four points for organization, a maximum of 3 points for the student’s comparison of human needs with each of the four characteristics of the planet; and two points for whether Mars could or could not sustain human life.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
Analyzing phenomena for the purpose of determining similarities and differences between them is an analysis-level endeavor. Hence, after a geography unit, you can use the essay item to assess your student’s ability to analyze commonalities and differences between states.
EXAMPLE: Within two paragraphs, compare and contrast the topography of Arizona and Texas. In your discussion, include two similarities and two differences.
This analysis-level item, involving the analytic comparison of two states, begins with a task-directed statement specifying precisely what is expected of the student. Such specificity serves a two-fold purpose: (1) it communicates exactly what is expected of the student and (2) it makes for an easily constructed rubric. Suggestively, you could predetermine a maximum of four points for organization, and up to three points for each similarity and difference, depending on accuracy and detail.
English-Language Arts (May be administered orally)
Deciphering the moral of a story necessitates an analytic involvement. With this acknowledgement, you can use the essay item to determine your student’s ability to uncover the moral of a given reading assignment.
EXAMPLE: Within two paragraphs, name and explain the moral of “ The Little Engine That Could” (Piper, 1978 ). Include in your explanation, three examples from the story that will support your interpretation of the story’s moral.
This is an analysis-level item because it requires the student to extract a moral lesson from the story. Moreover, it sets the tone for an essay response with “Within two paragraphs” and “in your explanation.” Also, the item defines what is expected of the student, and it provides for an easy construction of an effective rubric. As a suggestion, you may provide for as many as five points for the student’s interpretation of the story’s moral and a maximum of three points for each of the supporting examples.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
The understanding of cause and effect relationships is an analysis-level concept; thus, understanding the consequence of one’s behavior is a component of this concept. With this in mind, you can use the essay item to assess your student’s ability to demonstrate an understanding of cause and effect relationships regarding her personal behavior.
EXAMPLE: Within two paragraphs, explain an immediate consequence of not paying the insurance premium on your vehicle. Then, describe a negative event that could occur as a result of the first consequence.
This is an analysis-level item because it necessitates an understanding of sequential cause and effect relationships: (1) the cancellation of the policy and (2) the possible occurrence of an automotive accident without insurance. As a suggestion for rubric point value, you could predetermine a maximum of three points for the “immediate consequence” up to three points for the “negative event”, and three points for organization, with each of these maximum point values depending on clarity and detail.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
An individual’s behavior in virtually any job-related area, regardless of how remote, directly or indirectly affects his chances for promotion, demotion, or termination. Accepting this premise, you can use the essay item to assess your student’s ability to determine cause and effect relationships in the world of work.
EXAMPLE: Assuming that you have previously been warned about being late for work, what do you think will happen to you if you are late for work again? Please explain, within two paragraphs , what you think probably will happen, not what should happen if you are late for work again. In your explanation, include two reasons that support your position.
This is an analysis-level item in that it requires the student to uncover a cause and effect relationship. As further evidence to its analysis-level requirement, the item specifies “what probably will happen, not what should happen” (which could be indicative of the evaluation level). Then, in predetermining the rubric point value, you could provide as many as five points for determining the effect, a maximum of three points for organization, and up to three points for each supporting reason, depending on accuracy and detail.
SYNTHESIS: At this level the student should be able to demonstrate the ability to: assemble parts into a new whole; formulate a new hypothesis or plan of action; construct a solution to an unfamiliar problem.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
Aware that the demonstrated ability to assemble separate parts into a new whole is a component of the synthesis-level, you could decide to use the essay item to assess your student’s ability to perform this assemblage.
EXAMPLE: Take the numbers 2, 6, 8 and two other numbers of your choice. Then combine then to create a number that is greater than eighty-six thousand. You might use all of these numbers, but none more than once. Then, explain in detail the steps that you took to arrive at the number that is greater than eighty-six thousand.
This synthesis-level item, with its instruction to assemble parts into a new whole, incorporates each of the previous cognitive levels: knowledge (2, 6, 8, and two numbers of your own); comprehension (86,000 which is another form of eighty-six thousand); application (since the student must count the places); and analysis (he must analyze the original three numbers and his selected numbers in order to place the 8 at the beginning of the new number). With respect to your rubric, you could provide up to five points for a correct number, and as many as five points for the student’s explanation, depending on the accuracy and detail.
Science (May be administered orally)
During a unit on the relationship between animals and their respective environments, you may decide to assess not only your student’s understanding of these relationships (comprehension) but also his ability to express his understanding of cause and effect relationships (analysis) creatively (synthesis). The essay item is an excellent vehicle for making such assessments.
EXAMPLE: Within two paragraphs, describe some necessary changes that would have to take place in a crocodile for it to live in the desert. In your description, include three changes and explain how each would help the crocodile live in the desert.
Synthesis-level in its requirement for the student to create imaginary changes in an animal, this item is clear and precise in specifying exactly what is expected of the student. Moreover, this clarity lends itself to the construction of a clearly defined rubric. For example, the rubric could allow a maximum of four points for each change, three points for the supportive reasoning for each change, three points for organization, and three points for a combination of grammar, mechanics, and spelling.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
Community awareness and enhancement of the environment are civic responsibilities. Accepting this premise, you may decide to use the essay item to assess your student’s ability to develop a plan for enhancing the environment of his community.
EXAMPLE: In two or three paragraphs, develop a plan for cleaning up an illegal dump in your neighborhood. In your plan, explain how you would obtain it; and explain how you would get the trash removed and where it would be taken.
Synthesis-level in that it involves developing a plan of action, this item is conducive to a clearly defined rubric. For example, you could predetermine a maximum of five points for the explanation regarding the involvement of friends and adults; a total of four points for the description of the necessary equipment and its procurement; four maximum points for the explanation of how and where the rubbish would be removed and taken; a total of five points for organization; and three total points for spelling, grammar and mechanics.
English Language Arts (May be administered orally)
Creative writing and storytelling usually surface throughout the K-12 curriculum. Hence, you may wish to assess your student’s creativity in writing or telling her own stories. The essay item is suitable means for assessing such creativity.
EXAMPLE: Within two or three paragraphs, write a story that contains a dog, a birthday, a book, a rain storm, and a happy ending. Although you will be assessed on content and organization, be sure to watch your spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation.
The required inclusion of the five components compels the student to be creative in areas that she probably otherwise would have bypassed. Also, each of these components can be factored into the rubric with a possible four points each, depending on how it fits into the story. Moreover, the rubric could allow for as many as five points for creativity, four for organization, and three for combined spelling, grammar, capitalization and punctuation.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
The ability to deal effectively with bullies can be an important life skill, and this ability is often related to the child’s creative actions. With this in mind, you could decide to use the essay item to assess your student’s creative endeavors in hypothetical situations with bullies.
EXAMPLE: A bully threatens to beat you up if you do not give him your new basketball, and he also threatens to beat you up again if you tell anyone that he took your ball. Within two paragraphs, explain how you would convince this bully not to take your ball or beat you up, and explain why you think your plan could work.
This synthesis-level item, calling on the student to exercise his creativity in a threatening situation, is clear in its requirements, which makes for a clearly defined rubric. For example, you could predetermine a maximum of 5 points for the student’s plan, depending on the persuasiveness of his argument; a maximum of five points for the underlying reasoning of his plan, depending on its logic; three maximum points for organization; and a total of three points for mechanics, grammar, and spelling.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
Positive relationships among co-workers are crucial vocational factors within any organization. With this in mind, you may decide to present your student with a scenario involving a co-worker. The essay item is suitable for such a scenario.
EXAMPLE: While working as a server in a restaurant, you see a co-worker take your tip from the table, shortly after customers have left. Within two to three paragraphs, explain how you would handle the situation in a way that would enable you to get your tip, and prevent your co-worker from getting into trouble. Include in your explanation why you think your plan could work.
The scenario of this item allows the student to be creative in formulating a plan that could prevent money from being taken from him, simultaneously preventing the occurrence of negative on-the-job sound relations. Because of its specificity, the item lends itself to quantitative rubrics. For example, you could predetermine a total of six points for the plan itself, depending on quality and feasibility; and six total points for the supporting reasoning, depending on its rationale; four points maximum for organization; and three points total for grammar, mechanics, and spelling.
EVALUATION: At this level the student should demonstrate the ability to make a value judgement on the basis of predetermined criteria and/or internal consistency.
Mathematics (May be administered orally)
A student may prefer one operational approach to a problem over another, or she may simply prefer one operation per se over another. These preferences, value judgements, are often based on the student’s personally predetermined criteria, which may be the amount of confidence she has in using one method as opposed to another. The essay item is an excellent source for disclosing such perceptions, while simultaneously allowing for the assessment of the student’s reasoning.
EXAMPLE: Given a choice, had you rather solve a problem by adding or multiplying? Within two paragraphs, explain your preference. In your explanation, include two reasons for your choice. You will be assessed on: (1) the logic, organization, and detail of each of your reasons and (2) the overall organization and clarity of your explanation.
This is an evaluation-level item because it calls on the student to make a value judgement that is based on her personally predetermined criteria. You should design the rubric to assess the student’s reasoning for his choice, rather than the choice itself. For example, this rubric could allow up to three points for each of the reasons, and a maximum of three points for overall organization and clarity.
SCIENCE (May be administered orally)
Following a study of significant inventions, you can use the essay item to assess your student’s comparative evaluation of two or more of the studied inventions. The essay item is most suitable for assessing your student’s evaluative reasoning.
EXAMPLE: Which invention, the telephone or the combustible engine, do you think has had the greater impact on American life? Within two paragraphs, justify your choice. In your justification, include three factual reasons for your choice. You will be assessed on the logic and organization of each of your three reasons, and on the general organization and clarity of your justification.
Evaluation-level with its requirement for a comparative value judgement, the item is clear in its instruction to the student. Additionally, this clarity makes for the construction of clearly defined rubrics. For example, you could designate a maximum of five points for each of the three supporting reasons, and five points for overall organization and clarity.
Social Studies (May be administered orally)
The controversy regarding capital punishment reflects value judgements that are long-standing in American history. After an objective examination of this issue, you could use the essay item to assess your student’s evaluation of the issue.
EXAMPLE: Within two or three paragraphs, discuss whether you agree or disagree with capital punishment. In your essay, include three reasons to support your position.
With its instruction for a value judgement, this is an evaluation-level item. Since it is definite in its requirements, it is conducive to an easily constructed and understandable rubric. For example, you could predetermine to allow for as many as five points for each of the reasons, depending on logic, accuracy, and detail; and a maximum of four points for overall continuity, clarity, and organization.
English Language Arts (May be administered orally)
Many stories and books contain morals that teach us valuable lessons. Determining which of these lessons is more valuable often involves value judgements. With this in mind, you can use the essay item to assess your student’s reasoning for assigning comparatively more value to one particular story’s moral than another’s.
EXAMPLE: Which story do you think teaches the more valuable lesson, The Little Engine that Could (Piper, 1978) or The Boy Who Cried Wolf? (Giles, 1998). Within two or three paragraphs, justify your choice. In your discussion, include three reasons for your choice.
With its requirement for a value judgement, this is an evaluation-level item. Moreover, its specific requirement for the student’s response is conducive to a clearly defined rubric. For example, you could predetermine a possible five points for each reason, depending on logic, continuity, and accuracy; and as many as four points for overall organization and detail; and a maximum of three points for grammar, spelling, and usage.
Daily Living Skills (May be administered orally)
Almost daily, each student is confronted with situations that necessitate value judgements. Acknowledging this, you can use the essay item to assess the reasoning underlying the value judgements that your student would make when confronted with an unavoidable situation.
EXAMPLE: Although you have warned your friend about stealing, your friend steals a CD, while the two of you are shopping, and runs out the door. The store manager confronts you and demands that you give him your friend’s name. Within two paragraphs, explain what you would do. In your explanation, include three reasons for your choice. You will be assessed on the logic, clarity, and organization of your reasoning. Also, your very best writing is expected.
Evaluation-level in that it necessitates a value judgement in a social situation, this item is clear and definite in its requirements. Specifically, it presents a scenario in which the student must determine whether to reveal the name of a friend who engages in thievery. Then, the item instructs the student to include two supporting reasons for her decision, which makes for a clearly defined rubric. For example, you could predetermine a total of five points for each of the three reasons, depending on accuracy, clarity, and continuity; and up to five points for general organization, grammar, and usage.
Employability Training Skills (May be administered orally)
Resolutions of conflicts between salary and job satisfaction usually involve value judgements. With this awareness, you can use the essay item in assessing the reasoning that guides your student’s value judgements regarding salary as opposed to job satisfaction.
EXAMPLE: Which would you prefer: a job that you enjoyed, or a job that you did not like, but paid more money than the one you enjoyed? Within two or three paragraphs, explain your decision. In your explanation, include three reasons for your choice. You will be assessed on organization, clarity, and logic of your reasons. Also, your very best writing is expected.
Evaluation-level in that it places the student in a scenario where she must make a value judgement, this item is clear and direct in its communication to the student. Moreover, such clarity and directionality are conducive to the formulation of a clearly defined rubric. Specifically, you could allow for as many as five pints for each of the three reasons, depending on logic, accuracy, and detail; and up to six points for general organization and clarity.
SUMMARY
Short-Answer Item
Some measurement specialists equate the short-answer with the completion item, perceiving each as confined to the Knowledge level, and some make no distinction between the structures of the two items. As we have demonstrated, however, the short-answer item can be an effective vehicle for measurement in each of the cognitive levels within all of the areas. Either as a question or a command, this item is a useful device for measuring both convergent and divergent thinking. The items must indicate exactly what is expected of the students, however, so that you are confident that the students’ responses are true indicators of what they actually know. Nevertheless, as always, the items should contain no hints or clues to the correct answers.
Essay Item
The essay item has definite strengths as well as pronounced limitations. A primary strength is its allowance for a detailed, in-depth analysis of a small area of focus. Moreover, it permits the assessment of the students’ analytical, organizational, and creative skills. Hence, the item should be employed at the Analysis, Synthesis and Evaluation levels, leaving assessment at the first three levels to some of the other types of test items. If you wish to cover broad areas of material, forgo the essay item in favor of one of the other types, especially the multiple-choice item, if it is your intent to test students at the Knowledge, Comprehension, Application or Analysis levels.
As always, the item should specify precisely what is expected of the students to ensure that they understand what is expected of them; it also makes for an easily constructed and task-specific rubric. Even with clearly defined rubrics, it is important that you grade essays item-by-item as opposed to paper-by-paper. With this procedure, you are grading the papers more anonymously-grading papers rather than people.
05: Writing Short-Answer and Essay Items
Some measurement specialists equate the short-answer with the completion item, perceiving its usefulness as confined to the Knowledge level. Others see no differences between the short-answer and the completion items in either usefulness or structure. As we demonstrate, however, the horizontal versatility of the short-answer item transcends the major content areas, and it is adaptable to every level in the cognitive domain. Since many state assessment tests contain open-ended questions, skill in responding to short-answer items can improve your students’ scores on these high-stakes tests.
Structure
As we mention in chapter 3, the completion item is an incomplete sentence with a single blank at the end of the item. The short-answer item, however, is structured either as a question or a command:
Question: What is the sum of 38 + 24?
Command: Solve the problem 38 +24.
As with the completion item, neither the question nor command form of the short-answer item should provide for multiple answers:
Bad: When did Columbus first come to the New World?
Answer: When Queen Isabella financed his voyage (or, In 1492).
Good: In what year did Columbus first come to the New World?
Answer: 1492
The short-answer item also should be structured to avoid unintentional clues:
Bad: List the three primary colors.
Good: List each of the primary colors.
(The term each indicates that all of the primary colors are to be listed, but it does not specify the number of primary colors, thus avoiding an unintentional clue.) | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/05%3A_Writing_Short-Answer_and_Essay_Items/5.02%3A_SH.txt |
The essay item , in our opinion, is one of the most misunderstood, misused, and abused items within the entire paper-and-pencil domain. It has definite strengths, but it also is prone to pronounced weaknesses, some of which are attributable to the construction and scoring of the item. In this chapter, we show you how to avoid construction and scoring weaknesses.
A primary strength of the essay item is its provision for an in-depth detailed analysis of a small area of material (Analysis level). This item further permits assessment of students’ organizational, creative, and writing skills; their ability to build a case and make a point; and their capacity to evaluate phenomena, all of which occur at the Synthesis and Evaluation levels. Also, it is comparatively easy to construct. However, it is of limited use for assessing broad latitudes of content.
Scoring essay items requires expertise, especially since some students are adept at talking around a point. However, clearly defined items and adherence to corresponding rubrics, as we discuss later, will neutralize any diversionary tactics devised by an ill-informed student. Also problematic to the neophyte or inattentive teacher are secondary factors, such as spelling, handwriting, and neatness, but well-constructed rubrics can minimize or even negate such distractions: They can illuminate responses that do not meet specified criteria, regardless of how neat and verbally correct they may be.
As with the short-answer item, student skills in writing essay responses have become increasingly important with the implementation of open-ended questions on statewide examinations. When you know how to construct and score essay items, are aware of the strengths and weaknesses of these items, as well as which cognitive levels are most conducive to their assessment, the result will be higher student scores on both high stakes state examinations and on your own levels.
Construction
Following an essay exam, a common answer to the question, “How did you do?” is, “I don’t know…it depends on what the teacher wants.” If this is the response, the items are probably vague, and if students do not understand the question, how can you determine whether they know the answer? Of course, the item should not contain clues to its answer, but rather should specify exactly what is expected of the students; so it is important to structure the item to include the specific points that should appear in the student’s responses. For example, the item may begin with a task-directed statement:
Within two pages, compare and contrast how George Washington and Francis Marion contributed to the Revolutionary War. In your narrative, cite one similarity and one difference, including two supporting arguments for each. Your essay should be well organized as well as grammatically and linguistically sound.
Beginning with task-directed statement, this item leaves not doubt as to what is expected of the student.
Scoring
Rubrics should be used to score essay items. Rubrics in this context are scoring guides, delineating a point spread for each item and the bases for awarding the points, including partial credit for partially right responses. In some instances, they are best developed as tests are constructed, although generic rubrics can also be helpful. In either case, they help ensure consistency, objectivity and fairness in scoring, and we strongly advocate their use.
For instance, using the previous example, the cited similarity and difference could each have a zero to three-point value, depending on the selection and presentation. Then the four supporting arguments could have a zero to three-point range, based on their relevancy and significance. Although the item stresses organizational, grammatical, and linguistic soundness, these skills should previously have been taught if they are to have rubric point value. If they have not been taught, they should not be factored into the rubric.
Generic rubrics are appropriate for multiple classroom situations. As Arter and McTighe (2001, p. 27) point out, they are “useful to help students understand the nature of quality-the ‘big picture’ details that contribute to the quality of a type of performance or product.” They go on to explain that “task-specific scoring could happen in mathematics, social studies, science, and any class that has a particular content to be learned (p. 28).” In describing task-specific rubrics, they acknowledge that these rubrics “allow students to see what quality looks like in a simple problem-the one at hand” (p.27). Such rubrics also provide for analytic scoring.
Although it is cumbersome, we recommend scoring essay tests item-by-item as opposed to paper-by-paper. This strategy assists you in focusing on a specific area, allowing you to detect patterns in student responses (e.g., a number of students omitting the same point), which may indicate the need to adjust your instruction or the item itself. The item-by-item method also allows you to score the papers more anonymously; you are assessing responses rather than students, thus negating the halo effect. For example, if Fred has previously performed well, you may assume that he is going to perform well on this particular assignment and thus award him undeserved points. Of course, with the scoring of any test-and especially the essay test-if you become tired, stressed, or hungry, stop immediately and do not resume until you have regained homeostasis. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/05%3A_Writing_Short-Answer_and_Essay_Items/5.03%3A_Th.txt |
Chapter 5 Resources
Bookhart, S.M. & Nitko, A. J. (2008). Assessment and grading in classrooms . New York: Pearson.
Gearhart, M., Herman, J.L., Baker, E.L. & Whittaker, A.K. (1994). Writing portfolios at the elementary level: A study of methods for writing assessment. Los Angles: University of California, Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. Retrieved November 6, 2019 from https://eric.ed.gov.
Hogan, T.P. & Murphy, G. (2007). Recommendations for preparing and scoring constructed-response items: What the experts say. Applied Measurement in Education, 20 , 427-441.
Liftig, I. F., & And Others. (1992). Making assessment work: What teachers should know before they try it. Science Scope , 15 (6), 4–8.
Reynolds, C.R., Livingston, R.B., & Willson, V. (2008). Measurement and assessment in education, (2 nd edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Russell, M.K. & Airasian, P.W. (2012). Classroom assessment: Concepts and applications . New York: McGraw Hill.
Struyven, K., Dochy, F. & Janssens, S. (2005). Student perceptions about evaluation and assessment in higher education: A review. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 30 , 325-341.
Sundberg, S. B. (2006). An investigation of the effects of exam essay questions on student learning in United States history survey classes. History Teacher , 40 (1), 59–68.
Walstad, W. B. (2006). Testing for depth of understanding in economics using essay questions. Journal of Economic Education , 37 (1), 38–47.
5.06: Pr
Professional Development Activities
1. Divide into groups according to content areas. After reviewing the guidelines for constructing the short-answer item, review the definitions of the cognitive levels. Now collectively construct a short-answer item in you content area for each of the following levels:
a. Knowledge
b. Comprehension
c. Application
d. Analysis
e. Synthesis
f. Evaluation
Compare your items with those in the chapter. Then have members from all the groups put their Knowledge-level items on the board for discussion. When you have completed the discussion, follow the same procedure for the remaining five levels.
2. In content-area groups, review the guidelines for constructing the essay item and review the definitions of the cognitive levels. Now collectively construct an essay item in your content area for each of the following levels:
a. Analysis
b. Synthesis
c. Evaluation
Be sure to construct task-specific rubrics for each item. Compare your items with those in the chapter. Have members from each group put their Analysis-level items on the board for discussion. When you have completed the discussion, follow the same procedure for the Synthesis and Evaluation levels.
Exercises
Write the letter of the paper and pencil tool that would best serve your measurement purpose.
A. True-False Item
B. Completion Item
C. Matching Exercises
D. Multiple Choice Item
E. Short Answer Item
F. Essay Item
______ 1. To determine your student’s understanding of the cause and effect events that occurred in the U.S. between 1865 and 1900.
______ 2. To determine your student’s ability to compare and contrast the creative skills of two painters.
______ 3. To determine your student’s ability to associate eight states with their capital cities.
______ 4. To determine your student’s ability to write a declarative, an imperative, and an interrogative sentence.
______ 5. To determine, within a 20-minute time period, your student’s ability to recognize the capitals of 20 different states.
______ 6. To determine the student’s ability to write a haiku about spring.
______ 7. To determine the student’s ability to arrive at the moral of five different books.
______ 8. To determine the student’s ability to recognize the middle name of a given author.
______ 9. To determine the student’s ability to recall the middle name of a given author.
______ 10. To determine your student’s ability to arrive at the shortest distance between two given points, as shown on a photographed map on the test.
______ 11. To determine your student’s knowledge of 10 different authors and their respective novels.
______ 12. To determine your student’s knowledge of 30 pieces of factual information on a 40-minute exercise.
______ 13. To determine your student’s ability to discriminate among different food choices.
______ 14. To determine why your student has selected a particular occupation as her preference.
______ 15. To determine your student’s ability to define 20 vocabulary words.
______ 16. To determine your student’s ability to associate 10 tasks with the person most likely to perform them.
______17. To determine your student’s ability to compare and contrast the writing styles of two authors.
______ 18. To determine your student’s ability to recognize the correct definition of a series of 30 words.
______ 19. To determine your student’s ability to select the primary instrument for a given task.
______ 20. To determine your student’s ability to determine the last one-to-three words of a famous quote. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/05%3A_Writing_Short-Answer_and_Essay_Items/5.05%3A_Su.txt |
Despite the power and versatility of paper-and-pencil tests, they cannot assess certain areas of pupil performance. For example, a student can write a description of a lab demonstration, list the steps for setting up a VCR for use, and explain the Heimlich maneuver; but the actual execution of these tasks can be appraised only through performance-based assessment (Application), and such assessment can be applied to both processes and products of performance: processes are ongoing procedures leading to a final result, such as collecting sources and writing rough drafts en route to a finished paper, whereas products are the culminating results accomplished through a series of sequential procedures. For example, after deciding on a topic, your students would most likely write more than one draft before completing the paper. The outline and drafts are process procedures, and the final paper is the product.
Some student performances are restricted to one day, while others are extended over a span of time. A restricted performance is specifically defined and can be accomplished and observed during a single session, such as taking a wire, a light bulb, and a battery and then connecting them so that the bulb lights (Application). An extended performance may take several days, or even longer, such as collecting and assembling plant parts for a classification display.
Many performance activities provide for the assessment of behavior that cannot be evaluated by paper-and-pencil tests, but the reliability (consistency of performance) and validity (actually measuring what you want them to measure) of these performances are sometimes difficult to determine. Hence, it is imperative that the purpose of the performance be established beforehand, along with whether it is to be restricted or extended and whether the emphasis is centered on process or product. Furthermore, you should specify exactly what materials, resources, and equipment are to be used. Most important are clearly defined expectations of your students’ performances (see Chapter 2), because a high level of clarity is conducive to your students’ understanding of what is expected of them, and it also makes for the easy construction of effective rubrics: The more clearly defined and focused the description and directions, the more effective the rubric as an assessment device. As mentioned in chapter 5, generic rubrics serve a number of purposes. Yet, since the performances in this chapter are in compliance with daily instructional objectives, they require analytical or task-specific rubrics.
6.02: Checklists
Checklists and rating scales can assess your students’ performances. A checklist usually provides for yes-no clarifications:
Satisfactory = 1; Unsatisfactory = 0
Yes =1; No = 0
A rating scale is a kind of continuum, usually ranging from zero to three, four, five, six, or seven:
3 = Always or very frequently
2 = Most of the time
1 = Sometimes
0 = Never
Regardless of whether you elect to use a checklist or a rating scale, the points that you award should be based on (1) performance objectives and (2) observable indicators.
Poor Checklist Objective: Students will know about the uniqueness of fingerprints. Yes = 1; No = 0
Since this objective does not provide for the observation of student behavior, you would probably have difficulty in accurately assessing your pupils’ knowledge.
Good Checklist Objective: Presented with a blotter containing the index fingerprints of two classmates, students will list two differences between the two (Analysis). Satisfactory = 1; Unsatisfactory = 0
Since this objective clearly specifies the desired performance, you are easily able to make an accurate assessment of your students’ performance.
Poor Rating Scale Objective : Students will know the exports of given South American countries.
Very Well = 5 points
Well = 4 points
Fairly Well = 3 points
Not Very Well = 2 points
Poorly = 1 point
Very Poorly = 0 points
This objective does not specify how you are to determine the extent to which your students “know” (a very nebulous term) the exports of South American countries. Moreover, the entire rating scale is open to a multiplicity of interpretations.
Good Rating Scale Objective: As an Internet assignment, students will each research a South American Country and list at least seven of that country’s imports, with a Web site source (Application).
7 = 5 points
6 = 4 points
5 = 3 points
3-4 =2 points
1-2 = 1 point
0 = 0 points
Since this objective specifies the exact number of points to be awarded for correct list items, you will have no difficulty in accurately assessing your students’ performances.
Holistic Scoring
There are instances when you may wish to implement holistic scoring, a procedure in which an overall score is assigned to the total performance, whether it is a project, a presentation, a paper, or whatever. Borich and Tombari (2004) use the following model as an example of a holistic rubric (See Table 1.1). A gymnastics judge may assign a score of 1-10 for a gymnastics performance. This type of assessment is known as subjective scoring because the single, awarded score represents multiple movements performed by the gymnast. Similarly, a teacher may assign a rubric score of 6 to a student’s original poem, even though the poem is the product of a number of separate efforts. As Arter and McTighe (2001) mention, holistic scoring provides a “quick snapshot of overall status or achievement” (p. 25). However, they continue by acknowledging that analytical scoring is more detailed and specific.
Analytic Scoring
Analytic scoring is much more detailed than holistic scoring, lessening the opportunities for scoring biases. Remember, clearly defined performance expectations (objectives) are conducive to detailed and clearly defined rubrics. As the examples in this chapter demonstrate, analytic scoring is better suited to more precise assessment of student performances in the classroom. The following noneducational example parallels the type of rubric that you could use for a classroom performance.
Ms. Garcia and her son, Hector, agreed that Hector should assume responsibility for the family’s dog. Ms. Garcia constructed the following weekly chart that includes wages that she chose arbitrarily, as if Hector were being paid. The two thought that Hector could use a couple of the scored weekly charts as references for future pet care jobs.
Table 1.2 represents the total amount Hector could potentially earn in a week. Table 1.3 shows the total amount Hector earned for the week of February 8-14, 2019.
Although Hector’s first week’s performance was satisfactory, he and his mother feel that he can do better. He may later use his scored assessment, along with an improved future performance, as a process-oriented reference.
Performance-based assessments certainly have drawbacks and limitations: They often lack the reliability and validity found in paper-and-pencil tests, they are time consuming, they often involve groups as opposed to individuals, and they lack the generalizability of traditional tests. Still, performance-based assessment is a necessary component of any assessment program because it is the only method of discerning hands-on abilities.
There is a direct relationship between the importance that you place on a performance and the complexity of your students’ performances: The more important the performance, the greater the number of its components. Hence, the importance of the performance determines the point value of the rubric. For example, major performances, such as the English-Language Arts example and the social studies example in the upcoming pages, require multiple-component rubrics; whereas less complex performances, such as the mathematics example on page 188, require fewer dimensions. The following examples also demonstrate how to implement performance-based assessment within the major content areas.
Table 1.1 Sample Grades and Categories for a Holistic Rubric
Rubric Score
Grade
Category
7
A+
Excellent
6
A
Excellent
5
B+
Good
4
B
Good
3
C+
Fair
2
C
Fair
1
D
Needs Improvement
Table 1.2 The Total Amount Hector Could Earn in a Week
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
AM
PM
AM
PM
AM
PM
AM
PM
AM
PM
AM
PM
AM
PM
Feed
Water
15-20 min. walk
10-14 min. walk
5-9 min. walk
Groom
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
Total possible per day
Total possible per week
\$3.30
\$23.10
\$3.30
\$3.30
\$3.30
\$3.30
\$3.30
\$3.30
Table 1.3 The Amount Hector Actually Earned in One Week (February 8-14, 2019)
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
AM
PM
AM
PM
AM
PM
AM
PM
AM
PM
AM
PM
AM
PM
Feed
Water
15-20 min. walk
10-14 min. walk
5-9 min. walk
Groom
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.30
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.10
\$0.15
\$0.30
\$0.30
\$0.50
\$0.15
Total possible per day
Total possible per day
\$3.30
\$2.30
\$3.30
\$1.90
\$3.30
\$2.50
\$3.30
\$2.10
\$3.30
\$2.10
\$3.30
\$2.10
\$3.30
\$2.10
Total possible per week
Total earned for week of February 8-14, 2019
\$23.10
\$15.40
Mathematics
Student performance with manipulatives is readily observed and easily assessed. With this understanding, you can assess your student’s ability to solve problems through the use of colored blocks.
OBJECTIVE: On a table with an assortment of chips and five, separate 3”x5” index cards with either the number 2, 3, 5, 7, or 9 on each, the student will place the corresponding number of chips on each index card.
This individual and performance-based activity provides for observation of the student’s process and assessment of her product. Also, it is conducive to the construction of the following suggested rubric.
Maximum Points
Points Earned
Correct number of chips per cards
15 (3 pts. per card)
Plus or minus one chip per card
10 (2 pts. per card)
Plus or minus two chips per card
5 (1 pt. per card)
Completion within three minutes
5
Completion within four minutes
3
Completion within five minutes
1
20 Possible Points
This rubric provides for varying degrees of proficiency within prescribed temporal boundaries. However, it is your decision as to whether to include time standards, as suggested in the rubric. In either case, he suggested temporal points do not factor that heavily into the total rubric.
Science
Following discussions on stress and balance, you may determine to provide your student with the opportunity to demonstrate some of what he has learned through creative activities that also permit the assessment of his fine motor skills.
Maximum Points
Points Earned
Use of all cards
40 (2 pts each)
Four-sided structure
12 (3 pts each)
Complete roof
12
Partial roof
6 pt-11 pt
Stands for 30 seconds
20
Stands for 20-29 seconds
15
Stands for 10-19 seconds
10
Stands for 1-9 seconds
5
Stands for less than.9 seconds
1
Completed within 20 minutes
20
Completed between 21-29 minutes
15
Completed between 30-39 minutes
10
Completed between 40-49 minutes
5
Completed between 50-59 minutes
1
104 possible points
OBJECTIVE: Presented with 20 playing cards, the student will use each to build a 4-sided structure, with a roof, that will stand in-tact for at least 30 seconds.
This process-to-product observable objective defines what is expected of the student. Additionally, its clarity makes for an easily constructed rubric, as reflected in the suggested example.
This suggested rubric allows for criterion-based (number correct) assessment. However, it is your decision as whether to factor temporal standards into the assessment. With many of your inclusionary students, however, you may decide to give them as much time as they need.
Social Studies
During a unit on community service, you could decide to give your student the opportunity to apply what she has learned in a creative way.
OBJECTIVE: As an extended assignment, the student will construct a written plan for cleaning up an area of her choice, including in her plan: Two separate tasks performed by another individual; three pieces of equipment and their respective functions; a disposal site, and how the refuse would be transported to this site.
Although this is an extended performance, some of the student’s work could be done in class, which would make for an observable process. For the most part, however, much of your assessment would probably target the product.
Maximum Points
Points Earned
Suitability of selected area
6
Significance of each task performed by the other individual
8 (4 pts. each)
Inclusion of each piece of equipment
6 (2 pts. each)
Function of each piece of equipment
9 (3 pts. each)
Suitability of disposal site
5
Suitability of transportation
5
Organization, clarity, and continuity
4
Grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation
3
46 Possible Points
The suggested rubric is detailed in its allotment of assessment categories. Moreover, such detail provides for greater objectivity in your total assessment of the performance.
English-Language Arts
In efforts to add another dimension to your student’s literary understanding, you may decide to provide her with the opportunity to portray Salamanca’s (Creech, 1994) journey to her mother’s grave on a U.S. map.
Criteria
Maximum Points
Points Earned
Inclusion of each state
10 (1 pt. each)
Journey drawn in sequence
20 (2 pts. for each state in sequence)
Illustrations in each state
20 (2 pts. for each inclusion)
Significance of each illustrated event
20 (2 pts. per each event)
Attractiveness of each illustration
20 (2 pts. per each illustration)
Overall attractiveness ( color, creativity)
10
100 Possible Points
OBJECTIVE: Presented with a blank map of the U.S., crayons, pen, pencil, and multiple markers, the student will draw, in sequence, Salamanca’s (Creech, 1994) journey to her mother’s grave, which includes the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, creating an illustration in each state to represent a significant event that took place there.
This extended individual assignment is clear and definite in its specification of student requirements, while simultaneously providing for student creativity, along with the provision for a defined rubric.
The suggested rubric provides for assessment of each of the components of the extended performance, along with the limited but subjective assessment of the product’s overall attractiveness.
Daily Living Skills
Understanding that we sometimes find ourselves in situations that demand a plan of action, you may wish to provide your student with a hypothetical situation that necessitates such a plan.
OBJECTIVE: The student will write a plan of action for solving the following problem (may be administered orally).
Enroute to visit an out-of-town relative, your bus stops at a depot to allow passengers to exit. You also exit, but only to learn that you are in the wrong town. The bus has now left, and you do not have your ticket or your assistance device (information card). Explain which person you would go to for help, and list five pieces of information you would give that person.
This task could probably be assessed as a restricted performance, regardless of whether the student expresses himself orally or in writing. In either case, you should determine the point value of the rubric. The following is a suggested example.
Maximum Points
Points Earned
Person sought for immediate assistance (e.g. bus company employee)
10
Information #1
(e.g. home phone number, including area code)
5
Information #2
(e.g. home address)
5
Information #3
(e.g. departure site)
5
Information #4
(e.g. destination site)
5
Information #5
(e.g. contact person at destination site)
5
35 Possible Points
The primary person who should be sought for assistance, along with the five pieces of information, are teacher decisions, as is the rubric value of each. Again, the example a suggestion.
Employability Training Skills
Understanding that sorting, in its various forms, is a component of many vocations, you may wish to assess your student’s proficiency, as well as her efficiency, in sorting similar objects.
OBJECTIVE: When presented with a 25-item assortment of five, 6” flat head screws, round head bolts, hexagon bolts, flat head screws, and Phillips screws, the student will sort them into categories according to head type.
This performance-based assessment is definite in its student requirements. Even though it has no time standards, you may wish to include them in your rubric. The following rubric is a suggestion.
Maximum Points
Points Earned
Correctly sorting 25 flat head bolts
5
Correctly sorting 20-24 flat head bolts
3
Correctly sorting 15-19 flat head bolts
1
Correctly sorting 25 round head bolts
5
Correctly sorting 20-24 round head bolts
3
Correctly sorting 15-19 round head bolts
1
Correctly sorting 25 flat head screws
5
Correctly sorting 20-24 flat head screws
3
Correctly sorting 15-19 flat head screws
1
Correctly sorting 25 Phillips screws
5
Correctly sorting 20-24 Phillips screws
3
Correctly sorting 15-19 Phillips screws
1
Task completed in 5 minutes or less
5
Task completed in 5:31-6 minutes
4
Task completed in 6:01-6:30 minutes
3
Task completed in 6:30-7 minutes
2
Task completed in 7:01-7:30 minutes
1
30 Possible Points
Leaving little room for subjective judgment, the objectivity of this suggested rubric is made possible by the specificity of the preceding objective. Nevertheless, adherence to the time components of the rubric rests with your professional judgment. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/06%3A_Performance-Based_Assessment/6.01%3A_Introducti.txt |
SUMMARY
You have learned that performance-based assessment can be applied to skills and abilities that cannot be assessed by traditional paper-and-pencil tests. Also, you have learned that performance-based assessment can target process, product, restricted, or extended activities. Moreover, you have learned that performance-based assessment, like other forms of assessment, has definite strengths as well as pronounced weaknesses.
In our examination of rubrics, you have learned that although generic rubric models are available, it is better to tailor your rubrics to individual performances, as detailed in your objectives. Additionally, you have learned that precise and clearly defined objectives make for easy construction of objective and detailed rubrics that minimize scoring subjectivity.
Chapter 6 Resources
Hambleton, R.K. & Murphy, E. (1992). A psychometric perspective on authentic measurement. Applied Measurement in Education, 5 , 1-16.
Miller, M.D., Linn, R.L. & Gronlund, N.E. (2013). Measurement and assessment in teaching (11 th edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Rudner, L.M. & Boston, C. (1994). Performance assessment. The ERIC Review, 3 (1), 2-12.
Russo, J.M., Williford, A.P., Markowitz, A.J., Vitiello, V.E. & Bassok, D. (2019). Examining the validity of a widely-used school readiness assessment: Implications for teachers and early childhood programs. Early Childhood Research Quarterly , 48 , 14–25.
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6.04: Profession
Professional Development Activities
Performance-based assessment is applied to skills and abilities that cannot be evaluated by traditional paper-and-pencil tests. This method of assessment can target process or product, and time-restricted or time-extended activities. Like other forms of assessment, this one has definite strengths as well as pronounced weaknesses.
For scoring, although generic rubric models are valuable, tailoring your rubrics to individual performances, as detailed in your daily instructional objectives, allows for more precise evaluation. In this type of assessment, as in others, clearly defined objectives make for easy construction of objective and detailed rubrics that minimize scoring subjectivity.
Exercises
Write the letter of the best options in the blank beside the item.
______ 1. The cognitive level for setting up a VCR for use would be
A. Knowledge.
B. Comprehension.
C. Application.
D. Analysis.
______ 2. The performance of putting topsoil and planting seeds in a terrarium would be considered
A. Product
B. Process
C. Restricted
D. Both B and C
______ 3. Judging a gymnastic performance is usually done with
A. Check lists
B. Rating Scales
C. Holistic Scoring
D. Analytic Scoring
______ 4. The most reliable instrument would be the
A. Rating Scale
B. Check list
C. Essay Test
D. Multiple Choice Test
______ 5. Scoring biases are more likely to occur with
A. Holistic Scoring
B. Analytic Scoring
C. True-False Tests
D. Multiple Choice Tests
______ 6. A portfolio should primarily contain the student’s
A. Best works
B. Performance in the upper cognitive levels
C. Major test scores
D. None of the above
______ 7. The portfolio should serve as
A. A growth chart
B. A showcase
C. A barometer for student achievement
D. All of the above
______ 8. The best method for evaluating an individual’s performance over a 5-day work week
A. Check List
B. Rating Scale
C. Analytic Scoring
D. Holistic Scoring
______ 9. The best method for evaluating an actor’s performance in a play
A. Check list
B. Rating Scale
C. Analytic Scoring
D. Holistic Scoring
______ 10. The best instrument for diagnosing a particular learning disability in a student
A. Check List
B. Rating Scale
C. Analytic Scoring
D. Holistic Scoring
Over the grading period, you and your student will determine the cognitive level of the student’s portfolio in which to place each of the following samples of student’s work.
A. Knowledge
B. Comprehension
C. Application
D. Analysis
E. Synthesis
F. Evaluation
Portfolio Entries
______ 1. On a short-answer test, the student listed three similarities and three differences between the uniforms of Batman and Spider-Man.
______ 2. On a 10-item written test, the student answered six of ten single-digit addition problems.
______ 3. The student listed three reasons why she preferred basketball over soccer.
______ 4. On a 5-item test, the student correctly listed three synonyms for each word.
______ 5. On an in-class written assignment, the student used four of the five required vocabulary words in describing himself.
______ 6. On a 10-item written test, the student correctly defined six of the vocabulary words.
______ 7. As documented by your scoring sheet, your student read the directions and correctly assembled a five-piece model car within 10 minutes.
______ 8. As verified by your scoring sheet, your student assembled a ten-piece puzzle within a five-minute time period.
______ 9. When shown the numbers 5, 8, 11 in a work sheet, the student correctly wrote the numbers 14, 17, and 20.
______ 10. On a math worksheet containing 20 stated problems requiring the addition and subtraction of three-digit numbers, the student solved 16 correctly. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/06%3A_Performance-Based_Assessment/6.03%3A_Summary_Re.txt |
The portfolio can be a highly effective device for exhibiting both the processes and the products of student efforts. Nevertheless, many educators insist that there are two distinct types of portfolios: those that evidence pupil progress (growth), and those that show the students’ best efforts (showcase). In this chapter, we demonstrate that a single portfolio can simultaneously serve as both a growth chart and a showcase, without requiring a warehouse for its storage.
07: Portfolios
The portfolio can be a highly effective device for exhibiting both the processes and the products of student efforts. Nevertheless, many educators insist that there are two distinct types of portfolios: those that evidence pupil progress (growth), and those that show the students’ best efforts (showcase). In this chapter, we demonstrate that a single portfolio can simultaneously serve as both a growth chart and a showcase, without requiring a warehouse for its storage.
7.02: Portfolio
The contents of a portfolio should not simply reflect the components of a given curriculum, but they should also include representative samples of the student’s performances within each of the levels of the cognitive hierarchy within a particular area. Specifically, the portfolio should allow for the display of selective but representative examples of pupil processes that lead to demonstrated accomplishments within each of the levels of a cognitive hierarchy. Then, as assurance that the display reflects curricular content as well as performances within each of the levels, you should use your long-term unit and short-term lesson plan objectives and even test results, as exemplified in earlier chapters, as guidelines for the student’s portfolio entries.
Encourage your students to participate in the selection of their portfolio entries and stress the importance of representing their growth. Hence, the portfolio should show not only finished products but also the sequential steps leading to them. Note that presenting only a student’s best or worst work provides a misrepresentation, which can be prevented through teacher guidance.
Once portfolios have been assembled, set aside time for your students to review them and then write and enter their reflections for later review. Although these reflections can be time- consuming, they can provide valuable insight into your students’ reactions to their academic involvements. Also, regularly set aside time for teacher-student conferences to discuss the progress that your students have achieved to date. Such pupil involvement is designed to allow the students to assess their own learning, and enable them to assume ownership of their learning as well. Moreover, whether the portfolios are housed in folders or electronically, the students should work with you in dating and categorizing the material according to topic, cognitive level, and process-to-product sequence, in compliance with national, state, or CEC standards (chapter 1). Furthermore, the students should construct tables of contents both for their own use and for teacher-student and parent-teacher conferences. Box 2.1 contains a vignette regarding a portfolio’s development.
When portfolios contain an overabundance of your students’ work, they become less meaningful. By inserting carefully selected representative samples of the students’ performances according to the cognitive hierarchy, you, your students, and their parents can better understand the students’ areas of cognitive strengths and weaknesses. Box 2.2 contains a vignette showing the use of a portfolio in a parent conference.
Rather than using traditional portfolio containers, you may wish to enter your students’ work samples electronically. Electronic portfolios can include graphics as well as video and sound, and they are easily accessible. Moreover, meaningful connections among different subject matter areas can be made.
KNOWLEDGE: Recognition and recall of previously learned information; no comprehension or understanding of the information is implied.
Mathematics
Knowledge of addition combinations is prerequisite to most mathematical performances. With this acknowledgement, you and your student may wish to select a representative sample of the student’s past performances with addition combinations as a portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: As an oral activity, the student will recite the answer to each of five, single-digit addition problems within two attempts.
If selected, the scored rubric of this short-term lesson plan performance would be inserted into the portfolio either as a growth or as a product entry, as determined collectively by you and your student.
Science
Knowledge of the names and chronological order of the seasons is important factual information for any child. Hence, you and your student can consider evidence of such knowledge as a representative portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: In a conversation with her teacher, the student will recite the names of the four seasons in sequence, within two attempts and with no prompting.
Rubrically scored, the student’s performance can be considered as a portfolio entry. If several attempts are necessary for her to meet the standards of the objective, the scored rubrics can be interpreted as process entries, with the final completion included as a product entry.
Social Studies
Essential to a student’s political awareness is knowledge of the name of his state, its capital, and its governor. Hence, you and your student may consider documented evidence of the student’s demonstration of such knowledge.
SAMPLE: In a conversation with her teacher, the student will recite the names of her state, its capital, and its governor.
If mutually agreed upon as a portfolio entry, the rubric of an unsuccessful attempt to meet the standards of the objective could be inserted as a process-oriented entry, while the rubric showing performance that met the objective’s standards could be enclosed in the portfolio as a product entry.
English-Language Arts
Knowledge of sight words is an essential component of reading. Acknowledging this, you will probably want to give you students opportunities to familiarize themselves with such words. Moreover, documented evidence of the student’s involvement with these words can be considered as a portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: When presented with 10 sight words on individual flash cards, the student will correctly recite the name of each within two attempts.
The scored rubrics for this objective could be entered as both growth-oriented and process-oriented additions to the student’s portfolio. Specifically, an unsuccessful attempt to comply with the standards of the objective could be entered as growth-oriented, whereas a successful attempt could be entered as product-oriented.
Daily Living Skills
Knowledge of basic personal information is an essential life skill. Accepting this, you can assist your student in memorizing and maintaining this information. Then, in light of the importance of such knowledge, the two of you can document evidence of this knowledge through a scored rubric in the student’s portfolio.
SAMPLE: In a conversation with his teacher, the student will recite: his first and last name; telephone number, including area code; address, including sip code; age and day, month, and year of birth.
The specificity of this objective is conductive to a clearly defined rubric, which makes for an appropriate and representative portfolio entry as a growth-and/or a product-oriented inclusion, depending on the student’s initial mastery of the objective.
Employability Training Skills
Basic knowledge of technology is prerequisite to most vocations. With this awareness, you and your student could decide to include the student’s recorded performance in his portfolio.
SAMPLE: When presented with the names of two software programs on a worksheet, the student will correctly list at least three functions of each.
The relative complexity of the task could necessitate more than one student attempt to meet the objective’s standards. Hence, if selected, the scored rubrics could be entered into the portfolio as both process and product evidences of growth.
COMPREHENSION LEVEL: The ability to understand or summarize information; translating information from one form or level to another; predicting continuations in trends of data.
Mathematics
As a comprehension-level exercise, you may decide to provide your student with the opportunity to demonstrate his understanding that numbers may be represented in a variety of ways, thus transferring information from one form to another. After demonstrating such comprehension, you could then mutually determine whether to include evidence of this understanding in the student’s portfolio, as a comprehension-level entry.
SAMPLE: When shown three, individual single-digit numbers on flash cards, the student will remove from an assortment of manipulatives a corresponding number of objects for each of the numbers presented on the flash cards.
Depending on the pupil’s assessed performance, you two could decide to include his scored rubric in his portfolio either as a representative process or as a product comprehension-level entry.
Science
A component of the comprehension-level is the ability to summarize information. With this understanding, you may want to ask your student to summarize an observed activity, and include specific components of the activity as evidence of her understanding.
SAMPLE: In a conversation with her teacher following a film about mammals, the student will summarize the film by correctly naming three different categories of mammals and two characteristics common to all mammals.
The student’s performance is clearly specified, which is conducive to a clearly defined rubric. Since the objective’s requirements are relatively stringent, it could possibly take more than one attempt for the student to meet its standards. Therefore, you and your student could consider the scored rubric as either a growth-oriented or as a product-oriented portfolio entry.
Social Studies
The ability to summarize, a criterion of the comprehension-level, can be demonstrated orally or in writing. However, as assurance of student understanding, you should predetermine specific components for inclusion in the summary. Then, following the student’s summary, the two of you could examine the scored rubric of her summary for possible entry into her portfolio.
SAMPLE: In a conversation with her teacher, following her oral reading of a trade book on the Battle of Gettysburg, the student will summarize the battle, mentioning two officers from both the Union and the Confederacy, the approximate number of persons killed, and the name of the U.S. President who later gave a famous speech at this site.
After discussing the scored rubric of the student’s summary, you and she may consider entering it in her portfolio as a representative process or product sample of her ability to summarize material that she has read.
English-Language Arts
You may want to guide your student toward the understanding that most phenomena have concrete, semi-concrete, and abstract forms. Moreover, the two of you should consider evidence of such understanding as a portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: After examining a kick ball presented by the teacher, the student will sort through and select a picture of a ball from a stack of picture cards; and then sort through and select the word “ball” from a stack of word cards.
Meeting the standards of this objective is evidence that the student understands the different forms of objects. Thus, the two of you can consider the scored rubric as a possible growth or product portfolio entry representing the student’s ability to understand that objects have different norms.
Daily Living Skills
The ability to explain or summarize social situations is an important, if not vital life skill. With this understanding, you may give your student the opportunity to summarize relevant social scenarios that may be considered for portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: In a conversation with his teacher, following the viewing of a vignette involving the four-step sequence of a child’s riding a bicycle, his failure to obey a stop sign, a car braking to miss the child, and the frightened child walking his bike to the sidewalk, the student will explain the event, including the four steps in sequence.
The student’s performance here, as rubrically recorded, could be considered by the two of you as a representative process- or product- oriented sample of the student’s ability to summarize important outcomes.
Employability Training Skills
The ability to comprehend sequences (understanding trends in data) is essential to many vocations. With this acknowledgement, you may wish to present your student with the opportunity to demonstrate this ability and then involve him in determining whether evidence of his performance should be considered as a portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: Presented with an assortment of floor covering tiles and the illustrated sequence of “flower,” “tree,” “water,” “sun,” “flower,” the student will select the next three tiles from the assortment and continue the pattern.
With respect to this comprehension-level performance objective, you and your student may decide to include the scored rubric as either a growth or as a product portfolio entry, depending on the student’s performance.
APPLICATION LEVEL : The ability to take information that has been previously acquired and comprehended and use it in concrete situations.
Mathematics
Following a set of directions can often involve an application level of performance. With this in mind, you may ask your student to use manipulatives in the solution of a problem involving counting. Then, the two of you may collectively determine whether to include the scored rubric of the exercise as a representative application-level sample in the student’s portfolio.
SAMPLE: Following instruction from the teacher, the student will select four chips from an assortment of red chips and five chips from an assortment of white chips, and then state the total number of combined chips to the teacher.
The student’s performance, involving following the directions to solve a problem by counting, would be assessed according to a predetermined rubric. Then, after discussing the student’s performance on the basis of the scored rubric, the two of you could decide to include the document either as a representative growth-oriented or as a product-oriented entry in the student’s portfolio.
Science
Relatively long-term projects in which the student can see the results of his efforts can be both meaningful and enjoyable. Additionally, since such projects lend themselves to both immediate and extended assessments, you and your student could decide to enter the scored rubrics as process as well as product inclusions.
SAMPLE: Presented with a terrarium filled with potting soil, a trowel, a packet of seeds, and a watering can, the student will apply the four-step process, as discussed in class, for planting a seed.
Since this assignment could probably completed in a single session, you and your student could discuss rubrically scored results of his efforts immediately after the performance to determine whether to enter the document as a process or product portfolio inclusion, keeping in mind that the student’s extended nourishment of the plant is also conducive to assessment.
Social Studies
Following an initial discussion on the individual attributes of people, you may decide to pair your students so as to allow them to interview each other to obtain predetermined information. Following these interviews, you would meet with each individual to assess what he has learned about his partner; after which, the two of you could mutually determine whether to include the recorded assessment as an entry in the student’s portfolio.
SAMPLE: In groups of two, the students will interview each other to determine the following information about each other: first and last name; two favorite activities; best friend and why.
Following this discussion, you and your student could mutually decide whether to enter the scored rubric of his conversation as a portfolio inclusion. If agreed upon as an entry, the two of you could decide whether to include it as a growth or as a product entry.
English-Language Arts
Important to the student’s speaking and writing skills are her comprehension and use of the basic sentence types. Hence, the two of you could insert documentation of her ability to use these sentence types in her portfolio.
SAMPLE: When prompted by her teacher during a two-way conversation, the student will: make a statement; ask a question; give a command.
Following this conversation, you and your student may wish to consider your written assessment of the student’s performance for a representative portfolio process-or product- oriented entry, depending on the student’s performance.
Daily Living Skills
Virtually every time an individual looks at a face clock or watch, he is applying an important life skill that he has acquired and comprehended. Documentation of the ability to apply this important skill could be considered by student and teacher as a portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: When shown a face clock, the student will state its time within a one-minute degree of accuracy.
Depending on the number of attempts before meeting the standards of the objective, you and your student could consider documenting and then entering an unsuccessful attempt as a product entry.
Employability Training Skills
The ability to perform measurements is an important aspect of many vocations. To provide each student with opportunities to measure actual phenomena, neither you nor the student has to leave the classroom. Following the student’s measurement of classroom objects, the two of you may want to decide whether to enter evidence of the student’s performance in her portfolio.
SAMPLE: Presented with a twelve-foot tape measure, the student will measure the perimeter of the classroom within a five-inch margin of error.
Depending on the number of attempts needed for the student to meet the standards of the objective, you may discuss whether to include an unsuccessful attempt as a representative growth-oriented portfolio entry, preceding a successful attempt that could possibly be entered as a product-oriented sample.
ANALYSIS LEVEL : The ability to break down a unified whole into its basic parts and understand the relationship among these parts; determining cause and effect relationships; understanding analogies and metaphors.
Mathematics
The ability to compare and contrast phenomena and then rank according to a predetermined hierarchy is an analysis-level procedure. With this acknowledgement, you may wish to provide your student with the opportunity to perform this procedure with numbers.
SAMPLE: On a worksheet with five random columns of four, two-digit numbers, the student will total each and then rank and label each column from highest to lowest.
Since this object requires demonstration of the interdependent relationship between application (totaling the columns) and analysis (ranking the columns), you and your student could consider entering the assessed paper in his portfolio as either a representative growth or product inclusion, depending on the quality of the student’s performance.
Science
With the performance of classifying being an analysis-level behavior, you could determine to give your student the opportunity to classify animals according to their respective classes; after which the two of you could mutually consider including documentation of the student’s performance in his portfolio.
SAMPLE: When presented with ten flashcard pictures of mammals, reptiles, and amphibians, the student will place each n a stack that is commensurate with the animal’s respective class.
Your rubric for this assessment would include both criterion- (number correct) and temporally-based (time for completion) components. Then, depending on the quality of the student’s performance, the two of you could consider entering the scored rubric either as a growth or as a product portfolio inclusion.
Social Studies
Making comparisons to determine relative positions among phenomena is an analysis-level performance. With this in mind, you may want to assess your student’s ability to make comparisons among specified states on a map. Then, you and this student could consider entering her scored paper as a portfolio inclusion.
SAMPLE: When shown three, highlighted eastern states on a U.S. map, the student will determine which is closest to the Atlantic Ocean, and then orally relate her answer to her teacher.
Requiring a convergent answer obtained through an analytic procedure, this short-term objective could serve as a representative sample of the student’s analytical skills. Then, after reviewing the rubrically scored assessment of her performance, the two of you may consider including it either as a growth or as a process portfolio entry.
English-Language Arts
Comparing and contrasting different literature elections is an analysis-level activity. With this acceptance, you may decide to assess your student’s ability to make such analyses. Then, on the basis of the complexity of the activity, the two of you may consider the documentation of your student’s performance for a portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: In a conversation with her teacher following the reading of The Three Little Pigs (Moser, 2001) and The True Story of The 3 Little Pigs (Scieszka and Smith, 1996), the student will state three similarities and three differences between the two accounts of the story.
The rubrically scored assessment of the student’s analytic comparison of the two versions of the story could be mutually considered as a possible portfolio entry. Then, on the basis of the student’s performance, you can collectively decide to enter the recorded assessment of her performance either as a process-oriented or as a product-oriented portfolio inclusion.
Daily Living Skills
With the acknowledgement that a demonstrated understanding of cause and effect relationships is an analysis-level behavior, you may want to give your student the opportunity to determine how her own behavior can have personal consequences. Then, you and your student could examine the recorded assessment of her performance for possible entry into her portfolio.
SAMPLE: In a conversation with her teacher, the student will relate at least two personal consequences that could result from her swallowing unknown pills.
The understanding that one’s personal behavior can have detrimental effects is an important life skill. On this basis, the two of you may want to consider entering the scored rubric of her explanation of the consequences of swallowing the unknown pills as a portfolio inclusion. Then, depending on the quality of the student’s explanation, you could collectively consider including the document either as a process-oriented or as a product-oriented portfolio entry.
Employability Training Skills
Understanding the commonalities as well as the differences between tools is an essential employability training skill. With this understanding, you may want to give your student an authentic opportunity to determine such similarities and differences, after which you and your student could examine the assessed results of his determination as a possible portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: When shown a hammer, saw, screwdriver, and trowel, the student will tell her teacher: which tool is different and one reason why; and one commonality that the other three share.
This is an analysis-level objective in that it requires the classification of tools. Moreover, the student’s recorded performance could merit collective consideration as a possible process or product portfolio entry, depending on the quality of the student’s performance.
SYNTHESIS LEVEL: The assemblage of parts into a new whole; the formulation of a new hypothesis or plan of action; consulting a solution to an unfamiliar problem.
Mathematics
Understanding that the demonstrated ability to assemble parts into a new whole is a synthesis component, you may ask you student to demonstrate this ability with manipulatives; after which, the two of you could consider entering the documented assessment of the performance as a portfolio inclusion.
SAMPLE: Presented with separate assemblages of blue, red, and yellow chips, the student will demonstrate three ways to select chips from all three assortments to equal ten chips.
The rubric for this assignment could include both criterion (number correct) and time (time for completion) components. Then, following a collective examination of the scored rubric, you and your student could determine whether to enter it in the student’s portfolio. If mutually accepted as an entry, the two of you could then decide whether to include it as a growth or product entry.
Science
As part of a unit on the many facets of motion, you could decide to provide your student with the opportunity to use his creativity in constructing a device that demonstrates some of the concepts presented in class. Following the assessment of his project, the two of you could consider including the recorded assessment as a portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: Given aluminum foil, masking tape, a rubber band, and a Popsicle stick, as an out-of-class assignment, the student will use each of the materials to construct a boat that will self-propel at least five feet in a water filled gutter.
The scored rubric, highly detailed because of the complexity and demands of the objective, could be considered by you and your student as a possible portfolio entry. If selected, it could be entered as a growth or as a product inclusion, depending on the quality and date of the student’s performance.
Social Studies
Service learning is an essential component of most social studies curricula. Aware of this, you would want your student to become involved in such learning. Then, the two of you may consider the rubrically scored assessment of the student’s performance as an inclusion in her portfolio.
SAMPLE: In a conversation with her teacher, following earlier discussions on the aspects of service learning, the student will design a school clothing drive that will include: one means of publicizing the drive; provisions for depositing the collected clothing in school; and a method of distributing the clothing.
The complexity of this objective would necessitate a clearly defined and detailed rubric. Then, after examining the scored rubric, you and your student could decide to examine it for possible inclusion in the student’s portfolio. If accepted for inclusion, the two of you could then determine whether to enter it as a growth- or as a product-oriented inclusion, depending on the quality of the performance.
English Language Arts
Providing each student with opportunities to construct their own endings to stories is an effective means of enhancing their creativity. With this in mind, you could give your student a story to complete, according to specific criteria. Additionally, the inclusion of standards within this synthesis-level assignment enhances rather than inhibits the student’s creativity because it provides avenues for creativity that, otherwise, could have been unknown to the student. Hence, after the student’s performance has been assessed, you and she may consider the scored rubric as a possible inclusion in her portfolio.
SAMPLE: Presented with an unfinished story, read by her teacher, the student will construct an oral ending to the story that will include: two of the characters from the original story, and a happy ending.
After examining the rubrically scored assessment of the student’s performance, the two of you decide to consider it for either a process- or for a product-oriented entry in her portfolio, depending on the quality and date of the student’s performance.
Daily Living Skills
Self-enhancing leisure activities are important daily living skills. With this thought, you may decide to give your student the opportunity to develop creative leisure activities, while simultaneously honing his fine motor skills. Then, after assessing his performance, the two of you may consider entering the scored rubric as a portfolio inclusion.
SAMPLE: Presented with a pint milk carton, a can of icing, Graham crackers, jelly beans, club mints, sprinkles, decorating gel, and nonpareils, the student will construct a “gingerbread” house using at least some of each of the materials.
This project could possibly be assessed as an extended performance. Nevertheless, regardless of the time allotted for completion, you will want to assess the student’s performance on the basis of clearly defined and detailed rubric. Then, the two of you could decide whether to include the scored rubric as a process or product portfolio entry.
Employability Training Skills
Positive people skills are important in any vocation. With this awareness, you may want to present hypothetical workplace problems for your student to solve through a creative plan of action. Following your assessment of the student’s plan, you and she could decide to enter the rubrically scored assessment as a portfolio inclusion.
SAMPLE: Following a scenario, presented by the teacher, of an irate and confrontational customer harassing the student because her workplace does not have an item the customer wants, the student will devise a plan, for an oral presentation, that includes a technique that will calm the customer while simultaneously maintaining the dignity of the student.
After examining the scored rubric of her presentation, you and your student may wish to consider it as a portfolio growth or product entry, depending on the date and quality of the performance.
EVALUATION LEVEL: The ability to judge phenomenon on the basis of predetermined criteria or internal consistency.
Mathematics
You, the teacher, are fully aware that several methods can be used to solve the same problem. Deciding which method to use may involve a value judgment that is based on the student’s perception of her strengths and weaknesses. Allowing her to disclose these perceptions can enhance your instructional effectiveness. With this in mind, you may want to provide her with several methods from which to choose for solving a given problem. Then, the two of you can decide to examine the student’s documented reasoning for possible entry into her portfolio.
SAMPLE: After the teacher shows the student a rectangle with the length and width of its sides labeled, the student will determine whether to compute its perimeter by adding each of the four sides, multiplying the length and width by two and then adding the two products, etc., and then cite two reasons for his choice in a conversation with his teacher.
The rubrically scored assessment of the student’s explanation for his choice could provide valuable information for you, as well as for your student and his parents. Thus, you and your student could consider this document as a possible portfolio growth-oriented or product-oriented inclusion, depending on the student’s performance.
Science
Deciding on the comparative significance of inventions often involves value judgements. Understanding this, you may want to provide your student with the opportunities to make a comparative evaluation among the different inventions that he has studied. Then, after his evaluation has been assessed, the two of you may wish to consider it for possible portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: When presented with the names of three previously studied inventions, the student will select the one that he feels has made the most significant contribution, and then cite three reasons for his choice, in a conversation with his teacher.
Since even scientists disagree about the relative significance of inventions, you should not expect agreement among your students. Hence, you should assess your student on the reasoning for his choice. After which, you and he could determine whether to include the rubrically scored assessment in his portfolio, either as a process or as a product-level entry.
Social Studies
As documented daily by the media, there are numerous controversies regarding the performance of government officials, most of which are based on value judgements. With this in mind, you may wish to ask your student to evaluate the performance of given officials and then substantiate her position with factual information. After you have assessed her evaluation, the two of you can consider the scored rubric of her performance for inclusion in her portfolio.
SAMPLE: During a current events unit, the student will orally express her evaluation of the President’s performance and cite three factual reasons for her position.
It is important that you provide for the inclusion of factual information within your rubric. If the reasoning supplied by the student is based on fact, regardless of whether you agree or disagree with her position, you must take her rationale into consideration. Then, after you have discussed the scored rubric with your student, you may collectively consider entering it in her portfolio either as a growth or as a product level inclusion.
English-Language Arts
Agreement or disagreement with the literary treatment of certain subjects is often a reflection of our value judgements. Therefore, when you assess your student on his evaluation of literature content, make certain that you focus on the rationale of his position rather than on his position per se . In your subsequent discussion of the assessed rubric, you and your student could consider entering it in his portfolio.
SAMPLE: After a reading of Cinderella (Perrault, 1697), the student will determine whether she feels that Cinderella should have forgiven her stepsisters for the injustice they had inflicted on her, and present at least two oral explanations for her position.
This objective not only allows you to assess a value judgement made by your student, but it also provides certain insight into her personal value system. If the two of you decide to enter the scored rubric of her explanations in her portfolio, either as a growth or as a product inclusion, it could be an excellent reference source in a parent-teacher conference.
Life Skills
Sometimes social questions do not have pre-determined right or wrong answers. Instead, they may involve value judgements that are based on the individual’s personally predetermined criteria. Moreover, you should keep this in mind when you are presenting a social scenario to your student. Then, after you have assessed her answer, the two of you could examine the scored rubric of her performance for possible portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: Presented with the scenario of a rude department store clerk giving the student \$20.00 too much in change, the student will determine whether to keep the \$20.00 or return it, and give at least two oral reasons for his decision.
It is very important that you examine the student’s supporting reasons for his decision when you are assessing his performance. After you have assessed his performance, the two of you may consider entering the scored rubric as either a process or product portfolio inclusion.
Employability Training Skills
Resolutions of conflicts often involve value judgements, even in the workplace. On this premise, you may want to present your student with a hypothetical situation that necessitates a job-site value judgement; after which, the two of you could view the rubrically scored assessment of her performance as a possible portfolio entry.
SAMPLE: Given the situation of a co-worker friend’s continuing to short-change disabled individuals after repeated warnings, the student will determine whether to report him to the supervisor, and give at least two oral reasons for her choice.
The student’s performance on this assignment could provide you with valuable insight into her value priorities. When discussing her performance with her, the two of you could decide on the feasibility of including the rubrically scored assessment of her performance in her portfolio. If agreed to do so, it could be included either as a growth oriented or as a product-oriented entry, depending on the date and level of the student’s performance. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/07%3A_Portfolios/7.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
SUMMARY
Portfolio artifacts should be representative samples of both the curriculum and the student’s work, because the inclusion of unrepresentative curriculum samples or atypically best examples of work only serve to distort and mislead. You and each of your students should select representative samples from each of the six levels of the cognitive hierarchy for inclusion in each portfolio to give you, your student, and the parents a broader and more accurate picture of the student’s relative strengths and weaknesses. For example, you may learn that a student is having difficulty applying some of the concepts that were memorized because they were not comprehended.
Since learning should be a continual process, your students’ portfolios should reflect growth. To show this process, the portfolio should contain work samples that show processes as well as products. If your students take part in the selection of their portfolio inclusions, they can see the progress of their learning, and they can assume ownership of it as well.
Chapter 7 Resources
Arter, J.A. & Spandel, V. (1992). NCME instructional module: Using portfolios of student work in instruction and assessment. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 11 (1), 36-44.
Arter, J., Spandel, V., & Culham, R. (1995). Portfolios for assessment and instruction. ERIC Digest. Retrieved November 6, 2019 from https://www.ericdigests.org/1996-3/portfolios.htm.
Brookhart, S.M. (2008). Portfolio assessment. In T.L. Good (Ed.), 21 st century education: A reference handbook (Vol. 1, pp. 443-450). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Darling-Hammond, L., Ancess, J., & Falk, B. (1995). Authentic assessment in action: Studies of schools and students at work. New York: Teachers College Press.
LeMahieu, P.G., Gitomer, D.H., & Eresh, J. (1995). Portfolios in large-scale assessment: Difficult but not impossible. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practices, 13(3), 5-16.
Lorenzo, G. & Ittelson, J. (2005). An overview of E-portfolios. Boulder, CO: Educause. Retrieved November 6, 2019 from https://www.educause.edu.
Mills, M., & Wake, D. (2017). Empowering learners with mobile open-access learning initiatives. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Reese, M. & Levy, R. (2009). Assessing for the future: E-portfolio trends, uses, and options in higher education. Educause. Retrieved November 5, 2019 from https://www.educause.edu.
Renwick, M. (2014). Digital student portfolios: A whole school approach to connected learning and continuous assessment. Virginia Beach, VA: Powerful Learning Press.
Stecher, B. & Mitchell, K.J. (1995). Portfolio-driven reform: Vermont teachers’ understanding of mathematical problem solving and related changes in classroom practice. Los Angles: University of California, Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing. Retrieved November 6, 2019 from https://eric.ed.gov.
7.04: Professional Development Act
Professional Development Activities
In pairs according to subject area, review the definitions of the hierarchical levels. Now each of you write a couple of objectives for specific tasks, either paper-and-pencil or performance, for the different levels of the hierarchy. From these, together create a scenario of a student’s degree of fulfillment of each of these objectives.
Now you are ready to role-play before the group. Alternate the roles of the teacher and student in a discussion of whether each record of the student’s performance should be entered into the portfolio, and if so, whether it should be a process or a product work sample. Following each of the role-playing sessions, invite comments from the group.
Exercises
Write the letter of the best options in the blank beside the item.
______ 1. The cognitive level for setting up a VCR for use would be
A. Knowledge.
B. Comprehension.
C. Application.
D. Analysis.
______ 2. The performance of putting topsoil and planting seeds in a terrarium would be considered
A. Product
B. Process
C. Restricted
D. Both B and C
______ 3. Judging a gymnastic performance is usually done with
A. Check lists
B. Rating Scales
C. Holistic Scoring
D. Analytic Scoring
______ 4. The most reliable instrument would be the
A. Rating Scale
B. Check list
C. Essay Test
D. Multiple Choice Test
______ 5. Scoring biases are more likely to occur with
A. Holistic Scoring
B. Analytic Scoring
C. True-False Tests
D. Multiple Choice Tests
______ 6. A portfolio should primarily contain the student’s
A. Best works
B. Performance in the upper cognitive levels
C. Major test scores
D. None of the above
______ 7. The portfolio should serve as
A. A growth chart
B. A showcase
C. A barometer for student achievement
D. All of the above
______ 8. The best method for evaluating an individual’s performance over a 5-day work week
A. Check List
B. Rating Scale
C. Analytic Scoring
D. Holistic Scoring
______ 9. The best method for evaluating an actor’s performance in a play
A. Check list
B. Rating Scale
C. Analytic Scoring
D. Holistic Scoring
______ 10. The best instrument for diagnosing a particular learning disability in a student
A. Check List
B. Rating Scale
C. Analytic Scoring
D. Holistic Scoring
Over the grading period, you and your student will determine the cognitive level of the student’s portfolio in which to place each of the following samples of student’s work.
A. Knowledge
B. Comprehension
C. Application
D. Analysis
E. Synthesis
F. Evaluation
Portfolio Entries
______ 1. On a short-answer test, the student listed three similarities and three differences between the uniforms of Batman and Spider-Man.
______ 2. On a 10-item written test, the student answered six of ten single-digit addition problems.
______ 3. The student listed three reasons why she preferred basketball over soccer.
______ 4. On a 5-item test, the student correctly listed three synonyms for each word.
______ 5. On an in-class written assignment, the student used four of the five required vocabulary words in describing himself.
______ 6. On a 10-item written test, the student correctly defined six of the vocabulary words.
______ 7. As documented by your scoring sheet, your student read the directions and correctly assembled a five-piece model car within 10 minutes.
______ 8. As verified by your scoring sheet, your student assembled a ten-piece puzzle within a five-minute time period.
______ 9. When shown the numbers 5, 8, 11 in a work sheet, the student correctly wrote the numbers 14, 17, and 20.
______ 10. On a math worksheet containing 20 stated problems requiring the addition and subtraction of three-digit numbers, the student solved 16 correctly.
08: Conclusion
You have just learned that hierarchically constructed IEPs for students with mild disabilities will allow them to ascend through the entire Cognitive Domain (Bloom, 1956) in each of the four major content areas, as well as the daily living skills and employability training curricula. Indeed, there is no reason for their thought processes to be arrested at the lower levels.
In the course of this book, you have learned how to deconstruct national and CEC standards by first modifying them and then converting them into long-term and then measurable short-term objectives, with increasing specificity. You have seen how to write long-term objectives and then break them into measurable short-term objectives using Bloom et al.’s (1956) cognitive hierarchy in the four major content areas and in the daily living skills and employability training areas. In addition, you can now write a variety of test items that progressively ascend through the cognitive levels, and you are able to construct appropriate rubrics for the assessment of your students’ written and performance-based activities. Then, as a visible record of each of your students’ performances at the different levels of the hierarchy, you can together categorize their respective artifacts into hierarchically organized portfolios.
Sequential progression through the Cognitive Domain (Bloom, 1956) is the logical pathway for virtually any learner in any curricular area. This is equally true for students with mild disabilities. This model can provide your students with highly valued 21 st -century skills, regardless of which vocational paths they may later select (e.g., Gewertz, 2008). These skills, identified by respected representatives of the business, education, and policymaking communities, are measurable higher-order thinking skills sought after in virtually every field of employment (for more information on these skills, see www.21stcenturyskills.org ). Hence, because of your students’ progression through the cognitive domain, they should be able to make easy and successful transitions into their respective workplaces, were they can implement the higher-order through processes that they acquired via your direction. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Designing_and_Assessing_IEP_Instruction_for_Students_with_Mild_Disabilities_-_Using_the_Cognitive_Domain_(Christmann_et_al.)/07%3A_Portfolios/7.03%3A_Summary_References_and_Resou.txt |
A teacher named Ashley reflects: She looked around the classroom, enjoying a blessed moment of quiet after the students left at the end of the day. "Ashley, the teacher, that's me", she said proudly to the empty room. "But why am I doing this?" she asked herself quietly— and realized she wasn't always sure of the answer. But then she remembered one reason: she was teaching for Nadia, who sat at the table to the left, always smiled so well and always (well, usually) tried hard. And another reason: she was teaching for Lincoln, tired old Lincoln, who needed her help more than he realized. She remembered twenty other reasons— twenty other students. And one last reason: she was also teaching for herself challenging herself to see if she really could keep up with twenty-two young people at once, and really accomplish something worthwhile with them. She was teaching so she could keep growing as a person, keep connecting with others, keep learning new ideas. That's why she was teaching.
1.02: The Joys of Teaching
Why be a teacher? The short answer is easy:
• to witness the diversity of growth in young people, and their joy in learning
• to encourage lifelong learning—both for yourself and for others
• to experience the challenge of devising and doing interesting, exciting activities for the young
There is, of course, more than this to be said about the value of teaching. Consider, for instance, the "young people" referred to above. In one class they could be six years old; in another they could be sixteen, or even older. They could be rich, poor, or somewhere in between. They could come from any ethnic background. Their first language could be English, or something else. There are all sorts of possibilities. But whoever the particular students are, they will have potential as human beings: talents and personal qualities— possibly not yet realized— that can contribute to society, whether as leaders, experts, or supporters of others. A teacher's job— in fact a teacher's privilege— is to help particular "young people" to realize their potential.
Another teacher reflects: Nathan paused for a deep breath before speaking to me. "Lt's not like I expected it to be," he said. "I've got five kids who speak English as a second language. I didn't expect that. I've got two, maybe three, with reading disabilities, and one of them has a part-time aide. I've had to learn more about using computers than I ever expected— they're a lot of curriculum materials online now, and the computers help the kids that need more practice or who finish activities early. I'm doing more screening and testing of kids than I expected, and it all takes time away from teaching. “But it’s not all surprises. I expected to be able to ‘light a fire’ under kids about learning to read. And that has actually happened, at least sometimes with some children!”The joys of teaching
“But it’s not all surprises. I expected to be able to ‘light a fire’ under kids about learning to read. And that has actually happened, at least sometimes with some children!”
As a teacher, you will be able to do this by laying groundwork for lifelong learning. You will not teach any one student forever, of course, but you will often work with them long enough to convey a crucial message: that there is much in life to learn— more in fact than any one teacher or school can provide in a lifetime. The knowledge may be about science, math, or learning to read; the skills may be sports, music, or art— anything. Whatever you teach, its immensity can be a source of curiosity, wonder and excitement. It can be a reason to be optimistic about life in general and about your students in particular. Learning, when properly understood, is never-ending, even though it often focuses on short-term, immediate concerns. As a teacher, you will have an advantage not shared by every member of society, namely the excuse not only to teach valuable knowledge and skills, but to point students beyond what they will be able to learn from you. As an old limerick put it (before the days of gender-balanced language), "The world is full of such a plenty of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings."
Jennifer Fuller, a third teacher reflects: "OK", suddenly getting businesslike in her tone. "Here's my typical day teaching tenth grade: I get up at 6:30, have a quick breakfast, get to school by 7:45 if the traffic's not bad. Then I check my email— usually there's a little stuff from the principal or some other administrator, maybe one or two from parents concerned because their child is doing poorly in one of my classes, maybe one or two from students— "I'm going to be sick today, Ms Fuller!"— that sort of thing. Now it's 8:15 and I have two hours before my first class— this term I teach only biology, and I only teach periods 2, 3, and 5. Maybe I have marking to do before class, or maybe I have to get a lab demonstration ready. Or maybe we all have to troupe down to the library for a staff meeting (groan...). Whatever I don't finish in the morning, I have to finish after school. But that's also when I meet with the Ecology Club (I'm the faculty advisor), so I might have to finish stuff in the evening. I try not to do it then, but a lot of times I have to. But I always quit by 9:00— that's always when I watch TV for an hour, or just "vegetate " with a book."
Whatever you teach, you will be able to feel the satisfaction of designing and orchestrating complex activities that communicate new ideas and skills effectively. The challenge is attractive to many teachers, because that is where they exercise judgment and "artistry" the most freely and frequently. Your students will depend on your skill at planning and managing, though sometimes without realizing how much they do so. Teachers will need you to know how to explain ideas clearly, to present new materials in a sensible sequence and at an appropriate pace, to point out connections between their new learning and their prior experiences. Although these skills really take a lifetime to master, they can be practiced successfully even by beginning teachers, and they do improve steadily with continued teaching over time. Right from the start, though, skill at design and communication of curriculum is one of the major "perks" of the job.
The very complexity of classroom life virtually guarantees that teaching never needs to get boring. Something new and exciting is bound to occur just when you least expect it. A student shows an insight that you never expected to see— or fails to show one that you were sure he had. An activity goes better than expected— or worse, or merely differently. You understand for the first time why a particular student behaves as she does, and begin thinking of how to respond to the student's behavior more helpfully in the future. After teaching a particular learning objective several times, you realize that you understand it differently than the first time you taught it. And so on. The job never stays the same; it evolves continually. As long as you keep teaching, you will have a job with novelty.
1.03: Are There Also Challenges to Teaching
Here, too, the simple answer is "yes". Every joy of teaching has a possible frustration related to it. You may wish to make a positive difference in students' lives, but you may also have trouble reaching individuals. A student seems not to learn much, or to be unmotivated, or unfriendly, or whatever. And some teaching problems can be subtle: when you call attention to the wonderful immensity of an area of knowledge, you might accidentally discourage a student by implying that the student can never learn "enough". The complexity of designing and implementing instruction can sometimes seem overwhelming, instead of satisfying. Unexpected events in your classroom can become chaos rather than an attractive novelty. To paraphrase a popular self-help book, sometimes "bad things happen to good teachers" (Kushner, 1983). But as in the rest of life, the "bad things" of teaching do not negate the value of the good. If anything, the undesired events make the good, desired ones even more satisfying, and render the work of teaching all the more valuable. As you will see throughout this book, there are resources for maximizing the good, the valuable, and the satisfying. You can bring these resources to your work, along with your growing professional knowledge and a healthy dose of common sense. In this sense you will not need to "go it alone" in learning to teach well. You will, however, be personally responsible for becoming and remaining the best teacher that you can possibly be; the only person who can make that happen will be you. Many of the resources for making this happen are described in this book in the chapters ahead. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/01%3A__The_Changing_Teaching_Profession_and_You/1.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
In the past decade or two teaching has changed significantly, so much in fact that schools may not be what some of us remember from our own childhood. Changes have affected both the opportunities and the challenges of teaching, as well as the attitudes, knowledge, and skills needed to prepare for a teaching career. The changes have influenced much of the content of this book.
To see what we mean, look briefly at four new trends in education, at how they have changed what teachers do, and at how you will therefore need to prepare to teach:
• increased diversity: there are more differences among students than there used to be. Diversity has made teaching more fulfilling as a career, but also made more challenging in certain respects.
• * increased instructional technology: classrooms, schools, and students use computers more often today than in the past for research, writing, communicating, and keeping records. Technology has created new ways for students to learn (for example, this textbook would not be possible without Internet technology!). It has also altered how teachers can teach most effectively, and even raised issues about what constitutes "true" teaching and learning.
• greater accountability in education: both the public and educators themselves pay more attention than in the past to how to assess (or provide evidence for) learning and good quality teaching. The attention has increased the importance of education to the public (a good thing) and improved education for some students. But it has also created new constraints on what teachers teach and what students learn.
• increased professionalism of teachers: Now more than ever, teachers are able to assess the quality of their own work as well as that of colleagues, and to take steps to improve it when necessary. Professionalism improves teaching, but by creating higher standards of practice it also creates greater worries about whether particular teachers and schools are "good enough".
How do these changes show up in the daily life of classrooms? The answer depends partly on where you teach; circumstances differ among schools, cities, and even whole societies. Some clues about the effects of the trends on classroom life can be found, however, by considering one particular case— the changes happening in North America.
New trend #1: diversity in students
Students have, of course, always been diverse. Whether in the past or in the present day, students learn at unique paces, show unique personalities, and learn in their own ways. In recent decades, though, the forms and extent of diversity have increased. Now more than ever, teachers are likely to serve students from diverse language backgrounds, to serve more individuals with special educational needs, and to teach students either younger and older than in the past.
Language diversity
Take the case of language diversity. In the United States, about 40 million people, or 14 per cent of the population are Hispanic. About 20 per cent of these speak primarily Spanish, and approximately another 50 per cent speak only limited English (United States Census Bureau, 2005). The educators responsible for the children in this group need to accommodate instruction to these students somehow. Part of the solution, of course, is to arrange specialized second-language teachers and classes. But adjustment must also happen in "regular" classrooms of various grade levels and subjects. Classroom teachers must learn to communicate with students whose English language background is limited, at the same time that the students themselves are learning to use English more fluently (Pitt, 2005). Since relatively few teachers are Hispanic or speak fluent Spanish, the adjustments can sometimes be a challenge. Teachers must plan lessons and tasks that students actually understand. At the same time teachers must also keep track of the major learning goals of the curriculum. In Chapter 4 ("Student Diversity") and Chapter 10 ("Planning Instruction"), some strategies for doing so are described. As you gain experience teaching, you will no doubt find additional strategies and resources (Gebhard, 2006), especially if second-language learners become an important part of your classes.
Diversity of special educational needs
Another factor making classroom increasingly diverse has been the inclusion of students with disabilities into classrooms with non-disabled peers. In the United States the trend began in the 1970s, but accelerated with the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in 1975, and again when the Act was amended in 2004 (United States Government Printing Office, 2005). In Canada similar legislation was passed in individual provinces during the same general time period. The laws guarantee free, appropriate education for children with disabilities of any kind— whether the impairment is physical, cognitive, emotional, or behavioral. The laws also recognize that such students need special supports in order to learn or function effectively in a classroom with non-disabled peers, so they provide for special services (for example, teaching assistants) and procedures for making individualized educational plans for students with disabilities.
As a result of these changes, most American and Canadian teachers are likely to have at least a few students with special educational needs, even if they are not trained as special education teachers or have had no prior personal experience with people with disabilities. Classroom teachers are also likely to work as part of a professional team focused on helping these students to learn as well as possible and to participate in the life of the school. The trend toward inclusion is definitely new compared to circumstances just a generation or two ago. It raises new challenges about planning instruction (such as how is a teacher to find time to plan for individuals?), and philosophical questions about the very nature of education (such as what in the curriculum is truly important to learn?). These questions will come up again in Chapter 5, where we discuss teaching students with special educational needs.
Lifelong learning
The diversity of modern classrooms is not limited to language or disabilities. Another recent change has been the broadening simply of the age range of individuals who count as "students". In many nations of the world, half or most of all three- and four-year-olds attend some form of educational program, either part-time preschool or full- time child care (National Institute for Early Education Research, 2006). In North America some public school divisions have moved toward including nursery or preschool programs as a newer "grade level" preceding kindergarten. Others have expanded the hours of kindergarten (itself considered a "new" program early in the 20 th century) to span a full-day program.
The obvious differences in maturity between preschoolers and older children lead most teachers of the very young to use flexible, open-ended plans and teaching strategies, and to develop more personal or family-like relationships with their young "students" than typical with older students (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997). Just as important, though, are the educational and philosophical issues that early childhood education has brought to public attention. Some educational critics ask whether preschool and day care programs risk becoming inappropriate substitutes for families. Other educators suggest, in contrast, that teachers of older students can learn from the flexibility and open-ended approach common in early childhood education. For teachers of any grade level, it is a debate that cannot be avoided completely or permanently. In this book, it reappears in Chapter 3, where I discuss students' development— their major long-term, changes in skills, knowledge, and attitudes.
The other end of the age spectrum has also expanded. Many individuals take courses well into adulthood even if they do not attend formal university or college. Adult education, as it is sometimes called, often takes place in workplaces, but it often also happens in public high schools or at local community colleges or universities. Some adult students may be completing high school credentials that they missed earlier in their lives, but often the students have other purposes that are even more focused, such as learning a trade-related skill. The teachers of adult students have to adjust their instructional strategies and relationships with students so as to challenge and respect their special strengths and constraints as adults (Bash, 2005). The students' maturity often means that they have had life experiences that enhance and motivate their learning. But it may also mean that they have significant personal responsibilities— such as parenting or a full-time job— which compete for study time, and that make them impatient with teaching that is irrelevant to their personal goals or needs. These advantages and constraints also occur to a lesser extent among "regular" high school students. Even secondary school teachers must ask, how they can make sure that instruction does not waste students' time, and how they can make it truly efficient, effective, and valuable. Elsewhere in this book (especially in Chapters 9 through 11, about assessment and instruction), we discuss these questions from a number of perspectives.
New trend #2: using technology to support learning
For most teachers, "technology" means using computers and the Internet as resources for teaching and learning. These tools have greatly increased the amount and range of information available to students, even if their benefits have sometimes been exaggerated in media reports (Cuban, 2001). With the Internet, it is now relatively easy to access up-to-date information on practically any subject imaginable, often with pictures, video clips, and audio to accompany them. It would seem not only that the Internet and its associated technologies have the potential to transform traditional school-based learning, but also that they have in fact begun to do so.
For a variety of reasons, however, technology has not always been integrated into teachers' practices very thoroughly (Haertel & Means, 2003). One reason is practical: in many societies and regions, classrooms contain only one or two computers at most, and many schools have at best only limited access to the Internet. Waiting for a turn on the computer or arranging to visit a computer lab or school library limits how much students use the Internet, no matter how valuable the Internet may be. In such cases, furthermore, computers tend to function in relatively traditional ways that do not take full advantage of the Internet: as a word processor (a "fancy typewriter"), for example, or as a reference book similar to an encyclopedia.
Even so, single-computer classrooms create new possibilities and challenges for teachers. A single computer can be used, for example, to present upcoming assignments or supplementary material to students, either one at a time or small groups. In functioning in this way, the computer gives students more flexibility about when to finish old tasks or to begin new ones. A single computer can also enrich the learning of individual students with special interests or motivation. And it can provide additional review to students who need extra help. These changes are not dramatic, but they lead to important revisions in teachers' roles: they move teachers away from simply delivering information to students, and toward facilitating students' own constructions of knowledge.
A shift from "full-frontal teaching" to "guide on the side" becomes easier as the amount and use of computer and Internet technologies increases. If a school (or better yet, a classroom) has numerous computers with full Internet access, then students' can in principle direct their own learning more independently than if computers are scarce commodities. With ample technology available, teachers can focus much more on helping individuals in developing and carrying out learning plans, as well as on assisting individuals with special learning problems. In these ways a strong shift to computers and the Internet can change a teacher's role significantly, and make the teacher more effective.
But technology also brings some challenges, or even creates problems. It costs money to equip classrooms and schools fully: often that money is scarce, and may therefore mean depriving students of other valuable resources, like additional staff or additional books and supplies. Other challenges are less tangible. In using the Internet, for example, students need help in sorting out trustworthy information or websites from the "fluff, websites that are unreliable or even damaging (Seiter, 2005). Providing this help can sometimes be challenging even for experienced teachers. And some educational activities simply do not lend themselves to computerized learning— sports, for example, driver education, or choral practice. As a new teacher, therefore, you will need not only to assess what technologies are possible in your particular classroom, but also what will actually be assisted by new technologies. Then be prepared for your decisions to affect how you teach— the ways you work with students.
New trend #3: accountability in education
In recent years, the public and its leaders have increasingly expected teachers and students to be accountable for their work, meaning that schools and teachers are held responsible for implementing particular curricula and goals, and that students are held responsible for learning particular knowledge. The trend toward accountability has increased the legal requirements for becoming and (sometimes) remaining certified as a teacher. In the United States in particular, preservice teachers need more subject-area and education-related courses than in the past. They must also spend more time practice teaching than in the past, and they must pass one or more examinations of knowledge of subject matter and teaching strategies. The specifics of these requirements vary among regions, but the general trend— toward more numerous and "higher" levels of requirements— has occurred broadly throughout the English-speaking world. The changes obviously affect individuals' experiences of becoming a teacher— especially the speed and cost of doing so.
Public accountability has led to increased use of high-stakes testing, which are tests taken by all students in a district or region that have important consequences for students' further education (Fuhrman & Elmore, 2004). High-stakes tests may influence grades that students receive in courses or determine whether students graduate or continue to the next level of schooling. The tests are often a mixture of essay and structured-response questions (such as multiple-choice items), and raise important issues about what teachers should teach, as well as how (and whether) teachers should help students to pass the examinations. It also raises issues about whether high-stakes testing is fair to all students and consistent with other ideals of public education, such as giving students the best possible start in life instead of disqualifying them from educational opportunities. Furthermore, since the results of high-stakes tests are sometimes also used to evaluate the performance of teachers, schools, or school districts, insuring students' success on them becomes an obvious concern for teachers— one that affects instructional decisions on a daily basis. For this reason we discuss the purpose, nature, and effects of high-stakes tests in detail in Chapter 12.
New trend #4: increased professionalism of teachers
Whatever your reactions to the first three trends, it is important to realize that they have contributed to a fourth trend, an increase in professionalism of teachers. By most definitions, an occupation (like medicine or law— or in this case teaching) is a profession if its members take personal responsibility for the quality of their work, hold each other accountable for its quality, and recognize and require special training in order to practice it.
By this definition, teaching has definitely become more professional than in the past (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2005). Increased expectations of achievement by students mean that teachers have increased responsibility not only for their students' academic success, but also for their own development as teachers. Becoming a new teacher now requires more specialized work than in the past, as reflected in the increased requirements for certification and licensing in many societies and regions. The increased requirements are partly a response to the complexities created by the increasing diversity of students and increasing use of technology in classrooms.
Greater professionalism has also been encouraged by initiatives from educators themselves to study and improve their own practice. One way to do so, for example, is through action research (sometimes also called teacher research), a form of investigation carried out by teachers about their own students or their own teaching.
Action research studies lead to concrete decisions that improve teaching and learning in particular educational contexts (Mertler, 2006; Stringer, 2004). The studies can take many forms, but here are a few brief examples:
• How precisely do individual children learn to read? In an action research study, the teacher might observe and track one child's reading progress carefully for an extended time. From the observations she can get clues about how to help not only that particular child to read better, but also other children in her class or even in colleagues' classes.
• Does it really matter if a high school social studies teacher uses more, rather than fewer, open-ended questions? As an action of research study, the teacher might videotape his own lessons, and systematically compare students' responses to his open-ended questions compared to their responses to more closed questions (the ones with more fixed answers). The analysis might suggest when and how much it is indeed desirable to use open-ended questions.
• Can an art teacher actually entice students to take more creative risks with their drawings? As an action research study, the teacher might examine the students' drawings carefully for signs of visual novelty and innovation, and then see if the signs increase if she encourages novelty and innovation explicitly.
Table \(1\): Examples of action research projects
Two other, more complete examples of action research are summarized in Table \(1\). Although these examples, like many action research studies, resemble "especially good teaching practice", they are planned more thoughtfully than usual, carried out and recorded more systematically, and shared with fellow teachers more thoroughly and openly. As such, they yield special benefits to teachers as professionals, though they also take special time and effort. For now, the important point is that use of action research simultaneously reflects the increasing professionalism of teachers, but at the same time creates higher standards for teachers when they teach. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/01%3A__The_Changing_Teaching_Profession_and_You/1.04%3A_Teaching_Is_Different_from_in_the_Past.txt |
All things considered, then, times have changed for teachers. But teaching remains an attractive, satisfying, and worthwhile profession. The recent trends mean simply that you need to prepare for teaching differently than you might have in the past, and perhaps differently than your own school teachers did a generation ago. Fortunately, there are ways to do this. Many current programs in teacher education provide a balance of experiences in tune with current and emerging needs of teachers. They offer more time for practice teaching in schools, for example, and teacher education instructors often make deliberate efforts to connect the concepts and ideas of education and psychology to current best practices of education. These and other features of contemporary teacher education will make it easier for you to become the kind of teacher that you not only want to be, but also will need to be.
This book— about educational psychology and its relation to teaching and learning— can be one of your supports as you get started. To make it as useful as possible, we have written about educational psychology while keeping in mind the current state of teaching, as well as your needs as a unique future teacher. The text draws heavily on concepts, research and fundamental theories from educational psychology. But these are selected and framed around the problems, challenges, and satisfactions faced by teachers daily, and especially as faced by teachers new to the profession. We have selected and emphasized topics in proportion to two factors: (l) their importance as reported by teachers and other educational experts, and (2) the ability of educational psychology to comment on particular problems, challenges, and satisfactions helpfully.
There is a lot to learn about teaching, and much of it comes from educational psychology. As a career, teaching has distinctive features now that it did not have a generation ago. The new features make it more exciting in some ways, as well as more challenging than in the past. The changes require learning teaching skills that were less important in earlier times. But the new skills are quite learnable. Educational psychology, and this text, will get you started at that task.
1.06: Summary Key Words and References
Chapter summary
Teaching in the twenty-first century offers a number of satisfactions— witnessing and assisting the growth of young people, lifelong learning, the challenge and excitement of designing effective instruction. Four trends have affected the way that these satisfactions are experienced by classroom teachers: (l) increased diversity of students, (2) the spread of instructional technology in schools and classrooms, (3) increased expectations for accountability in education, and (4) the development of increased professionalism among teachers. Each trend presents new opportunities to students and teachers, but also raises new issues for teachers. Educational psychology, and this textbook, can help teachers to make constructive use of the new trends as well as deal with the dilemmas that accompany them. It offers information, advice, and useful perspectives specifically in three areas of teaching: (1) students as learners, (2) instruction and assessment, and (3) the psychological and social awareness of teachers.
On the Internet
Try this website of the Educational Testing Service if you are curious to learn more about licensing examinations for teachers, including the PRAXIS II test that is prominent in the United States (see pp. xxx). As you will see, specific requirements vary somewhat by state and region.
This is the website for the education branch of UNESCO, which is the abbreviation for the "United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization." It has extensive information and news about all forms of diversity in education, viewed from an international perspective. The challenges of teaching diverse classrooms, it seems, are not restricted to the United States, though as the new items on the website show, the challenges take different forms in different countries.
EdChange and the Council for Exceptional Students. These two websites have numerous resources about diversity for teachers from a North American (USA and Canada) perspective. They are both useful for planning instruction. The first one— maintained by a group of educators and calling itself EdChange— focuses on culturally related forms of diversity, and the second one— by the Council for Exceptional Children— focuses on children with special educational needs.
Key terms
Accountability in education Instructional technology
Action research Lifelong learning
Assessment Professionalism
Diversity Teacher research
High-stakes testing | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/01%3A__The_Changing_Teaching_Profession_and_You/1.05%3A_How_Educational_Psychology_Can_Help.txt |
When my son Michael was old enough to talk, and being an eager but naive dad, I decided to bring Michael to my educational psychology class to demonstrate to my students "how children learn". In one task I poured water from a tall drinking glass to a wide glass pie plate, which according to Michael changed the "amount" ofwatei — there was less now than it was in the pie plate. I told him that, on the contrary, the amount of water had stayed the same whether it was in the glass or the pie plate. He looked at me a bit strangely, but complied with my point of view— agreeing at first that, yes, the amount had stayed the same. But by the end of the class session he had reverted to his original position: there was less water, he said, when it was poured into the pie plate compared to being poured into the drinking glass. So much for demonstrating "learning"!
(Kelvin Seifert)
Learning is generally defined as relatively permanent changes in behavior, skills, knowledge, or attitudes resulting from identifiable psychological or social experiences. A key feature is permanence: changes do not count as learning if they are temporary. You do not "learn" a phone number if you forget it the minute after you dial the number; you do not "learn" to eat vegetables if you only do it when forced. The change has to last. Notice, though, that learning can be physical, social, or emotional as well as cognitive. You do not "learn" to sneeze simply by catching cold, but you do learn many skills and behaviors that are physically based, such as riding a bicycle or throwing a ball. You can also learn to like (or dislike) a person, even though this change may not happen deliberately.
Each year after that first visit to my students, while Michael was still a preschooler, I returned with him to my ed-psych class to do the same "learning demonstrations". And each year Michael came along happily, but would again fail the task about the drinking glass and the pie plate. He would comply briefly if I "suggested" that the amount of water stayed the same no matter which way it was poured, but in the end he would still assert that the amount had changed. He was not learning this bit of conventional knowledge, in spite of my repeated efforts.
But the year he turned six, things changed. When I told him it was time to visit my ed-psych class again, he readily agreed and asked: "Are you going to ask me about the water in the drinking glass and pie plate again?" I said yes, I was indeed planning to do that task again. "That's good", he responded, "because I know that the amount stays the same even after you pour it. But do you want me to fake it this time? For your students' sake?
2.02: Teachers' Perspectives on Learning
For teachers, learning usually refers to things that happen in schools or classrooms, even though every teacher can of course describe examples of learning that happen outside of these places. Even Michael, at age 6, had begun realizing that what counted as "learning" in his dad's educator-type mind was something that happened in a classroom, under the supervision of a teacher (me). For me, as for many educators, the term has a more specific meaning than for many people less involved in schools. In particular, teachers' perspectives on learning often emphasize three ideas, and sometimes even take them for granted: (l) curriculum content and academic achievement, (2) sequencing and readiness, and (3) the importance of transferring learning to new or future situations.
Viewing learning as dependent on curriculum
When teachers speak of learning, they tend to emphasize whatever is taught in schools deliberately, including both the official curriculum and the various behaviors and routines that make classrooms run smoothly. In practice, defining learning in this way often means that teachers equate learning with the major forms of academic achievement— especially language and mathematics— and to a lesser extent musical skill, physical coordination, or social sensitivity (Gardner, 1999, 2006). The imbalance occurs not because the goals of public education make teachers responsible for certain content and activities (like books and reading) and the skills which these activities require (like answering teachers' questions and writing essays). It does happen not (thankfully!) because teachers are biased, insensitive, or unaware that students often learn a lot outside of school.
A side effect of thinking of learning as related only to curriculum or academics is that classroom social interactions and behaviors become issues for teachers— become things that they need to manage. In particular, having dozens of students in one room makes it more likely that I, as a teacher, think of "learning" as something that either takes concentration (to avoid being distracted by others) or that benefits from collaboration (to take advantage of their presence). In the small space of a classroom, no other viewpoint about social interaction makes sense. Yet in the wider world outside of school, learning often does happen incidentally, "accidentally" and without conscious interference or input from others: I "learn" what a friend's personality is like, for example, without either of us deliberately trying to make this happen. As teachers, we sometimes see incidental learning in classrooms as well, and often welcome it; but our responsibility for curriculum goals more often focuses our efforts on what students can learn through conscious, deliberate effort. In a classroom, unlike in many other human settings, it is always necessary to ask whether classmates are helping or hindering individual students' learning.
Focusing learning on changes in classrooms has several other effects. One, for example, is that it can tempt teachers to think that what is taught is equivalent to what is learned— even though most teachers know that doing so is a mistake, and that teaching and learning can be quite different. If I assign a reading to my students about the Russian Revolution, it would be nice to assume not only that they have read the same words, but also learned the same content. But that assumption is not usually the reality. Some students may have read and learned all of what I assigned; others may have read everything but misunderstood the material or remembered only some of it; and still others, unfortunately, may have neither read nor learned much of anything. Chances are that my students would confirm this picture, if asked confidentially. There are ways, of course, to deal helpfully with such diversity of outcomes; for suggestions, see especially Chapter 10 and Chapter 11. But whatever instructional strategies I adopt, they cannot include assuming that what I teach is the same as what students understand or retain of what I teach.
Viewing learning as dependent on sequencing and readiness
The distinction between teaching and learning creates a secondary issue for teachers, that of educational readiness. Traditionally the concept referred to students' preparedness to cope with or profit from the activities and expectations of school. A kindergarten child was "ready" to start school, for example, if he or she was in good health, showed moderately good social skills, could take care of personal physical needs (like eating lunch or going to the bathroom unsupervised), could use a pencil to make simple drawings, and so on. Table \(1\) shows a similar set of criteria for determining whether a child is "ready" to learn to read (Copple & Bredekamp, 2006). At older ages (such as in high school or university), the term readiness is often replaced by a more specific term, prerequisites. To take a course in physics, for example, a student must first have certain prerequisite experiences, such as studying advanced algebra or calculus. To begin work as a public school teacher, a person must first engage in practice teaching for a period of time (not to mention also studying educational psychology!).
Table \(1\): Reading readiness in students vs in teachers
Signs of readiness in the child or student
Signs of readiness to teach reading
• productive (speaking) vocabulary of 5,000- 8,000 words
• child understands and uses complete sentences
• child’s questions tend to be relevant to the task at hand
• child’s correctly using most common grammatical constructions
• child can match some letters to some sounds
• child can string a few letters together to make a few simple words
• child can tell and retell stories, poems, and songs
• teacher answers children’s questions when possible
• teacher encourages child to find out more through other means in addition to asking teacher
• teacher asks questions designed to elaborate or expand child’s thinking
• teacher highlights letters and sounds in the classroom
• teacher provides lots of paper and marking tools
• teacher assists child with initial writing of letters
• teacher encourages children to enact stories, poems, and songs
Source: Copple & Bredekamp, 2006.
Note that this traditional meaning, of readiness as preparedness, focuses attention on students' adjustment to school and away from the reverse: the possibility that schools and teachers also have a responsibility for adjusting to students. But the latter idea is in fact a legitimate, second meaning for readiness: If 5-year-old children normally need to play a lot and keep active, then it is fair to say that their kindergarten teacher needs to be "ready" for this behavior by planning for a program that allows a lot of play and physical activity. If she cannot or will not do so (whatever the reason may be), then in a very real sense this failure is not the children's responsibility. Among older students, the second, teacher-oriented meaning of readiness makes sense as well. If a teacher has a student with a disability (for example, the student is visually impaired), then the teacher has to adjust her approach in appropriate ways— not simply expect a visually impaired child to "sink or swim". As you might expect, this sense of readiness is very important for special education, so I discuss it further in Chapter 5. But the issue of readiness also figures importantly whenever students are diverse (which is most of the time), so it also comes up in Chapter 5.
Viewing transfer as a crucial outcome of learning
Still another result of focusing the concept of learning on classrooms is that it raises issues of usefulness or transfer, which is the ability to use knowledge or skill in situations beyond the ones in which they are acquired. Learning to read and learning to solve arithmetic problems, for example, are major goals of the elementary school curriculum because those skills are meant to be used not only inside the classroom, but outside as well. We teachers intend, that is, for reading and arithmetic skills to "transfer", even though we also do our best to make the skills enjoyable while they are still being learned. In the world inhabited by teachers, even more than in other worlds, making learning fun is certainly a good thing to do, but making learning useful as well as fun is even better. Combining enjoyment and usefulness, in fact, is a "gold standard" of teaching: we generally seek it for students, even though we may not succeed at providing it all of the time. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/02%3A_The_Learning_Process/2.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Several ideas and priorities, then, affect how we teachers think about learning, including the curriculum, the difference between teaching and learning, sequencing, readiness, and transfer. The ideas form a "screen" through which to understand and evaluate whatever psychology has to offer education. As it turns out, many theories, concepts, and ideas from educational psychology do make it through the "screen" of education, meaning that they are consistent with the professional priorities of teachers and helpful in solving important problems of classroom teaching. In the case of issues about classroom learning, for example, educational psychologists have developed a number of theories and concepts that are relevant to classrooms, in that they describe at least some of what usually happens there and offer guidance for assisting learning. It is helpful to group the theories according to whether they focus on changes in behavior or in thinking. The distinction is rough and inexact, but a good place to begin. For starters, therefore, consider two perspectives about learning, called behaviorism (learning as changes in overt behavior) and constructivism, (learning as changes in thinking). The second category can be further divided into psychological constructivism (changes in thinking resulting from individual experiences), and social constructivism, (changes in thinking due to assistance from others). The rest of this chapter describes key ideas from each of these viewpoints. As I hope you will see, each describes some aspects of learning not just in general, but as it happens in classrooms in particular. So each perspective suggests things that you might do in your classroom to make students' learning more productive.
Behaviorism: changes in what students do
Behaviorism is a perspective on learning that focuses on changes in individuals' observable behaviors- changes in what people say or do. At some point we all use this perspective, whether we call it "behaviorism" or something else. The first time that I drove a car, for example, I was concerned primarily with whether I could actually do the driving, not with whether I could describe or explain how to drive. For another example: when I reached the point in life where I began cooking meals for myself, I was more focused on whether I could actually produce edible food in a kitchen than with whether I could explain my recipes and cooking procedures to others. And still another example— one often relevant to new teachers: when I began my first year of teaching, I was more focused on doing the job of teaching— on day-to-day survival— than on pausing to reflect on what I was doing.
Note that in all of these examples, focusing attention on behavior instead of on "thoughts" may have been desirable at that moment, but not necessarily desirable indefinitely or all of the time. Even as a beginner, there are times when it is more important to be able to describe how to drive or to cook than to actually do these things. And there definitely are many times when reflecting on and thinking about teaching can improve teaching itself. (As a teacher-friend once said to me: "Don't just do something; stand there!") But neither is focusing on behavior which is not necessarily less desirable than focusing on students' "inner" changes, such as gains in their knowledge or their personal attitudes. If you are teaching, you will need to attend to all forms of learning in students, whether inner or outward.
In classrooms, behaviorism is most useful for identifying relationships between specific actions by a student and the immediate precursors and consequences of the actions. It is less useful for understanding changes in students' thinking; for this purpose we need a more cognitive (or thinking-oriented) theory, like the ones described later in this chapter. This fact is not really a criticism of behaviorism as a perspective, but just a clarification of its particular strength or source of usefulness, which is to highlight observable relationships among actions, precursors and consequences. Behaviorists use particular terms (or "lingo", some might say) for these relationships. They also rely primarily on two basic images or models of behavioral learning, called respondent (or "classical") conditioning and operant conditioning. The names are derived partly from the major learning mechanisms highlighted by each type, which I describe next.
Respondent conditioning: learning new associations with prior behaviors
As originally conceived, respondent conditioning (sometimes also called classical conditioning) begins with the involuntary responses to particular sights, sounds, or other sensations (Lavond, 2003). When I receive an injection from a nurse or doctor, for example, I cringe, tighten my muscles, and even perspire a bit. Whenever a contented, happy baby looks at me, on the other hand, I invariably smile in response. I cannot help myself in either case; both of the responses are automatic. In humans as well as other animals, there is a repertoire or variety of such specific, involuntary behaviors. At the sound of a sudden loud noise, for example, most of us show a "startle" response— we drop what we are doing (sometimes literally!), our heart rate shoots up temporarily, and we look for the source of the sound. Cats, dogs and many other animals (even fish in an aquarium) show similar or equivalent responses.
Involuntary stimuli and responses were first studied systematically early in the twentieth-century by the Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov (1927). Pavlov's most well-known work did not involve humans, but dogs, and specifically their involuntary tendency to salivate when eating. He attached a small tube to the side of dogs' mouths that allowed him to measure how much the dogs salivated when fed (Exhibit 1 shows a photograph of one of Pavlov's dogs). But he soon noticed a "problem" with the procedure: as the dogs gained experience with the experiment, they often salivated before they began eating. In fact the most experienced dogs sometimes began salivating before they even saw any food, simply when Pavlov himself entered the room! The sight of the experimenter, which had originally been a neutral experience for the dogs, became associated with the dogs' original salivation response. Eventually, in fact, the dogs would salivate at the sight of Pavlov even if he did not feed them.
This change in the dogs' involuntary response, and especially its growing independence from the food as stimulus, eventually became the focus of Pavlov's research. Psychologists named the process respondent conditioning because it describes changes in responses to stimuli (though some have also called it "classical conditioning" because it was historically the first form of behavioral learning to be studied systematically). Respondent conditioning has several elements, each with a special name. To understand these, look at and imagine a dog (perhaps even mine, named Ginger) prior to any conditioning. At the beginning Ginger salivates (an unconditioned response (UR)) only when she actually tastes her dinner (an unconditioned stimulus (US)). As time goes by, however, a neutral stimulus— such as the sound of opening a bag containing fresh dog food —is continually paired with the eating/tasting experience. Eventually the neutral stimulus becomes able to elicit salivation even before any dog food is offered to Ginger, or even if the bag of food is empty! At this point the neutral stimulus is called a conditioned stimulus (UCS) and the original response is renamed as a conditioned response (CR). Now, after conditioning, Ginger salivates merely at the sound of opening any large bag, regardless of its contents. (I might add that Ginger also engages in other conditioned responses, such as looking hopeful and following me around the house at dinner time.)
Respondent Conditioning and Students
"OK," you may be thinking, "Respondent conditioning may happen to animals. But does anything like it happen in classrooms?" It might seem like not much would, since teaching is usually about influencing students' conscious words and thoughts, and not their involuntary behaviors. But remember that schooling is not just about encouraging thinking and talking. Teachers, like parents and the public, also seek positive changes in students' attitudes and feelings— attitudes like a love for learning, for example, and feelings like self-confidence. It turns out that respondent conditioning describes these kinds of changes relatively well.
Consider, for example, a child who responds happily whenever meeting a new person who is warm and friendly, but who also responds cautiously or at least neutrally in any new situation. Suppose further that the "new, friendly person" in question is you, his teacher. Initially the child's response to you is like an unconditioned stimulus: you smile (the unconditioned stimulus) and in response he perks up, breathes easier, and smiles (the unconditioned response). This exchange is not the whole story, however, but merely the setting for an important bit of behavior change: suppose you smile at him while standing in your classroom, a "new situation" and therefore one to which he normally responds cautiously. Now respondent learning can occur. The initially neutral stimulus (your classroom) becomes associated repeatedly with the original unconditioned stimulus (your smile) and the child's unconditioned response (his smile). Eventually, if all goes well, the classroom becomes a conditioned stimulus in its own right: it can elicit the child's smiles and other "happy behaviors" even without your immediate presence or stimulus. Exhibit 2 diagrams the situation graphically. When the change in behavior happens, you might say that the child has "learned" to like being in your classroom. Truly a pleasing outcome for both of you!
Exhibit \(2\): Respondent conditioning of student to classroom
Before Conditioning:
(UCS) Seeing Teacher Smile Student Smiles (UR) (UCS) Seeing Classroom No response (UR)
During Conditioning:
Seeing Teaching Smile + Seeing Classroom Student Smiles
After Conditioning:
(CS) Seeing Classroom Student Smiles (CR)
Exhibit \(2\): Respondent conditioning of student to classroom. Before conditioning, the student smiles only when he sees the teacher smile, and the sight of the classroom has no effect. After conditioning, the student smiles at the sight of the classroom even without the teacher present.
But less positive or desirable examples of respondent conditioning also can happen. Consider a modification of the example that I just gave. Suppose the child that I just mentioned did nor have the good fortune of being placed in your classroom. Instead he found himself with a less likeable teacher, whom we could simply call Mr Horrible. Instead of smiling a lot and eliciting the child's unconditioned "happy response", Mr Horrible often frowns and scowls at the child. In this case, therefore, the child's initial unconditioned response is negative: whenever Mr Horrible directs a frown or scowl at the child, the child automatically cringes a little, his eyes widen in fear, and his heart beat races. If the child sees Mr Horrible doing most of his frowning and scowling in the classroom, eventually the classroom itself will acquire power as a negative conditioned stimulus. Eventually, that is, the child will not need Mr Horrible to be present in order to feel apprehensive; simply being in the classroom will be enough. Exhibit 3 diagrams this unfortunate situation. Obviously it is an outcome to be avoided, and in fact does not usually happen in such an extreme way. But hopefully it makes the point: any stimulus that is initially neutral, but that gets associated with an unconditioned stimulus and response, can eventually acquire the ability to elicit the response by itself. Anything— whether it is desirable or not.
Exhibit \(3\): Respondent conditioning of student to classroom
Before Conditioning:
( UCS) Mr Horrible Frowns Student Cringes (UCR)
Mr Horrible’s Classroom No response
During Conditioning:
Mr Horrible Frowns + Sight of Classroom Student Cringes
After Conditioning:
( CS) Seeing Classroom Student Cringes ( CR)
Exhibit \(3\): Respondent conditioning of student to classroom. Before conditioning, the student cringes only when he sees Mr Horrible smile, and the sight of the classroom has no effect. After conditioning, the student cringes at the sight of the classroom even without Mr Horrible present.
The changes described in these two examples are important because they can affect students' attitude about school, and therefore also their motivation to learn. In the positive case, the child becomes more inclined to please the teacher and to attend to what he or she has to offer; in the negative case, the opposite occurs. Since the changes in attitude happen "inside" the child, they are best thought of as one way that a child can acquire i intrinsic motivation, meaning a desire or tendency to direct attention and energy in a particular way that originates from the child himself or herself. Intrinsic motivation is sometimes contrasted to extrinsic motivation, a tendency to direct attention and energy that originates from outside of the child. As we will see, classical conditioning can influence students' intrinsic motivation in directions that are either positive or negative. As you might suspect, there are other ways to influence motivation as well. Many of these are described in Chapter 6 ("Student motivation"). First, though, let us look at three other features of classical conditioning that complicate the picture a bit, but also render conditioning a bit more accurate, an appropriate description of students' learning.
Three key ideas about respondent conditioning
Extinction: This term does not refer to the fate of dinosaurs, but to the disappearance of a link between the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response. Imagine a third variation on the conditioning "story" described above. Suppose, as I suggested above, that the child begins by associating your happy behaviors— your smiles— to his being present in the classroom, so that the classroom itself becomes enough to elicit his own smiles. But now suppose there is a sad turn of events: you become sick and must therefore leave the classroom in the middle of the school year. A substitute is called in who is not Mr Horrible, but simply someone who is not very expressive, someone we can call Ms Neutral. At first the child continues to feel good (that is, to smile) whenever present in the classroom. But because the link between the classroom and your particular smile is no longer repeated or associated, the child's response gradually extinguishes, or fades until it has disappeared entirely. In a sense the child's initial learning is "unlearned".
Extinction can also happen with negative examples of classical conditioning. If Mr Horrible leaves mid-year (perhaps because no one could stand working with him any longer!), then the child's negative responses (cringing, eyes widening, heart beat racing, and so on) will also extinguish eventually. Note, though, that whether the conditioned stimulus is positive or negative, extinction does not happen suddenly or immediately, but unfolds over time. This fact can sometimes obscure the process if you are a busy teacher attending to many students.
Generalization: When Pavlov studied conditioning in dogs, he noticed that the original conditioned stimulus was not the only neutral stimulus that elicited the conditioned response. If he paired a particular bell with the sight of food, for example, so that the bell became a conditioned stimulus for salivation, then it turned out that other bells, perhaps with a different pitch or type or sound, also acquired some ability to trigger salivation— though not as much as the original bell. Psychologists call this process generalization, or the tendency for similar stimuli to elicit a conditioned response. The child being conditioned to your smile, for example, might learn to associate your smile not only with being present in your classroom, but also to being present in other, similar classrooms. His conditioned smiles may be strongest where he learned them initially (that is, in your own room), but nonetheless visible to a significant extent in other teachers' classrooms. To the extent that this happens, he has generalized his learning. It is of course good news; it means that we can say that the child is beginning to "learn to like school" in general, and not just your particular room. Unfortunately, the opposite can also happen: if a child learns negative associations from Mr Horrible, the child's fear, caution, and stress might generalize to other classrooms as well. The lesson for teachers is therefore clear: we have a responsibility, wherever possible, to make classrooms pleasant places to be.
Discrimination: Generalization among similar stimuli can be reduced if only one of the similar stimuli is associated consistently with the unconditioned response, while the others are not. When this happens, psychologists say that discrimination learning has occurred, meaning that the individual has learned to distinguish or respond differently to one stimulus than to another. From an educational point of view, discrimination learning can be either desirable or not, depending on the particulars of the situation. Imagine again (for the fourth time!) the child who learns to associate your classroom with your smiles, so that he eventually produces smiles of his own whenever present in your room. But now imagine yet another variation on his story: the child is old enough to attend middle school, and therefore has several teachers across the day. You— with your smiles— are one, but so are Mr Horrible and Ms Neutral. At first the child may generalize his classically conditioned smiles to the other teachers' classrooms. But the other teachers do not smile like you do, and this fact causes the child's smiling to extinguish somewhat in their rooms. Meanwhile, you keep smiling in your room. Eventually the child is smiling only in your room and not in the other rooms. When this happens, we say that discrimination has occurred, meaning that the conditioned associations happen only to a single version of the unconditioned stimuli— in this case, only to your smiles, and not to the (rather rare) occurrences of smiles in the other classrooms. Judging by his behavior, the child is making a distinction between your room and others.
In one sense the discrimination in this story is unfortunate in that it prevents the child from acquiring a liking for school that is generalized. But notice that an opposing, more desirable process is happening at the same time: the child is also prevented from acquiring a generalized dislike of school. The fear-producing stimuli from Mr Horrible, in particular, become discriminated from the happiness-producing smiles from you, so the child's learns to confine his fearful responses to that particular classroom, and does not generalize them to other "innocent" classrooms, including your own. This is still not an ideal situation for the student, but maybe it is more desirable than disliking school altogether.
Operant conditioning : new behaviors because of new consequences
Instead of focusing on associations between stimuli and responses, operant conditioning focuses on how the effects of consequences on behaviors. The operant model of learning begins with the idea that certain consequences tend to make certain behaviors happen more frequently. If I compliment a student for a good comment during a discussion, there is more of a chance that I will hear comments from the student more often in the future (and hopefully they will also be good ones!). If a student tells a joke to several classmates and they laugh at it, then the student is more likely to tell additional jokes in the future and so on.
As with respondent conditioning, the original research about this model of learning was not done with people, but with animals. One of the pioneers in the field was a Harvard professor named B. F. Skinner, who published numerous books and articles about the details of the process and who pointed out many parallels between operant conditioning in animals and operant conditioning in humans (1938, 1948, 1988). Skinner observed the behavior of rather tame laboratory rats (not the unpleasant kind that sometimes live in garbage dumps). He or his assistants would put them in a cage that contained little except a lever and a small tray just big enough to hold a small amount of food. (Exhibit 4 shows the basic set-up, which is sometimes nicknamed a "Skinner box".) At first the rat would sniff and "putter around" the cage at random, but sooner or later it would happen upon the lever and eventually happen to press it. Presto! The lever released a small pellet of food, which the rat would promptly eat. Gradually the rat would spend more time near the lever and press the lever more frequently, getting food more frequently. Eventually it would spend most of its time at the lever and eating its fill of food. The rat had "discovered" that the consequence of pressing the level was to receive food. Skinner called the changes in the rat's behavior an example of operant conditioning, and gave special names to the different parts of the process. He called the food pellets the reinforcement and the lever-pressing the operant (because it "operated" on the rat's environment). See below.
Exhibit \(4\): Operant conditioning with a laboratory rat.
OperantReinforcement
Press lever → Food pellet
Skinner and other behavioral psychologists experimented with using various reinforcers and operants. They also experimented with various patterns of reinforcement (or schedules of reinforcement), as well as with various cues or signals to the animal about when reinforcement was available. It turned out that all of these factors— the operant, the reinforcement, the schedule, and the cues— affected how easily and thoroughly operant conditioning occurred. For example, reinforcement was more effective if it came immediately after the crucial operant behavior, rather than being delayed, and reinforcements that happened intermittently (only part of the time) caused learning to take longer, but also caused it to last longer.
Operant conditioning and students' learning: As with respondent conditioning, it is important to ask whether operant conditioning also describes learning in human beings, and especially in students in classrooms. On this point the answer seems to be clearly "yes". There are countless classroom examples of consequences affecting students' behavior in ways that resemble operant conditioning, although the process certainly does not account for all forms of student learning (Alberto & Troutman, 2005). Consider the following examples. In most of them the operant behavior tends to become more frequent on repeated occasions:
• A seventh-grade boy makes a silly face (the operant) at the girl sitting next to him. Classmates sitting around them giggle in response (the reinforcement).
• A kindergarten child raises her hand in response to the teacher's question about a story (the operant). The teacher calls on her and she makes her comment (the reinforcement). • Another kindergarten child blurts out her comment without being called on (the operant). The teacher frowns, ignores this behavior, but before the teacher calls on a different student, classmates are listening attentively (the reinforcement) to the student even though he did not raise his hand as he should have.
• A twelfth-grade student— a member of the track team— runs one mile during practice (the operant). He notes the time it takes him as well as his increase in speed since joining the team (the reinforcement).
• A child who is usually very restless sits for five minutes doing an assignment (the operant). The teaching assistant compliments him for working hard (the reinforcement).
• A sixth-grader takes home a book from the classroom library to read overnight (the operant). When she returns the book the next morning, her teacher puts a gold star by her name on a chart posted in the room (the reinforcement).
Hopefully these examples are enough to make four points about operant conditioning. First, the process is widespread in classrooms— probably more widespread than respondent conditioning. This fact makes sense, given the nature of public education: to a large extent, teaching is about making certain consequences for students (like praise or marks) depend on students' engaging in certain activities (like reading certain material or doing assignments). Second, learning by operant conditioning is not confined to any particular grade, subject area, or style of teaching, but by nature happens in nearly every imaginable classroom. Third, teachers are not the only persons controlling reinforcements. Sometimes they are controlled by the activity itself (as in the track team example), or by classmates (as in the "giggling" example). A result of all of the above points is the fourth: that multiple examples of operant conditioning often happen at the same time. The skill builder for this chapter (The decline and fall of Jane Gladstone) suggests how this happened to someone completing student teaching.
Because operant conditioning happens so widely, its effects on motivation are a bit more complex than the effects of respondent conditioning. As in respondent conditioning, operant conditioning can encourage intrinsic motivation to the extent that the reinforcement for an activity can sometimes be the activity itself. When a student reads a book for the sheer enjoyment of reading, for example, he is reinforced by the reading itself; then we often say that his reading is "intrinsically motivated". More often, however, operant conditioning stimulates both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation at the same time. The combining of both is noticeable in the examples that I listed above. In each example, it is reasonable to assume that the student felt intrinsically motivated to some partial extent, even when reward came from outside the student as well. This was because part of what reinforced their behavior was the behavior itself— whether it was making faces, running a mile, or contributing to a discussion. At the same time, though, note that each student probably was also extrinsically motivated, meaning that another part of the reinforcement came from consequences or experiences not inherently part of the activity or behavior itself. The boy who made a face was reinforced not only by the pleasure of making a face, for example, but also by the giggles of classmates. The track student was reinforced not only by the pleasure of running itself, but also by knowledge of his improved times and speeds. Even the usually restless child sitting still for five minutes may have been reinforced partly by this brief experience of unusually focused activity, even if he was also reinforced by the teacher aide's compliment. Note that the extrinsic part of the reinforcement may sometimes be more easily observed or noticed than the intrinsic part, which by definition may sometimes only be experienced within the individual and not also displayed outwardly. This latter fact may contribute to an impression that sometimes occurs, that operant conditioning is really just "bribery in disguise", that only the external reinforcements operate on students' behavior. It is true that external reinforcement may sometimes alter the nature or strength of internal (or intrinsic) reinforcement, but this is not the same as saying that it destroys or replaces intrinsic reinforcement. But more about this issue later! (See especially Chapter 6, "Student motivation".)
Comparing operant conditioning and respondent conditioning: Operant conditioning is made more complicated, but also more realistic, by many of the same concepts as used in respondent conditioning. In most cases, however, the additional concepts have slightly different meanings in each model of learning. Since this circumstance can make the terms confusing, let me explain the differences for three major concepts used in both models— extinction, generalization, and discrimination. Then I will comment on two additional concepts- schedules of reinforcement and cues— that are sometimes also used in talking about both forms of conditioning, but that are important primarily for understanding operant conditioning. See also the table in the previous section
Table \(1\): Comparison of terms common to operant and respondent conditioning
Term
As defined in respondent conditioning
As defined in operant conditioning
Extinction
Disappearance of an association between a conditioned stimulus and a conditioned response
Disappearance of the operant behavior due to lack of reinforcement
Generalization
Ability of stimulus similar to the conditioned stimulus to elicit the conditioned response
Tendency of behaviors similar to operant to be conditioned along with the original operant
Discrimination
Learning not to respond to stimuli that are similar to the originally conditioned stimulus
Learning not to emit behaviors that are similar to the originally conditioned operant
Schedule of Reinforcement
The pattern or frequency by which a CS is paired with the UCS during learning
The pattern or frequency by which a reinforcement is a consequence of an operant during learning
Cue
Not applicable
Stimulus prior to the operant that signals the availability or not of reinforcement
In both respondent and operant conditioning, extinction refers to the disappearance of "something". In operant conditioning, what disappears is the operant behavior because of a lack of reinforcement. A student who stops receiving gold stars or compliments for prolific reading of library books, for example, may extinguish (i.e. decrease or stop) book-reading behavior. In respondent conditioning, on the other hand, what disappears is association between the conditioned stimulus (the CS) and the conditioned response (CR). If you stop smiling at a student, then the student may extinguish her association between you and her pleasurable response to your smile, or between your classroom and the student's pleasurable response to your smile.
In both forms of conditioning, generalization means that something "extra" gets conditioned if it is somehow similar to "something". In operant conditioning, the extra conditioning is to behaviors similar to the original operant. If getting gold stars results in my reading more library books, then I may generalize this behavior to other similar activities, such as reading the newspaper, even if the activity is not reinforced directly. In respondent conditioning, however, the extra conditioning refers to stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus. If I am a student and I respond happily to my teacher's smiles, then I may find myself responding happily to other people (like my other teachers) to some extent, even if they do not smile at me. Generalization is a lot like the concept of transfer that I discussed early in this chapter, in that it is about extending prior learning to new situations or contexts. From the perspective of operant conditioning, though, what is being extended (or "transferred" or generalized) is a behavior, not knowledge or skill.
In both forms of conditioning, discrimination means learning not to generalize. In operant conditioning, though, what is not being overgeneralized is the operant behavior. If I am a student who is being complimented (reinforced) for contributing to discussions, I must also learn to discriminate when to make verbal contributions from when not to make verbal contributions— such as when classmates or the teacher are busy with other tasks. In respondent conditioning, what are not being overgeneralized are the conditioned stimuli that elicit the conditioned response. If I, as a student, learn to associate the mere sight of a smiling teacher with my own happy, contented behavior, then I also have to learn not to associate this same happy response with similar, but slightly different sights, such as a teacher looking annoyed.
In both forms of conditioning, the schedule of reinforcement refers to the pattern or frequency by which "something" is paired with "something else". In operant conditioning, what is being paired is the pattern by which reinforcement is linked with the operant. If a teacher praises me for my work, does she do it every time, or only sometimes? Frequently or only once in awhile? In respondent conditioning, however, the schedule in question is the pattern by which the conditioned stimulus is paired with the unconditioned stimulus. If I am student with Mr Horrible as my teacher, does he scowl every time he is in the classroom, or only sometimes? Frequently or rarely?
Behavioral psychologists have studied schedules of reinforcement extensively (for example, Ferster, et al., 1997; Mazur, 2005), and found a number of interesting effects of different schedules. For teachers, however, the most important finding may be this: partial or intermittent schedules of reinforcement generally cause learning to take longer, but also cause extinction of learning to take longer. This dual principle is important for teachers because so much of the reinforcement we give is partial or intermittent. Typically, if I am teaching, I can compliment a student a lot of the time, for example, but there will inevitably be occasions when I cannot do so because I am busy elsewhere in the classroom. For teachers concerned both about motivating students and about minimizing inappropriate behaviors, this is both good news and bad. The good news is that the benefits of my praising students' constructive behavior will be more lasting, because they will not extinguish their constructive behaviors immediately if I fail to support them every single time they happen. The bad news is that students' negative behaviors may take longer to extinguish as well, because those too may have developed through partial reinforcement. A student who clowns around inappropriately in class, for example, may not be "supported" by classmates' laughter every time it happens, but only some of the time. Once the inappropriate behavior is learned, though, it will take somewhat longer to disappear even if everyone— both teacher and classmates— make a concerted effort to ignore (or extinguish) it.
Finally, behavioral psychologists have studied the effects of cues. In operant conditioning, a cue is a stimulus that happens just prior to the operant behavior and that signals that performing the behavior may lead to reinforcement. Its effect is much like discrimination learning in respondent conditioning, except that what is "discriminated" in this case is not a conditioned behavior that is reflex-like, but a voluntary action, the operant. In the original conditioning experiments, Skinner's rats were sometimes cued by the presence or absence of a small electric light in their cage. Reinforcement was associated with pressing a lever when, and only when, the light was on. In classrooms, cues are sometimes provided by the teacher or simply by the established routines of the class. Calling on a student to speak, for example, can be a cue that if the student does say something at that moment, then he or she may be reinforced with praise or acknowledgment. But if that cue does not occur— if the student is not called on— speaking may not be rewarded. In more everyday, non-behaviorist terms, the cue allows the student to learn when it is acceptable to speak, and when it is not.
Constructivism: changes in how students think
Behaviorist models of learning may be helpful in understanding and influencing what students do, but teachers usually also want to know what students are thinking, and how to enrich what students are thinking. For this goal of teaching, some of the best help comes from constructivism, which is a perspective on learning focused on how students actively create (or "construct") knowledge out of experiences. Constructivist models of learning differ about how much a learner constructs knowledge independently, compared to how much he or she takes cues from people who may be more of an expert and who help the learner's efforts (Fosnot, 2005; Rockmore, 2005). For convenience these are called psychological constructivism and social constructivism, even though both versions are in a sense explanations about thinking within individuals.
Psychological constructivism: the independent investigator
The main idea of psychological constructivism is that a person learns by mentally organizing and reorganizing new information or experiences. The organization happens partly by relating new experiences to prior knowledge that is already meaningful and well understood. Stated in this general form, individual constructivism is sometimes associated with a well-known educational philosopher of the early twentieth century, John Dewey (1938-1998). Although Dewey himself did not use the term constructivism in most of his writing, his point of view amounted to a type of constructivism, and he discussed in detail its implications for educators. He argued, for example, that if students indeed learn primarily by building their own knowledge, then teachers should adjust the curriculum to fit students' prior knowledge and interests as fully as possible. He also argued that a curriculum could only be justified if it related as fully as possible to the activities and responsibilities that students will probably have later, after leaving school. To many educators these days, his ideas may seem merely like good common sense, but they were indeed innovative and progressive at the beginning of the twentieth century.
A more recent example of psychological constructivism is the cognitive theory of Jean Piaget (Piaget, 2001; Gruber & Voneche, 1995). Piaget described learning as interplay between two mental activities that he called assimilation and accommodation. Assimilation is the interpretation of new information in terms of pre-existing concepts, information or ideas. A preschool child who already understands the concept of bird, for example, might initially label any flying object with this term— even butterflies or mosquitoes. Assimilation is therefore a bit like the idea of generalization in operant conditioning, or the idea of transfer described at the beginning of this chapter. In Piaget's viewpoint, though, what is being transferred to a new setting is not simply a behavior (Skinner's "operant" in operant conditioning), but a mental representation for an object or experience.
Assimilation operates jointly with accommodation, which is the revision or modification of pre-existing concepts in terms of new information or experience. The preschooler who initially generalizes the concept of bird to include any flying object, for example, eventually revises the concept to include only particular kinds of flying objects, such as robins and sparrows, and not others, like mosquitoes or airplanes. For Piaget, assimilation and accommodation work together to enrich a child's thinking and to create what Piaget called cognitive equilibrium, which is a balance between reliance on prior information and openness to new information. At any given time, cognitive equilibrium consists of an ever-growing repertoire of mental representations for objects and experiences. Piaget called each mental representation a schema (all of them together— the plural— was called schemata). A schema was not merely a concept, but an elaborated mixture of vocabulary, actions, and experience related to the concept. A child's schema for bird, for example, includes not only the relevant verbal knowledge (like knowing how to define the word "bird"), but also the child's experiences with birds, pictures of birds, and conversations about birds. As assimilation and accommodation about birds and other flying objects operate together over time, the child does not just revise and add to his vocabulary (such as acquiring a new word, "butterfly"), but also adds and remembers relevant new experiences and actions. From these collective revisions and additions the child gradually constructs whole new schemata about birds, butterflies, and other flying objects. In more everyday (but also less precise) terms, Piaget might then say that "the child has learned more about birds".
The upper part of Exhibit 5 diagrams the relationships among the Piagetian version of psychological constructivist learning. Note that the model of learning in the Exhibit is rather "individualistic", in the sense that it does not say much about how other people involved with the learner might assist in assimilating or accommodating information. Parents and teachers, it would seem, are left lingering on the sidelines, with few significant responsibilities for helping learners to construct knowledge. But the Piagetian picture does nonetheless imply a role for helpful others: someone, after all, has to tell or model the vocabulary needed to talk about and compare birds from airplanes and butterflies! Piaget did recognize the importance of helpful others in his writings and theorizing, calling the process of support or assistance social transmission. But he did not emphasize this aspect of constructivism. Piaget was more interested in what children and youth could figure out on their own, so to speak, than in how teachers or parents might be able to help the young to figure out (Salkind, 2004). Partly for this reason, his theory is often considered less about learning and more about development, which is long-term change in a person resulting from multiple experiences. For the same reason, educators have often found Piaget's ideas especially helpful for thinking about students' readiness to learn, another one of the lasting educational issues that I discussed at the beginning of this chapter. I will therefore return to Piaget later to discuss development and its importance for teaching in more detail.
Exhibit \(5\): Constructivist models of learning
Learning According to Piaget:
Assimilation + Accommodation → Equilibrium → Schemata
Learning According to Vygotsky:
Novice → Zone of Proximal Development ← Expert (ZPD)
Social Constructivism: assisted performance
Unlike Piaget's rather individually oriented version of constructivism, some psychologists and educators have explicitly focused on the relationships and interactions between a learner and more knowledgeable and experienced individuals. One early expression of this viewpoint came from the American psychologist Jerome Bruner (i960, 1966, 1996), who became convinced that students could usually learn more than had been traditionally expected as long as they were given appropriate guidance and resources. He called such support instructional scaffolding— literally meaning a temporary framework, like one used in constructing a building, that allows a much stronger structure to be built within it. In a comment that has been quoted widely (and sometimes disputed), he wrote: "We [constructivist educators] begin with the hypothesis that any subject can be taught effectively in some intellectually honest form to any child at any stage of development." (1960, p. 33). The reason for such a bold assertion was Bruner's belief in scaffolding— his belief in the importance of providing guidance in the right way and at the right time. When scaffolding is provided, students seem more competent and "intelligent," and they learn more.
Similar ideas were proposed independently by the Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1978), whose writing focused on how a child's or novice's thinking is influenced by relationships with others who are more capable, knowledgeable, or expert than the learner. Vygotsky proposed that when a child (or any novice) is learning a new skill or solving a new problem, he or she can perform better if accompanied and helped by an expert than if performing alone— though still not as well as the expert. Someone who has played very little chess, for example, will probably compete against an opponent better if helped by an expert chess player than if competing alone against an opponent. Vygotsky called the difference between solo performance and assisted performance the zone of proximal development (or ZPD for short)— meaning the place or area (figuratively speaking) of immediate change. From this perspective learning is like assisted performance (Tharp & Gallimore, 1991). Initially during learning, knowledge or skill is found mostly "in" the expert helper. If the expert is skilled and motivated to help, then the expert arranges experiences that allow the novice to practice crucial skills or to construct new knowledge. In this regard the expert is a bit like the coach of an athlete— offering help and suggesting ways of practicing, but never doing the actual athletic work himself or herself. Gradually, by providing continued experiences matched to the novice learner's emerging competencies, the expert-coach makes it possible for the novice or apprentice to appropriate (or make his or her own) the skills or knowledge that originally resided only with the expert. These relationships are diagrammed in the lower part of Exhibit 5.
In both the psychological and social versions of constructivist learning, the novice is not really "taught" so much as just allowed to learn. The social version of constructivism, however, highlights the responsibility of the expert for making learning possible. He or she must not only have knowledge and skill, but also know how to arrange experiences that make it easy and safe for learners to gain knowledge and skill themselves. These requirements sound, of course, a lot like the requirements for classroom teaching. In addition to knowing what is to be learned, the expert (i.e. the teacher) also has to break the content into manageable parts, offer the parts in a sensible sequence, provide for suitable and successful practice, bring the parts back together again at the end, and somehow relate the entire experience to knowledge and skills already meaningful to the learner. But of course, no one said that teaching is easy!
Implications of constructivism for teaching
Fortunately there are strategies that teachers can use for giving students this kind of help— in fact they constitute a major portion of this book, and are a major theme throughout the entire preservice teacher education programs. For now, let me just point briefly to two of them, saving a complete discussion for later. One strategy that teachers often find helpful is to organize the content to be learned as systematically as possible, because doing this allows the teacher to select and devise learning activities that are more effective. One of the most widely used frameworks for organizing content, for example, is a classification scheme proposed by the educator Benjamin Bloom, published with the somewhat imposing title of Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: Handbook #1: Cognitive Domain (Bloom, et al., 1956; Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). Bloom's taxonomy, as it is usually called, describes six kinds of learning goals that teachers can in principle expect from students, ranging from simple recall of knowledge to complex evaluation of knowledge. (The levels are defined briefly in Table 2.3 with examples from Goldilocks and the Three Bears.)
Bloom's taxonomy makes useful distinctions among possible kinds of knowledge needed by students, and therefore potentially helps in selecting activities that truly target students' "zones of proximal development" in the sense meant by Vygotsky. A student who knows few terms for the species studied in biology unit (a problem at Bloom's knowledge and comprehension levels), for example, may initially need support at remembering and defining the terms before he or she can make useful comparisons among species (Bloom's analysis level). Pinpointing the most appropriate learning activities to accomplish this objective remains the job of the teacher- expert (that's you), but the learning itself has to be accomplished by the student. Put in more social constructivist terms, the teacher arranges a zone of proximal development that allows the student to compare species successfully, but the student still has to construct or appropriate the comparisons for him or herself.
Table \(2\): Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives: cognitive domain
Category or type of thinking
Definition
Example
(with apologies to Goldilocks and her bear friends!)
Knowledge
Remembering or recalling facts, information, or procedures
List three things Goldilocks did in the three bears’ house.
Comprehension
Understanding facts, interpreting information
Explain why Goldilocks liked the little bear’s chair the best.
Application
Using concepts in new situations, solving particular problems
Predict some of the things that Goldilocks might have used if she had entered your house.
Analysis
Distinguish parts of information, a concept, or a procedure
Select the part of the story where Goldilocks seemed most comfortable.
Synthesis
Combining elements or parts into a new object, idea, or procedure
Tell how the story would have been different if it had been about three fishes.
Evaluation
Assessing and judging the value or ideas, objects, or materials in a particular situation
Decide whether Goldilocks was a bad girl, and justify your position.
A second strategy may be coupled with the first. As students gain experience as students, they become able to think about how they themselves learn best, and you (as the teacher) can encourage such self-reflection as one of your goals for their learning. These changes allow you to transfer some of your responsibilities for arranging learning to the students themselves. For the biology student mentioned above, for example, you may be able not only to plan activities that support comparing species, but also to devise ways for the student to think about how he or she might learn the same information independently. The resulting self-assessment and self-direction of learning often goes by the name of metacognition— an ability to think about and regulate one's own thinking (Israel, 2005). Metacognition can sometimes be difficult for students to achieve, but it is an important goal for social constructivist learning because it gradually frees learners from dependence on expert teachers to guide their learning. Reflective learners, you might say, become their own expert guides. Like with using Bloom's taxonomy, though, promoting metacognition and self-directed learning is important enough that I will come back to it later in more detail (especially in Chapter 9, "Facilitating complex thinking").
By assigning a more visible role to expert helpers— and by implication also to teachers— than does the psychological constructivism, social constructivism is seemingly more complete as a description of what teachers usually do in classrooms, and of what they usually hope students will experience there. As we will see in the next chapter, however, there are more uses to a theory than whether it describes the moment-to-moment interactions between teacher and students. As I explain there, some theories can be helpful for planning instruction rather than for doing it. It turns out that this is the case for psychological constructivism, which offers important ideas about the appropriate sequencing of learning and development. This fact makes the psychological constructivism valuable in its own way, even though it (and a few other learning theories as well) seem to "omit" mentioning teachers, parents, or experts in detail. So do not make up your mind about the relative merits of different learning theories yet!
2.04: Summary Key Words and References
Chapter summary
Although the term learning has many possible meanings, the term as used by teachers emphasizes its relationship to curriculum, to teaching, and to the issues of sequencing, readiness, and transfer. Viewed in this light, the two major psychological perspectives of learning— behaviorist and constructivist— have important ideas to offer educators. Within the behaviorist perspective are two major theories or models of learning, called respondent conditioning and operant conditioning. Respondent conditioning describes how previously neutral associations can acquire the power to elicit significant responses in students. Operant conditioning describes how the consequences and cues for a behavior can cause the behavior to become more frequent. In either case, from a teacher's point of view, the learned behaviors or responses can be either desirable or unwanted.
The other major psychological perspective— constructivism— describes how individuals build or "construct" knowledge by engaging actively with their experiences. The psychological version of constructivism emphasizes the learners' individual responses to experience— their tendency both to assimilate it and to accommodate to it. The social version of constructivism emphasizes how other, more expert individuals can create opportunities for the learner to construct new knowledge. Social constructivism suggests that a teacher's role must include deliberate instructional planning, such as facilitated by Bloom's taxonomy of learning objectives, but also that teachers need to encourage metacognition, which is students' ability to monitor their own learning.
On the Internet
The website for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and as such it is an excellent source of examples of how behaviorist learning principles can be applied to a wide variety of behavior-related difficulties. Any article older than one year is available in full-text, free of charge from the website. (If it is from the most recent three issues, however, you have to subscribe to the journal.)
The website for the Jean Piaget Society, which in spite of its name is not just about Piaget, but about all forms of constructivist research about learning and development, including social constructivist versions. They have excellent brief publications about this perspective, available free of charge at the website, as well as information about how to find additional information.
Key terms
Appropriate (verb) Extrinsic Motivation
Behaviorism Generalization
Bloom's taxonomy Learning
Classical conditioning Intrinsic Motivation
Constructivism
Psychological constructivism
John Dewey
Jean Piaget
Assimilation
Accomodation
Equilibrium
Schema
Social constructivism
Jerome Bruner
Instructional scaffolding
Lev Vygotsky
Zone of proximal development
Metacognition
Operant conditioning
Cue
Operant
Reinforcement
Schedule of Reinforcement
Ivan Pavlov
Readiness
Respondent conditioning
Conditioned response
Conditioned stimulus
Unconditioned stimulus
B.F. Skinner
Discrimination
Extinction Transfer | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/02%3A_The_Learning_Process/2.03%3A_Major_Theories_and_Models_of_Learning.txt |
When one of our authors (Kelvin Seifert) was growing up, he was provided with piano lessons. Daily practice was a staple of childhood— 365 days a year, and in a home that was deliberately kept quiet to facilitate practice. Music— especially the piano— defined a major part of his emerging self-identity. Altogether he studied piano for 13 years, from age 4 to the end of high school, with only occasional interruptions.
At any one time, Kelvin witnessed small changes in his skills. He performed a simple piece a bit better than he had the previous week, or he played more of it from memory. There were direct, obvious connections between his skills at one moment and at the moment just before or after. Back then, if you had asked him what accounted for the changes, he would have stated without hesitation that they were because he was "learning" specific piano pieces.
Across broader spans of time, however, he noticed changes that were more dramatic. Kelvin learned much more complex pieces than he had several years earlier, for example. He also played with significantly more "finesse", sensitivity and polish than as a young child. He was even listening to classical music on the radio some of the time! Kelvin's musical talent became transformed over the long term, and in some sense he did not have the "same" talent that he had had as a beginner.
If you had asked what accounted for these longer-term changes, he would have had a harder time answering than when asked about the short-term changes. He might have said simply and a bit vaguely: "I have been getting better at piano." If you ask the same question now, however, he would say that his music skills had developed, that their development had been slow and gradual, and that the changes resulted not just from simple practice, but also from becoming more widely skilled about music in general.
Development refers to long-term personal changes that have multiple sources and multiple effects. It is like the difference between Kelvin's music at age fifteen compared to his music at age five, rather than the difference between his music one week and his music the next. Some human developments are especially broad and take years to unfold fully; a person's ever-evolving ability to "read" other's moods, for example, may take a lifetime to develop fully. Other developments are faster and more focused, like a person's increasing skill at solving crossword puzzles. The faster and simpler is the change, the more likely we are to call the change "learning" instead of development. The difference between learning and development is a matter of degree. When a child learns to name the planets of the solar system, for example, the child may not need a lot of time, nor does the learning involve a multitude of experiences. So it is probably better to think of that particular experience— learning to name the planets— as an example of learning rather than of development (Salkind, 2004; Lewis, 1997)
3.02: Why Development Matters
Students' development matters for teachers, but the way it matters depends partly on how schooling is organized. In teaching a single, "self-contained" grade-level, the benefits of knowing about development will be less explicit, but just as real, as if you teach many grade levels. Working exclusively with a single grade (like, say, a third- grade classroom) highlights differences among students that happen in spite of their similar ages, and obscures similarities that happen because of having similar ages. Under these conditions it is still easy to notice students' diversity, but harder to know how much of it comes from differences in long-term development, compared to differences in short-term experiences. Knowledge about long term changes is still useful, however, in planning appropriate activities and in holding appropriate expectations about students. What changes in students can you expect relatively soon simply from your current program of activities, and which ones may take a year or more to show up? This is a question that developmental psychology can help to answer.
If you teach multiple grade levels, as often is true of specialists or teachers in middle school or high school, then your need for developmental knowledge will be more obvious because you will confront wide age differences on a daily basis. As a physical education teacher, for example, you may teach kindergarten children at one time during the day, but sixth-graders at another time, or teach seventh-graders at one time but twelfth-graders at another. Students will differ more obviously because of age, in addition to differing because of other factors like their skills or knowledge learned recently. Nonetheless, the instructional challenge will be the same as the one faced by teachers of single-grade classes: you will want to know what activities and expectations are appropriate for your students. To answer this question, you will need to know something not only about how your students are unique, but also about general trends of development during childhood and adolescence.
Note that developmental trends vary in two important ways. The first, as indicated already, is in their generality. Some theories or models of development boldly assert that certain changes happen to virtually every person on the planet, and often at relatively predictable points in life. For example, a theory might assert that virtually every toddler acquires a spoken language, or that every teenager forms a sense of personal identity. Individuals who do not experience these developments would be rare, though not necessarily disabled as a result. Other theories propose developmental changes that are more limited, claiming only that the changes happen to some people or only under certain conditions. Developing a female gender role, for example, does not happen to everyone, but only to the females in a population, and the details vary according to the family, community, or society in which a child lives.
The second way that developmental trends vary is in how strictly they are sequenced and hierarchical. In some views of development, changes are thought to happen in a specific order and to build on each other— sort of a "staircase" model of development (Case, 1991, 1996). For example, a developmental psychologist (and many of the rest of us) might argue that young people must have tangible, hands-on experience with new materials before they can reason about the materials in the abstract. The order cannot be reversed. In other views of development, change happens, but not with a sequence or end point that is uniform. This sort of change is more like a "kaleidoscope" than a staircase (Levinson, 1990; Lewis, 1997; Harris, 2006). A person who becomes permanently disabled, for example, may experience complex long-term changes in personal values and priorities that are different both in timing and content from most people's developmental pathway.
In general, educational psychologists have tended to emphasize explanations of development that are relatively general, universal and sequential, rather than specific to particular cultures or that are unsequenced and kaleidoscopic (see, for example, Woolfolk, 2006, Chapter 3; or Slavin, 2005, Chapters 8 and 9). Such models (sometimes called "grand theories") have the advantage of concisely integrating many features of development, while also describing the kind of people children or adolescents usually end up to be. The preference for integrative perspectives makes sense given educators' need to work with and teach large numbers of diverse students both efficiently and effectively. But the approach also risks overgeneralizing or oversimplifying the experiences of particular children and youth. It can also confuse what does happen as certain children (like the middle-class ones) develop with what should happen to children. To understand this point, imagine two children of about the same age who have dramatically very different childhood experiences— for example, one who grows up in poverty and another who grows up financially well-off. In what sense can we say that these two children experience the same underlying developmental changes as they grow up? And how much should they even be expected to do so? Developmental psychology, and especially the broad theories of developmental psychology, highlight the "sameness" or common ground between these two children. As such, it serves as counterpoint to knowledge of their obvious uniqueness, and places their uniqueness in broader perspective. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/03%3A_Student_Development/3.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Although it may be tempting to think that physical development is the concern of physical education teachers only, it is actually a foundation for many academic tasks. In first grade, for example, it is important to know whether children can successfully manipulate a pencil. In later grades, it is important to know how long students can be expected to sit still without discomfort— a real physical challenge. In all grades, it is important to have a sense of students' health needs related to their age or maturity, if only to know who may become ill, and with what illness, and to know what physical activities are reasonable and needed.
Trends in height and weight
Typical height and weight for well-nourished, healthy students are shown in Table \(1\). The figure shows averages for several ages from preschool through the end of high school. But the table does not show the diversity among children. At age 6, for example, when children begin school, the average boy or girl is about 115 centimeters tall, but some are 109 and others are 125 centimeters. Average weight at age 6 is about 20 kilograms, but ranges between about 16 and 24 kilograms— about 20% variation in either direction.
Table \(1\): Average height and weight of well nourished children by age
Age
Height (cm)
Weight (kg)
2
85
7.0
6
115
20.0
10
135
31.0
14
162
52.0
18
169
60.5
There are other points to keep in mind about average height and weight that are not evident from Table \(1\). The first is that boys and girls, on average, are quite similar in height and weight during childhood, but diverge in the early teenage years, when they reach puberty. For a time (approximately age 10-14), the average girl is taller, but not much heavier, than the average boy. After that the average boy becomes both taller and heavier than the average girl— though there remain individual exceptions (Malina, et al., 2004). The pre-teen difference can therefore be awkward for some children and youth, at least among those who aspire to looking like older teenagers or young adults. For young teens less concerned with "image", though, the fact that girls are taller may not be especially important, or even noticed (Friedman, 2000).
A second point is that as children get older, individual differences in weight diverge more radically than differences in height. Among 18-year-olds, the heaviest youngsters weigh almost twice as much as the lightest, but the tallest ones are only about 10 per cent taller than the shortest. Nonetheless, both height and weight can be sensitive issues for some teenagers. Most modern societies (and the teenagers in them) tend to favor relatively short women and tall men, as well as a somewhat thin body build, especially for girls and women. Yet neither "socially correct" height nor thinness is the destiny for many individuals. Being overweight, in particular, has become a common, serious problem in modern society (Tartamella, et al., 2004) due to the prevalence of diets high in fat and lifestyles low in activity. The educational system has unfortunately contributed to the problem as well, by gradually restricting the number of physical education courses and classes in the past two decades.
The third point to keep in mind is that average height and weight is related somewhat to racial and ethnic background. In general, children of Asian background tend to be slightly shorter than children of European and North American background. The latter in turn tend to be shorter than children from African societies (Eveleth & Tanner, 1990). Body shape differs slightly as well, though the differences are not always visible until after puberty. Asian youth tend to have arms and legs that are a bit short relative to their torsos, and African youth tend to have relatively long arms and legs. The differences are only averages; there are large individual differences as well, and these tend to be more relevant for teachers to know about than broad group differences.
Puberty and its effects on students
A universal physical development in students is puberty, which is the set of changes in early adolescence that bring about sexual maturity. Along with internal changes in reproductive organs are outward changes such as growth of breasts in girls and the penis in boys, as well as relatively sudden increases in height and weight. By about age 10 or 11, most children experience increased sexual attraction to others (usually heterosexual, though not always) that affects social life both in school and out (McClintock & Herdt, 1996). By the end of high school, more than half of boys and girls report having experienced sexual intercourse at least once— though it is hard to be certain of the proportion because of the sensitivity and privacy of the information. (Center for Disease Control, 2004b; Rosenbaum, 2006).
At about the same time that puberty accentuates gender, role differences also accentuate for at least some teenagers. Some girls who excelled at math or science in elementary school may curb their enthusiasm and displays of success at these subjects for fear of limiting their popularity or attractiveness as girls (Taylor & Gilligan, 1995; Sadker, 2004). Some boys who were not especially interested in sports previously may begin dedicating themselves to athletics to affirm their masculinity in the eyes of others. Some boys and girls who once worked together successfully on class projects may no longer feel comfortable doing so— or alternatively may now seek to be working partners, but for social rather than academic reasons. Such changes do not affect all youngsters equally, nor affect any one youngster equally on all occasions. An individual student may act like a young adult on one day, but more like a child the next. When teaching children who are experiencing puberty, , teachers need to respond flexibly and supportively.
Development of motor skills
Students' fundamental motor skills are already developing when they begin kindergarten, but are not yet perfectly coordinated. Five-year-olds generally can walk satisfactorily for most school-related purposes (if they could not, schools would have to be organized very differently!). For some fives, running still looks a bit like a hurried walk, but usually it becomes more coordinated within a year or two. Similarly with jumping, throwing, and catching: most children can do these things, though often clumsily, by the time they start school, but improve their skills noticeably during the early elementary years (Payne & Isaacs, 2005). Assisting such developments is usually the job either of physical education teachers, where they exist, or else of classroom teachers during designated physical education activities. Whoever is responsible, it is important to notice if a child does not keep more-or-less to the usual developmental timetable, and to arrange for special assessment or supports if appropriate. Common procedures for arranging for help are described in Chapter 5 ("Special education").
Even if physical skills are not a special focus of a classroom teacher,, they can be quite important to students themselves. Whatever their grade level, students who are clumsy are aware of that fact and how it could potentially negatively effect respect from their peers. In the long term, self-consciousness and poor self-esteem can develop for a child who is clumsy, especially if peers (or teachers and parents) place high value on success in athletics. One research study found, for example, what teachers and coaches sometimes suspect: that losers in athletic competitions tend to become less sociable and are more apt to miss subsequent athletic practices than winners (Petlichkoff, 1996).
Health and illness
By world standards, children and youth in economically developed societies tend, on average, to be remarkably healthy. Even so, much depends on precisely how well-off families are and on how much health care is available to them. Children from higher-income families experience far fewer serious or life-threatening illnesses than children fromlower-income families. Whatever their income level, parents and teachers often rightly note that children— especially the youngest ones— get far more illnesses than do adults. In 2004, for example, a government survey estimated that children get an average of 6-10 colds per year, but adults get only about 2-4 per year (National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, 2004). The difference probably exists because children's immune systems are not as fully formed as adults', and because children at school are continually exposed to other children, many of whom may be contagious themselves. An indirect result of children's frequent illnesses is that teachers (along with airline flight attendants, incidentally!) also report more frequent minor illnesses than do adults in general— about five colds per year, for example, instead of just 2-4 (Whelen, et al., 2005). The "simple" illnesses are not life threatening, but they are responsible for many lost days of school, both for students and for teachers, as well as days when a student may be present physically, but functions below par while simultaneously infecting classmates. In these ways, learning and teaching often suffer because health is suffering.
The problem is not only the prevalence of illness as such (in winter, even in the United States, approximately one person gets infected with a minor illness every few seconds), but the fact that illnesses are not distributed uniformly among students, schools, or communities. Whether it is a simple cold or something more serious, illness is particularly common where living conditions are crowded, where health care is scarce or unaffordable, and where individuals live with frequent stresses of any kind. Often, but not always, these are the circumstances of poverty. Table 6 summarizes these effects for a variety of health problems, not just for colds or flu.
Table \(1\: Health effects of children’s economic level
Health program
Comparison: poor vs non-poor
Delayed immunizations
3 times higher
Asthma
Somewhat higher
Lead poisoning
3 times higher
Deaths in childhood from accidents
2-3 times higher
Deaths in childhood from disease
3-4 times higher
Having a condition that limits school activity
2-3 times higher
Days sick in bed
40 per cent higher
Seriously impaired vision
2-3 times higher
Severe iron-deficiency (anemia)
2 times higher
Source: Richardson, J> (2005). The Cost of Being Poor. New York: Praeger. Spencer, N. (2000). Poverty and Child Health, 2nd edition. Abington, UK: Radcliffe Medical Press. Allender, J. (2005). Community Health Nursing. Philadelphia: Lippinsott, Williams & Wilkins.
As students get older, illnesses become less frequent, but other health risks emerge. The most widespread is the consumption of alcohol and the smoking of cigarettes. As of 2004, about 75 per cent of teenagers reported drinking an alcoholic beverage at least occasionally, and 22 per cent reported smoking cigarettes (Center for Disease Control, 2004a). The good news is that these proportions show a small, but steady decline in the frequencies over the past 10 years or so. The bad news is that teenagers also show increases in the abuse of some prescription drugs, such as inhalants, that act as stimulants (Johnston, et al., 2006). As with the prevalence of illnesses, the prevalence of drug use is not uniform, with a relatively small fraction of individuals accounting for a disproportionate proportion of usage. One survey, for example, found that a teenager was 3-5 times more likely to smoke or to use alcohol, smoke marijuana, or use drugs if he or she has a sibling who has also indulged these habits (Fagan & Najman, 2005). Siblings, it seems, are more influential in this case than parents. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/03%3A_Student_Development/3.03%3A_Physical_Development_During_the_School_Years.txt |
Cognition refers to thinking and memory processes, and cognitive development refers to long-term changes in these processes. One of the most widely known perspectives about cognitive development is the cognitive stage theory of a Swiss psychologist named Jean Piaget. Piaget created and studied an account of how children and youth gradually become able to think logically and scientifically. Because his theory is especially popular among educators, we focus on it in this chapter. We will look at other cognitive perspectives— ones that are not as fully "developmental", in later chapters, especially Chapter 9 ("Facilitating complex thinking").
In brief comments in Chapter 2 (see "Psychological constructivism") about how Piaget explained learning, we described Piaget as a psychological constructivist: in his view, learning proceeded by the interplay of assimilation (adjusting new experiences to fit prior concepts) and accommodation (adjusting concepts to fit new experiences). The to-and-fro of these two processes leads not only to short-term learning, as pointed out in Chapter 1, but also to long-term developmental change. The long-term developments are really the main focus of Piaget's cognitive theory.
After observing children closely, Piaget proposed that cognition developed through distinct stages from birth through the end of adolescence. By stages he meant a sequence of thinking patterns with four key features:
1. They always happen in the same order.
2. No stage is ever skipped.
3. Each stage is a significant transformation of the stage before it. 4. Each later stage incorporated the earlier stages into itself. Basically this is the "staircase" model of development mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. Piaget proposed four major stages of cognitive development, and called them (1) sensorimotor intelligence, (2) preoperational thinking, (3) concrete operational thinking, and (4) formal operational thinking. Each stage is correlated with an age period of childhood, but only approximately.
The sensorimotor stage: birth to age 2
In Piaget's theory, the sensorimotor stage is first, and is defined as the period when infants "think" by means of their senses and motor actions. As every new parent will attest, infants continually touch, manipulate, look, listen to, and even bite and chew objects. According to Piaget, these actions allow them to learn about the world and are crucial to their early cognitive development.
The infant's actions allow the child to represent (or construct simple concepts of) objects and events. A toy animal may be just a confusing array of sensations at first, but by looking, feeling, and manipulating it repeatedly, the child gradually organizes her sensations and actions into a stable concept, toy animal. The representation acquires a permanence lacking in the individual experiences of the object, which are constantly changing. Because the representation is stable, the child "knows", or at least believes, that toy animal exists even if the actual toy animal is temporarily out of sight. Piaget called this sense of stability object permanence, a belief that objects exist whether or not they are actually present. It is a major achievement of sensorimotor development, and marks a qualitative transformation in how older infants (24 months) think about experience compared to younger infants (6 months).
During much of infancy, of course, a child can only barely talk, so sensorimotor development initially happens without the support of language. It might therefore seem hard to know what infants are thinking, but Piaget devised several simple, but clever experiments to get around their lack of language, and that suggest that infants do indeed represent objects even without being able to talk (Piaget, 1952). In one, for example, he simply hid an object (like a toy animal) under a blanket. He found that doing so consistently prompts older infants (18-24 months) to search for the object, but fails to prompt younger infants (less than six months) to do so. (You can try this experiment yourself if you happen to have access to young infant.) "Something" motivates the search by the older infant even without the benefit of much language, and the "something" is presumed to be a permanent concept or representation of the object.
The preoperational stage: age 2 to 7
In the preoperational stage, children use their new ability to represent objects in a wide variety of activities, but they do not yet do it in ways that are organized or fully logical. One of the most obvious examples of this kind of cognition is dramatic play, the improvised make-believe of preschool children. If you have ever had responsibility for children of this age, you have likely witnessed such play. Ashley holds a plastic banana to her ear and says: "Hello, Mom? Can you be sure to bring me my baby doll? OK!" Then she hangs up the banana and pours tea for Jeremy into an invisible cup. Jeremy giggles at the sight of all of this and exclaims: "Rinnng! Oh Ashley, the phone is ringing again! You better answer it." And on it goes.
In a way, children immersed in make-believe seem "mentally insane", in that they do not think realistically. But they are not truly insane because they have not really taken leave of their senses. At some level, Ashley and Jeremy always know that the banana is still a banana and not really a telephone; they are merely representing it as a telephone. They are thinking on two levels at once— one imaginative and the other realistic. This dual processing of experience makes dramatic play an early example of metacognition, or reflecting on and monitoring of thinking itself. As we explained in Chapter 2, metacognition is a highly desirable skill for success in school, one that teachers often encourage (Bredekamp & Copple, 1997; Paley, 2005). Partly for this reason, teachers of young children (preschool, kindergarten, and even first or second grade) often make time and space in their classrooms for dramatic play, and sometimes even participate in it themselves to help develop the play further.
The concrete operational stage: age 7 to 11
As children continue into elementary school, they become able to represent ideas and events more flexibly and logically. Their rules of thinking still seem very basic by adult standards and usually operate unconsciously, but they allow children to solve problems more systematically than before, and therefore to be successful with many academic tasks. In the concrete operational stage, for example, a child may unconsciously follow the rule: "If nothing is added or taken away, then the amount of something stays the same." This simple principle helps children to understand certain arithmetic tasks, such as in adding or subtracting zero from a number, as well as to do certain classroom science experiments, such as ones involving judgments of the amounts of liquids when mixed. Piaget called this period the concrete operational stage because children mentally "operate" on concrete objects and events. They are not yet able, however, to operate (or think) systematically about representations of objects or events. Manipulating representations is a more abstract skill that develops later, during adolescence.
Concrete operational thinking differs from preoperational thinking in two ways, each of which renders children more skilled as students. One difference is reversibility, or the ability to think about the steps of a process in any order. Imagine a simple science experiment, for example, such as one that explores why objects sink or float by having a child place an assortment of objects in a basin of water. Both the preoperational and concrete operational child can recall and describe the steps in this experiment, but only the concrete operational child can recall them in any order. This skill is very helpful on any task involving multiple steps— a common feature of tasks in the classroom. In teaching new vocabulary from a story, for another example, a teacher might tell students: "First make a list of words in the story that you do not know, then find and write down their definitions, and finally get a friend to test you on your list". These directions involve repeatedly remembering to move back and forth between a second step and a first— a task that concrete operational students— and most adults— find easy, but that preoperational children often forget to do or find confusing. If the younger children are to do this task reliably, they may need external prompts, such as having the teacher remind them periodically to go back to the story to look for more unknown words.
The other new feature of thinking during the concrete operational stage is the child's ability to decenter, or focus on more than one feature of a problem at a time. There are hints of decentration in preschool children's dramatic play, which requires being aware on two levels at once— knowing that a banana can be both a banana and a "telephone". But the decentration of the concrete operational stage is more deliberate and conscious than preschoolers' make-believe. Now the child can attend to two things at once quite purposely. Suppose you give students a sheet with an assortment of subtraction problems on it, and ask them to do this: "Find all of the problems that involve two-digit subtraction and that involve borrowing' from the next column. Circle and solve only those problems." Following these instructions is quite possible for a concrete operational student (as long as they have been listening!) because the student can attend to the two subtasks simultaneously— finding the two-digit problems and identifying which actually involve borrowing. (Whether the student actually knows how to "borrow" however, is a separate question.)
In real classroom tasks, reversibility and decentration often happen together. A well-known example of joint presence is Piaget's experiments with conservation, the belief that an amount or quantity stays the same even if it changes apparent size or shape (Piaget, 2001; Matthews, 1998). Imagine two identical balls made of clay. Any child, whether preoperational or concrete operational, will agree that the two indeed have the same amount of clay in them simply because they look the same. But if you now squish one ball into a long, thin "hot dog", the preoperational child is likely to say that the amount of that ball has changed— either because it is longer or because it is thinner, but at any rate because it now looks different. The concrete operational child will not make this mistake, thanks to new cognitive skills of reversibility and decentration: for him or her, the amount is the same because "you could squish it back into a ball again" (reversibility) and because "it may be longer, but it is also thinner" (decentration). Piaget would say the concrete operational child "has conservation of quantity".
The classroom examples described above also involve reversibility and decentration. As already mentioned, the vocabulary activity described earlier requires reversibility (going back and forth between identifying words and looking up their meanings); but it can also be construed as an example of decentration (keeping in mind two tasks at once— word identification and dictionary search). And as mentioned, the arithmetic activity requires decentration (looking for problems that meet two criteria and also solving them), but it can also be construed as an example of reversibility (going back and forth between subtasks, as with the vocabulary activity). Either way, the development of concrete operational skills support students in doing many basic academic tasks; in a sense they make ordinary schoolwork possible.
The formal operational stage: age 11 and beyond
In the last of the Piagetian stages, the child becomes able to reason not only about tangible objects and events, but also about hypothetical or abstract ones. Hence it has the name formal operational stage— the period when the individual can "operate" on "forms" or representations. With students at this level, the teacher can pose hypothetical (or contrary-to-fact) problems: "What if the world had never discovered oil?" or "What if the first European explorers had settled first in California instead of on the East Coast of the United States?" To answer such questions, students must use hypothetical reasoning, meaning that they must manipulate ideas that vary in several ways at once, and do so entirely in their minds.
The hypothetical reasoning that concerned Piaget primarily involved scientific problems. His studies of formal operational thinking therefore often look like problems that middle or high school teachers pose in science classes. In one problem, for example, a young person is presented with a simple pendulum, to which different amounts of weight can be hung (Inhelder & Piaget, 1958). The experimenter asks: "What determines how fast the pendulum swings: the length of the string holding it, the weight attached to it, or the distance that it is pulled to the side?" The young person is not allowed to solve this problem by trial-and-error with the materials themselves, but must reason a way to the solution mentally. To do so systematically, he or she must imagine varying each factor separately, while also imagining the other factors that are held constant. This kind of thinking requires facility at manipulating mental representations of the relevant objects and actions— precisely the skill that defines formal operations.
As you might suspect, students with an ability to think hypothetically have an advantage in many kinds of school work: by definition, they require relatively few "props" to solve problems. In this sense they can in principle be more self-directed than students who rely only on concrete operations— certainly a desirable quality in the opinion of most teachers. Note, though, that formal operational thinking is desirable but not sufficient for school success, and that it is far from being the only way that students achieve educational success. Formal thinking skills do not insure that a student is motivated or well-behaved, for example, nor does it guarantee other desirable skills, such as ability at sports, music, or art. The fourth stage in Piaget's theory is really about a particular kind of formal thinking, the kind needed to solve scientific problems and devise scientific experiments. Since many people do not normally deal with such problems in the normal course of their lives, it should be no surprise that research finds that many people never achieve or use formal thinking fully or consistently, or that they use it only in selected areas with which they are very familiar (Case & Okomato, 1996). For teachers, the limitations of Piaget's ideas suggest a need for additional theories about development— ones that focus more directly on the social and interpersonal issues of childhood and adolescence. The next sections describe some of these. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/03%3A_Student_Development/3.04%3A_Cognitive_Development-_The_Theory_of_Jean_Piaget.txt |
Social development refers to the long-term changes in relationships and interactions involving self, peers, and family. It includes both positive changes, such as how friendships develop, and negative changes, such as aggression or bullying. The social developments that are the most obviously relevant to classroom life fall into three main areas: (1) changes in self-concept and in relationships among students and teachers, (2) changes in basic needs or personal motives, and (3) changes in sense of rights and responsibilities. As with cognitive development, each of these areas has a broad, well-known theory (and theorist) that provides a framework for thinking about how the area relates to teaching. For development of self-concept and relationships, it is the theory of Erik Erikson; for development of personal motives, it is the theory of Abraham Maslow; and for development of ethical knowledge and beliefs, it is the work of Lawrence Kohlberg and his critic, Carol Gilligan. Their theories are definitely not the only ones related to social development of students, and their ideas are often debated by other researchers. But their accounts do explain much about social development that is relevant to teaching and education.
Erik Erikson: eight psychosocial crises of development
Like Piaget, Erik Erikson developed a theory of social development that relies on stages, except that Erikson thought of stages as a series of psychological or social (or psychosocial) crises— turning points in a person's relationships and feelings about himself or herself (Erikson, 1963, 1980). Each crisis consists of a dilemma or choice that carries both advantages and risks, but in which one choice or alternative is normally considered more desirable or "healthy". How one crisis is resolved affects how later crises are resolved. The resolution also helps to create an individual's developing personality. Erikson proposed eight crises that extend from birth through old age; they are summarized in Table 7. Four of the stages occur during the school years, so we give these special attention here, but it is helpful also to know what crises are thought to come both before and after those in the school years.
Table \(1\): Eight psychosocial crises according to Erikson
Psychosocial crisis Approximate age Description
Trust and mistrust Birth to one year Development of trust between caregiver and child
Autonomy and shame Age 1-3 Development of control over bodily functions and activities
Initiative and guilt Age 3-6 Testing limits of self-assertion and purposefulness
Industry and inferiority Age 6-12 Development of sense of mastery and competence
Identity and role confusion Age 12-19 Development of identity and acknowledge of identity by others
Intimacy and isolation Age 19-25+ Formation of intimate relationships and commitments
Generativity and stagnation Age 25-50+ Development of creative or productive activities that contribute to future generations
Integrity and despair Age 50+ Acceptance of personal life history and forgiveness of self and others
Crises of infants and preschoolers: trust, autonomy, and initiative
Almost from the day they are born, infants face a crisis (in Erikson's sense) about trust and mistrust. They are happiest if they can eat, sleep, and excrete according to their own physiological schedules, regardless of whether their schedules are convenient for the caregiver (often the mother). Unfortunately, though, a young infant is in no position to control or influence a mother's care giving or scheduling needs; so the baby faces a dilemma about how much to trust or mistrust the mother's helpfulness. It is as if the baby asks, "If I demand food (or sleep or a clean diaper) now, will my mother actually be able to help me meet this need?" Hopefully, between the two of them, mother and child resolve this choice in favor of the baby's trust: the mother proves herself at least "good enough" in her attentiveness, and the baby risks trusting mother's motivation and skill at care giving.
Almost as soon as this crisis is resolved, however, a new one develops over the issue of autonomy and shame. The child (who is now a toddler) may now trust his or her caregiver (mother), but the very trust contributes to a desire to assert autonomy by taking care of basic personal needs, such as feeding, toileting, or dressing. Given the child's lack of experience in these activities, however, self-care is risky at first— the toddler may feed (or toilet or dress) clumsily and ineffectively. The child's caregiver, for her part, risks overprotecting the child and criticizing his early efforts unnecessarily and thus causing the child to feel shame for even trying. Hopefully, as with the earlier crisis of trust, the new crisis gets resolved in favor of autonomy through the combined efforts of the child to exercise autonomy and of the caregiver to support the child's efforts.
Eventually, about the time a child is of preschool age, the autonomy exercised during the previous period becomes more elaborate, extended, and focused on objects and people other than the child and basic physical needs. The child at a day care center may now undertake, for example, to build the "biggest city in the world" out of all available unit blocks— even if other children want some of the blocks for themselves. The child's projects and desires create a new crisis of initiative and guilt, because the child soon realizes that acting on impulses or desires can sometimes have negative effects on others— more blocks for the child may mean fewer for someone else. As with the crisis over autonomy, caregivers have to support the child's initiatives where possible, but also not make the child feel guilty just for desiring to have or to do something that affects others' welfare. By limiting behavior where necessary but not limiting internal feelings, the child can develop a lasting ability to take initiative. Expressed in Erikson's terms, the crisis is then resolved in favor of initiative.
Even though only the last of these three crises overlaps with the school years, all three relate to issues faced by students of any age, and even by their teachers. A child or youth who is fundamentally mistrustful, for example, has a serious problem in coping with school life. If you are a student, it is essential for your long-term survival to believe that teachers and school officials have your best interests at heart, and that they are not imposing assignments or making rules, for example, "just for the heck of it." Even though students are not infants any more, teachers function like Erikson's caregiving parents in that they need to prove worthy of students' trust through their initial flexibility and attentiveness.
Parallels from the classroom also exist for the crises of autonomy and of initiative. To learn effectively, students need to make choices and undertake academic initiatives at least some of the time, even though not every choice or initiative may be practical or desirable. Teachers, for their part, need to make true choices and initiatives possible, and refrain from criticizing, even accidentally, a choice or intention behind an initiative even if the teacher privately believes that it is "bound to fail". Support for choices and initiative should be focused on providing resources and on guiding the student's efforts toward more likely success. In these ways teachers function like parents of toddlers and preschoolers in Erikson's theory of development, regardless of the age of their students.
The crisis of childhood: industry and inferiority
Once into elementary school, the child is faced for the first time with becoming competent and worthy in the eyes of the world at large, or more precisely in the eyes of classmates and teachers. To achieve their esteem, he or she must develop skills that require effort that is sustained and somewhat focused. The challenge creates the crisis of industry and inferiority. To be respected by teachers, for example, the child must learn to read and to behave like a "true student". To be respected by peers, he or she must learn to cooperate and to be friendly, among other things. There are risks involved in working on these skills and qualities, because there can be no guarantee of success with them in advance. If the child does succeed, therefore, he or she experiences the satisfaction of a job well done and of skills well learned— a feeling that Erikson called industry. If not, however, the child risks feeling lasting inferiority compared to others. Teachers therefore have a direct, explicit role in helping students to resolve this crisis in favor of industry or success. They can set realistic academic goals for students— ones that tend to lead to success— and then provide materials and assistance for students to reach their goals. Teachers can also express their confidence that students can in fact meet their goals if and when the students get discouraged, and avoid hinting (even accidentally) that a student is simply a "loser". Paradoxically, these strategies will work best if the teacher is also tolerant of less-than-perfect performance by students. Too much emphasis on perfection can undermine some students' confidence— foster Erikson's inferiority— by making academic goals seem beyond reach.
The crisis of adolescence: identity and role confusion
As the child develops lasting talents and attitudes as a result of the crisis of industry, he begins to face a new question: what do all the talents and attitudes add up to be? Who is the "me" embedded in this profile of qualities? These questions are the crisis of identity and role confusion. Defining identity is riskier than it may appear for a person simply because some talents and attitudes may be poorly developed, and some even may be undesirable in the eyes of others. (If you are poor at math, how do you live with family and friends if they think you should be good at this skill?) Still others may be valuable but fail to be noticed by other people. The result is that who a person wants to be may not be the same as who he or she is in actual fact, nor the same as who other people want the person to be. In Erikson's terms, role confusion is the result.
Teachers can minimize role confusion in a number of ways. One is to offer students lots of diverse role models— by identifying models in students' reading materials, for example, or by inviting diverse guests to school. The point of these strategies would be to express a key idea: that there are many ways to be respected, successful, and satisfied with life. Another way to support students' identity development is to be alert to students' confusions about their futures, and refer them to counselors or other services outside school that can help sort these out. Still another strategy is to tolerate changes in students' goals and priorities— sudden changes in extra-curricular activities or in personal plans after graduation. Since students are still trying roles out, discouraging experimentation may not be in students' best interests.
The crises of adulthood: intimacy, generativity, and integrity
Beyond the school years, according to Erikson, individuals continue psychosocial development by facing additional crises. Young adults, for example, face a crisis of intimacy and isolation. This crisis is about the risk of establishing close relationships with a select number of others. Whether the relationships are heterosexual, homosexual, or not sexual at all, their defining qualities are depth and sustainability. Without them, an individual risks feeling isolated. Assuming that a person resolves this crisis in favor of intimacy, however, he or she then faces a crisis about generativity and stagnation. This crisis is characteristic of most of adulthood, and not surprisingly therefore is about caring for or making a contribution to society, and especially to its younger generation. Generativity is about making life productive and creative so that it matters to others. One obvious way for some to achieve this feeling is by raising children, but there are also many other ways to contribute to the welfare of others. The final crisis is about integrity and despair, and is characteristically felt during the final years of life. At the end of life, a person is likely to review the past and to ask whether it has been lived as well as possible, even if it was clearly not lived perfectly. Since personal history can no longer be altered at the end of life, it is important to make peace with what actually happened and to forgive oneself and others for mistakes that may have been made. The alternative is despair, or depression from believing not only that one's life was lived badly, but also that there is no longer any hope of correcting past mistakes.
Even though Erikson conceives of these crises as primarily concerns of adulthood, there are precursors of them during the school years. Intimacy, for example, is a concern of many children and youth in that they often desire, but do not always find, lasting relationships with others (Beidel, 2005; Zimbardo & Radl, 1999). Personal isolation is a particular risk for students with disabilities, as well as for students whose cultural or racial backgrounds differ from classmates' or the teacher's. Generativity— feeling helpful to others and to the young— is needed not only by many adults, but also by many children and youth; when given the opportunity as part of their school program, they frequently welcome a chance to be of authentic service to others as part of their school programs (Eyler & Giles, 1999; Kay, 2003). Integrity— taking responsibility for your personal past, "warts and all", is often a felt need for anyone, young or old, who has lived long enough to have a past on which to look. Even children and youth have a past in this sense, though their pasts are of course shorter than persons who are older.
Abraham Maslow: a hierarchy of motives and needs
Abraham Maslow's theory frames personal needs or motives as a hierarchy, meaning that basic or "lower-level" needs have to be satisfied before higher-level needs become important or motivating (1976, 1987). Compared to the stage models of Piaget and Erikson, Maslow's hierarchy is only loosely "developmental", in that Maslow was not concerned with tracking universal, irreversible changes across the lifespan. Maslow's stages are universal, but they are not irreversible; earlier stages sometimes reappear later in life, in which case they must be satisfied again before later stages can redevelop. Like the theories of Piaget and Erikson, Maslow's is a rather broad "story", one that has less to say about the effects of a person's culture, language, or economic level, than about what we all have in common.
Table \(1\): Maslow’s hierarchy of motives and needs
Needs Types of needs
Deficit Needs
Physiological needs
Safety and security needs
Love and belonging needs
Being needs
Cognitive needs
Aesthetic needs
Self-actualization needs
In its original version, Maslow's theory distinguishes two types of needs, called deficit needs and being needs (or sometimes deficiency needs and growth needs). Table 8 summarizes the two levels and their sublevels. Deficit needs are prior to being needs, not in the sense of happening earlier in life, but in that deficit needs must be satisfied before being needs can be addressed. As pointed out, deficit needs can reappear at any age, depending on circumstances. If that happens, they must be satisfied again before a person's attention can shift back to "higher" needs. Among students, in fact, deficit needs are likely to return chronically to those whose families lack economic or social resources or who live with the stresses associated with poverty (Payne, 2005).
Deficit needs: getting the basic necessities of life
Deficit needs are the basic requirements of physical and emotional well-being. First are physiological needs- food, sleep, clothing, and the like. Without these, nothing else matters, and especially nothing very "elevated" or self-fulfilling. A student who is not getting enough to eat is not going to feel much interest in learning! Once physiological needs are met, however, safety and security needs become important. The person looks for stability and protection, and welcomes a bit of structure and limits if they provide these conditions. A child from an abusive family, for example, may be getting enough to eat, but may worry chronically about personal safety. In school, the student may appreciate a well-organized classroom with rules that insures personal safety and predictability, whether or not the classroom provides much in the way of real learning.
After physiological and safety needs are met, love and belonging needs emerge. The person turns attention to making friends, being a friend, and cultivating positive personal relationships in general. In the classroom, a student motivated at this level may make approval from peers or teachers into a top priority. He or she may be provided for materially and find the classroom and family life safe enough, but still miss a key ingredient in life- love. If such a student (or anyone else) eventually does find love and belonging, however, then his or her motivation shifts again, this time to esteem needs. Now the concern is with gaining recognition and respect— and even more importantly, gaining self-respect. A student at this level may be unusually concerned with achievement, for example, though only if the achievement is visible or public enough to earn public recognition.
Being needs: becoming the best that you can be
Being needs are desires to become fulfilled as a person, or to be the best person that you can possibly be. They include cognitive needs (a desire for knowledge and understanding), aesthetic needs (an appreciation of beauty and order), and most importantly, self-actualization needs (a desire for fulfillment of one's potential). Being needs emerge only after all of a person's deficit needs have been largely met. Unlike deficit needs, being needs beget more being needs; they do not disappear once they are met, but create a desire for even more satisfaction of the same type. A thirst for knowledge, for example, leads to further thirst for knowledge, and aesthetic appreciation leads to more aesthetic appreciation. Partly because being needs are lasting and permanent once they appear, Maslow sometimes treated them as less hierarchical than deficit needs, and instead grouped cognitive, aesthetic, and self- actualization needs into the single category self-actualization needs.
People who are motivated by self-actualization have a variety of positive qualities, which Maslow went to some lengths to identify and describe (Maslow, 1976). Self-actualizing individuals, he argued, value deep personal relationships with others, but also value solitude; they have a sense of humor, but do not use it against others; they accept themselves as well as others; they are spontaneous, humble, creative, and ethical. In short, the self- actualizing person has just about every good quality imaginable! Not surprisingly, therefore, Maslow felt that true self-actualization is rare. It is especially unusual among young people, who have not yet lived long enough to satisfy earlier, deficit-based needs.
In a way this last point is discouraging news for teachers, who apparently must spend their lives providing as best they can for individuals— students— still immersed in deficit needs. Teachers, it seems, have little hope of ever meeting a student with fully fledged being needs. Taken less literally, though, Maslow's hierarchy is still useful for thinking about students' motives. Most teachers would argue that students— young though they are— can display positive qualities similar to the ones described in Maslow's self-actualizing person. However annoying students may sometimes be, there are also moments when they show care and respect for others, for example, and moments when they show spontaneity, humility, or a sound ethical sense. Self-actualization is an appropriate way to think about these moments— the times when students are at their best. At the same time, of course, students sometimes also have deficit needs. Keeping in mind the entire hierarchy outlined by Maslow can therefore deepen teachers' understanding of the full humanity of students. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/03%3A_Student_Development/3.05%3A_Social_Development-_Relationships_Personal_Motives_and_Morality.txt |
Morality is a system of beliefs about what is right and good compared to what is wrong or bad. Moral development refers to changes in moral beliefs as a person grows older and gains maturity. Moral beliefs are related to, but not identical with, moral behavior: it is possible to know the right thing to do, but not actually do it. It is also not the same as knowledge of social conventions, which are arbitrary customs needed for the smooth operation of society. Social conventions may have a moral element, but they have a primarily practical purpose. Conventionally, for example, motor vehicles all keep to the same side of the street (to the right in the United States, to the left in Great Britain). The convention allows for smooth, accident-free flow of traffic. But following the convention also has a moral element, because an individual who chooses to drive on the wrong side of the street can cause injuries or even death. In this sense, choosing the wrong side of the street is wrong morally, though the choice is also unconventional.
When it comes to schooling and teaching, moral choices are not restricted to occasional dramatic incidents, but are woven into almost every aspect of classroom life. Imagine this simple example. Suppose that you are teaching, reading to a small group of second-graders, and the students are taking turns reading a story out loud. Should you give every student the same amount of time to read, even though some might benefit from having additional time? Or should you give more time to the students who need extra help, even if doing so bores classmates and deprives others of equal shares of "floor time"? Which option is more fair, and which is more considerate? Simple dilemmas like this happen every day at all grade levels simply because students are diverse, and because class time and a teacher's energy are finite.
Embedded in this rather ordinary example are moral themes about fairness or justice, on the one hand, and about consideration or care on the other. It is important to keep both themes in mind when thinking about how students develop beliefs about right or wrong. A morality of justice is about human rights— or more specifically, about respect for fairness, impartiality, equality, and individuals' independence. A morality of care, on the other hand, is about human responsibilities— more specifically, about caring for others, showing consideration for individuals' needs, and interdependence among individuals. Students and teachers need both forms of morality. In the next sections therefore we explain a major example of each type of developmental theory, beginning with the morality of justice.
Kohlberg's morality of justice
One of the best-known explanations of how morality of justice develops was developed by Lawrence Kohlberg and his associates (Kohlberg, Levine, & Hewer, 1983; Power, Higgins, & Kohlberg, 1991). Using a stage model similar to Piaget's, Kohlberg proposed six stages of moral development, grouped into three levels. Individuals experience the stages universally and in sequence as they form beliefs about justice. He named the levels simply preconventional, conventional, and (you guessed it) postconventional. The levels and stages are summarized in Table \(1\).
Table \(1\): Moral stages according to Kohlberg
Moral stage
Definition of what is “good”
Preconventional Level:
Stage 1: Obedience and punishment
Stage 2: Market exchange
Action that is rewarded and not punished
Action that is agreeable to the child and child’s partner
Conventional Level:
Stage 3: Peer opinion
Stage 4: Law and order
Action that wins approval from friends or peers
Action that conforms to community customs or laws
Postconventional Level:
Stage 5: Social contract
Stage 6: Universal principles
Action that follows social accepted ways of making decisions
Action that is consistent with self-chosen, general principles
Preconventional justice: obedience and mutual advantage
The preconventional level of moral development coincides approximately with the preschool period of life and with Piaget's preoperational period of thinking. At this age the child is still relatively self-centered and insensitive to the moral effects of actions on others. The result is a somewhat short-sighted orientation to morality. Initially (Kohlberg's Stage 1), the child adopts an ethics of obedience and punishment— a sort of "morality of keeping out of trouble". The Tightness and wrongness of actions is determined by whether actions are rewarded or punished by authorities such as parents or teachers. If helping yourself to a cookie brings affectionate smiles from adults, then taking the cookie is considered morally "good". If it brings scolding instead, then it is morally "bad". The child does not think about why an action might be praised or scolded; in fact, says Kohlberg, he would be incapable at Stage 1 of considering the reasons even if adults offered them.
Eventually the child learns not only to respond to positive consequences, but also learns how to produce them by exchanging favors with others. The new ability creates Stage 2, an ethics of market exchange. At this stage the morally "good" action is one that favors not only the child, but another person directly involved. A "bad" action is one that lacks this reciprocity. If trading the sandwich from your lunch for the cookies in your friend's lunch is mutually agreeable, then the trade is morally good; otherwise it is not. This perspective introduces a type of fairness into the child's thinking for the first time. But it still ignores the larger context of actions— the effects on people not present or directly involved. In Stage 2, for example, it would also be considered morally "good" to pay a classmate to do another student's homework— or even to avoid bullying or to provide sexual favors— provided that both parties regard the arrangement as being fair.
Conventional justice: conformity to peers and society
As children move into the school years, their lives expand to include a larger number and range of peers and (eventually) of the community as a whole. The change leads to conventional morality, which are beliefs based on what this larger array of people agree on— hence Kohlberg's use of the term "conventional". At first, in Stage 3, the child's reference group are immediate peers, so Stage 3 is sometimes called the ethics of peer opinion. If peers believe, for example, that it is morally good to behave politely with as many people as possible, then the child is likely to agree with the group and to regard politeness as not merely an arbitrary social convention, but a moral "good". This approach to moral belief is a bit more stable than the approach in Stage 2, because the child is taking into account the reactions not just of one other person, but of many. But it can still lead astray if the group settles on beliefs that adults consider morally wrong, like "Shop lifting for candy bars is fun and desirable."
Eventually, as the child becomes a youth and the social world expands even more, he or she acquires even larger numbers of peers and friends. He or she is therefore more likely to encounter disagreements about ethical issues and beliefs. Resolving the complexities lead to Stage 4, the ethics of law and order, in which the young person increasingly frames moral beliefs in terms of what the majority of society believes. Now, an action is morally good if it is legal or at least customarily approved by most people, including people whom the youth does not know personally. This attitude leads to an even more stable set of principles than in the previous stage, though it is still not immune from ethical mistakes. A community or society may agree, for example, that people of a certain race should be treated with deliberate disrespect, or that a factory owner is entitled to dump waste water into a commonly shared lake or river. To develop ethical principles that reliably avoid mistakes like these require further stages of moral development.
Postconventional justice: social contract and universal principles
As a person becomes able to think abstractly (or "formally", in Piaget's sense), ethical beliefs shift from acceptance of what the community does believe to the process by which community beliefs are formed. The new focus constitutes Stage 5, the ethics of social contract. Now an action, belief, or practice is morally good if it has been created through fair, democratic processes that respect the rights of the people affected. Consider, for example, the laws in some areas that require motorcyclists to wear helmets. In what sense are the laws about this behavior ethical? Was it created by consulting with and gaining the consent of the relevant people? Were cyclists consulted and did they give consent? Or how about doctors or the cyclists' families? Reasonable, thoughtful individuals disagree about how thoroughly and fairly these consultation processes should be. In focusing on the processes by which the law was created, however, individuals are thinking according to Stage 5, the ethics of social contract, regardless of the position they take about wearing helmets. In this sense, beliefs on both sides of a debate about an issue can sometimes be morally sound even if they contradict each other.
Paying attention to due process certainly seems like it should help to avoid mindless conformity to conventional moral beliefs. As an ethical strategy, though, it too can sometimes fail. The problem is that an ethics of social contract places more faith in democratic process than the process sometimes deserves, and does not pay enough attention to the content of what gets decided. In principle (and occasionally in practice), a society could decide democratically to kill off every member of a racial minority, for example, but would deciding this by due process make it ethical? The realization that ethical means can sometimes serve unethical ends leads some individuals toward Stage 6, the ethics of self-chosen, universal principles. At this final stage, the morally good action is based on personally held principles that apply both to the person's immediate life as well as to the larger community and society. The universal principles may include a belief in democratic due process (Stage 5 ethics), but also other principles, such as a belief in the dignity of all human life or the sacredness of the natural environment. At Stage 6, the universal principles will guide a person's beliefs even if the principles mean disagreeing occasionally with what is customary (Stage 4) or even with what is legal (Stage 5).
Gilligan's morality of care
As logical as they sound, Kohlberg's stages of moral justice are not sufficient for understanding the development of moral beliefs. To see why, suppose that you have a student who asks for an extension of the deadline for an assignment. The justice orientation of Kohlberg's theory would prompt you to consider issues of whether granting the request is fair. Would the late student be able to put more effort into the assignment than other students? Would the extension place a difficult demand on you, since you would have less time to mark the assignments? These are important considerations related to the rights of students and the teacher. In addition to these, however, are considerations having to do with the responsibilities that you and the requesting student have for each other and for others. Does the student have a valid personal reason (illness, death in the family, etc.) for the assignment being late? Will the assignment lose its educational value if the student has to turn it in prematurely? These latter questions have less to do with fairness and rights, and more to do with taking care of and responsibility for students. They require a framework different from Kohlberg's to be understood fully.
One such framework has been developed by Carol Gilligan, whose ideas center on a morality of care, or system of beliefs about human responsibilities, care, and consideration for others. Gilligan proposed three moral positions that represent different extents or breadth of ethical care. Unlike Kohlberg, Piaget, or Erikson, she does not claim that the positions form a strictly developmental sequence, but only that they can be ranked hierarchically according to their depth or subtlety. In this respect her theory is "semi-developmental" in a way similar to Maslow's theory of motivation (Brown & Gilligan, 1992; Taylor, Gilligan, & Sullivan, 1995). Table \(2\) summarizes the three moral positions from Gilligan's theory
Table \(2\): Positions of moral development according to Gilligan
Moral position
Definition of what is morally good
Position 1: Survival orientation
Action that considers one’s personal needs only
Position 2: Conventional care
Action that considers others’ needs or preferences, but not one’s own
Position 3: Integrated care
Action that attempts to coordinate one’s own personal needs with those of others
Position 1: caring as survival
The most basic kind of caring is a survival orientation, in which a person is concerned primarily with his or her own welfare. If a teenage girl with this ethical position is wondering whether to get an abortion, for example, she will be concerned entirely with the effects of the abortion on herself. The morally good choice will be whatever creates the least stress for herself and that disrupts her own life the least. Responsibilities to others (the baby, the father, or her family) play little or no part in her thinking.
As a moral position, a survival orientation is obviously not satisfactory for classrooms on a widespread scale. If every student only looked out for himself or herself, classroom life might become rather unpleasant! Nonetheless, there are situations in which focusing primarily on yourself is both a sign of good mental health and relevant to teachers. For a child who has been bullied at school or sexually abused at home, for example, it is both healthy and morally desirable to speak out about how bullying or abuse has affected the victim. Doing so means essentially looking out for the victim's own needs at the expense of others' needs, including the bully's or abuser's. Speaking out, in this case, requires a survival orientation and is healthy because the child is taking caring of herself.
Position 2: conventional caring
A more subtle moral position is caring for others, in which a person is concerned about others' happiness and welfare, and about reconciling or integrating others' needs where they conflict with each other. In considering an abortion, for example, the teenager at this position would think primarily about what other people prefer. Do the father, her parents, and/or her doctor want her to keep the child? The morally good choice becomes whatever will please others the best. This position is more demanding than Position 1, ethically and intellectually, because it requires coordinating several persons' needs and values. But it is often morally insufficient because it ignores one crucial person: the self.
In classrooms, students who operate from Position 2 can be very desirable in some ways; they can be eager to please, considerate, and good at fitting in and at working cooperatively with others. Because these qualities are usually welcome in a busy classroom, teachers can be tempted to reward students for developing and using them. The problem with rewarding Position 2 ethics, however, is that doing so neglects the student's development— his or her own academic and personal goals or values. Sooner or later, personal goals, values, and identity need attention and care, and educators have a responsibility for assisting students to discover and clarify them.
Position 3: integrated caring
The most developed form of moral caring in Gilligan's model is integrated caring, the coordination of personal needs and values with those of others. Now the morally good choice takes account of everyone including yourself, not everyone except yourself. In considering an abortion, a woman at Position 3 would think not only about the consequences for the father, the unborn child, and her family, but also about the consequences for herself. How would bearing a child affect her own needs, values, and plans? This perspective leads to moral beliefs that are more comprehensive, but ironically are also more prone to dilemmas because the widest possible range of individuals are being considered.
In classrooms, integrated caring is most likely to surface whenever teachers give students wide, sustained freedom to make choices. If students have little flexibility about their actions, there is little room for considering anyone's needs or values, whether their own or others'. If the teacher says simply: "Do the homework on page 50 and turn it in tomorrow morning", then the main issue becomes compliance, not moral choice. But suppose instead that she says something like this: "Over the next two months, figure out an inquiry project about the use of water resources in our town. Organize it any way you want— talk to people, read widely about it, and share it with the class in a way that all of us, including yourself, will find meaningful." An assignment like this poses moral challenges that are not only educational, but also moral, since it requires students to make value judgments. Why? For one thing, students must decide what aspect of the topic really matters to them. Such a decision is partly a matter of personal values. For another thing, students have to consider how to make the topic meaningful or important to others in the class. Third, because the time line for completion is relatively far in the future, students may have to weigh personal priorities (like spending time with friends or family) against educational priorities (working on the assignment a bit more on the weekend). As you might suspect, some students might have trouble making good choices when given this sort of freedom— and their teachers might therefore be cautious about giving such an assignment. But the difficulties in making choices are part of Gilligan's point: integrated caring is indeed more demanding than the caring based only on survival or on consideration of others. Not all students may be ready for it. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/03%3A_Student_Development/3.06%3A_Moral_Development-_Forming_a_Sense_of_Rights_and_Responsibilities.txt |
In this chapter, in keeping with the general nature of developmental theory, we have often spoken of students in a generalized way, referring to "the" child, student, or youngster, as if a single typical or average individual exists and develops through single, predictable pathways. As every teacher knows, however, development is not that simple. A class of 25 or 30 students will contain 25 or 30 individuals each learning and developing along distinct pathways. Why then study developmental patterns at all? Because underlying their obvious diversity, students indeed show important similarities. This chapter has indicated some of the similarities and how they relate to the job of teaching. Our references to "the" student should not be understood, therefore, as supporting simple-minded stereotypes; they refer instead to common tendencies of real, live children and youth. Pointing to developmental changes is like pointing to a flock of birds in flight: the flock has a general location, but individual birds also have their own locations and take individual flight paths. Development and diversity therefore have to be understood jointly, not separately. There are indeed similarities woven among the differences in students, but also differences woven among students' commonalities. We recommend therefore that you read this chapter on development together with the next one, which looks explicitly at student diversity.
3.08: Summary Key Words and References
Chapter summary
Understanding development, or the long-term changes in growth, behavior, and knowledge, helps teachers to hold appropriate expectations for students as well as to keep students' individual diversity in perspective. From kindergarten through the end of high school, students double their height, triple their weight, experience the social and hormonal effects of puberty, and improve basic motor skills. Their health is generally good, though illnesses are affected significantly by students' economic and social circumstances.
Cognitively, students develop major new abilities to think logically and abstractly, based on a foundation of sensory and motor experiences with the objects and people around them. Jean Piaget has one well-known theory detailing how these changes unfold.
Socially, students face and resolve a number of issues— especially the issue of industry (dedicated, sustained work) during childhood and the issue of identity during adolescence. Erik Erikson has described these crises in detail, as well as social crises that precede and follow the school years. Students are motivated both by basic human needs (food, safety, belonging, esteem) and by needs to enhance themselves psychologically (self-actualization). Abraham Maslow has described these motivations and how they relate to each other.
Morally, students develop both a sense of justice and of care for others, and their thinking in each of these realms undergoes important changes as they mature. Lawrence Kohlberg has described changes in children and youth's beliefs about justice, and Carol Gilligan has described changes in their beliefs about care.
On the Internet
This is part of the website for the Society for Research in Child Development, an organization that supports research about children and youth, and that advocates for government policies on their behalf. The specific web page recommended here contains their press releases, which summarize findings from current research and their implications for children's welfare. You will need to register to use this page, but registration is free.
This is the website for the American Psychological Association, the largest professional association of psychologists in the English-speaking world. From the homepage you can go to a section called "psychology topics", which offers a variety of interesting articles and press releases free of charge. Among other topics, for example, there are articles about obesity and its effects, as well as about factors that support (and/or detract from) children's well-being.
Key terms
Development
Puberty
Cognition
Cognitive stages
Jean Piaget
Sensorimotor stage
Object permanence
Preoperational stage
Dramatic play
Concrete operational stage
Decenter
Conservation
Formal operational state
Hypothetical reasoning
Moral development
Lawrence Kohlberg
Carol Gilligan
Morality of justice
Preconventional justice
Ethics of obedience
Ethics of mutual advantage
Conventional justice
Ethics of peer opinion
Ethics of law and order
Postconventional justice
Ethics of social contact
Ethics of universal principles
Social Development
Erik Erikson
Abraham Maslow
Lawrence Kohlberg
Carol Gilligan
Psychosocial crises
Trust, autonomy, and initiative
Identity
Intimacy, generativity, and integrity
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Deficit needs
Being needs
Self-actualization
Morality of care
Survival Orientation
Conventional care
Integrated care | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/03%3A_Student_Development/3.07%3A_Understanding_The_Typical_Student_Versus_Understanding_Students.txt |
I'll tell you this: There are some people, and then there are others.
(Anna Harris)
Anna Harris was Kelvin Seifert's grandmother as well as a schoolteacher from about lgio to 1930. She used to make comments, like the one above, that sounded odd but that also contained a grain of wisdom. In this case her remark makes a good theme for this chapter— and even for teaching in general. Students do differ in a multitude of ways, both individually and because of memberships in families, communities or cultural groups. Sometimes the differences can make classroom-style teaching more challenging, but other times, as Anna Harris implied, they simply enrich classroom life. To teach students well, we need to understand the important ways that they differ among themselves, and when or how the differences really matter for their education. This chapter offers some of that understanding and suggests how you might use it in order to make learning effective and enjoyable for everyone, including yourself.
For convenience we will make a major distinction between differences among individuals and differences among groups of students. As the term implies, individual differences are qualities that are unique; just one person has them at a time. Variation in hair color, for example, is an individual difference; even though some people have nearly the same hair color, no two people are exactly the same. Group differences are qualities shared by members of an identifiable group or community, but not shared by everyone in society. An example is gender role: for better or for worse, one portion of society (the males) is perceived differently and expected to behave a bit differently than another portion of society (the females). Notice that distinguishing between individual and group differences is convenient, but a bit arbitrary. Individuals with similar, but nonetheless unique qualities sometimes group themselves together for certain purposes, and groups unusually contain a lot of individual diversity within them. If you happen to enjoy playing soccer and have some talent for it (an individual quality), for example, you may end up as a member of a soccer team or club (a group defined by members' common desire and ability to play soccer). But though everyone on the team fits a "soccer player's profile" at some level, individual members will probably vary in level of skill and motivation. The group, by its very nature, may obscure these signs of individuality.
To begin, then, we look at several differences normally considered to be individually rather than group based. This discussion will necessarily be incomplete simply because individual differences are so numerous and important in teaching that some of them are also discussed in later chapters. Later sections of this chapter deal with three important forms of group diversity: gender differences, cultural differences, and language differences
4.02: Individual Styles of Learning and Thinking
All of us, including our students, have preferred ways of learning. Teachers often refer to these differences as learning styles, though this term may imply that students are more consistent across situations than is really the case. One student may like to make diagrams to help remember a reading assignment, whereas another student may prefer to write a sketchy outline instead. Yet in many cases, the students could in principle reverse the strategies and still learn the material: if coaxed (or perhaps required), the diagram-maker could take notes for a change and the note-taker could draw diagrams. Both would still learn, though neither might feel as comfortable as when using the strategies that they prefer. This reality suggests that a balanced, middle-of-the-road approach may be a teacher's best response to students' learning styles. Or put another way, it is good to support students' preferred learning strategies where possible and appropriate, but neither necessary nor desirable to do so all of the time (Loo, 2004; Stahl, 2002). Most of all, it is neither necessary nor possible to classify or label students according to seemingly fixed learning styles and then allow them to learn only according to those styles. A student may prefer to hear new material rather than see it; he may prefer for you to explain something orally, for example, rather than to see it demonstrated in a video. But he may nonetheless tolerate or sometimes even prefer to see it demonstrated. In the long run, in fact, he may learn it best by encountering the material in both ways, regardless of his habitual preferences.
That said, there is evidence that individuals, including students, do differ in how they habitually think. These differences are more specific than learning styles or preferences, and psychologists sometimes call them cognitive styles, meaning typical ways of perceiving and remembering information, and typical ways of solving problems and making decisions (Zhang & Sternberg, 2006). In a style of thinking called field dependence, for example, individuals perceive patterns as a whole rather than focus on the parts of the pattern separately. In a complementary tendency, called field independence, individuals are more inclined to analyze overall patterns into their parts. Cognitive research from the 1940s to the present has found field dependence/independence differences to be somewhat stable for any given person across situations, though not completely so (Witkin, Moore, Goodenough, & Cox, 1977; Zhang & Sternberg, 2005). Someone who is field dependent (perceives globally or "wholistically") in one situation, tends to a modest extent to perceive things globally or wholistically in other situations. Field dependence and independence can be important in understanding students because the styles affect students' behaviors and preferences in school and classrooms. Field dependent persons tend to work better in groups, it seems, and to prefer "open-ended" fields of study like literature and history. Field independent persons, on the other hand, tend to work better alone and to prefer highly analytic studies like math and science. The differences are only a tendency, however, and there are a lot of students who contradict the trends. As with the broader notion of learning styles, the cognitive styles of field dependence and independence are useful for tailoring instruction to particular students, but their guidance is only approximate. They neither can nor should be used to "lock" students to particular modes of learning or to replace students' own expressed preferences and choices about curriculum.
Another cognitive style is impulsivity as compared to reflectivity. As the names imply, an impulsive cognitive style is one in which a person reacts quickly, but as a result makes comparatively more errors. A reflective style is the opposite: the person reacts more slowly and therefore makes fewer errors. As you might expect, the reflective style would seem better suited to many academic demands of school. Research has found that this is indeed the case for academic skills that clearly benefit from reflection, such as mathematical problem solving or certain reading tasks (Evans, 2004). Some classroom or school-related skills, however, may actually develop better if a student is relatively impulsive. Being a good partner in a cooperative learning group, for example, may depend partly on responding spontaneously (i.e. just a bit "impulsively") to others' suggestions; and being an effective member of an athletic team may depend on nor taking time to reflect carefully on every move that you or your team mates make.
There are two major ways to use knowledge of students’ cognitive styles (Pritchard, 2005). The first and the more obvious is to build on students’ existing style strengths and preferences. A student who is field independent and reflective, for example, can be encouraged to explore tasks and activities that are relatively analytic and that require relatively independent work. One who is field dependent and impulsive, on the other hand, can be encouraged and supported to try tasks and activities that are more social or spontaneous. But a second, less obvious way to use knowledge of cognitive styles is to encourage more balance in cognitive styles for students who need it. A student who lacks field independence, for example, may need explicit help in organizing and analyzing key academic tasks (like organizing a lab report in a science class). One who is already highly reflective may need encouragement to try ideas spontaneously, as in a creative writing lesson. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/04%3A_Student_Diversity/4.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
For nearly a century, educators and psychologists have debated the nature of intelligence, and more specifically whether intelligence is just one broad ability or can take more than one form. Many classical definitions of the concept have tended to define intelligence as a single broad ability that allows a person to solve or complete many sorts of tasks, or at least many academic tasks like reading, knowledge of vocabulary, and the solving of logical problems (Garlick, 2002). There is research evidence of such a global ability, and the idea of general intelligence often fits with society's everyday beliefs about intelligence. Partly for these reasons, an entire mini-industry has grown up around publishing tests of intelligence, academic ability, and academic achievement. Since these tests affect the work of teachers, I return to discussing them later in this book.
But there are also problems with defining intelligence as one general ability. One way of summing up the problems is to say that conceiving of intelligence as something general tends to put it beyond teachers' influence. When viewed as a single, all-purpose ability, students either have a lot of intelligence or they do not, and strengthening their intelligence becomes a major challenge, or perhaps even an impossible one (Gottfredson, 2004; Lubinski, 2004). This conclusion is troubling to some educators, especially in recent years as testing school achievements have become more common and as students have become more diverse.
But alternate views of intelligence also exist that portray intelligence as having multiple forms, whether the forms are subparts of a single broader ability or are multiple "intelligences" in their own right. For various reasons such this perspective has gained in popularity among teachers in recent years, probably because it reflects many teachers' beliefs that students cannot simply be rated along a single scale of ability, but are fundamentally diverse (Kohn, 2004).
One of the most prominent of these models is Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences (Gardner, 1983, 2003). Gardner proposes that there are eight different forms of intelligence, each of which functions independently of the others. (The eight intelligences are summarized in Table 11. Each person has a mix Educational Psychology 68 A Global Text 4. Student diversity of all eight abilities— more of one and less of another— that helps to constitute that person's individual cognitive profile. Since most tasks— including most tasks in classrooms— require several forms of intelligence and can be completed in more than one way, it is possible for people with various profiles of talents to succeed on a task equally well. In writing an essay, for example, a student with high interpersonal intelligence but rather average verbal intelligence might use his or her interpersonal strength to get a lot of help and advice from classmates and the teacher. A student with the opposite profile might work well alone, but without the benefit of help from others. Both students might end up with essays that are good, but good for different reasons.
Table \(1\): Multiple intelligences according to Howard Gardner
Form of intelligence
Examples of activities using the intelligence
Linguistic: verbal skill; ability to use language well
verbal persuasion
writing a term paper skillfully
Musical: ability to create and understand music
singing, playing a musical instrument
composing a tune
Logical: Mathematical: logical skill; ability to reason, often using mathematics
solving mathematical problems easily and accurately
developing and testing hypotheses
Spatial: ability to imagine and manipulate the arrangement of objects in the environment
completing a difficult jigsaw puzzle
assembling a complex appliance (e.g. a bicycle)
Bodily: kinesthetic: sense of balance; coordination in use of one’s body
dancing
gymnastics
Interpersonal: ability to discern others’ nonverbal feelings and thoughts
sensing when to be tactful
sensing a “subtext” or implied message in a person’s statements
Intrapersonal: sensitivity to one’s own thoughts and feelings
noticing complex of ambivalent feelings in oneself
identifying true motives for an action in oneself
Naturalist: sensitivity to subtle differences and patterns found in the natural environment
identifying examples of species of plants or animals
noticing relationships among species and natural processes in the environment
As evidence for the possibility of multiple intelligences, Gardner cites descriptions of individuals with exceptional talent in one form of intelligence (for example, in playing the piano) but who are neither above nor below average in other areas. He also cites descriptions of individuals with brain damage, some of whom lose one particular form of intelligence (like the ability to talk) but retain other forms. In the opinion of many psychologists, however, the evidence for multiple intelligences is not strong enough to give up the "classical" view of general intelligence. Part of the problem is that the evidence for multiple intelligences relies primarily on anecdotes- examples or descriptions of particular individuals who illustrate the model— rather than on more widespread information or data (Eisner, 2004).
Nonetheless, whatever the status of the research evidence, the model itself can be useful as a way for teachers to think about their work. Multiple intelligences suggest the importance of diversifying instruction in order to honor and to respond to diversity in students' talents and abilities. Viewed like this, whether Gardner's classification scheme is actually accurate is probably less important than the fact there is (or may be) more than one way to be "smart". In the end, as with cognitive and learning styles, it may not be important to label students' talents or intellectual strengths. It may be more important simply to provide important learning and knowledge in several modes or styles, ways that draw on more than one possible form of intelligence or skill. A good example of this principle is your own development in learning to teach. It is well and good to read books about teaching (like this one, perhaps), but it is even better to read books and talk with classmates and educators about teaching and getting actual experience in classrooms. The combination both invites and requires a wide range of your talents and usually proves more effective than any single type of activity, whatever your profile of cognitive styles or intellectual abilities happens to be. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/04%3A_Student_Diversity/4.03%3A_Multiple_Intelligences.txt |
The idea of multiple intelligences leads to new ways of thinking about students who have special gifts and talents. Traditionally, the term gifted referred only to students with unusually high verbal skills. Their skills were demonstrated especially well, for example, on standardized tests of general ability or of school achievement, like those described in Chapter 13 (“Standardized and other formal assessments”). More recently, however, the meaning of gifted has broadened to include unusual talents in a range of activities, such as music, creative writing, or the arts (G. Davis & Rimm, 2004). To indicate the change, educators often use the dual term gifted and talented.
Qualities of the gifted and talented
What are students who are gifted and talented like? Generally they show some combination of the following qualities:
• They learn more quickly and independently than most students their own age.
• They often have well-developed vocabulary, as well as advanced reading and writing skills.
• They are very motivated, especially on tasks that are challenging or difficult.
• They hold themselves to higher than usual standards of achievement.Gifted and talented students
Contrary to a common impression, students who are gifted or talented are not necessarily awkward socially, less healthy, or narrow in their interests— in fact, quite the contrary (Steiner & Carr, 2003). They also come from all economic and cultural groups.
Ironically, in spite of their obvious strengths as learners, such students often languish in school unless teachers can provide them with more than the challenges of the usual curriculum. A kindergarten child who is precociously advanced in reading, for example, may make little further progress at reading if her teachers do not recognize and develop her skill; her talent may effectively disappear from view as her peers gradually catch up to her initial level. Without accommodation to their unusual level of skill or knowledge, students who are gifted or talented can become bored by school, and eventually the boredom can even turn into behavior problems.
Partly for these reasons, students who are gifted or talented have sometimes been regarded as the responsibility of special education, along with students with other sorts of disabilities. Often their needs are discussed, for example, in textbooks about special education, alongside discussions of students with intellectual disabilities, physical impairments, or major behavior disorders (Friend, 2008). There is some logic to this way of thinking about their needs; after all, they are quite exceptional, and they do require modifications of the usual school programs in order to reach their full potential. But it is also misleading to ignore obvious differences between exceptional giftedness and exceptional disabilities of other kinds. The key difference is in students' potential. By definition, students with gifts or talents are capable of creative, committed work at levels that often approach talented adults. Other students— including students with disabilities— may reach these levels, but not as soon and not as frequently. Many educators therefore think of the gifted and talented not as examples of students with disabilities, but as examples of diversity. As such they are not so much the responsibility of special education specialists, as the responsibility of all teachers to differentiate their instruction.
Supporting students who are gifted and talented
Supporting the gifted and talented usually involves a mixture of acceleration and enrichment of the usual curriculum (Schiever & Maker, 2003). Acceleration involves either a child's skipping a grade, or else the teacher's redesigning the curriculum within a particular grade or classroom so that more material is covered faster. Either strategy works, but only up to a point: children who have skipped a grade usually function well in the higher grade, both academically and socially. Unfortunately skipping grades cannot happen repeatedly unless teacher, parents, and the students themselves are prepared to live with large age and maturity differences within single classrooms. In itself, too, there is no guarantee that instruction in the new, higher-grade classroom will be any more stimulating than it was in the former, lower-grade classroom. Redesigning the curriculum is also beneficial to the student, but impractical to do on a widespread basis; even if teachers had the time to redesign their programs, many non-gifted students would be left behind as a result.
Enrichment involves providing additional or different instruction added on to the usual curriculum goals and activities. Instead of books at more advanced reading levels, for example, a student might read a wider variety of types of literature at the student's current reading level, or try writing additional types of literature himself. Instead of moving ahead to more difficult kinds of math programs, the student might work on unusual logic problems not assigned to the rest of the class. Like acceleration, enrichment works well up to a point. Enrichment curricula exist to help classroom teachers working with gifted students (and save teachers the time and work of creating enrichment materials themselves). Since enrichment is not part of the normal, officially sanctioned curriculum, however, there is a risk that it will be perceived as busywork rather than as intellectual stimulation, particularly if the teacher herself is not familiar with the enrichment material or is otherwise unable to involve herself in the material fully.
Obviously acceleration and enrichment can sometimes be combined. A student can skip a grade and also be introduced to interesting "extra" material at the new grade level. A teacher can move a student to the next unit of study faster than she moves the rest of the class, while at the same time offering additional activities not related to the unit of study directly. For a teacher with a student who is gifted or talented, however, the real challenge is not simply to choose between acceleration and enrichment, but to observe the student, get to know him or her as a unique individual, and offer activities and supports based on that knowledge. This is essentially the challenge of differentiating instruction, something needed not just by the gifted and talented, but by students of all sorts. As you might suspect, differentiating instruction poses challenges about managing instruction; we discuss it again in more detail in Chapter 9 ("Facilitating complex thinking") and Chapter 10 ("Instructional planning"). | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/04%3A_Student_Diversity/4.04%3A_Gifted_and_Talented_Students.txt |
Gender roles are the patterns of behaviors, attitudes, and expectations associated with a particular sex— with being either male or female. For clarity, psychologists sometimes distinguish gender differences, which are related to social roles, from sex differences, which are related only to physiology and anatomy. Using this terminology, gender matters in teaching more than sex (in spite of any jokes told about the latter!).
Although there are many exceptions, boys and girls do differ on average in ways that parallel conventional gender stereotypes and that affect how the sexes behave at school and in class. The differences have to do with physical behaviors, styles of social interaction, academic motivations, behaviors, and choices. They have a variety of sources— primarily parents, peers, and the media. Teachers are certainly not the primary cause of gender role differences, but sometimes teachers influence them by their responses to and choices made on behalf of students.
Physical differences in gender roles
Physically, boys tend to be more active than girls, and by the same token more restless if they have to sit for long periods. They are also more prone than girls to rely on physical aggression if they are frustrated (Espelage & Swearer, 2004). Both tendencies are inconsistent with the usual demands of classroom life, of course, and make it a little more likely that school will be a difficult experience for boys, even for boys who never actually get in trouble for being restless or aggressive.
During the first two or three years of elementary school, gross motor skills develop at almost the same average rate for boys and girls. As a group, both sexes can run, jump, throw a ball, and the like with about equal ease, though there are of course wide significant differences among individuals of both sexes. Toward the end of elementary school, however, boys pull ahead of girls at these skills even though neither sex has begun yet to experience puberty. The most likely reason is that boys participate more actively in formal and informal sports because of expectations and support from parents, peers, and society (Braddock, Sokol-Katz, Greene, & Basinger- Fleischman, 2005; Messner, Duncan, & Cooky, 2003). Puberty eventually adds to this advantage by making boys taller and stronger than girls, on average, and therefore more suited at least for sports that rely on height and strength.
In thinking about these differences, keep in mind that they refer to average trends and that there are numerous individual exceptions. Every teacher knows of individual boys who are not athletic, for example, or of particular girls who are especially restless in class. The individual differences mean, among other things, that it is hard to justify providing different levels of support or resources to boys than to girls for sports, athletics, or physical education. The differences also suggest, though, that individual students who contradict gender stereotypes about physical abilities may benefit from emotional support or affirmation from teachers, simply because they may be less likely than usual to get such affirmation from elsewhere.
Social differences in gender roles
When relaxing socially, boys more often gravitate to large groups. Whether on the playground, in a school hallway, or on the street, boys' social groups tend literally to fill up a lot of space, and often include significant amounts of roughhousing as well as organized and "semi-organized" competitive games or sports (Maccoby, 2002). Girls, for their part, are more likely to seek and maintain one or two close friends and to share more intimate information and feelings with these individuals. To the extent that these gender differences occur, they can make girls less visible or noticeable than boys, at least in leisure play situations where children or youth choose their companions freely. As with physical differences, however, keep in mind that differences in social interactions do not occur uniformly for all boys and girls. There are boys with close friends, contradicting the general trend, and girls who play primarily in large groups.
Differences in social interaction styles happen in the classroom as well. Boys, on average, are more likely to speak up during a class discussion— sometimes even if not called on, or even if they do not know as much about the topic as others in the class (Sadker, 2002). When working on a project in a small co-ed group, furthermore they have a tendency to ignore girls' comments and contributions to the group. In this respect co-ed student groups parallel interaction patterns in many parts of society, where men also have a tendency to ignore women's comments and contributions (Tannen, 2001).
Academic and cognitive differences in gender
On average, girls are more motivated than boys to perform well in school, at least during elementary school. By the time girls reach high school, however, some may try to down play their own academic ability in order make themselves more likeable by both sexes (Davies, 2005). Even if this occurs, though, it does not affect their grades: from kindergarten through twelfth grade, girls earn slightly higher average grades than boys (Freeman, 2004). This fact does not lead to similar achievement, however, because as youngsters move into high school, they tend to choose courses or subjects conventionally associated with their gender— math and science for boys, in particular, and literature and the arts for girls. By the end of high school, this difference in course selection makes a measurable difference in boys' and girls' academic performance in these subjects.
But again, consider my caution about stereotyping: there are individuals of both sexes whose behaviors and choices run counter to the group trends. (I have made this point as well in "Preparing for Licensure: Interpreting Gender-Related Behavior" by deliberately concealing the gender of a student described.) Differences within each gender group generally are far larger than any differences between the groups. A good example is the "difference" in cognitive ability of boys and girls. Many studies have found none at all. A few others have found small differences, with boys slightly better at math and girls slightly better at reading and literature. Still other studies have found the differences not only are small, but have been getting smaller in recent years compared to earlier studies. Collectively the findings about cognitive abilities are virtually "non-findings", and it is worth asking why gender differences have therefore been studied and discussed so much for so many years (Hyde, 2005). How teachers influence gender roles?
Teachers often intend to interact with both sexes equally, and frequently succeed at doing so. Research has found, though, that they do sometimes respond to boys and girls differently, perhaps without realizing it. Three kinds of differences have been noticed. The first is the overall amount of attention paid to each sex; the second is the visibility or "publicity" of conversations; and the third is the type of behavior that prompts teachers to support or criticize students.
Attention paid
In general, teachers interact with boys more often than with girls by a margin of 10 to 30 percent, depending on the grade level of the students and the personality of the teacher (Measor & Sykes, 1992). One possible reason for the difference is related to the greater assertiveness of boys that I already noted; if boys are speaking up more frequently in discussions or at other times, then a teacher may be "forced" to pay more attention to them. Another possibility is that some teachers may feel that boys are especially prone to getting into mischief, so they may interact with them more frequently to keep them focused on the task at hand (Erden & Wolfgang, 2004). Still another possibility is that boys, compared to girls, may interact in a wider variety of styles and situations, so there may simply be richer opportunities to interact with them. This last possibility is partially supported by another gender difference in classroom interaction, the amount of public versus private talk.
Public talk versus private talk
Teachers have a tendency to talk to boys from a greater physical distance than when they talk to girls (Wilkinson & Marrett, 1985). The difference may be both a cause and an effect of general gender expectations, expressive nurturing is expected more often of girls and women, and a businesslike task orientation is expected more often of boys and men, particularly in mixed-sex groups (Basow & Rubenfeld, 2003; Myaskovsky, Unikel, & Dew, 2005). Whatever the reason, the effect is to give interactions with boys more "publicity". When two people converse with each other from across the classroom, many others can overhear them; when they are at each other's elbows, though, few others can overhear.
Distributing praise and criticism
In spite of most teachers' desire to be fair to all students, it turns out that they sometimes distribute praise and criticism differently to boys and girls. The differences are summarized in Table \(1\): . The tendency is to praise boys more than girls for displaying knowledge correctly, but to criticize girls more than boys for displaying knowledge incorrectly (Golombok & Fivush, 1994; Delamont, 1996). Another way of stating this difference is by what teachers tend to overlook: with boys, they tend to overlook wrong answers, but with girls, they tend to overlook right answers. The result (which is probably unintended) is a tendency to make boys' knowledge seem more important and boys themselves more competent. A second result is the other side of this coin: a tendency to make girls' knowledge less visible and girls themselves less competent.
Table \(1\): Gender differences in how teachers praise and criticize students
Types of responses from teacher
Boys
Girls
Praises
Correct knowledge
“Good” or compliant behavior
Overlooks or ignores
“Good” or compliant behavior;
incorrect knowledge
Misbehavior; correct knowledge
Criticizes
Misbehavior
Incorrect knowledge
Source: Golobuk & Fivush, 1994
Gender differences also occur in the realm of classroom behavior. Teachers tend to praise girls for "good" behavior, regardless of its relevance to content or to the lesson at hand, and tend to criticize boys for "bad" or inappropriate behavior (Golombok & Fivush, 1994). This difference can also be stated in terms of what teachers overlook: with girls, they tend to overlook behavior that is not appropriate, but with boys they tend to overlook behavior that is appropriate. The net result in this case is to make girls' seem more good than they may really be, and also to make their "goodness" seem more important than their academic competence. By the same token, the teacher's patterns of response imply that boys are more "bad" than they may really be.
At first glance, the gender differences in interaction can seem discouraging and critical of teachers because they imply that teachers as a group are biased about gender. But this conclusion is too simplistic for a couple of reasons. One is that like all differences between groups, interaction patterns are trends, and as such they hide a lot of variation within them. The other is that the trends suggest what often tends in fact to happen, not what can in fact happen if a teacher consciously sets about to avoid interaction patterns like the ones I have described. Fortunately for us all, teaching does not need to be unthinking; we have choices that we can make, even during a busy class! | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/04%3A_Student_Diversity/4.05%3A_Gender_Differences_in_the_Classroom.txt |
A culture is the system of attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that constitute the distinctive way of life of a people. Although sometimes the term is also used to refer specifically to the artistic, intellectual and other "high-brow" aspects of life, I use it here more broadly to refer to everything that characterizes a way of life— baseball games as well as symphony concerts, and McDonald's as well as expensive restaurants. In this broad sense culture is nearly synonymous with ethnicity, which refers to the common language, history, and future experienced by a group within society. Culture has elements that are obvious, like unique holidays or customs, but also features that are subtle or easy for outsiders to overlook, like beliefs about the nature of intelligence or about the proper way to tell a story. When a classroom draws students from many cultures or ethnic groups, therefore, the students bring to it considerable diversity. Teachers need to understand that diversity— understand how students' habitual attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors differ from each other, and especially how they differ from the teacher's.
But this kind of understanding can get complicated. To organize the topic, therefore, I will discuss aspects of cultural diversity according to how directly they relate to language differences compared to differences in other social and psychological features of culture. The distinction is convenient, but it is also a bit arbitrary because, as you will see, the features of a culture overlap and influence each other.
Bilingualism: language differences in the classroom
Although monolingual speakers often do not realize it, the majority of children around the world are bilingual, meaning that they understand and use two languages (Meyers-Scotton, 2005). Even in the United States, which is a relatively monolingual society, more than 47 million people speak a language other than English at home, and about 10 million of these people were children or youths in public schools (United States Department of Commerce, 2003). The large majority of bilingual students (75 per cent) are Hispanic, but the rest represent more than a hundred different language groups from around the world. In larger communities throughout the United States, it is therefore common for a single classroom to contain students from several language backgrounds at once.
In classrooms as in other social settings, bilingualism exists in different forms and degrees. At one extreme are students who speak both English and another language fluently; at the other extreme are those who speak only limited versions of both languages. In between are students who speak their home (or heritage) language much better than English, as well as others who have partially lost their heritage language in the process of learning English (Tse, 2001). Commonly, too, a student may speak a language satisfactorily, but be challenged by reading or writing it— though even this pattern has individual exceptions. Whatever the case, each bilingual student poses unique challenges to teachers.
Balanced or fluent bilingualism
The student who speaks both languages fluently has a definite cognitive advantage. As you might suspect and as research has confirmed, a fully fluent bilingual student is in a better position than usual to express concepts or ideas in more than one way, and to be aware of doing so (Jimenez, et al. 1995; Francis, 2006). The question: "What if a dog were called a cat?" is less likely to confuse even a very young bilingual child. Nor will the follow-up question: "Could the 'cat' meow?" confuse them. Such skill in reflecting on language is a form of metacognition, which I discussed in Chapter 2 and defined as using language as an object of thought. Metacognition can be helpful for a variety of academic purposes, such as writing stories and essays, or interpreting complex text materials.
Unbalanced bilingualism
Unfortunately, the bilingualism of many students is "unbalanced" in the sense that they are either still learning English, or else they have lost some earlier ability to use their original, heritage language— or occasionally a bit of both. The first sort of student— sometimes called an English language learner (ELL) or limited English learner (LEL)— has received the greatest attention and concern from educators, since English is the dominant language of instruction and skill and obviously helps prepare a student for life in American society. ELL students essentially present teachers with this dilemma: how to respect the original language and culture of the student while also helping the student to join more fully in the mainstream— i.e. English-speaking— culture? Programs to address this question have ranged from total immersion in English from a young age (the "sink or swim" approach) to phasing in English over a period of several years (sometimes called an additive approach to bilingual education). In general, evaluations of bilingual programs have favored the more additive approaches (Beykont, 2002). Both languages are developed and supported, and students ideally become able to use either language permanently, though often for different situations or purposes. A student may end up using English in the classroom or at work, for example, but continue using Spanish at home or with friends, even though he or she is perfectly capable of speaking English with them.
Language loss
What about the other kind of imbalance, in which a student is acquiring English but losing ability with the student's home or heritage language? This sort of bilingualism is quite common in the United States and other nations with immigrant populations (Tse, 2001). Imagine this situation: First-generation immigrants arrive, and they soon learn just enough English to manage their work and daily needs, but continue using their original language at home with family and friends from their former country. Their children, however, experience strong expectations and pressure to learn and use English, and this circumstance dilutes the children's experience with the heritage language. By the time the children become adults, they are likely to speak and write English better than their heritage language, and may even be unable or unwilling to use the heritage language with their own children (the grandchildren of the original immigrants).
This situation might not at first seem like a problem for which we, as teachers, need to take responsibility, since the children immigrants, as students, are acquiring the dominant language of instruction. In fact, however, things are not that simple. Research finds that language loss limits students' ability to learn English as well or as quickly as they otherwise can do. Having a large vocabulary in a first language, for example, has been shown to save time in learning vocabulary in a second language (Hansen, Umeda & McKinney, 2002). But students can only realize the savings if their first language is preserved. Preserving the first language is also important if a student has impaired skill in all languages and therefore needs intervention or help from a speech-language specialist. Research has found, in such cases, that the specialist can be more effective if the specialist speaks and uses the first language as well as English (Kohnert, et al., 2005). Generally, though also more indirectly, minimizing language loss helps all bilingual students' education because preservation tends to enrich students' and parents' ability to communicate with each other. With two languages to work with, parents can stay "in the loop" better about their children's educations and support the teacher's work— for example, by assisting more effectively with homework (Ebert, 2005).
Note that in the early years of schooling, language loss can be minimized to some extent by the additive or parallel-track bilingual programs that I mentioned above. For a few years, though not forever, young students are encouraged to use both of their languages. In high school, in addition, some conventional foreign language classes— notably in Spanish— can be adjusted to include and support students who are already native speakers of the language alongside students who are learning it for the first time (Tse, 2001). But for heritage languages not normally offered as "foreign" languages in school, of course, this approach will not work. Such languages are especially at risk for being lost.
Cultural differences in language use
Cultures and ethnic groups differ not only in languages, but also in how languages are used. Since some of the patterns differ from those typical of modern classrooms, they can create misunderstandings between teachers and students (Cazden, 2001; Rogers, et al., 2005). Consider these examples: In some cultures, it is considered polite or even intelligent not to speak unless you have something truly important to say. "Chitchat", or talk that simply affirms a personal tie between people, is considered immature or intrusive (Minami, 2002). In a classroom, this habit can make it easier for a child to learn not to interrupt others, but it can also make the child seem unfriendly.
• Eye contact varies by culture. In many African American and Latin American communities, it is considered appropriate and respectful for a child not to look directly at an adult who is speaking to them (Torres- Guzman, 1998). In classrooms, however, teachers often expect a lot of eye contact (as in "I want all eyes on me!") and may be tempted to construe lack of eye contact as a sign of indifference or disrespect.
• Social distance varies by culture. In some cultures, it is common to stand relatively close when having a conversation; in others, it is more customary to stand relatively far apart (Beaulieu, 2004). Problems may happen when a teacher and a student prefer different social distances. A student who expects a closer distance than does the teacher may seem overly familiar or intrusive, whereas one who expects a longer distance may seem overly formal or hesitant.
• Wait time varies by culture. Wait time is the gap between the end of one person's comment or question and the next person's reply or answer. In some cultures wait time is relatively long— as long as three or four seconds (Tharp & Gallimore, 1989). In others it is a "negative" gap, meaning that it is acceptable, even expected, for a person to interrupt before the end of the previous comment. In classrooms the wait time is customarily about one second; after that, the teacher is likely to move on to another question or to another student. A student who habitually expects a wait time long than one second may seem hesitant, and not be given many chances to speak. A student who expects a "negative" wait time, on the other hand, may seem overeager or even rude.
• In most non-Anglo cultures, questions are intended to gain information, and it is assumed that a person asking the question truly does not have the information requested (Rogoff, 2003). In most classrooms, however, teachers regularly ask test questions, which are questions to which the teacher already knows the answer and that simply assess whether a student knows the answer as well (Macbeth, 2003). The question: "How much is 2 + 2?" for example, is a test question. If the student is not aware of this purpose, he or she may become confused, or think that the teacher is surprisingly ignorant! Worse yet, the student may feel that the teacher is trying deliberately to shame the student by revealing the student's ignorance or incompetence to others.
Cultural differences in attitudes and beliefs
In addition to differences in language and in practices related to language, cultural groups differ in a variety of other attitudes and beliefs. Complete descriptions of the details of the differences have filled entire books of encyclopedias (see, for example, Birx, 2005). For teachers, however, the most important ones center on beliefs about identity, or the sense of self, or of "who you are". A number of other cultural beliefs and practices can be understood as resulting from how members of a culture think about personal identity.
In white, middle-class American culture, the self is usually thought of as unique and independent— a unitary, living source of decisions, choices, and actions that stands (or should eventually stand) by itself (Greenfield, et al., 2003; Rogoff, 2003). This view of the self is well entrenched in schools, as for example when students are expected to take responsibility for their own successes or failures and when they are tested and evaluated individually rather than as a group or team. As teachers, furthermore, most of us subscribe to the idea that all students are unique, even if we cannot implement this idea fully in teaching because of the constraints of large classes. Whatever the circumstances, teachers tend to believe in an independent self.
To a greater or lesser extent, however, the majority of non-white cultures and ethnic groups believe in something closer to an interdependent self, or a belief that it is your relationships and responsibilities, and not uniqueness and autonomy, that defines a person (Greenfield, 1994; Greenfield, et al., 2003). In these cultures, the most worthy person is not the one who is unusual or who stands out in a crowd. Such a person might actually be regarded as lonely or isolated. The worthy person is instead the one who gets along well with family and friends, and who meets obligations to them reliably and skillfully. At some level, of course, we all value interpersonal skill and to this extent think of ourselves as interdependent. The difference between individual and interdependent self is one of emphasis, with many non-white cultures emphasizing interdependence significantly more than white middle-class society in general and more than schools in particular.
There can be consequences of the difference in how the students respond to school. Here are some of the possibilities— though keep in mind that there are also differences among students as individuals, whatever their cultural background. I am talking about tendencies, not straightforward predictions.
• Preference for activities that are cooperative rather than competitive: Many activities in school are competitive, even when teachers try to de-emphasize the competition. Once past the first year or second year of school, students often become attentive to who receives the highest marks on an assignment, for example, or who is the best athlete at various sports or whose contributions to class discussion the most verbal recognition from the teacher (Johnson & Johnson, 1998). Suppose, in addition, that a teacher deliberately organizes important activities or assignments competitively (as in "Let's see who finishes the math sheet first."). Classroom life can then become explicitly competitive, and the competitive atmosphere can interfere with cultivating supportive relationships among students or between students and the teacher (Cohen, 2004). For students who give priority to these relationships, competition can seem confusing at best and threatening at worst. What sort of sharing or helping with answers, the student may ask, is truly legitimate? If the teacher answers this question more narrowly than does the student, then what the student views as cooperative sharing may be seen by the teacher as laziness, "freeloading", or even cheating.
• Avoidance of standing out publicly: Even when we, as teachers, avoid obvious forms of competition, we may still interact frequently with students one at a time while allowing or inviting many others to observe the conversation. An especially common pattern for such conversations is sometimes called the IRE cycle, an abbreviation for the teacher initiating, a student responding, and the teacher then evaluating the response (Mehan, 1979). What is sometimes taken for granted is how often IRE cycles are witnessed publicly, and how much the publicity can be stressful or embarrassing for students who do not value standing out in a group but who do value belonging to the group. The embarrassment can be especially acute if they feel unsure about whether they have correct knowledge or skill to display. To keep such students from "clamming up" completely, therefore, teachers should consider limiting IRE cycles to times when they are truly productive. IRE conversations may often work best when talking with a student privately, or when confirming knowledge that the student is likely to be able to display competently already, or when "choral" speaking (responding together in unison) is appropriate.
• Interpersonal time versus clock time: In order to function, all schools rely on fairly precise units of time as measured on clocks. Teachers typically allot a fixed number of minutes to one lesson or class, another fixed number of minutes for the next, another for recess or lunch time, and so on. In more ways than one, therefore, being on time becomes especially valued in schools, as it is in many parts of society. Punctuality is not always conducive, however, to strong personal relationships, which develop best when individuals do not end joint activities unilaterally or arbitrarily, but allow activities to "finish themselves", so to speak— to finish naturally. If personal relationships are a broad, important priority for a student, therefore, it may take effort and practice by the student to learn the extent to which schools and teachers expect punctuality. Punctuality includes the obvious, like showing up for school when school is actually scheduled to begin. But it also includes subtleties, like starting and finishing tasks when the teacher tells students to do so, or answering a question promptly at the time it is asked rather than sometime later when discussion has already moved on. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/04%3A_Student_Diversity/4.06%3A_Differences_in_Cultural_Expectations_and_Styles.txt |
In any discussion about individual and group differences that impact student learning we must also acknowledge the structural inequities or opportunity gap that disproportionately impact the learning outcomes of students from diverse backgrounds. Opportunity gap refers to inputs—the unequal or inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities—while achievement gap refers to outputs—the unequal or inequitable distribution of educational results and benefits. Disparate outcomes in the classroom cannot be adequately addressed without developing solutions to critical systemic issues. Read more about why educators should be focusing on the opportunity gap and not the achievement gap.
Opportunity gaps can take a wide variety of forms—too many to comprehensively describe here. The following, however, are a few representative factors that can give rise to opportunity gaps:
• Students from lower-income households may not have the financial resources that give students from higher-income households an advantage when it comes to performing well in school, scoring high on standardized tests, and aspiring to and succeeding in college. Poor nutrition, health problems resulting from a lack of healthcare, or an inability to pay for preschool education, tutoring, test-preparation services, and/or college tuition (in addition to a fear of taking on student-loan debt) may all contribute to lower educational achievement and attainment.
• Minority students may be subject to prejudice or bias that denies them equal and equitable access to learning opportunities. For example, students of color tend to be disproportionately represented in lower-level courses and special-education programs, and their academic achievement, graduation rates, and college-enrollment rates are typically lower than those of their white peers.
• Students raised by parents who have not earned a college degree or who may not value postsecondary education may lack the familial encouragement and support available to other students. These students may not be encouraged to take college-preparatory courses, for example, or their parents may struggle with the complexities of navigating the college-admissions and financial-aid process.
• Students raised in a non-English-speaking family or culture could experience limited educational opportunities if their acquisition of English proficiency, fluency, and literacy is delayed. If courses are taught exclusively in English, if educational materials are printed in English, or enriching educational programs are conducted in English or require English fluency, students who are learning or struggling with English may be denied full participation in these opportunities.
• Economically disadvantaged schools and communities may suffer from less-effective teaching, overcrowded schools, dilapidated facilities, and inadequate educational resources, programs, and opportunities—all of which can contribute to lower educational performance or attainment.
• Small schools located in geographically isolated rural areas may not be able to offer the same diversity of educational opportunities—such as multiple world-language courses or co-curricular programs like science fairs, debate competitions, robotics clubs, or theatrical performances, for example—that are available to students in larger schools. Rural students may also have less access to libraries, cultural institutions, museums, internships, and other learning opportunities because they do not exist, they are too far away, or there is no free or low-cost public transportation.
• A lack of internet connectivity, computers, and new learning technologies in rural schools, inner-city schools, and lower-income communities can place students at a disadvantage when it comes to acquiring technological skills, taking computer-based tests, or accessing knowledge and learning opportunities online. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/04%3A_Student_Diversity/4.07%3A_Taking_a_Look_At_the_Opportunity_Gap.txt |
Hopefully I have persuaded you— if you did need persuading— that students are indeed diverse. The important question that follows from this point is what to do about the diversity. I have begun answering that question by including a number of suggestions in the sections and paragraphs of this chapter. But there is obviously more to be said about accommodating diversity— about actually working with students' diversity and turning it into a resource rather than a burden or challenge. In the rest of this book therefore I offer more suggestions not only about knowing how different one student can be from another, but also about diversifying teaching to acknowledge this fact. Differences among students remain a challenge during all phases of teaching, from planning instruction, to implementing lessons and activities, to assessing students' learning after lessons or activities are all finished. In the next chapter, I illustrate this reality by describing how students with disabilities can be included in classroom life- one of the more telling examples of accommodating to diversity.
4.09: Summary Key Words and References
Chapter summary
Students differ in a multitude of ways, both individually and as groups. Individually, for example, students have a preferred learning style as well as preferred cognitive or thinking styles. They also have unique profiles or intelligence or competence that affect how and what they learn most successfully.
In addition to individual diversity, students tend to differ according to their gender, although there are numerous individual exceptions. Motor abilities as well as motivation and experience with athletics gradually differentiate boys and girls, especially when they reach and begin high school. Socially, boys tend to adopt relationships that are more active and wide-ranging than do girls. Academically, girls tend to be a bit more motivated to receive slightly higher marks in school. Teachers sometimes contribute to gender role differences— perhaps without intending— by paying attention to boys more frequently and more publicly in class, and by distributing praise and criticism in ways differentiated by sex.
Students also differ according to cultures, language, and ethnic groups of their families. Many students are bilingual, with educational consequences that depend on their fluency in each of their two languages. If they have more difficulty with English, then programs that add their first language together with English have proved to be helpful. If they have more difficulty with their first language, they are risk for language loss, and the consequences are also negative even if more hidden from teachers' views.
In addition to language differences as such, students differ according to culture in how language is used or practiced— in taking turns at speaking, in eye contact, social distance, wait time, and the use of questions. Some of these differences in practice stem from cultural differences in attitudes about self-identity, with non-Anglo culturally tending to support a more interdependent view of the self than Anglo culture or the schools. Differences in attitudes and in use of language have several consequences for teachers. In particular— where appropriate— they should consider using cooperative activities, avoid highlighting individuals' accomplishments or failures, and be patient about students' learning to be punctual.
On the Internet
< https://nabe.org/> This is the website for the National Association of Bilingual Educators, which represents both English Language Learners and their teachers. The website offers a variety of information, free of charge, about all aspects of bilingual education, including introductory summaries of the field, position papers released to the government and the press, and research articles from their journals.
Key terms
African- American English Impulsivity
Balanced bilingualism Independent self
Bilingual Individual differences
Cognitive styles Interdependent self
Culture IRE cycle
Dialect Language loss
Ebonics Learning styles
English language learner (ELL) Limited English learner (LEL)
Ethnicity Metacognition
Eye contact Multiple intelligences
Field dependence Reflectivity
Field independence Social distance
Gender roles Test questions
Group differences Unbalanced bilingualism
Identity Wait time | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/04%3A_Student_Diversity/4.08%3A_Accommodating_Diversity_in_Practice.txt |
The first person: In 1761 a six-year-old girl was captured from West Africa, given the name Phillis Wheatley, and sold into slavery in the City of Boston in Colonial America. By the time she was 17, Phillis had taught herself to read and write and had developed a special love and talent for poetry. Her owner was a wealthy businessman and sought to improve his reputation by publishing an anthology of her poems. Unfortunately he encountered stiff resistance from publishers because few people at that time believed Africans to be capable of the thought and imagination needed to write poetry. People who heard of her poetry were skeptical and inclined to think that it was faked. Eventually, to save his own reputation, the owner assembled a tribunal of 18 prominent judges— including the governor of Massachusetts and John Hancock, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence— to assess the young woman's mental capacity. After cross-examining her, the judges finally decided that Ms Wheatley was, after all, capable of writing poetry (Robinson, 1982).
The second person: A century later, a child named Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing as a result of illness during infancy. In spite of this misfortune, though, Helen devised a language of gestural signs for communicating with a tutor, and was soon also using Braille to study both French and Latin. At ten, she wrote and published a short story. Yet like Ms Wheatley, Ms Keller also faced substantial, chronic skepticism about her capacities. Prominent educators accused her of plagiarizing others' writings and merely "parroting" others' ideas without understanding them (Keller, 1954; Bogdan, 2006). Eventually, as with Wheatley, a panel was assembled— though this time the members were professional experts about disabilities— to determine whether Ms Keller was in fact capable of writing what she published. The panel decided that she was indeed capable, though only by a slim margin (five judges vs four).
The third person: In 1978, Sue Rubin was born with a disability that limited her speech to disordered bursts of sound and occasionally echoing phrases of other people. She was labeled autistic because of her symptoms, and assumed to be profoundly retarded. With support and encouragement from her mother and others, however, Sue eventually learned to type on a keyboard without assistance. She learned to communicate effectively when she was about 13 and was able to go to school. Since then she has made many presentations about autism at conferences and recently co-edited a book about autism, titled Autism: The Myth of the Person Alone (Bogdan, et al., 2005).
One of these individuals experienced racial discrimination and the other two experienced physical disabilities, but notice something important: that all three were defined by society as disabled intellectually. Initially, their with special educational needs achievements were dismissed because of widespread assumptions— whether about race or disability— of their inherent incompetence. All three had to work harder than usual, not only to acquire literacy itself, but also to prove that their literacy was genuine and worthy of respect.
Since the time of Phillis Wheatley, North American society has eliminated slavery and made some progress at reducing certain forms of racism, though much remains to be done. In 1954, for example, the United States Supreme Court ruled that public schools could not be segregated by race, and in doing so recognized, at least legally, the intellectual competence of African-Americans as well as the moral obligation of society to provide all citizens with the best possible education. It has taken longer to recognize legally the rights and competence of persons with disabilities, but events and trends beginning in the 1970s have begun to make it happen. This chapter begins by explaining some of these and how they have altered the work of teachers. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/05%3A_Students_with_Special_Educational_Needs/5.01%3A_Three_People_on_the_Margins.txt |
Since the 1970s political and social attitudes have moved increasingly toward including people with disabilities into a wide variety of "regular" activities. In the United States, the shift is illustrated clearly in the Federal legislation that was enacted during this time. The legislation partly stimulated the change in attitudes, but at the same time they partly resulted from the change. Three major laws were passed that guaranteed the rights of persons with disabilities, and of children and students with disabilities in particular. Although the first two affected teachers' work in the classroom, the third has had the biggest impact on education.
Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504
This law— the first of its kind— required that individuals with disabilities be accommodated in any program or activity that receives Federal funding (PL 93-112, 1973). Although this law was not intended specifically for education, in practice it has protected students' rights in some extra-curricular activities (for older students) and in some child care or after-school care programs (for younger students). If those programs receive Federal funding of any kind, the programs are not allowed to exclude children or youths with disabilities, and they have to find reasonable ways to accommodate the individuals' disabilities.
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (or ADA).
This legislation also prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability, just as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act had done (PL 101-336, 1990). Although the ADA also applies to all people (not just to students), its provisions are more specific and "stronger" than those of Section 504. In particular, ADA extends to all employment and jobs, not just those receiving Federal funding. It also specifically requires accommodations to be made in public facilities such as with buses, restrooms, and telephones. ADA legislation is therefore responsible for some of the "minor" renovations in schools that you may have noticed in recent years, like wheelchair-accessible doors, ramps, and restrooms, and public telephones with volume controls.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (or IDEA)
As its name implied this legislation was more focused on education than either Section 504 or ADA. It was first passed in 1975 and has been amended several times since, including most recently in 2004 (PL 108-446, 2004). In its current form, the law guarantees the following rights related to education for anyone with a disability from birth to age 21. The first two influence schooling in general, but the last three affect the work of classroom teachers rather directly:
• Free, appropriate education: An individual or an individual's family should not have to pay for education simply because the individual has a disability, and the educational program should be truly educational (i.e. not merely care-taking or "babysitting" of the person).
• Due process: In case of disagreements between an individual with a disability and the schools or other professionals, there must be procedures for resolving the disagreements that are fair and accessible to all parties— including the person himself or herself or the person's representative.
• Fair evaluation of performance in spite of disability: Tests or other evaluations should not assume test- taking skills that a person with a disability cannot reasonably be expected to have, such as holding a pencil, hearing or seeing questions, working quickly, or understanding and speaking orally. Evaluation procedures should be modified to allow for these differences. This provision of the law applies both to evaluations made by teachers and to school-wide or "high-stakes" testing programs.
• Education in the "least restrictive environment": Education for someone with a disability should provide as many educational opportunities and options for the person as possible, both in the short term and in the long term. In practice this requirement has meant including students in regular classrooms and school activities as much as possible, though often not totally.
• An individualized educational program: Given that every disability is unique, instructional planning for a person with a disability should be unique or individualized as well. In practice this provision has led to classroom teachers planning individualized programs jointly with other professionals (like reading specialists, psychologists, or medical personnel) as part of a team.
Considered together, these provisions are both a cause and an effect of basic democratic philosophy. The legislation says, in effect, that all individuals should have access to society in general and to education in particular. Although teachers certainly support this philosophy in broad terms, and many have welcomed the IDEA legislation, others have found the prospect of applying it in classrooms leads to a number of questions and concerns. Some ask, for example, whether a student with a disability will disrupt the class; others, whether the student will interfere with covering the curriculum; still others, whether the student might be teased by classmates. Since these are legitimate concerns, I will return to them at the end of this chapter. First, however, let me clarify exactly how the IDEA legislation affects the work of teachers, and then describe in more detail the major disabilities that you are likely to encounter in students. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/05%3A_Students_with_Special_Educational_Needs/5.02%3A_Growing_Support_for_People_with_Disabilities-_Legislation_and_Its_Effects.txt |
The IDEA legislation has affected the work of teachers by creating three new expectations. The first expectation is to provide alternative methods of assessment for students with disabilities; the second is to arrange a learning environment that is as normal or as "least restrictive" as possible; and the third is to participate in creating individual educational plans for students with disabilities.
Alternative assessments
In the context of students with disabilities, assessment refers to gathering information about a student in order both to identify the strengths of the student, and to decide what special educational support, if any, the student needs. In principle, of course, these are tasks that teachers have for all students: assessment is a major reason why we give tests and assignments, for example, and why we listen carefully to the quality of students' comments during class discussions. For students with disabilities, however, such traditional or conventional strategies of assessment often seriously underestimate the students' competence (Koretz & Barton, 2003/2004; Pullin, 2005). Depending on the disability, a student may have trouble with (a) holding a pencil, (b) hearing a question clearly, (c) focusing on a picture, (d) marking an answer in time even when he or she knows the answer, (e) concentrating on a task in the presence of other people, or (f) answering a question at the pace needed by the rest of the class. Traditionally, teachers have assumed that all students either have these skills or can learn them with just modest amounts of coaching, encouragement, and will power. For many other students, for example, it may be enough to say something like: "Remember to listen to the question carefully!" For students with disabilities, however, a comment like this may not work and may even be insensitive. A student with visual impairment does not need be reminded to "look closely at what I am writing on the board"; doing so will not cause the student to see the chalkboard more clearly— though the reminder might increase the student's anxiety and self-consciousness.
There are a number of strategies for modifying assessments in ways that attempt to be fair and that at the same time recognize how busy teachers usually are. One is to consider supplementing conventional assignments or tests with portfolios, which are collections of a student's work that demonstrate a student's development over time, and which usually include some sort of reflective or evaluative comments from the student, the teacher, or both (Carothers & Taylor, 2003; Wesson & King, 1996). Another is to devise a system for observing the student regularly, even if briefly, and informally recording notes about the observations for later consideration and assessment. A third strategy is to recruit help from teacher assistants, who are sometimes present to help a student with a disability; an assistant can often conduct a brief test or activity with the student, and later report on and discuss the results with you.
If you reflect on these strategies, you may realize that they may sometimes create issues about fairness. If a student with a disability demonstrates competence one way but other students demonstrate it another, should they be given similar credit? On the other hand, is it fair for one student to get a lower mark because the student lacks an ability— such as normal hearing— that teachers cannot, in principle, ever teach? These ethical issues are legitimate and important, and I therefore return to them in Chapters 11 and 12, which discuss assessment in much more detail.
Least restrictive environment
The IDEA legislation calls for placing students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment (or LRE), defined as the combination of settings that involve the student with regular classrooms and school programs as much as possible. The precise combination is determined by the circumstances of a particular school and of the student. A kindergarten child with a mild cognitive disability, for example, may spend the majority of time in a regular kindergarten class, working alongside and playing with non-disabled classmates and relying on a teacher assistant for help where needed. An individual with a similar disability in high school, however, might be assigned primarily to classes specially intended for slow learners, but nonetheless participate in some school-wide activities alongside non-disabled students. The difference in LREs might reflect teachers' perceptions of how difficult it is to modify the curriculum in each case; rightly or wrongly, teachers are apt to regard adaptation as more challenging at "higher" grade levels. By the same token, a student with a disability that is strictly physical might spend virtually all his or her time in regular classes throughout the student's school career; in this case, adjustment of the curriculum would not be an issue.
For you, the policy favoring the least restrictive environment means that if you continue teaching long enough, you will very likely encounter a student with a disability in one or more of your classes, or at least have one in a school-related activity for which you are responsible. It also means that the special educational needs of these students will most often be the "mildest". Statistically, the most frequent forms of special needs are learning disabilities, which are impairments in specific aspects of learning, and especially of reading. Learning disabilities account for about half of all special educational needs— as much as all other types put together. Somewhat less common are speech and language disorders, cognitive disabilities, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (or ADHD). Because of their frequency and of the likelihood that you will meet students for whom these labels have been considered, I describe them more fully later in this chapter, along with other disability conditions that you will encounter much less frequently.
Individual educational plan
The third way that IDEA legislation and current educational approaches affect teachers is by requiring teachers and other professional staff to develop an annual individual educational plan (or IEP) for each student with a disability. The plan is created by a team of individuals who know the student's strengths and needs; at a minimum it includes one or more classroom teachers, a "resource" or special education teacher, and the student's parents or guardians. Sometimes, too, the team includes a school administrator (like a vice-principal) or other professionals from outside the school (like a psychologist or physician), depending on the nature of the child's disability. An IEP can take many forms, but it always describes a student's current social and academic strengths as well as the student's social or academic needs. It also specifies educational goals or objectives for the coming year, lists special services to be provided, and describes how progress toward the goals will be assessed at the end of the year. Exhibit 6 shows a simple, imaginary IEP. (But keep in mind that the actual visual formats of IEP plans vary widely among states, provinces, and school jurisdictions.) This particular plan is for a student named Sean, a boy having difficulties with reading. IEPs, like the one in the figure, originally served mainly students in the younger grades, but more recently they have been extended and modified to serve transition planning for adolescents with disabilities who are approaching the end of their public schooling (West, et al., 1999). For these students, the goals of the plan often include activities (like finding employment) to extend beyond schooling. See below.
Exhibit \(1\): A sample individual educational plan (Note that actual visual formats of IEP plans vary).
Student: Sean Cortinez
Birth Date: 26 May 2002
Period Covered by IEP:
September 20xx – July 20xy
Address:
Phone:
School: Grant Park Middle School
Grade Level: 3
Teacher(s): G. Eidse
Support Team
List specialists (educational, medical, or other) involved in assisting the student: Resource teacher, instructional aide (part time):
Special Curriculum Needs to be Addressed:
List general needs here; use separate sheet(s) for specific, short-term objectives as appropriate:
Sean can read short, familiar words singly, but cannot read connected text even when familiar. Needs help especially with decoding and other “word attack” skills. Some trouble focusing on reading tasks. Sean speaks clearly and often listens well when the topic interests him.
Special Materials or Equipment Needed:
Modified test procedures and reading materials as required. Signatures:
Parent or guardian:K. Cortinez
Teacher(s): G. Eidse
Principal:L. Stauffer
Date of IEP Meeting: 26 October 20xx
If you have a student with an IEP, you can expect two consequences for teaching. The first is that you should expect to make definite, clear plans for the student, and to put the plans in writing. This consequence does not, of course, prevent you from taking advantage of unexpected or spontaneous classroom events as well in order to enrich the curriculum. But it does mean that an educational program for a student with a disability cannot consist only of the unexpected or spontaneous. The second consequence is that you should not expect to construct an educational plan alone, as is commonly done when planning regular classroom programs. When it comes to students with disabilities, expect instead to plan as part of a team. Working with others ensures that everyone who is concerned about the student has a voice. It also makes it possible to improve the quality of IEPs by pooling ideas from many sources— even if, as you might suspect, it also challenges professionals to communicate clearly and cooperate respectfully with team members in order to serve a student as well as possible. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/05%3A_Students_with_Special_Educational_Needs/5.03%3A_Responsibilities_of_Teachers_for_Students_with_Disabilities.txt |
So far I have said a lot about why inclusion has come to be important for teachers, but not much about the actual nature of students' disabilities. Part of the reason for delaying was because, to put it simply, disabilities are inherently ambiguous. Naming and describing "types" of them implies that disabilities are relatively fixed, stable, and distinct, like different kinds of fruit or vegetables. As many teachers discover, though, the reality is somewhat different. The behavior and qualities of a particular student with a disability can be hard to categorize. The student may be challenged not only by the disability, but also by experiences common to all students, disabled or not. Any particular disability, furthermore, poses problems more in some situations than in others. A student with a reading difficulty may have trouble in a language arts class, for example, but not in a physical education class; a student with a hearing impairment may have more trouble "hearing" a topic that he dislikes compared to one that he likes. Because official descriptions of types or categories of disabilities overlook these complexities, they risk stereotyping the real, live people to whom they are applied (Green, et al., 2005). Even the simplifications might not be a serious problem if the resulting stereotypes were complimentary— most of us would not mind being called a "genius", for example, even if the description is not always true. Stereotypes about disabilities, however, are usually stigmatizing, not complimentary.
Still, categories of disabilities do serve useful purposes by giving teachers, parents, and other professionals a language or frame of reference for talking about disabilities. They also can help educators when arranging special support services for students, since a student has to "have" an identifiable, nameable need if professionals are to provide help. Educational authorities have therefore continued to use categories (or "labels") to classify disabilities in spite of expressing continuing concern about whether the practice hurts students' self-esteem or standing in the eyes of peers (Biklen & Kliewer, 2006). For classroom teachers, the best strategy may be simply to understand how categories of disabilities are defined, while also keeping their limitations in mind and being ready to explain their limitations (tactfully, of course) to parents or others who use the labels inappropriately.
That said, what in fact are the major types of disabilities encountered by teachers? Let us take them one at a time, beginning with the more common ones.
5.05: Learning Disabilities
A learning disability (or LD) is a specific impairment of academic learning that interferes with a specific aspect of schoolwork and that reduces a student's academic performance significantly. An LD shows itself as a major discrepancy between a student's ability and some feature of achievement: the student may be delayed in reading, writing, listening, speaking, or doing mathematics, but not in all of these at once. A learning problem is not considered a learning disability if it stems from physical, sensory, or motor handicaps, or from generalized intellectual impairment (or mental retardation). It is also not an LD if the learning problem really reflects the challenges of learning English as a second language. Genuine LDs are the learning problems left over after these other possibilities are accounted for or excluded. Typically, a student with an LD has not been helped by teachers' ordinary efforts to assist the student when he or she falls behind academically— though what counts as an "ordinary effort", of course, differs among teachers, schools, and students. Most importantly, though, an LD relates to a fairly specific area of academic learning. A student may be able to read and compute well enough, for example, but not be able to write.
LDs are by far the most common form of special educational need, accounting for half of all students with special needs in the United States and anywhere from 5 to 20 per cent of all students, depending on how the numbers are estimated (United States Department of Education, 2005; Ysseldyke & Bielinski, 2002). Students with LDs are so common, in fact, that most teachers regularly encounter at least one per class in any given school year, regardless of the grade level they teach.
Defining learning disabilities clearly
With so many students defined as having learning disabilities, it is not surprising that the term itself becomes ambiguous in the truest sense of "having many meanings". Specific features of LDs vary considerably. Any of the following students, for example, qualify as having a learning disability, assuming that they have no other disease, condition, or circumstance to account for their behavior:
• Albert, an eighth-grader, has trouble solving word problems that he reads, but can solve them easily if he hears them orally.
• Bill, also in eighth grade, has the reverse problem: he can solve word problems only when he can read them, not when he hears them.
• Carole, a fifth-grader, constantly makes errors when she reads textual material aloud, either leaving out words, adding words, or substituting her own words for the printed text.
• Emily, in seventh grade, has terrible handwriting; her letters vary in size and wobble all over the page, much like a first- or second-grader.
• Denny reads very slowly, even though he is in fourth grade. His comprehension suffers as a result, because he sometimes forgets what he read at the beginning of a sentence by the time he reaches the end.
• Garnet's spelling would have to be called "inventive", even though he has practiced conventionally correct spelling more than other students. Garnet is in sixth grade.
• Harmin, a ninth-grader has particular trouble decoding individual words and letters if they are unfamiliar; he reads conceal as "concol" and alternate as "alfoonite".
• Irma, a tenth-grader, adds multiple-digit numbers as if they were single-digit numbers stuck together: 42 + 59 equals 911 rather than 101, though 23 + 54 correctly equals 77.
With so many expressions of LDs, it is not surprising that educators sometimes disagree about their nature and about the kind of help students need as a consequence. Such controversy may be inevitable because LDs by definition are learning problems with no obvious origin. There is good news, however, from this state of affairs, in that it opens the way to try a variety of solutions for helping students with learning disabilities.
Assisting students with learning disabilities
There are various ways to assist students with learning disabilities, depending not only on the nature of the disability, of course, but also on the concepts or theory of learning guiding you. Take Irma, the girl mentioned above who adds two-digit numbers as if they were one digit numbers. Stated more formally, Irma adds two-digit numbers without carrying digits forward from the ones column to the tens column, or from the tens to the hundreds column. Exhibit 7 shows the effect that her strategy has on one of her homework papers. What is going on here and how could a teacher help Irma?
Exhibit \(1\): Irma's math homework about two-digit addition
Directions: Add the following numbers.
42
23
11
47
97
+ 59
+ 54
+ 48
+ 23
+ 64
911
77
59
610
1511
Three out of the six problems are done correctly, even though Irma seems to use an incorrect strategy systematically on all six problems.
Behaviorism: reinforcement for wrong strategies
One possible approach comes from the behaviorist theory discussed in Chapter 2. Irma may persist with the single-digit strategy because it has been reinforced a lot in the past. Maybe she was rewarded so much for adding single-digit numbers {3+5, 7+8 etc.) correctly that she generalized this skill to two-digit problems— in fact over generalized it. This explanation is plausible because she would still get many two-digit problems right, as you can confirm by looking at it. In behaviorist terms, her incorrect strategy would still be reinforced, but now only on a "partial schedule of reinforcement". As I pointed out in Chapter 2, partial schedules are especially slow to extinguish, so Irma persists seemingly indefinitely with treating two-digit problems as if they were single-digit problems.
From the point of view of behaviorism, changing Irma's behavior is tricky since the desired behavior (borrowing correctly) rarely happens and therefore cannot be reinforced very often. It might therefore help for the teacher to reward behaviors that compete directly with Irma's inappropriate strategy. The teacher might reduce credit for simply finding the correct answer, for example, and increase credit for a student showing her work— including the work of carrying digits forward correctly. Or the teacher might make a point of discussing Irma's math work with Irma frequently, so as to create more occasions when she can praise Irma for working problems correctly.
Metacognition and responding reflectively
Part of Irma's problem may be that she is thoughtless about doing her math: the minute she sees numbers on a worksheet, she stuffs them into the first arithmetic procedure that comes to mind. Her learning style, that is, seems too impulsive and not reflective enough, as discussed in Chapter 4. Her style also suggests a failure of metacognition (remember that idea from Chapter 2?), which is her self-monitoring of her own thinking and its effectiveness. As a solution, the teacher could encourage Irma to think out loud when she completes two-digit problems— literally get her to "talk her way through" each problem. If participating in these conversations was sometimes impractical, the teacher might also arrange for a skilled classmate to take her place some of the time. Cooperation between Irma and the classmate might help the classmate as well, or even improve overall social relationships in the classroom.
Constructivism, mentoring, and the zone of proximal development
Perhaps Irma has in fact learned how to carry digits forward, but not learned the procedure well enough to use it reliably on her own; so she constantly falls back on the earlier, better-learned strategy of single-digit addition. In that case her problem can be seen in the constructivist terms, like those that I discussed in Chapter 2. In essence, Irma has lacked appropriate mentoring from someone more expert than herself, someone who can create a "zone of proximal development" in which she can display and consolidate her skills more successfully. She still needs mentoring or "assisted coaching" more than independent practice. The teacher can arrange some of this in much the way she encourages to be more reflective, either by working with Irma herself or by arranging for a classmate or even a parent volunteer to do so. In this case, however, whoever serves as mentor should not only listen, but also actively offer Irma help. The help has to be just enough to insure that Irma completes two-digit problems correctly —neither more nor less. Too much help may prevent Irma from taking responsibility for learning the new strategy, but too little may cause her to take the responsibility prematurely. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/05%3A_Students_with_Special_Educational_Needs/5.04%3A_Categories_of_Disabilities_and_Their_Ambiguities.txt |
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (or ADHD) is a problem with sustaining attention and controlling impulses. As students, almost all of us have these problems at one time or another, but a student with ADHD shows them much more frequently than usual, and often at home as well as at school. In the classroom, the student with ADHD may fidget and squirm a lot, or have trouble remaining seated, or continually get distracted and off task, or have trouble waiting for a turn, or blurt out answers and comments. The student may shift continually from one activity to another, or have trouble playing quietly, or talk excessively without listening to others. Or the student may misplace things and seem generally disorganized, or be inclined to try risky activities without enough thought to the consequences. Although the list of problem behaviors is obviously quite extensive, keep in mind that the student will not do all of these things. It is just that over time, the student with ADHD is likely to do several of them chronically or repeatedly, and in more than one setting (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). In the classroom, of course, the behaviors may annoy classmates and frustrate teachers.
Differences in perceptions: ADHD versus high activity
It is important to note that classrooms are places that make heavy demands on not showing ADHD-like behaviors: students are often supposed to sit for long periods, avoid interrupting others, finish tasks after beginning them, and keep their minds (and materials) organized. Ironically, therefore, classroom life may sometimes aggravate ADHD without the teacher intending for it to do so. A student with only a mild or occasional tendency to be restless, for example, may fit in well outdoors playing soccer, but feel unusually restless indoors during class. It also should not be surprising that teachers sometimes mistake a student who is merely rather active for a student with ADHD, since any tendency to be physically active may contribute to problems with classroom management.
The tendency to "over-diagnose" is more likely for boys than for girls (Maniadaki, et al., 2003), presumably because gender role expectations cause teachers to be especially alert to high activity in boys. Over-diagnosis is also especially likely for students who are culturally or linguistically non-Anglo (Chamberlain, 2005), presumably because cultural and language differences may sometimes lead teachers to misinterpret students' behavior. To avoid making such mistakes, it is important to keep in mind that in true ADHD, restlessness, activity, and distractibility are widespread and sustained. A student who shows such problems at school but never at home, for example, may not have ADHD; he may simply not be getting along with his teacher or classmates.
Causes of ADHD
Most psychologists and medical specialists agree that true ADHD, as opposed to "mere" intermittent distractibility or high activity, reflects a problem in how the nervous system functions, but they do not know the exact nature or causes of the problem (Rutter, 2004, 2005). Research shows that ADHD tends to run in families, with children— especially boys— of parents who had ADHD somewhat more likely than usual to experience the condition themselves. The association does not necessarily mean, though, that ADHD is inborn or genetic. Why? It is because it is possible that parents who formerly had ADHD may raise their children more strictly in an effort to prevent their own condition in their children; yet their strictness, ironically, may trigger a bit more tendency, rather than less, toward the restless distractibility characteristic of ADHD. On the other hand (or is it "on the third hand"?), the parents' strictness may also be a result, as well as a cause of, a child's restlessness. The bottom line for teachers: sorting out causes from effects is confusing, if not impossible, and in any case may not help much to determine actual teaching strategies to help the students learn more effectively.
Teaching students with ADHD
Research also shows that ADHD can be reduced for many students if they take certain medications, of which the most common is methylphenidate, commonly known by the name Ritalin (Wilens, 2005; Olfson, 2003). This drug and others like it act by stimulating the nervous system, which reduces symptoms by helping a student pay better attention to the choices he or she makes and to the impact of actions on others. Unfortunately the medications do not work on all students with ADHD, especially after they reach adolescence, and in any case has certain practical problems. Drugs cost money, for one thing, which is a problem for a family without much money to begin with, or for a family lacking medical insurance that pays for medications— a particularly common situation in the United States. For another thing, drugs must be taken regularly in order to be effective, including on weekends. Keeping a regular schedule can be difficult if parents' own schedules are irregular or simply differ from the child's, for example because of night shifts at work or because parents are separated and share custody of the child.
In any case, since teachers are not doctors and medications are not under teachers' control, it may be more important simply to provide an environment where a student with ADHD can organize choices and actions easily and successfully. Clear rules and procedures, for example, can reduce the "noise" or chaotic quality in the child's classroom life significantly. The rules and procedures can be generated jointly with the child; they do not have to be imposed arbitrarily, as if the student were incapable of thinking about them reasonably. Sometimes a classmate can be enlisted to model slower, more reflective styles of working, but in ways that do not imply undue criticism of the student with ADHD. The more reflective student can complete a set of math problems, for example, while explaining what he or she is thinking about while doing the work. Sometimes the teacher can help by making lists of tasks or of steps in long tasks. It can help to divide focused work into small, short sessions rather than grouping it into single, longer sessions. Whatever the strategies that you use, they should be consistent, predictable, and generated by the student as much as possible. By having these qualities, the strategies can strengthen the student's self-direction and ability to screen out the distractions of classroom life. The goal for teachers, in essence, is to build the student's metacognitive capacity, while at the same time, of course, treating the student with respect. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/05%3A_Students_with_Special_Educational_Needs/5.06%3A_Attention_Deficit_Hyperactivity_Disorder.txt |
An intellectual disability is a significant limitation in a student's cognitive functioning and daily adaptive behaviors (Schalock & Luckasson, 2004; American Association on Mental Retardation, 2002). The student may have limited language or impaired speech and may not perform well academically. Compared to students with learning disabilities discussed earlier, students with intellectual disabilities have impairments to learning that are broader and more significant. They score poorly on standardized tests of intelligence (like the ones discussed later, in Chapter 12). Everyday tasks that most people take for granted, like getting dressed or eating a meal, may be possible, but they may also take more time and effort than usual. Health and safety can sometimes be a concern (for example, knowing whether it is safe to cross a street). For older individuals, finding and keeping a job may require help from supportive others. The exact combination of challenges varies from one person to another, but it always (by definition) involves limitations in both intellectual and daily functioning.
As a teacher, you may hear more than one term for describing students with intellectual disabilities. If the disability is mild, teachers sometimes refer to a student with the disability simply as a slow learner, particularly if the student has no formal, special supports for the disability, such as a teaching assistant hired specifically to assist the student. If the disability is more marked, then the student is more likely to be referred to either as having an intellectual disability or as having mental retardation. In this chapter I primarily use the term intellectual disability, because it has fewer negative connotations while still describing one key educational aspect of the disability, cognitive impairment. Keep in mind, however, that actual intellectual disabilities are always more than cognitive: they also involve challenges about adapting to everyday living.
Levels of support for individuals with intellectual disabilities
Intellectual disabilities happen in different degrees or amounts, though most often are relatively mild. Traditionally the intensity or "amount" of the disability was defined by scores on a standardized test of scholastic aptitude (or "IQ test"), with lower scores indicating more severe disability. (More about these tests in Chapter 12.) Because of the insensitivity of such tests to individuals' daily social functioning, however, current trends are toward defining intensities by the amount of support needed by the individual. Table 13 summarizes the most commonly used scheme for this purpose, one created by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAMR, 2002). Levels of support range from intermittent (just occasional or "as needed" for specific activities) to pervasive (continuous in all realms of living).
Table \(1\): Levels and areas of support for intellectual disabilities
Level of support
Duration of support
Frequency of support
Setting of support
Amount of professional assistance
Intermittent
Only as needed
Occasional or infrequent
Usually only oneor two (e.g. 1-2 classes or activities)
consultation or monitoring by professional
Limited
As needed, but sometimes continuing
Regular, but frequency varies
Several settings, but not usually all
Occasional or regular contact with professionals
Extensive
Usually continuing
Regular, but frequency varies
Several settings, but not usually all
Regular contact with professionals at least once a week
Pervasive
May be lifelong
Frequent or continuous
Nearly all settings
Continuous contact and monitoring by professionals
Source: American Association on Mental Retardation, 2002: Schalock & Luckassen, 2004.
As a classroom teacher, the intellectual disabilities that you are most likely to see are the ones requiring the least support in your classroom. A student requiring only intermittent support may require special help with some learning activities or classroom routines, but not others; he or she might need help with reading or putting on winter clothes, for example, but primarily on occasions when there is pressure to do these things relatively quickly. Students requiring somewhat more support are likely to spend somewhat less time in your classroom and more time receiving special help from other professionals, such as a special education teacher, a speech and language specialist, or an assistant to these professionals. These circumstances have distinct implications for ways of teaching these students.
Teaching students with intellectual disabilities
There are many specific techniques that can help in teaching students with mild or moderate intellectual disabilities, but most can be summarized into three more general strategies. The first is to give more time and practice than usual; the second is to embed activities into the context of daily life or functioning where possible; and the third is to include the child both in social and in academic activities, rather than just one or the other. Let us look briefly at each of these ideas.
Giving more time and practice than usual
If a student has only a mild intellectual disability, he or she can probably learn important fundamentals of the academic curriculum— basic arithmetic, for example, and basic reading. Because of the disability, though, the student may need more time or practice than most other students. He or she may be able to read many words by sight (day, night, morning, afternoon, etc.), but need longer than other students to recognize and say them. Or the student may know that 2+3=5, but need help applying this math fact to real objects; you (or a helper) might need to show the student that two pencils plus three pencils make five pencils.
Giving extra help takes time and perseverance, and can try the patience of the student (and of you, too). To deal with this problem, it may help to reward the student frequently for effort and successes with well-timed praise, especially if it is focused on specific, actual achievements; "You added that one correctly", may be more helpful than "You're a hard worker", even if both comments are true. Giving appropriate praise is in turn easier if you set reasonable, "do-able" goals by breaking skills or tasks into steps that the student is likely to learn without becoming overly discouraged. At the same time, it is important not to insult the student with goals or activities that are too easy or by using curriculum materials clearly intended for children who are much younger. Setting expectations too low actually deprives a student with an intellectual disability of rightful opportunities to learn— a serious ethical and professional mistake (Bogdan, 2006). In many curriculum areas, fortunately, there already existing materials that are simplified, yet also appropriate for older students (Snell, et al., 2005). Special education teacher-specialists can often help in finding them and in devising effective ways of using them.
Adaptive and functional skills
Students with intellectual disabilities present especially clear examples of a universal dilemma of teaching: since there is not enough time to teach everything, how do we choose what to teach? One basis for selecting activities is to relate learning goals to students' everyday lives and activities, just as you would with all students. This strategy addresses the other defining feature of mental retardation, the student's difficulties with adapting to and functioning in everyday living. In teaching addition and subtraction, for example, you can create examples about the purchasing of common familiar objects (e.g. food) and about the need to make or receive change for the purchases. Similar considerations apply to learning new reading or oral language vocabulary. Instead of simply learning words in a "basic reading" series (or reading textbook), try encouraging the student to learn words that are especially useful to the student's own life. Often the student, not you yourself, is the best person to decide what these words actually are.
An adaptive, functional approach can help in nonacademic areas as well. In learning to read or "tell time" on a clock, for example, try focusing initially on telling the times important to the student, such as when he or she gets up in the morning or when schools starts. As you add additional times that are personally meaningful to the student, he or she works gradually towards full knowledge of how to read the hands on a clock. Even if the full knowledge proves slow to develop, however, the student will at least have learned the most useful clock knowledge first.
Include the student deliberately in group activities
The key word here is inclusion: the student should participate in and contribute to the life of the class as much as possible. This means that wherever possible, the student attends special events (assemblies, field days) with the class; that if the class plays a group game, then the student with the disability is part of the game; that if classmates do an assignment as a group, then if at all possible the student is assigned to one of the groups. The changes resulting from these inclusions are real, but can be positive for everyone. On the one hand, they foster acceptance and helpfulness toward the child with the disability; classmates learn that school is partly about providing opportunities for everyone, and not just about evaluating or comparing individuals' skills. On the other hand, the changes caused by inclusion stimulate the student with the disability to learn as much as possible from classmates, socially and academically. Among other benefits, group activities can give the student chances to practice "belonging" skills— how to greet classmates appropriately, or when and how to ask the teacher a question. These are skills, I might add, that are beneficial for everyone to learn, disabled or not. (I discuss group work more thoroughly in Chapter 9, "Facilitating complex thinking") | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/05%3A_Students_with_Special_Educational_Needs/5.07%3A_Intellectual_Disabilities.txt |
Behavioral disorders are a diverse group of conditions in which a student chronically performs highly inappropriate behaviors. A student with this condition might seek attention, for example, by acting out disruptively in class. Other students with the condition might behave aggressively, be distractible and overly active, seem anxious or withdrawn, or seem disconnected from everyday reality. As with learning disabilities, the sheer range of signs and symptoms defies concise description. But the problematic behaviors do have several general features in common (Kauffman, 2005; Hallahan & Kauffman, 2006):
• they tend to be extreme
• they persist for extended periods of time
• they tend to be socially unacceptable (e.g. unwanted sexual advances or vandalism against school property)
• they affect school work
• they have no other obvious explanation (e.g. a health problem or temporary disruption in the family)
The variety among behavioral disorders means that estimates of their frequency also tend to vary among states, cities, and provinces. It also means that in some cases, a student with a behavioral disorder may be classified as having a different condition, such as ADHD or a learning disability. In other cases, a behavioral problem shown in one school setting may seem serious enough to be labeled as a behavioral disorder, even though a similar problem occurring in another school may be perceived as serious, but not serious enough to deserve the label. In any case, available statistics suggest that only about one to two per cent of students, or perhaps less, have true behavioral disorders— a figure that is only about one half or one third of the frequency for intellectual disabilities (Kauffman, 2005). Because of the potentially disruptive effects of behavioral disorders, however, students with this condition are of special concern to teachers. Just one student who is highly aggressive or disruptive can interfere with the functioning of an entire class, and challenge even the best teacher's management skills and patience.
Strategies for teaching students with behavioral disorders
The most common challenges of teaching students with behavioral disorders have to do with classroom management— a topic discussed more thoroughly in Chapter 7 ("Classroom management"). Three important ideas discussed there, however, also deserve special emphasis here: (1) identifying circumstances that trigger inappropriate behaviors, (2) teaching of interpersonal skills explicitly, and (3) disciplining a student fairly.
Identifying circumstances that trigger inappropriate behaviors
Dealing with a disruption is more effective if you can identify the specific circumstances or event that triggers it, rather than focusing on the personality of the student doing the disrupting. A wide variety of factors can trigger inappropriate behavior (Heineman, Dunlap, & Kincaid, 2005):
• physiological effects— including illness, fatigue, hunger, or side-effects from medications
• physical features of the classroom— such as the classroom being too warm or too cold, the chairs being exceptionally uncomfortable for sitting, or seating patterns that interfere with hearing or seeing
• instructional choices or strategies that frustrate learning— including restricting students' choices unduly, giving instructions that are unclear, choosing activities that are too difficult or too long, or preventing students from asking questions when they need help
By identifying the specific variables often associated with disruptive behaviors, it is easier to devise ways to prevent the behaviors, either by avoiding the triggers if this is possible, or by teaching the student alternative but quite specific ways of responding to the triggering circumstance.
Teaching interpersonal skills explicitly
Because of their history and behavior, some students with behavior disorders have had little opportunity to learn appropriate social skills. Simple courtesies (like remembering to say please or thanks) may not be totally unknown, but may be unpracticed and seem unimportant to the student, as might body language (like eye contact or sitting up to listen to a teacher rather than slouching and looking away). These skills can be taught in ways that do not make them part of punishment, make them seem "preachy", or put a student to shame in front of classmates. Depending on the age or grade-level of the class, one way is by reading or assigning books and stories in which the characters model good social skills. Another is through games that require courteous language to succeed; one that I recall from my own school days, for example, was called "Mother, May I?" (Sullivan & Strang, 2002). Still another is through programs that link an older student or adult from the community as a partner to the student at risk for behavior problems; a prominent example of such a program in the United States is Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, which arranges for older individuals to act as mentors for younger boys and girls (Tierney, Grossman, & Resch, 1995; Newburn & Shiner, 2006).
In addition, strategies based on behaviorist theory have proved effective for many students, especially if the student needs opportunities simply to practice social skills that he has learned only recently and may still feel awkward or self-conscious in using (Algozzine & Ysseldyke, 2006). Several behaviorist techniques were discussed in Chapter 2, including the use of positive reinforcement, extinction, generalization, and the like. In addition to these, teachers can arrange for contingency contracts, which are agreements between the teacher and a student about exactly what work the student will do, how it will be rewarded, and what the consequences will be if the agreement is not fulfilled (Wilkinson, 2003). An advantage of all such behaviorist techniques is their precision and clarity: there is little room for misunderstanding about just what your expectations are as the teacher. The precision and clarity in turn makes it less tempting or necessary for you, as teacher, to become angry about infractions of rules or a student's failure to fulfill contracts or agreements, since the consequences tend already to be relatively obvious and clear. "Keeping your cool" can be especially helpful when dealing with behavior that is by nature annoying or disrupting.
Fairness in disciplining
Many strategies for helping a student with a behavior disorder may be spelled out in the student's individual educational plan, such as discussed earlier in this chapter. The plan can (and indeed is supposed to) serve as a guide in devising daily activities and approaches with the student. Keep in mind, however, that since an IEP is akin to a legal agreement among a teacher, other professionals, a student and the student's parents, departures from it should be made only cautiously and carefully, if ever. Although such departures may seem unlikely, a student with a behavior disorder may sometimes be exasperating enough to make it tempting to use stronger or more sweeping punishments than usual (for example, isolating a student for extended times). In case you are tempted in this direction, remember that every IEP also guarantees the student and the student's parents due process before an IEP can be changed. In practice this means consulting with everyone involved in the case— especially parents, other specialists, and the student himself— and reaching an agreement before adopting new strategies that differ significantly from the past.
Instead of "increasing the volume" of punishments, a better approach is to keep careful records of the student's behavior and of your own responses to it, documenting the reasonableness of your rules or responses to any major disruptions. By having the records, collaboration with parents and other professionals can be more productive and fair-minded, and increase others' confidence in your judgments about what the student needs in order to fit in more comfortably with the class. In the long term, more effective collaboration leads both to better support and to more learning for the student (as well as to better support for you as teacher!). | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/05%3A_Students_with_Special_Educational_Needs/5.08%3A_Behavioral_Disorders.txt |
A few students have serious physical, medical, or sensory challenges that interfere with their learning. Usually, the physical and medical challenges are medical conditions or diseases that require ongoing medical care. The sensory challenges are usually a loss either in hearing or in vision, or more rarely in both. Whatever the specific problem, it is serious enough to interfere with activities in regular classroom programs and to qualify the student for special educational services or programs.
Physical challenges that are this serious are relatively infrequent compared to some of the other special needs discussed in this chapter, though they are of course important in the lives of the students and their families, as well as important for teachers to accommodate. Only about one per cent of US students have a hearing loss serious enough to be served by special programs for such students (United States Department of Education, 2005). Only about half that number have visual impairments that lead them to be served by special programs. For two reasons, though, these figures are a bit misleading. One reason is that many more students have vision or hearing problems that are too mild (such as wearing eyeglasses for "ordinary" nearsightedness). Another is that some students with serious sensory impairments may also have other disabilities and therefore not be counted in statistics about sensory impairments.
Hearing loss
A child can acquire a hearing loss for a variety of reasons, ranging from disease early in childhood, to difficulties during childbirth, to reactions to toxic drugs. In the classroom, however, the cause of the loss is virtually irrelevant because it makes little difference in how to accommodate a student's educational needs. More important than the cause of the loss is its extent. Students with only mild or moderate loss of hearing are sometimes called hearing impaired or hard of hearing; only those with nearly complete loss are called deaf. As with other sorts of disabilities, the milder the hearing loss, the more likely you are to encounter the student in a regular classroom, at least for part of the day.
Signs of hearing loss
Although determining whether a student has a hearing loss may seem straightforward ("Just give a hearing test!"), the assessment is often not clear cut if it takes the student's daily experiences into account. A serious or profound hearing loss tends to be noticed relatively quickly and therefore often receive special help (or at least receives additional diagnosis) sooner. Mild or moderate hearing loss is much more common, however, and is more likely to be overlooked or mistaken for some other sort of learning problem (Sherer, 2004). Students with a mild hearing loss sometimes have somewhat depressed (or lowered) language and literacy skills— though not always, and in any case so do some students without any loss. They may also seem not to listen or attend to a speaker because of trouble in locating the source of sounds— but then again, sometimes students without loss also fail to listen, though for entirely different reasons. Students with hearing loss may frequently give incorrect answers to questions— but so do certain other students with normal hearing. In addition, partial hearing loss can be hidden if the student teaches himself or herself to lip read, for example, or is careful in choosing which questions to answer in a class discussion. And so on. Systematic hearing tests given by medical or hearing specialists can resolve some of these ambiguities. But even they can give a misleading impression, since students' true ability to manage in class depends on how well they combine cues and information from the entire context of classroom life.
In identifying a student who may have a hearing loss, therefore, teachers need to observe the student over an extended period of time and in as many situations as possible. In particular, look for a persistent combination of some of the following, but look for them over repeated or numerous occasions (Luckner & Carter, 2001):
• delayed language or literacy skills, both written and oral
• some ability (usually partial) to read lips
• less worldly knowledge than usual because of lack of involvement with oral dialogue and/or delayed literacy
• occasionally, tendency to social isolation because of awkwardness in communication
Teaching students with hearing loss
In principle, adjustments in teaching students with hearing loss are relatively easy to make though they do require deliberate actions or choices by the teacher and by fellow students. Interestingly, many of the strategies make good advice for teaching all students!
• Take advantage of the student's residual hearing. Seat the student close to you if you are doing the talking, or close to key classmates if the students are in a work group. Keep competing noise, such as unnecessary talking or whispering, to a minimum (because such noise is especially distracting to someone with a hearing loss). Keep instructions concise and to-the-point. Ask the student occasionally whether he or she is understanding.
• Use visual cues liberally. Make charts and diagrams wherever appropriate to illustrate what you are saying. Look directly at the student when you are speaking to him or her (to facilitate lip reading). Gesture and point to key words or objects— but within reason, not excessively. Provide handouts or readings to review visually the points that you make orally.
• Include the student in the community of the classroom. Recruit one or more classmates to assist in "translating" oral comments that the student may have missed. If the student uses American Sign Language (ASL) at home or elsewhere, then learn a few basic, important signs of ASL yourself ("Hello" "thank you" "How are you?"). Teach them to classmates as well.
Visual Impairment
Students with visual impairments have difficulty seeing even with corrective lenses. Most commonly the difficulty has to do with refraction (the ability to focus), but some students may also experience a limited field of view (called tunnel vision) or be overly sensitive to light in general. As with hearing loss, labels for visual impairment depend somewhat on the extent and nature of the problem. Legal blindness means that the person has significant tunnel vision or else visual acuity (sharpness of vision) of 20/200 or less, which means that he or she must be 20 feet away from an object that a person with normal eyesight can see at 200 feet. Low vision means that a person has some vision usable for reading, but often needs a special optical device such as a magnifying lens for doing so. As with hearing loss, the milder the impairment, the more likely that a student with a vision problem will spend some or even all the time in a regular class.
Signs of visual impairment
Students with visual impairments often show some of the same signs as students with simple, common nearsightedness. The students may rub their eyes a lot, for example, blink more than usual, or hold books very close to read them. They may complain of itchiness in their eyes, or of headaches, dizziness, or even nausea after doing a lot of close eye work. The difference between the students with visual impairment and those with "ordinary" nearsightedness is primarily a matter of degree: the ones with impairment show the signs more often and more obviously. If the impairment is serious enough or has roots in certain physical conditions or disease, they may also have additional symptoms, such as crossed eyes or swollen eyelids. As with hearing loss, the milder forms ironically can be the most subtle to observe and therefore the most prone to being overlooked at first. For classroom teachers, the best strategy may be to keep track of a student whose physical signs happen in combination with learning difficulties, and for whom the combination persists for many weeks.
Teaching students with visual impairment
In general, advice for teaching students with mild or moderate visual impairment parallels the advice for teaching students with hearing loss, though with obvious differences because of the nature of the students' disabilities.
• Take advantage of the student's residual vision. If the student still has some useful vision, place him or her where he can easily see the most important parts of the classroom— whether that is you, the chalkboard, a video screen, or particular fellow students. Make sure that the classroom, or at least the student's part of it, is well lit (because good lighting makes reading easier with low vision). Make sure that handouts, books and other reading materials have good, sharp contrast (also helpful with a visual impairment).
• Use non-visual information liberally. Remember not to expect a student with visual impairment to learn information that is by nature only visual, such as the layout of the classroom, the appearance of photographs in a textbook or of story lines in a video. Explain these to the student somehow. Use hands-on materials wherever they will work, such as maps printed in three-dimensional relief or with different textures. If the student knows how to read Braille (an alphabet for the blind using patterns of small bumps on a page), allow him to do so.
• Include the student in the community of the classroom. Make sure that the student is accepted as well as possible into the social life of the class. Recruit classmates to help explain visual material when necessary. Learn a bit of basic Braille and encourage classmates to do the same, even if none of you ever become as skilled with it as the student himself or herself. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/05%3A_Students_with_Special_Educational_Needs/5.09%3A_Physical_Disabilities_and_Sensory_Impairments.txt |
I have hinted at it already in this chapter, but it is worth saying again: including students with disabilities in regular classrooms is valuable for everyone concerned. The students with disabilities themselves tend to experience a richer educational environment, both socially and academically. Just as with racial segregation, separate education is not equal education, or at least cannot be counted on to be equal. But classmates of students with disabilities also experience a richer educational environment; they potentially meet a wider range of classmates and to see a wider range of educational purposes in operation. Teachers also experience these benefits, but their programs often benefit in other ways as well. The most notable additional benefit is that many teaching strategies that are good for students with disabilities also turn out to benefit all students— benefits like careful planning of objectives, attention to individual differences among students, and establishment of a positive social atmosphere in the classroom. Later (in Chapters 9 and 10) we will return to these topics because of their importance for high- quality teaching. But at that point we will frame the topics around the needs of all students, whatever their individual qualities.
5.11: Summary Key Words and References
Chapter summary
Since the 1970s support for people with disabilities has grown significantly, as reflected in the United States by three key pieces of legislation: the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The support has led to new educational practices, including alternative assessments for students with disabilities, placement in the least restrictive environment, and individual educational plans.
There are many ways of classifying people with disabilities, all of which carry risks of stereotyping and oversimplifying individuals' strengths and needs. For the purposes of education, the most frequent category is learning disabilities, which are difficulties with specific aspects of academic work. The high prevalence of learning disabilities makes this category especially ambiguous as a description of particular students. Assistance for students with learning disabilities can be framed in terms of behaviorist reinforcement, metacognitive strategies, or constructivist mentoring.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a problem in sustaining attention and controlling impulses. It can often be controlled with medications, but usually it is also important for teachers to provide a structured environment for the student as well.
Intellectual disabilities (or mental retardation) are general limitations in cognitive functioning as well as in the tasks of daily living. Contemporary experts tend to classify individuals with these disabilities according to the amount and frequency of support they need from others. Teachers can assist these students by giving more time and practice than usual, by including adaptive and functional skills in what they teach, and by making sure that the student is included in the daily life of the classroom.
Behavioral disorders are conditions in which students chronically perform highly inappropriate behaviors. Students with these problems present challenges for classroom management, which teachers can meet by identifying circumstances that trigger inappropriate behaviors, by teaching interpersonal skills explicitly, and by making sure that punishments or disciplinary actions are fair and have been previously agreed upon.
Physical and sensory disabilities are significant limitations in health, hearing, or vision. The signs both of hearing loss and of vision loss can be subtle, but can sometimes be observed over a period of time. Teaching students with either a hearing loss or a vision loss primarily involves making use of the students' residual sensory abilities and insuring that the student is included in and supported by the class as well as possible.
Key terms
Alternative assessment Least restrictive environment (LRE)
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 Learning disabilities
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Mental retardation
Behavioral disorders Portfolio assessment
Contingency contracts Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Hearing loss Sensory impairment
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Transition planning
Individual educational plan (IEP) Visual impairment
Intellectual disabilities
On the Internet
Each of the following websites represents an organization focused on the needs of people with one particular type of disability. Each includes free access to archives of non-current journals and other publications, as well as information about conferences, professional training events, and political news relevant to persons with disabilities. (Note that the sponsoring organizations about hearing loss and about intellectual disabilities changed their names recently, though not their purposes, so their websites may eventually change names as well.)
< https://ldaamerica.org/> This is primarily about learning disabilities, but also somewhat about ADHD.
< https://add.org/ > This website is primarily about ADHD. Note that its website name uses an older terminology for this disability, ADD (no "H") for attention deficit disorder (with the term hyperactivity).
<https://www.hearingloss.org/ > This one primarily discusses about hearing loss.
< http://www.lighthouseguild.org/navh > This website is primarily about visual impairment.
< http://www.aamr.org/> This one is primarily about intellectual disabilities or mental retardation. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/05%3A_Students_with_Special_Educational_Needs/5.10%3A_The_Value_of_Including_Students_with_Special_Needs.txt |
Not so long ago, a teacher named Barbara Fuller taught general science to elementary years students, and one of her units was about insects and spiders. As part of the unit she had students search for insects and spiders around their own homes or apartments. They brought the creatures to school (safely in jars), answered a number of questions about them in their journals, and eventually gave brief oral reports about their findings to the class. The assignment seemed straightforward, but Barbara found that students responded to it in very different ways. Looking back, here is how Barbara described their responses:
"I remember Jose couldn't wait to get started, and couldn't bear to end the assignment either! Every day he brought more bugs or spiders— eventually 25 different kinds. Every day he drew pictures of them in his journal and wrote copious notes about them. At the end he gave the best oral presentation I've ever seen from a third-grader; he called it 'They Have Us Outnumbered!' I wish I had filmed it, he was so poised and so enthusiastic.
"Then there was Lindsey—the one who was always wanted to be the best in everything, regardless of whether it interested her. She started off the work rather slowly— just brought in a few bugs and only one spider. But she kept an eye on what everyone else was bringing, and how much. When she saw how much Jose was doing, though, she picked up her pace, like she was trying to match his level. Except that instead of bringing a diversity of creatures as Jose was doing, she just brought more and more of the same ones— almost twenty dead house flies, as I recall! Her presentation was OK— I really could not give her a bad mark for it— but it wasn't as creative or insightful as Jose's. I think she was more concerned about her mark than about the material.
"And there was Tobias— discouraging old Tobias. He did the work, but just barely. I noticed him looking a lot at other students' insect collections and at their journal entries. He wasn't cheating, I believe, just figuring out what the basic level of work was for the assignment— what he needed to do simply to avoid failing it. He brought in fewer bugs than most others, though still a number that was acceptable. He also wrote shorter answers in his journal and gave one of the shortest oral reports. It was all acceptable, but not much more than that.
"And Zoey: she was quite a case! I never knew whether to laugh or cry about her. She didn't exactly resist doing the assignment, but she certainly liked to chat with other students. So she was easily distracted, and that cut down on getting her work done, especially about her journal entries. What really saved her— what kept her work at a reasonably high level of quality— were the two girls she ended up chatting with. The other two were already pretty motivated to do a lot with the assignment —create fine looking bug collections, write good journal entries, and make interesting oral presentations. So when Zoey attempted chitchat with them, the conversations often ended up focusing on the assignment anyway! She had them to thank for keeping her mind on the work. I don't know what Zoey would have done without them."
As Barbara Fuller's recollections suggest, students assign various meanings and attitudes to academic activities —personal meanings and attitudes that arouse and direct their energies in different ways. We call these and their associated energizing and directing effects by the term motivation, or sometimes motivation to learn. As you will see, differences in motivation are an important source of diversity in classrooms, comparable in importance to differences in prior knowledge, ability, or developmental readiness. When it comes to school learning, furthermore, students' motivations take on special importance because students' mere presence in class is (of course) no guarantee that students really want to learn. It is only a sign that students live in a society requiring young people to attend school. Since modern education is compulsory, teachers cannot take students' motivation for granted, and they have a responsibility to insure students' motivation to learn. Somehow or other, teachers must persuade students to want to do what students have to do anyway. This task— understanding and therefore influencing students' motivations to learn— is the focus of this chapter. Fortunately, as you will see, there are ways of accomplishing this task that respect students' choices, desires, and attitudes.
Like motivation itself, theories of it are full of diversity. For convenience in navigating through the diversity, we have organized the chapter around six major theories or perspectives about motives and their sources. We call the topics (l) motives as behavior change, (2) motives as goals, (3) motives as interests, (4) motives as attributions about success, (5) motives as beliefs about self-efficacy, and (6) motives as self-determination. We end with a perspective called expectancy-value theory which integrates ideas from some of the other six theories, and partly as a result implies some additional suggestions for influencing students' motivations to learn in positive ways. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/06%3A_Student_Motivation/6.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Sometimes it is useful to think of motivation not as something "inside" a student driving the student's behavior, but as equivalent to the student's outward behaviors. This is the perspective of behaviorism, which we discussed in Chapter 1 ("Student learning") as a way to think about the learning process. In its most thorough-going form, behaviorism focuses almost completely on what can be directly seen or heard about a person's behavior, and has relatively few comments about what may lie behind (or "underneath" or "inside") the behavior. When it comes to motivation, this perspective means minimizing or even ignoring the distinction between the inner drive or energy of students, and the outward behaviors that express the drive or energy. The two are considered the same, or nearly so.
Equating the inner and the outward might seem to violate common sense. How can a student do something without some sort of feeling or thought to make the action happen? As we will explain, this very question has led to alternative models of motivation that are based on cognitive rather than behaviorist theories of learning. We will explain some of these later in this chapter. Before getting to them, however, we encourage you to consider the advantages of a behaviorist perspective on motivation.
Sometimes the circumstances of teaching limit teachers' opportunities to distinguish between inner motivation and outward behavior. Certainly teachers see plenty of student behaviors— signs of motivation of some sort. But the multiple demands of teaching can limit the time needed to determine what the behaviors mean. If a student asks a lot of questions during discussions, for example, is he or she curious about the material itself, or just wanting to look intelligent in front of classmates and the teacher? In a class with many students and a busy agenda, there may not be a lot of time for a teacher to decide between these possibilities. In other cases, the problem may not be limited time as much as communication difficulties with a student. Consider a student who is still learning English, or who belongs to a cultural community that uses patterns of conversation that are unfamiliar to the teacher, or who has a disability that limits the student's general language skill. In these cases discerning the student's inner motivations may take more time and effort. It is important to invest the extra time and effort for such students, but while a teacher is doing so, it is also important for her to guide and influence the students' behavior in constructive directions. That is where behaviorist approaches to motivation can help.
Operant conditioning as a way of motivating
The most common version of the behavioral perspective on motivation is the theory of operant conditioning associated with B. F. Skinner (1938, 1957), which we discussed in Chapter 1 ("Learning process"). The description in that chapter focused on behavioral learning, but the same operant model can be transformed into an account of motivation. In the operant model, you may recall, a behavior being learned (the "operant") increases in frequency or likelihood because performing it makes a reinforcement available. To understand this model in terms of motivation, think of the likelihood of response as the motivation and the reinforcement as the motivator. Imagine, for example, that a student learns by operant conditioning to answer questions during class discussions: each time the student answers a question (the operant), the teacher praises (reinforces) this behavior. In addition to thinking of this situation as behavioral learning, however, you can also think of it in terms of motivation: the likelihood of the student answering questions (the motivation) is increasing because of the teacher's praise (the motivator).
Many concepts from operant conditioning, in fact, can be understood in motivational terms. Another one, for example, is the concept of extinction, which we defined in Chapter 1 as the tendency for learned behaviors to become less likely when reinforcement no longer occurs— a sort of "unlearning", or at least a decrease in performance of previously learned. The decrease in performance frequency can be thought of as a loss of motivation, and removal of the reinforcement can be thought of as removal of the motivator. Table 14 summarizes this way of reforming operant conditioning in terms of motivation, both for the concepts discussed in Chapter 1 and for other additional concepts.
Table \(1\): : Operant conditioning as learning and as motivation
Concept
Definition phrased in terms of learning
Definition phrased in terms of motivation
Classroom example
Operant
Behavior that becomes more likely because of reinforcement
Behavior that suggests an increase in motivation
Student listens to teacher’s comments during lecture or discussion
Reinforcement
Stimulus that increases likelihood of a behavior
Stimulus that motivates
Teacher praises student for listening
Positive reinforcement
Stimulus that increases likelihood of a behavior by being introduced or added to a situation
Stimulus that motivates by its presence; an “incentive”
Teacher makes encouraging remarks about student’s homework
Negative reinforcement
Stimulus that increases the likelihood of a behavior by being removed or taken away from a situation
Stimulus that motivates by its absence or avoidance
Teacher stops nagging student about late homework
Punishment
Stimulus that decreases the likelihood of a behavior by being introduced or added to a situation
Stimulus that
decreases motivation by its
presence
Teacher deducts points for late homework
Extinction
Removal of reinforcement for a behavior
Removal of motivating stimulus that leads to decrease in motivation
Teacher stops commenting altogether about student’s homework
Shaping successive approximations
Reinforcements for behaviors that gradually resemble (approximate) a final goal behavior
Stimuli that gradually shift motivation toward a final goal motivation
Teacher praises student for returning homework a bit closer to the deadline; gradually she praises for actually being on time
Continuous reinforcement
Reinforcement that occurs each time that an operant behavior occurs
Motivator that occurs each time that a behavioral sign of motivation occurs
Teacher praises highly active student for every time he works for five minutes without interruption
Intermittent reinforcement
Reinforcement that sometimes occurs following an operant behavior, but not on every occasion
Motivator that occurs sometimes when a behavioral sign of motivation occurs, but not on every occasion
Teacher praises highly active student sometimes when he works without interruption, but not every time
Cautions about behavioral perspectives on motivation
As we mentioned, behaviorist perspectives about motivation do reflect a classroom reality: that teachers sometimes lack time and therefore must focus simply on students' appropriate outward behavior. But there are nonetheless cautions about adopting this view. An obvious one is the ambiguity of students' specific behaviors; what looks like a sign of one motive to the teacher may in fact be a sign of some other motive to the student (DeGrandpre, 2000). If a student looks at the teacher intently while she is speaking, does it mean the student is motivated to learn, or only that the student is daydreaming? If a student invariably looks away while the teacher is speaking, does it mean that the student is disrespectful of the teacher, or that student comes from a family or cultural group where avoiding eye contact actually shows more respect for a speaker than direct eye contact?
Another concern about behaviorist perspectives, including operant conditioning, is that it leads teachers to ignore students' choices and preferences, and to "play God" by making choices on their behalf (Kohn, 1996). According to this criticism, the distinction between "inner" motives and expressions of motives in outward behavior does not disappear just because a teacher (or a psychological theory) chooses to treat a motive and the behavioral expression of a motive as equivalent. Students usually do know what they want or desire, and their wants or desires may not always correspond to what a teacher chooses to reinforce or ignore. This, in a new guise, is once again the issue of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation that we discussed in Chapter 1. Approaches that are exclusively behavioral, it is argued, are not sensitive enough to students' intrinsic, self-sustaining motivations.
As we pointed out in Chapter 1, there is truth to this allegation if a teacher actually does rely on rewarding behaviors that she alone has chosen, or even if she persists in reinforcing behaviors that students already find motivating without external reinforcement. In those cases reinforcements can backfire: instead of serving as an incentive to desired behavior, reinforcement can become a reminder of the teacher's power and of students' lack of control over their own actions. A classic research study of intrinsic motivation illustrated the problem nicely. In the study, researchers rewarded university students for two activities— solving puzzles and writing newspaper headlines —that they already found interesting. Some of the students, however, were paid to do these activities, whereas others were not. Under these conditions, the students who were paid were less likely to engage in the activities following the experiment than were the students who were not paid, even though both groups had been equally interested in the activities to begin with (Deci, 1971). The extrinsic reward of payment, it seemed, interfered with the intrinsic reward of working the puzzles.
Later studies confirmed this effect in numerous situations, though they have also found certain conditions where extrinsic rewards do not reduce intrinsic rewards. Extrinsic rewards are not as harmful, for example, if a person is paid "by the hour" (i.e. by a flat rate) rather than piecemeal (by the number of items completed) (Cameron & Pierce, 1994; Eisenberger & Cameron, 1996). They also are less harmful if the task itself is relatively well-defined (like working math problems or playing solitaire) and high-quality performance is expected at all times. So there are still times and ways when externally determined reinforcements are useful and effective. In general, however, extrinsic rewards do seem to undermine intrinsic motivation often enough that they need to be used selectively and thoughtfully (Deci, Koestner, & Ryan, 2001). As it happens, help with being selective and thoughtful can be found in the other, more cognitively oriented theories of motivation. These use the goals, interests, and beliefs of students as ways of explaining differences in students' motives and in how the motives affect engagement with school. We turn to these cognitively oriented theories next, beginning with those focused on students' goals. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/06%3A_Student_Motivation/6.02%3A_Motives_as_Behavior.txt |
One way motives vary is by the kind of goals that students set for themselves, and by how the goals support students' academic achievement. As you might suspect, some goals encourage academic achievement more than others, but even motives that do not concern academics explicitly tend to affect learning indirectly.
Goals that contribute to achievement
What kinds of achievement goals do students hold? Imagine three individuals, Maria, Sara, and Lindsay, who are taking algebra together. Maria's main concern is to learn the material as well as possible because she finds it interesting and because she believes it will be useful to her in later courses, perhaps at university. Hers is a mastery goal because she wants primarily to learn or master the material. Sara, however, is concerned less about algebra than about getting top marks on the exams and in the course. Hers is a performance goal because she is focused primarily on looking successful; learning algebra is merely a vehicle for performing well in the eyes of peers and teachers. Lindsay, for her part, is primarily concerned about avoiding a poor or failing mark. Hers is a performance- avoidance goal or failure- avoidance goal because she is not really as concerned about learning algebra, as Maria is, or about competitive success, as Sara is; she is simply intending to avoid failure.
As you might imagine, mastery, performance, and performance-avoidance goals often are not experienced in pure form, but in combinations. If you play the clarinet in the school band, you might want to improve your technique simply because you enjoy playing as well as possible— essentially a mastery orientation. But you might also want to look talented in the eyes of classmates— a performance orientation. Another part of what you may wish, at least privately, is to avoid looking like a complete failure at playing the clarinet. One of these motives may predominate over the others, but they all may be present.
Mastery goals tend to be associated with enjoyment of learning the material at hand, and in this sense represent an outcome that teachers often seek for students. By definition therefore they are a form of intrinsic motivation. As such mastery goals have been found to be better than performance goals at sustaining students' interest in a subject. In one review of research about learning goals, for example, students with primarily mastery orientations toward a course they were taking not only tended to express greater interest in the course, but also continued to express interest well beyond the official end of the course, and to enroll in further courses in the same subject (Harackiewicz, et al., 2002; Wolters, 2004).
Performance goals, on the other hand, imply extrinsic motivation, and tend to show the mixed effects of this orientation. A positive effect is that students with a performance orientation do tend to get higher grades than those who express primarily a mastery orientation. The advantage in grades occurs both in the short term (with individual assignments) and in the long term (with overall grade point average when graduating). But there is evidence that performance oriented students do not actually learn material as deeply or permanently as students who are more mastery oriented (Midgley, Kaplan, & Middleton, 2001). A possible reason is that measures of performance— such as test scores— often reward relatively shallow memorization of information and therefore guide performance-oriented students away from processing the information thoughtfully or deeply. Another possible reason is that a performance orientation, by focusing on gaining recognition as the best among peers, encourages competition among peers. Giving and receiving help from classmates is thus not in the self-interest of a performance-oriented student, and the resulting isolation limits the student's learning.
Failure-avoidant goals
As we mentioned, failure-avoidant goals by nature undermine academic achievement. Often they are a negative byproduct of the competitiveness of performance goals (Urdan, 2004). If a teacher (and sometimes also fellow students) put too much emphasis on being the best in the class, and if interest in learning the material as such therefore suffers, then some students may decide that success is beyond their reach or may not be desirable in any case. The alternative— simply avoiding failure— may seem wiser as well as more feasible. Once a student adopts this attitude, he or she may underachieve more or less deliberately, doing only the minimum work necessary to avoid looking foolish or to avoid serious conflict with the teacher. Avoiding failure in this way is an example of self-handicapping— deliberate actions and choices that the reduce chances of success. Students may self-handicap in a number of ways; in addition to not working hard, they may procrastinate about completing assignments, for example, or set goals that are unrealistically high.
Social goals
Most students need and value relationships, both with classmates and with teachers, and often (though not always) they get a good deal of positive support from the relationships. But the effects of social relationships are complex, and at times can work both for and against academic achievement. If a relationship with the teacher is important and reasonably positive, then the student is likely to try pleasing the teacher by working hard on assignments (Dowson & Mclnerney, 2003). Note, though, that this effect is closer to performance than mastery; the student is primarily concerned about looking good to someone else. If, on the other hand, a student is especially concerned about relationships with peers, the effects on achievement depend on the student's motives for the relationship, as well as on peers' attitudes. Desiring to be close to peers personally may lead a student to ask for help from, and give help to peers— a behavior that may support higher achievement, at least up to a point. But desiring to impress peers with skills and knowledge may lead to the opposite: as we already mentioned, the competitive edge of such a performance orientation may keep the student from collaborating, and in this indirect way reduce a student's opportunities to learn. The abilities and achievement motivation of peers themselves can also make a difference, but once again the effects vary depending on the context. Low achievement and motivation by peers affects an individual's academic motivation more in elementary school than in high school, more in learning mathematics than learning to read, and more if their is a wide range of abilities in a classroom than if there is a more narrow range (Burke & Sass, 2006).
In spite of these complexities, social relationships are valued so highly by most students that teachers should generally facilitate them, though also keep an eye on their nature and their consequent effects on achievement. As we explain further, many assignments can be accomplished productively in groups, for example, as long as the groups are formed thoughtfully; in that chapter we discuss some ways of insuring that such groups are successful, such as by choosing group tasks wisely and recognizing all members' contributions are fully as possible. Relationships can also be supported with activities that involve students or adults from another class or from outside the school, as often happens with school or community service projects. These can provide considerable social satisfaction and can sometimes be connected to current curriculum needs (Butin, 2005). But the majority of students' social contacts are likely always to come from students' own initiatives with each other in simply taking time to talk and interact. The teacher's job is to encourage these informal contacts, especially when they happen at times that support rather than interfere with learning.
Encouraging mastery goals
Even though a degree of performance orientation may be inevitable in school because of the mere presence of classmates, it does not have to take over students' academic motivation completely. Teachers can encourage mastery goals in various ways, and should in fact do so because a mastery orientation leads to more sustained, thoughtful learning, at least in classrooms, where classmates may sometimes debate and disagree with each other (Darnon, Butera, & Harackiewicz, 2006).
How can teachers do so? One way is to allow students to choose specific tasks or assignments for themselves, where possible, because their choices are more likely than usual to reflect prior personal interests, and hence be motivated more intrinsically than usual. The limitation of this strategy, of course, is that students may not see some of the connections between their prior interests and the curriculum topics at hand. In that case it also helps for the teacher to look for and point out the relevance of current topics or skills to students' personal interests and goals. Suppose, for example, that a student enjoys the latest styles of music. This interest may actually have connections with a wide range of school curriculum, such as:
• biology (because of the physiology of the ear and of hearing)
• physics or general science (because of the nature of musical acoustics)
• history (because of changes in musical styles over time)
• English (because of relationships of musical lyrics and themes with literary themes)
• foreign languages (because of comparisons of music and songs among cultures)
Still another way to encourage mastery orientation is to focus on students' individual effort and improvement as much as possible, rather than on comparing students' successes to each other. You can encourage this orientation by giving students detailed feedback about how they can improve performance, or by arranging for students to collaborate on specific tasks and projects rather than to compete about them, and in general by showing your own enthusiasm for the subject at hand. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/06%3A_Student_Motivation/6.03%3A_Motives_as_Goals.txt |
In addition to holding different kinds of goals— with consequent differences in academic motivation— students show obvious differences in levels of interest in the topics and tasks of the classroom. Suppose that two high school classmates, Frank and Jason, both are taking chemistry, and specifically learning how to balance chemical equations. Frank finds the material boring and has to force himself to study it; as a result he spends only the time needed to learn the basic material and to complete the assignments at a basic level. Jason, on the other hand, enjoys the challenges of balancing chemical equations. He thinks of the task as an intriguing puzzle; he not only solves each of them, but also compares the problems to each other as he goes through them.
Frank's learning is based on effort compared to Jason's, whose learning is based more fully on interest. As the example implies, when students learn from interest they tend to devote more attention to the topic than if they learn from effort (Hidi & Renninger, 2006). The finding is not surprising since interest is another aspect of intrinsic motivation— energy or drive that comes from within. A distinction between effort and interest is often artificial, however, because the two motives often get blended or combined in students' personal experiences. Most of us can remember times when we worked at a skill that we enjoyed and found interesting, but that also required effort to learn. The challenge for teachers is therefore to draw on and encourage students' interest as much as possible, and thus keep the required effort within reasonable bounds— neither too hard nor too easy.
Situational interest versus personal interest
Students' interests vary in how deeply or permanently they are located within students. Situational interests are ones that are triggered temporarily by features of the immediate situation. Unusual sights, sounds, or words can stimulate situational interest. A teacher might show an interesting image on the overhead projector, or play a brief bit of music, or make a surprising comment in passing. At a more abstract level, unusual or surprising topics of discussion can also arouse interest when they are first introduced. Personal interests are relatively permanent preferences of the student, and are usually expressed in a variety of situations. In the classroom, a student may (or may not) have a personal interest in particular topics, activities, or subject matter. Outside class, though, he or she usually has additional personal interests in particular non-academic activities (e.g. sports, music) or even in particular people (a celebrity, a friend who lives nearby). The non-academic personal interests may sometimes conflict with academic interest; it may be more interesting to go to the shopping mall with a friend than to study even your most favorite subject.
Benefits of personal interest
In general, personal interest in an academic topic or activity tends to correlate with achievement related to the topic or activity. As you might suppose, a student who is truly interested is more likely to focus on the topic or activity more fully, to work at it for longer periods, to use more thoughtful strategies in learning— and to enjoy doing so (Hidi, 2001; Hidi & Renninger, 2006). Small wonder that the student achieves more! Note, though, a persistent ambiguity about this benefit: it is often not clear whether personal interest leads to higher achievement, or higher achievement leads to stronger interest. Either possibility seems plausible. Research to sort them out, however, has suggested that at least some of the influence goes in the direction from interest to achievement; when elementary students were given books from which to learn about a new topic, for example, they tended to learn more from books which they chose themselves than from books that were simply assigned (Reynolds & Symons, 2001). So interest seemed to lead to learning. But this conclusion does not rule out its converse, that achievement may stimulate interest as well. As Joe learns more about history, he steadily finds history more interesting; as McKenzie learns more about biology, she gradually wants to learn more of it.
Stimulating situational interests
If a student has little prior personal interest in a topic or activity, the teacher is faced with stimulating initial, situational interest, in hopes that the initial interest will gradually become more permanent and personal. There are a number of strategies for meeting this challenge:
• It helps to include surprises in your comments and in classroom activities from time to time: tell students facts that are true but counter-intuitive, for example, or demonstrate a science experiment that turns out differently than students expect (Guthrie, Wigfield, & Humenick, 2006).
• It also helps to relate new material to students' prior experiences even if their experiences are not related to academics or to school directly. The concepts of gravitation and acceleration, for example, operate every time a ball is hit or thrown in a softball game. If this connection is pointed out to a student who enjoys playing a lot of softball, the concepts can make concepts more interesting.
• It helps to encourage students to respond to new material actively. By having students talk about the material together, for example, students can begin making their own connections to prior personal interests, and the social interaction itself helps to link the material to their personal, social interests as well.
A caution: seductive details
Even though it is important to stimulate interest in new material somehow, it is also possible to mislead or distract students accidentally by adding inappropriate, but stimulating features to new material (Garner, et al., 1992; Harp & Mayer, 1998). Distractions happen a number of ways, such as any of these among others:
• deliberately telling jokes in class
• using colorful illustrations or pictures
• adding interesting bits of information to a written or verbal explanation
When well chosen, all of these moves can indeed arouse students' interest in a new topic. But if they do not really relate to the topic at hand, they may simply create misunderstandings or prevent students from focusing on key material. As with most other learning processes, however, there are individual differences among students in distractability, students who are struggling, and are more prone to distraction and misunderstanding than students who are already learning more successfully (Sanchez & Wiley, 2006). On balance the best advice is probably therefore to use strategies to arouse situational interest, but to assess students' responses to them continually and as honestly as possible. The key issue is whether students seem to learn because of stimulating strategies that you provide, or in spite of them. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/06%3A_Student_Motivation/6.04%3A_Motives_as_Interests.txt |
Attributions are perceptions about the causes of success and failure. Suppose that you get a low mark on a test and are wondering what caused the low mark. You can construct various explanations for— make various attributions about— this failure. Maybe you did not study very hard; maybe the test itself was difficult; maybe you were unlucky; maybe you just are not smart enough. Each explanation attributes the failure to a different factor. The explanations that you settle upon may reflect the truth accurately— or then again, they may not. What is important about attributions is that they reflect personal beliefs about the sources or causes of success and failure. As such, they tend to affect motivation in various ways, depending on the nature of the attribution (Weiner, 2005).
Locus, stability, and controllability
Attributions vary in three underlying ways: locus, stability, and controllability. Locus of an attribution is the location (figuratively speaking) of the source of success or failure. If you attribute a top mark on a test to your ability, then the locus is internal; if you attribute the mark to the test's having easy questions, then the locus is external. The stability of an attribution is its relative permanence. If you attribute the mark to your ability, then the source of success is relatively stable— by definition, ability is a relatively lasting quality. If you attribute a top mark to the effort you put in to studying, then the source of success is unstable— effort can vary and has to be renewed on each occasion or else it disappears. The controllability of an attribution is the extent to which the individual can influence it. If you attribute a top mark to your effort at studying, then the source of success is relatively controllable— you can influence effort simply by deciding how much to study. But if you attribute the mark to simple luck, then the source of the success is uncontrollable— there is nothing that can influence random chance.
As you might suspect, the way that these attributions combine affects students' academic motivations in major ways. It usually helps both motivation and achievement if a student attributes academic successes and failures to factors that are internal and controllable, such as effort or a choice to use particular learning strategies (Dweck, 2000). Attributing successes to factors that are internal but stable or controllable (like ability), on the other hand, is both a blessing and a curse: sometimes it can create optimism about prospects for future success ("I always do well"), but it can also lead to indifference about correcting mistakes (Dweck, 2006), or even create pessimism if a student happens not to perform at the accustomed level ("Maybe I'm not as smart as I thought"). Worst of all for academic motivation are attributions, whether stable or not, related to external factors. Believing that performance depends simply on luck ("The teacher was in a bad mood when marking") or on excessive difficulty of material removes incentive for a student to invest in learning. All in all, then, it seems important for teachers to encourage internal, stable attributions about success.
Influencing students' attributions
How can they do so? One way or another, the effective strategies involve framing teachers' own explanations of success and failure around internal, controllable factors. Instead of telling a student: "Good work! You're smart!", try saying: "Good work! Your effort really made a difference, didn't it?" If a student fails, instead of saying, "Too bad! This material is just too hard for you," try saying, "Let's find a strategy for practicing this more, and then you can try again." In both cases the first option emphasizes uncontrollable factors (effort, difficulty level), and the second option emphasizes internal, controllable factors (effort, use of specific strategies).
Such attributions will only be convincing, however, if teachers provide appropriate conditions for students to learn— conditions in which students' efforts really do pay off. There are three conditions that have to be in place in particular. First, academic tasks and materials actually have to be at about the right level of difficulty. If you give problems in advanced calculus to a first-grade student, the student will not only fail them but also be justified in attributing the failure to an external factor, task difficulty. If assignments are assessed in ways that produce highly variable, unreliable marks, then students will rightly attribute their performance to an external, unstable source: luck. Both circumstances will interfere with motivation.
Second, teachers also need to be ready to give help to individuals who need it— even if they believe that an assignment is easy enough or clear enough that students should not need individual help. Readiness to help is always essential because it is often hard to know in advance exactly how hard a task will prove to be for particular students. Without assistance, a task that proves difficult initially may remain difficult indefinitely, and the student will be tempted to make unproductive, though correct, attributions about his or her failure ("I will never understand this", "I'm not smart enough", or "It doesn't matter how hard I study").
Third, teachers need to remember that ability— usually considered a relatively stable factor— often actually changes incrementally over the long term. Recognizing this fact is one of the best ways to bring about actual increases in students' abilities (Blackwell, Trzniewski, & Dweck, 2007; Schunk, Pintrich, & Meese, 2008). A middle- years student might play the trumpet in the school band at a high level of ability, but this ability actually reflects a lot of previous effort and a gradual increase in ability. A second grade student who reads fluently, in this sense may have high current ability to read; but at some point in the distant past that same student could not read as well, and even further back he may not have been able to read at all. The increases in ability have happened at least in part because of effort. While these ideas may seem obvious, they can easily be forgotten in the classroom because effort and ability evolve according to very different time frames. Effort and its results appear relatively immediately; a student expends effort this week, this day, or even at this very moment, and the effort (if not the results) are visible right away. But ability may take longer to show itself; a student often develops it only over many weeks, months, or years. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/06%3A_Student_Motivation/6.05%3A_Motives_Related_to_Attributions.txt |
In addition to being influenced by their goals, interests, and attributions, students' motives are affected by specific beliefs about the student's personal capacities. In self-efficacy theory the beliefs become a primary, explicit explanation for motivation (Bandura, 1977, 1986, 1997). Self-efficacy is the belief that you are capable of carrying out a specific task or of reaching a specific goal. Note that the belief and the action or goal are specific. Self- efficacy is a belief that you can write an acceptable term paper, for example, or repair an automobile, or make friends with the new student in class. These are relatively specific beliefs and tasks. Self-efficacy is not about whether you believe that you are intelligent in general, whether you always like working with mechanical things, or think that you are generally a likeable person. These more general judgments are better regarded as various mixtures of self-concepts (beliefs about general personal identity) or of self-esteem (evaluations of identity). They are important in their own right, and sometimes influence motivation, but only indirectly (Bong & Skaalvik, 2004). Self-efficacy beliefs, furthermore, are not the same as "true" or documented skill or ability. They are self- constructed, meaning that they are personally developed perceptions. There can sometimes therefore be discrepancies between a person's self-efficacy beliefs and the person's abilities. You can believe that you can write a good term paper, for example, without actually being able to do so, and vice versa: you can believe yourself incapable of writing a paper, but discover that you are in fact able to do so. In this way self-efficacy is like the everyday idea of confidence, except that it is defined more precisely. And as with confidence, it is possible to have either too much or too little self- efficacy. The optimum level seems to be either at or slightly above true capacity (Bandura, 1997). As we indicate below, large discrepancies between self-efficacy and ability can create motivational problems for the individual.
Effects of self-efficacy on students' behavior
Self-efficacy may sound like a uniformly desirable quality, but research as well as teachers' experience suggests that its effects are a bit more complicated than they first appear. Self-efficacy has three main effects, each of which has both a "dark" or undesirable side and a positive or desirable side.
Choice of tasks
The first effect is that self-efficacy makes students more willing to choose tasks where they already feel confident of succeeding. This effect is almost inevitable, given the definition of the concept of self-efficacy, it has also been supported by research on self-efficacy beliefs (Pajares & Schunk, 2001). For teachers, the effect on choice can be either welcome or not, depending on circumstances. If a student believes that he or she can solve mathematical problems, then the student is more likely to attempt the mathematics homework that the teacher assigns. Unfortunately the converse is also true. If a student believes that he or she is incapable of math, then the student is less likely to attempt the math homework (perhaps telling himself, "What's the use of trying?"), regardless of the student's actual ability in math.
Since self-efficacy is self-constructed, furthermore, it is also possible for students to miscalculate or misperceive their true skill, and the misperceptions themselves can have complex effects on students' motivations. From a teacher's point of view, all is well even if students overestimate their capacity but actually do succeed at a relevant task anyway, or if they underestimate their capacity, yet discover that they can succeed and raise their self-efficacy beliefs as a result. All may not be well, though, if students do not believe that they can succeed and therefore do not even try, or if students overestimate their capacity by a wide margin, but are disappointed unexpectedly by failure and lower their self-efficacy beliefs.
Persistence at tasks
A second effect of high self-efficacy is to increase a persistence at relevant tasks. If you believe that you can solve crossword puzzles, but encounter one that takes longer than usual, then you are more likely to work longer at the puzzle until you (hopefully) really do solve it. This is probably a desirable behavior in many situations, unless the persistence happens to interfere with other, more important tasks (what if you should be doing homework instead of working on crossword puzzles?). If you happen to have low self-efficacy for crosswords, on the other hand, then you are more likely to give up early on a difficult puzzle. Giving up early may often be undesirable because it deprives you of a chance to improve your skill by persisting. Then again (on the third hand?), the consequent lack of success because of giving up may provide a useful incentive to improve your crossword skills. And again, misperceptions of capacity make a difference. Overestimating your capacity by a lot (excessively high self-efficacy) might lead you not to prepare for or focus on a task properly, and thereby impair your performance. So as with choosing tasks, the effects of self-efficacy vary from one individual to another and one situation to another. The teacher's task is therefore two-fold: first, to discern the variations, and second, to encourage the positive self- efficacy beliefs. Table 15 offers some additional advice about how to do this.
Table \(1\): : Ways of encouraging self-efficacy beliefs
Strategy
Example of what the teacher might say
1. Set goals with students, and get a commitment from them to reach the goals.
“By the end of the month, I want you to know all of the times table up to 25 x 25. Can I count on you to do that?”
2. Encourage students to compare their performance with their own previous performance, not with other students.
“Compare that drawing against the one that you made last semester. I think you’ll find improvements!”
3. Point out links between effort and improvement.
“I saw you studying for this test more this week. No wonder you did better this time!”
4. In giving feedback about performance, focus on information, not evaluative judgments.
“Part 1 of the lab write-up was very detailed, just as the assignment asked. Part 2 has a lot of good ideas in it, but it needs to be more detailed and stated more explicitly.”
5. Point out that increases in knowledge or skill happen gradually by sustained effort, not because of inborn ability.
“Every time I read another one of your essays, I see more good ideas than the last time. They are so much more complete than when you started the year.”
Response to failure
High self-efficacy for a task not only increases a person's persistence at the task, but also improves their ability to cope with stressful conditions and to recover their motivation following outright failures. Suppose that you have two assignments— an essay and a science lab report— due on the same day, and this circumstance promises to make your life hectic as you approach the deadline. You will cope better with the stress of multiple assignments if you already believe yourself capable of doing both of the tasks, than if you believe yourself capable of doing just one of them or (especially) of doing neither. You will also recover better in the unfortunate event that you end up with a poor grade on one or even both of the tasks.
That is the good news. The bad news, at least from a teacher's point of view, is that the same resilience can sometimes also serve non-academic and non-school purposes. How so? Suppose, instead of two school assignments due on the same day, a student has only one school assignment due, but also holds a part-time evening job as a server in a local restaurant. Suppose, further, that the student has high self-efficacy for both of these tasks; he believes, in other words, that he is capable of completing the assignment as well as continuing to work at the job. The result of such resilient beliefs can easily be a student who devotes less attention to school work than ideal, and who even ends up with a lower grade on the assignment than he or she is capable of.
Learned helplessness and self-efficacy
If a person's sense of self-efficacy is very low, he or she can develop learned helplessness, a perception of complete lack of control in mastering a task. The attitude is similar to depression, a pervasive feeling of apathy and a belief that effort makes no difference and does not lead to success. Learned helplessness was originally studied from the behaviorist perspective of classical and operant conditioning by the psychologist Martin Seligman (1995). The studies used a somewhat "gloomy" experimental procedure in which an animal, such as a rat or a dog, was repeatedly shocked in a cage in a way that prevented the animal from escaping the shocks. In a later phase of the procedure, conditions were changed so that the animal could avoid the shocks by merely moving from one side of the cage to the other. Yet frequently they did not bother to do so! Seligman called this behavior learned helplessness.
In people, learned helplessness leads to characteristic ways of dealing with problems. They tend to attribute the source of a problem to themselves, to generalize the problem to many aspects of life, and to see the problem as lasting or permanent. More optimistic individuals, in contrast, are more likely to attribute a problem to outside sources, to see it as specific to a particular situation or activity, and to see it as temporary or time-limited. Consider, for example, two students who each fail a test. The one with a lot of learned helplessness is more likely to explain the failure by saying something like: "I'm stupid; I never perform well on any schoolwork, and I never will perform well at it." The other, more optimistic student is more likely to say something like: "The teacher made the test too hard this time, so the test doesn't prove anything about how I will do next time or in other subjects."
What is noteworthy about these differences in perception is how much the more optimistic of these perspectives resembles high self-efficacy and how much learned helplessness seems to contradict or differ from it. As already noted, high self-efficacy is a strong belief in one's capacity to carry out a specific task successfully. By definition therefore self-efficacy focuses attention on a temporary or time-limited activity (the task), even though the cause of successful completion (oneself) is "internal". Teachers can minimize learned helplessness in students, therefore, by encouraging their self-efficacy beliefs. There are several ways of doing this, as we explain next.
Sources of self-efficacy beliefs
Psychologists who study self-efficacy have identified four major sources of self-efficacy beliefs (Pajares & Schunk, 2001, 2002). In order of importance they are (1) prior experiences of mastering tasks, (2) watching others' mastering tasks, (3) messages or "persuasion" from others, and (4) emotions related to stress and discomfort. Fortunately the first three can be influenced by teachers directly, and even the fourth can sometimes be influenced indirectly by appropriate interpretive comments from the teacher or others.
Prior experiences of mastery
Not surprisingly, past successes at a task increase students' beliefs that they will succeed again in the future. The implication of this basic fact means that teachers need to help students build a history of successes. Whether they are math problems, reading assignments, or athletic activities, tasks have to end with success more often than with failure. Note, though, that the successes have to represent mastery that is genuine or competence that is truly authentic. Success at tasks that are trivial or irrelevant do not improve self-efficacy beliefs, nor does praise for successes that a student has not really had (Erikson, 1968/1994).
As a practical matter, creating a genuine history of success is most convincing if teachers also work to broaden a student's vision of "the past". Younger students (elementary-age) in particular have relatively short or limited ideas of what counts as "past experience"; they may go back only a few occasions when forming impressions of whether they can succeed again in the future (Eccles, et al., 1998). Older students (secondary school) gradually develop longer views of their personal "pasts", both because of improvements in memory and because of accumulating a personal history that is truly longer. The challenge for working with any age, however, is to insure that students base self-efficacy beliefs on all relevant experiences from their pasts, not just on selected or recent experiences.
Watching others' experiences of mastery
A second source of efficacy beliefs comes from vicarious experience of mastery, or observing others' successes (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1997). Simply seeing someone else succeed at a task, in other words, can contribute to believing that you, too, can succeed. The effect is stronger when the observer lacks experience with the task and therefore may be unsure of his or her own ability. It is also stronger when the model is someone respected by the observer, such as a student's teacher, or a peer with generally comparable ability. Even under these conditions, though, vicarious experience is not as influential as direct experience. The reasons are not hard to imagine. Suppose, for example, you witness both your teacher and a respected friend succeed at singing a favorite tune, but you are unsure whether you personally can sing. In that case you may feel encouraged about your own potential, but are likely still to feel somewhat uncertain of your own efficacy. If on the other hand you do not witness others' singing, but you have a history of singing well yourself, it is a different story. In that case you are likely to believe in your efficacy, regardless of how others perform.
All of which suggests that to a modest extent, teachers may be able to enhance students' self-efficacy by modeling success at a task or by pointing out classmates who are successful. These strategies can work because they not only show how to do a task, but also communicate a more fundamental message, the fact that the task can in fact be done. If students are learning a difficult arithmetic procedure, for example, you can help by demonstrating the procedure, or by pointing out classmates who are doing it. Note, though, that vicarious mastery is helpful only if backed up with real successes performed by the students themselves. It is also helpful only if the "model classmates" are perceived as truly comparable in ability. Overuse of vicarious models, especially in the absence of real success by learners, can cause learners to disqualify a model's success; students may simply decide that the model is "out of their league" in skills and is therefore irrelevant to judging their own potential.
Social messages and persuasion
A third source of efficacy beliefs are encouragements, both implied and stated, that persuade a person of his or her capacity to do a task. Persuasion does not create high efficacy by itself, but it often increases or supports it when coupled with either direct or vicarious experience, especially when the persuasion comes from more than one person (Goddard, Hoy, & Hoy, 2004).
For teachers, this suggests two things. The first, of course, is that encouragement can motivate students, especially when it is focused on achievable, specific tasks. It can be motivating to say things like: "I think you can do it" or "I've seen you do this before, so I know that you can do it again". But the second implication is that teachers should arrange wherever possible to support their encouragement by designing tasks at hand that are in fact achievable by the student. Striking a balance of encouragement and task difficulty may seem straightforward, but sometimes it can be challenging because students can sometimes perceive teachers' comments and tasks quite differently from how teachers intend. Giving excessive amounts of detailed help, for example, may be intended as support for a student, but be taken as a lack of confidence in the student's ability to do the task independently.
Emotions related to success, stress or discomfort
The previous three sources of efficacy beliefs are all rather cognitive or "thinking oriented", but emotions also influence expectations of success or failure. Feeling nervous or anxious just before speaking to a large group (sometimes even just a class full of students!) can function like a message that says "I'm not going to succeed at doing this", even if there is in fact good reason to expect success. But positive feelings can also raise beliefs about efficacy. When recalling the excitement of succeeding at a previous, unrelated task, people may overestimate their chances of success at a new task with which they have no previous experience, and are therefore in no position to predict their efficacy.
For teachers, the most important implication is that students' motivation can be affected when they generalize from past experience which they believe, rightly or wrongly, to be relevant. By simply announcing a test, for example, a teacher can make some students anxious even before the students find out anything about the test— whether it is easy or difficult, or even comparable in any way to other experiences called "tests" in their pasts. Conversely, it can be misleading to encourage students on the basis of their success at past academic tasks if the earlier tasks were not really relevant to requirements of the new tasks at hand. Suppose, for example, that a middle- years student has previously written only brief opinion-based papers, and never written a research-based paper. In that case boosting the student's confidence by telling him that "it is just like the papers you wrote before" may not be helpful or even honest.
A caution: motivation as content versus motivation as process
A caution about self-efficacy theory is its heavy emphasis on just the process of motivation, at the expense of the content of motivation. The basic self-efficacy model has much to say about how beliefs affect behavior, but relatively little to say about which beliefs and tasks are especially satisfying or lead to the greatest well-being in students. The answer to this question is important to know, since teachers might then select tasks as much as possible that are intrinsically satisfying, and not merely achievable.
Another way of posing this concern is by asking: "Is it possible to feel high self-efficacy about a task that you do not enjoy?" It does seem quite possible for such a gap to exist. As a youth, for example, one of us (Kelvin Seifert) had considerable success with solving mathematics problems in high school algebra, and expended considerable effort doing algebra assignments as homework. Before long, he had developed high self-efficacy with regard to solving such problems. But Kelvin never really enjoyed solving the algebra problems, and later even turned away permanently from math or science as a career (much to the disappointment of his teachers and family). In this case self-efficacy theory nicely explained the process of his motivation— Kelvin's belief in his capacity led to persistence at the tasks. But it did not explain the content of his motivation— his growing dislike of the tasks. Accounting for such a gap requires a different theory of motivation, one that includes not only specific beliefs, but "deeper" personal needs as well. An example of this approach is self-determination theory, where we turn next. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/06%3A_Student_Motivation/6.06%3A_Motivation_as_Self-Efficacy.txt |
Common sense suggests that human motivations originate from some sort of inner "need". We all think of ourselves as having various "needs", a need for food, for example, or a need for companionship— that influences our choices and activities. This same idea also forms part of some theoretical accounts of motivation, though the theories differ in the needs that they emphasize or recognize. In Chapter 2, for example, we talked about Maslow's hierarchy of needs as an example of motivations that function like needs that influence long-term personal development. According to Maslow, individuals must satisfy physical survival needs before they seek to satisfy needs of belonging, they satisfy belonging needs before esteem needs, and so on. In theory, too, people have both deficit needs and growth needs, and the deficit needs must be satisfied before growth needs can influence behavior (Maslow, 1970). In Maslow's theory, as in others that use the concept, a need is a relatively lasting condition or feeling that requires relief or satisfaction and that tends to influence action over the long term. Some needs may decrease when satisfied (like hunger), but others may not (like curiosity). Either way, needs differ from the self-efficacy beliefs discussed earlier, which are relatively specific and cognitive, and affect particular tasks and behaviors fairly directly.
A recent theory of motivation based on the idea of needs is self-determination theory, proposed by the psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan (2000), among others. The theory proposes that understanding motivation requires taking into account three basic human needs:
• autonomy— the need to feel free of external constraints on behavior
• competence— the need to feel capable or skilled
• relatedness— the need to feel connected or involved with others
Note that these needs are all psychological, not physical; hunger and sex, for example, are not on the list. They are also about personal growth or development, not about deficits that a person tries to reduce or eliminate. Unlike food (in behaviorism) or safety (in Maslow's hierarchy), you can never get enough of autonomy, competence, or relatedness. You (and your students) will seek to enhance these continually throughout life.
The key idea of self-determination theory is that when persons (such as you or one of your students) feel that these basic needs are reasonably well met, they tend to perceive their actions and choices to be intrinsically motivated or "self-determined". In that case they can turn their attention to a variety of activities that they find attractive or important, but that do not relate directly to their basic needs. Among your students, for example, some individuals might read books that you have suggested, and others might listen attentively when you explain key concepts from the unit that you happen to be teaching. If one or more basic needs are not met well, however, people will tend to feel coerced by outside pressures or external incentives. They may become preoccupied, in fact, with satisfying whatever need has not been met and thus exclude or avoid activities that might otherwise be interesting, educational, or important. If the persons are students, their learning will suffer.
Self-determination and intrinsic motivation
In proposing the importance of needs, then, self-determination theory is asserting the importance of intrinsic motivation, an idea that has come up before in this book (see especially Chapter l, about learning theory), and that will come again later (see especially Chapter 9, about planning instruction). The self-determination version of intrinsic motivation, however, emphasizes a person's perception of freedom, rather than the presence or absence of "real" constraints on action. Self-determination means a person feels free, even if the person is also operating within certain external constraints. In principle, a student can experience self-determination even if the student must, for example, live within externally imposed rules of appropriate classroom behavior. To achieve a feeling of self-determination, however, the student's basic needs must be met— needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. In motivating students, then, the bottom line is that teachers have an interest in helping students to meet their basic needs, and in not letting school rules or the teachers' own leadership styles interfere with or block satisfaction of students' basic needs.
"Pure" self-determination may be the ideal for most teachers and students, of course, but the reality is usually different. For a variety of reasons, teachers in most classrooms cannot be expected to meet all students' basic needs at all times. One reason is the sheer number of students, which makes it impossible to attend to every student perfectly at all times. Another reason is teachers' responsibility for a curriculum, which can require creating expectations for students' activities that sometimes conflict with students' autonomy or makes them feel (temporarily) less than fully competent. Still another reason is students' personal histories, ranging from divorce to poverty, which may create needs in some individuals which are beyond the power of teachers to remedy.
The result from students' point of view is usually only a partial perception of self-determination, and therefore a simultaneous mix of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. Self-determination theory recognizes this reality by suggesting that the "intrinsic-ness" of motivation is really a matter of degree, extending from highly extrinsic,
through various mixtures of intrinsic and extrinsic, to highly intrinsic (Koestner & Losier, 2004). At the extrinsic end of the scale is learning that is regulated primarily by external rewards and constraints, whereas at the intrinsic end is learning regulated primarily by learners themselves. Table 16 summarizes and gives examples of the various levels and their effects on motivation. By assuming that motivation is often a mix of the intrinsic and extrinsic, the job of the teacher becomes more realistic; the job is not to expect purely intrinsic motivation from students all the time, but simply to arrange and encourage motivations that are as intrinsic as possible. To do this, the teacher needs to support students' basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
Table \(1\): : Combinations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
Source of regulation of action
Description
Example
“Pure” extrinsic motivation
Person lacks the intention to take any action, regardless of pressures or incentives
Student completes no work even when pressured or when incentives are offered
Very external to person
Actions regulated only by outside pressures and incentives, and controls
Student completes assignment only if reminded explicitly of the incentive of grades and/or negative consequences of failing
Somewhat external
Specific actions regulated internally, but without reflection or connection to personal needs
Student completes assignment independently, but only because of fear of shaming self or because of guilt about consequences of not completing assignment
Somewhat internal
Actions recognized by individual as important or as valuable as a means to a more valued goal
Student generally completes school work independently, but only because of its value in gaining admission to college
Very internal
Actions adopted by individual as integral to self-concept and to person’s major personal values
Student generally completes school work independently, because being well educated is part of the student’s concept of himself
“Pure” intrinsic regulation
Actions practiced solely because they are enjoyable and valued for their own sake
Student enjoys every topic, concept, and assignment that every teacher ever assigns, and completes school work solely because of his enjoyment
Using self-determination theory in the classroom
What are some teaching strategies for supporting students' needs? Educational researchers have studied this question from a variety of directions, and their resulting recommendations converge and overlap in a number of ways. For convenience, the recommendations can be grouped according to the basic need that they address, beginning with the need for autonomy.
Supporting autonomy in learners
A major part of supporting autonomy is to give students choices wherever possible (Ryan & Lynch, 2003). The choices that encourage the greatest feelings of self-control, obviously, are ones that are about relatively major issues or that have relatively significant consequences for students, such as whom to choose as partners for a major group project. But choices also encourage some feeling of self-control even when they are about relatively minor issues, such as how to organize your desk or what kind of folder to use for storing your papers at school. It is important, furthermore, to offer choices to all students, including students needing explicit directions in order to work successfully; avoid reserving choices for only the best students or giving up offering choices altogether to students who fall behind or who need extra help. All students will feel more self-determined and therefore more motivated if they have choices of some sort.
Teachers can also support students' autonomy more directly by minimizing external rewards (like grades) and comparisons among students' performance, and by orienting and responding themselves to students' expressed goals and interests. In teaching elementary students about climate change, for example, you can support autonomy by exploring which aspects of this topic have already come to students' attention and aroused their concern. The point of the discussion would not be to find out "who knows the most" about this topic, but to build and enhance students' intrinsic motivations as much as possible. In reality, of course, it may not be possible to succeed at this goal fully— some students may simply have no interest in the topic, for example, or you may be constrained by time or resources from individualizing certain activities fully. But any degree of attention to students' individuality, as well as any degree of choice, will support students' autonomy.
Supporting the need for competence
The most obvious way to make students feel competent is by selecting activities which are challenging but nonetheless achievable with reasonable effort and assistance (Elliott, McGregor, & Thrash, 2004). Although few teachers would disagree with this idea, there are times when it is hard to put into practice, such as when you first meet a class at the start of a school year and therefore are unfamiliar with their backgrounds and interests. But there are some strategies that are generally effective even if you are not yet in a position to know the students well. One is to emphasize activities that require active response from students. Sometimes this simply means selecting projects, experiments, discussions and the like that require students to do more than simply listen. Other times it means expecting active responses in all interactions with students, such as by asking questions that call for "divergent" (multiple or elaborated) answers. In a social studies class, for example, try asking "What are some ways we could find out more about our community?" instead of "Tell me the three best ways to find out about our community." The first question invites more divergent, elaborate answers than the second.
Another generally effective way to support competence is to respond and give feedback as immediately as possible. Tests and term papers help subsequent learning more if returned, with comments, sooner rather than later. Discussions teach more if you include your own ideas in them, while still encouraging students' input. Small group and independent activities are more effective if you provide a convenient way for students to consult authoritative sources for guidance when needed, whether the source is you personally, a teaching assistant, a specially selected reading, or even a computer program. In addition, you can sometimes devise tasks that create a feeling of competence because they have a "natural" solution or ending point. Assembling a jigsaw puzzle of the community, for example, has this quality, and so does creating a jigsaw puzzle of the community if the students need a greater challenge.
Supporting the need to relate to others
The main way of support students' need to relate to others is to arrange activities in which students work together in ways that are mutually supportive, that recognize students' diversity, and minimize competition among individuals. We will have more to say about this strategy in Chapter 8 ("Instructional strategies"), where we
describe several varieties of cooperative learning, as well as some of their pitfalls to be avoided. For now, simply note that having students work together can happen in many ways. You can, for example, deliberately arrange projects that require a variety of talents; some educators call such activities "rich group work" (Cohen, 1994; Cohen, Brody, & Sapon-Shevin, 2004). In studying in small groups about medieval society, for example, one student can contribute his drawing skills, another can contribute his writing skills, and still another can contribute his dramatic skills. The result can be a multi-faceted presentation— written, visual, and oral. The groups needed for rich group work provide for students' relationships with each other, whether they contain six individuals or only two.
There are other ways to encourage relationships among students. In the jigsaw classroom (Aronson & Patnoe, 1997)> f° r example, students work together in two phases. In the first phase, groups of "experts" work together to find information on a specialized topic. In a second phase the expert groups split up and reform into "generalist" groups containing one representative from each former expert group. In studying the animals of Africa, for example, each expert group might find information about a different particular category of animal or plant; one group might focus on mammal, another on bird, a third on reptiles, and so on. In the second phase of the jigsaw, the generalist groups would pool information from the experts to get a more well-rounded view of the topic. The generalist groups would each have an expert about mammals, for example, but also an expert about birds and about reptiles.
As a teacher, you can add to these organizational strategies by encouraging the development of your own relationships with class members. Your goal, as teacher, is to demonstrate caring and interest in your students not just as students, but as people. The goal also involves behaving as if good relationships between and among class members are not only possible, but ready to develop and perhaps even already developing. A simple tactic, for example, is to speak of "we" and "us" as much as possible, rather than speaking of "you students". Another tactic is to present cooperative activities and assignments without apology, as if they are in the best interests not just of students, but of "us all" in the classroom, yourself included.
Keeping self-determination in perspective
In certain ways self-determination theory provides a sensible way to think about students' intrinsic motivation and therefore to think about how to get them to manage their own learning. A particular strength of the theory is that it recognizes degrees of self-determination and bases many ideas on this reality. Most people recognize combinations of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation guiding particular activities in their own lives. We might enjoy teaching, for example, but also do this job partly to receive a paycheck. To its credit, self-determination theory also relies on a list of basic human needs— autonomy, competence, and relatedness— that relate comfortably with some of the larger purposes of education.
Although these are positive features for understanding and influencing students' classroom motivation, some educators and psychologists nonetheless have lingering questions about the limitations of self-determination theory. One is whether merely providing choices actually improves students' learning, or simply improves their
satisfaction with learning. There is evidence supporting both possibilities (Flowerday & Schraw, 2003; Deci & Ryan, 2003), and it is likely that there are teachers whose classroom experience supports both possibilities as well. Another question is whether it is possible to overdo attention to students' needs— and again there is evidence for both favoring and contradicting this possibility. Too many choices can actually make anyone (not just a student) frustrated and dissatisfied with a choice the person actually does make (Schwartz, 2004). Furthermore, differentiating activities to students' competence levels may be impractical if students are functioning at extremely diverse levels within a single class, as sometimes happens. Differentiating may be inappropriate, too, if it holds a teacher back from covering key curriculum objectives which students need and which at least some students are able to learn. These are serious concerns, though in our opinion not serious enough to give up offering choices to students or to stop differentiating instruction altogether. In Chapter 7 ("Classroom management and the learning environment"), therefore, we explain the practical basis for this opinion, by describing workable ways for offering choices and recognizing students' diversity. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/06%3A_Student_Motivation/6.07%3A_Motivation_as_Self-Determination.txt |
As we have explained in this chapter, motivation is affected by several factors, including reinforcement for behavior, but especially also students' goals, interests, and sense of self-efficacy and self-determination. The factors combine to create two general sources of motivation: students' expectation of success and the value that students place on a goal. Viewing motivation in this way is often called the expectancy-value model of motivation (Wigfield & Eccles, 2002; Wigfield, Tonk, & Eccles, 2004), and sometimes written with a multiplicative formula: expectancy x value = motivation. The relationship between expectation and value is "multiplicative" rather than additive because in order to be motivated, it is necessary for a person to have at least a modest expectation of success and to assign a task at least some positive value. If you have high expectations of success but do not value a task at all (mentally assign it a "o" value), then you will not feel motivated at all. Likewise, if you value a task highly but have no expectation of success about completing it (assign it a "o" expectancy), then you also will not feel motivated at all.
Expectancies are the result of various factors, but particularly the goals held by a student, and the student's self-efficacy, which we discussed earlier in this chapter. A student with mastery goals and strong self-efficacy for a task, for example, is likely to hold high expectations for success— almost by definition. Values are also the result of various factors, but especially students' interests and feelings of self-determination. A student who has a lasting personal interest in a task or topic and is allowed to choose it freely is especially likely to value the task— and therefore to feel motivated.
Ideally both expectancies and values are high in students on any key learning task. The reality, however, is that students sometimes do not expect success, nor do they necessarily value it when success is possible. How can a teacher respond to low expectations and low valuing? We have offered a number of suggestions to meet this challenge throughout this chapter. In brief, raising low expectations depends on adjusting task difficulty so that success becomes a reasonable prospect: a teacher must make tasks neither too hard nor too easy. Reaching this general goal depends in turn on thoughtful, appropriate planning—selecting reasonable objectives, adjusting them on the basis of experience, finding supportive materials, and providing students with help when needed.
Raising the value of academic tasks is equally important, but the general strategies for doing so are different than for raising expectations. Increasing value requires linking the task to students’ personal interests and prior knowledge, showing the utility of the task to students’ future goals, and showing that the task is valuable to other people whom students’ respect. Some of these strategies were discussed earlier in this chapter, but others (e.g. linking new learning with prior knowledge) are discussed in Chapter 3, which is called “The learning process”.
6.09: TARGET- A Model for Integrating Ideas About Motivation
A model of motivation that integrates many ideas about motivation, including those in this chapter, has been developed by Carole Ames (1990, 1992). The acronym or abbreviated name for the program is TARGET, which stands for six elements of effective motivation:
Task
Authority
Recognition
Grouping
Evaluating
Time
Each of the elements contributes to students' motivation either directly or indirectly.
Task
As explained earlier, students experience tasks in terms of their value, their expectation of success, and their authenticity. The value of a task is assessed by its importance, interest to the student, usefulness or utility, and the cost in terms of effort and time to achieve it. Expectation of success is assessed by a student's perception of the difficulty of a task. Generally a middling level of difficulty is optimal for students; too easy, and the task seems trivial (not valuable or meaningful), and too hard, and the task seems unlikely to succeed and in this sense useless. Authenticity refers to how much a task relates to real-life experiences of students; the more it does so, the more it can build on students' interests and goals, and the more meaningful and motivating it becomes.
Autonomy
Motivation is enhanced if students feel a degree of autonomy or responsibility for a learning task. Autonomy strengthens self-efficacy and self-determination— two valued and motivating attitudes described earlier in this chapter. Where possible, teachers can enhance autonomy by offering students' choices about assignments and by encouraging them to take initiative about their own learning.
Recognition
Teachers can support students' motivation by recognizing their achievements appropriately. Much depends, however, on how this is done; as discussed earlier, praise sometimes undermines performance. It is not especially effective if praise is very general and lacking in detailed reasons for the praise; or if praise is for qualities which a student cannot influence (like intelligence instead of effort); or if praise is offered so widely that it loses meaning or even becomes a signal that performance has been substandard. Many of these paradoxical effects are described by self-determination and self-efficacy theory (and were explained earlier in this chapter).
Grouping
Motivation is affected by how students are grouped together for their work— a topic discussed in more detail in Chapter 8 ("Instructional Strategies"). There are many ways to group students, but they tend to fall into three types: cooperative, competitive, and individualistic (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). In cooperative learning, a set of students work together to achieve a common goal (for example, producing a group presentation for the class); often they receive a final grade, or part of a final grade, in common. In competitive learning, students work individually, and their grades reflect comparisons among the students (for example, their performances are ranked relative to each other, or they are "graded on a curve"). In individualistic learning, students work by themselves, but their grades are unrelated to the performance of classmates. Research that compares these three forms of grouping tends to favor cooperative learning groups, which apparently supports students' need for belonging— an idea important in self-determination theory discussed earlier in this chapter.
Evaluation
Grouping structures obviously affect how students' efforts are evaluated. A focus on comparing students, as happens with competitive structures, can distract students from thinking about the material to be learned, and to focus instead on how they appear to external authorities; the question shifts from "What am I learning?" to "What will the teacher think about my performance?" A focus on cooperative learning, on the other hand, can have double- edged effects: students are encouraged to help their group mates, but may also be tempted to rely excessively on others' efforts or alternatively to ignore each other's contributions and overspecialize their own contributions. Some compromise between cooperative and individualistic structures seems to create optimal motivation for learning (Slavin, 1995).
Time
As every teacher knows, students vary in the amount of time needed to learn almost any material or task. Accommodating the differences can be challenging, but also important for maximizing students' motivation. School days are often filled with interruptions and fixed intervals of time devoted to non-academic activities— facts that make it difficult to be flexible about granting individuals different amounts of time to complete academic tasks. Nonetheless a degree of flexibility is usually possible: larger blocks of time can sometimes be created for important activities (for example, writing an essay), and sometimes enrichment activities can be arranged for some students while others receive extra attention from the teacher on core or basic tasks. More about such strategies is discussed in Chapter 8 ("Instructional Strategies").
The bottom line about motivation: sustaining focus on learning
Sooner or later when you teach, there will be situations appropriate for each perspective about motivation described in this chapter. There will be times when focusing exclusively on students' appropriate behavior (or lack thereof) will be both necessary and sufficient evidence of motivation. But there will be other times when it is important to encourage students' beliefs that they can accomplish specific tasks, and still other times when providing for students' underlying needs for competence or social connection is important. Think of these perspectives as alternatives to be used either singly or in combination when the time is right.
Because of your own values, attitudes, or beliefs, you may find one perspective more personally compatible than another. Even if you settle on favorite ways of motivating students, though, we encourage you to keep the other, less favored approaches in reserve anyway, and to experiment with them. We believe that an eclectic approach to motivation will enrich your teaching the most, and enrich your students' motivation and learning as well. If there is a single lesson from the concepts about motivation outlined in this chapter, it is this: academic motivation has no single source, and teachers motivate students the best when they assume motivation is complex. The next two chapters look at ways of realizing such "broad-mindedness" in practice, first when you prepare activities and classes and later when you actually teach them. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/06%3A_Student_Motivation/6.08%3A_Expectancy_X_Value-_Effects_on_Students%27_Motivation.txt |
Chapter summary
Motivation— the energy or drive that gives behavior direction and focus— can be understood in a variety of ways, each of which has implications for teaching. One perspective on motivation comes from behaviorism, and equates underlying drives or motives with their outward, visible expression in behavior. Most others, however, come from cognitive theories of learning and development. Motives are affected by the kind of goals set by students— whether they are oriented to mastery, performance, failure-avoidance, or social contact. They are also affected by students' interests, both personal and situational. And they are affected by students' attributions about the causes of success and failure— whether they perceive the causes are due to ability, effort, task difficulty, or luck.
A major current perspective about motivation is based on self-efficacy theory, which focuses on a person's belief that he or she is capable of carrying out or mastering a task. High self-efficacy affects students' choice of tasks, their persistence at tasks, and their resilience in the face of failure. It helps to prevent learned helplessness, a perception of complete lack of control over mastery or success. Teachers can encourage high self-efficacy beliefs by providing students with experiences of mastery and opportunities to see others' experiences of mastery, by offering well- timed messages persuading them of their capacity for success, and by interpreting students' emotional reactions to success, failure and stress.
An extension of self-efficacy theory is self-determination theory, which is based on the idea that everyone has basic needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness to others. According to the theory, students will be motivated more intrinsically if these three needs are met as much as possible. A variety of strategies can assist teachers in doing so. As a practical matter, the strategies can encourage motivation that is more intrinsic to students, but usually not completely intrinsic.
On the Internet
< https://selfdeterminationtheory.org/ > This,is the site of the Center for Self-Determination Theory.
These are dead links, but have been captured on the Internet Archive aka the Wayback Machine
< www.des.emory.edu/mfp/self-efficacy.html > This is a rather extensive site maintained about all aspects of self-efficacy theory. The site gives access to a number of published articles on the subject as well as to extensive "lecture" notes by Frank Pajares, who publishes and teaches about self-efficacy theory.
< www.indiana.edu/~reading/ieo/bibs/mot-gen.html > Here is a website that discusses many aspects of motivation in education. It is not limited to any one theory, perspective, or concept about this topic. Many of the references are to citations from the ERIC database (also available at < www.eric.ed.gov >). and there are links to bibliographies on additional topics about education.
Key terms
Albert Bandura Mastery goals
Attributions of success or failure Motivation
Autonomy, need for Need for relatedness
Behaviorist perspective on motivation Performance goals
Competence, need for Personal interests
Failure-avoidant goals Self-determination theory
Intrinsic motivation Self-efficacy
Jigsaw classroom Situational interests
Learned helplessness TARGET
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This is an excerpt from a professional journal kept by one of us (Kelvin Seifert) when he was teaching kindergarten:
20XX-11-14: Today my student Carol sat in the circle, watching others while we all played Duck, Duck, Goose (in this game, one student is outside the circle, tags another student who then chases the first person around the circle). Carol's turn had already passed. Apparently she was bored, because she flopped on her back, smiling broadly, rolling around luxuriously on the floor in the path of the other runners. Several classmates noticed her, smiled or giggled, began flopping down as well. One chaser tripped over a "flopper".
"Sit up, Carol", said I, the ever-vigilant teacher. "You're in the way." But no result. I repeated this twice, firmly; then moved to pick her up.
Instantly Carol ran to the far side of the gym, still smiling broadly. Then her best friend ran off with her. Now a whole new game was launched, or really two games: "Run-from-the-teacher" and "Enjoy-being-watched-by-everybody". A lot more exciting, unfortunately, than Duck, Duck, Goose!
An excerpt from Kelvin's same journal several years later, when he was teaching math in high school:
20XX-3-4: The same four students sat in the back again today, as usual. They seem to look in every direction except at me, even when I'm explaining material that they need to know. The way they smile and whisper to each other, it seems almost like they are "in love" with each other, though I can't be sure who loves whom the most.
Others— students not part of the foursome— seem to react variously. Some seem annoyed, turn the other way, avoid talking with the group, and so on. But others seem almost envious— as if they want to be part of the "in" group, too, and were impressed with the foursome's ability to get away with being inattentive and almost rude. Either way, I think a lot of other students are being distracted.
Twice during the period today, I happened to notice members of the group passing a note, and then giggling and looking at me. By the end, I had had enough of this sort of thing, so I kept them in briefly after class and asked one of them to read the note. They looked a bit embarrassed and hesitant, but eventually one of them opened the note and read it out loud. "Choose one", it said. "Mr Seifert looks (1) old , (2) stupid , or (3) clueless ."
Kelvin's experiences in managing these very different classrooms taught him what every teacher knows or else quickly learns: management matters a lot. But his experiences also taught him that management is about more than correcting the misbehaviors of individuals, more than just discipline. Classroom management is also about orchestrating or coordinating entire sets or sequences of learning activities so that everyone, misbehaving or not, learns as easily and productively as possible. Educators sometimes therefore describe good management as the creation of a positive learning environment, because the term calls attention to the totality of activities and people in a classroom, as well as to their goals and expectations about learning (Jones & Jones, 2007). When one of us (Kelvin) was teaching, he used both terms almost interchangeably, though in speaking of management he more often was referring to individual students' behavior and learning, and in speaking of the learning environment he more often meant the overall "feel" of the class as a whole. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/07%3A_Classroom_Management_and_the_Learning_Environment/7.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Managing the learning environment is both a major responsibility and an on-going concern for all teachers, even those with years of experience (Good & Brophy, 2002). There are several reasons. In the first place, a lot goes on in classrooms simultaneously, even when students seem to be doing only one task in common. Twenty-five students may all seem to be working on a sheet of math problems. But look more closely: several may be stuck on a particular problem, each for different reasons. A few others have worked only the first problem or two and are now chatting quietly with each other instead of continuing. Still others have finished and are wondering what to do next. At any one moment each student needs something different— different information, different hints, different kinds of encouragement. Such diversity increases even more if the teacher deliberately assigns multiple activities to different groups or individuals (for example, if some students do a reading assignment while others do the math problems).
Another reason that managing the environment is challenging is because a teacher can not predict everything that will happen in a class. A well-planned lesson may fall flat on its face, or take less time than expected, and you find yourself improvising to fill class time. On the other hand an unplanned moment may become a wonderful, sustained exchange among students, and prompt you to drop previous plans and follow the flow of discussion. Interruptions happen continually: a fire drill, a drop-in visit from another teacher or the principal, a call on the intercom from the office. An activity may indeed turn out well, but also rather differently than you intended; you therefore have to decide how, if at all, to adjust the next day's lesson to allow for this surprise.
A third reason for the importance of management is that students form opinions and perceptions about your teaching that are inconsistent with your own. What you intend as encouragement for a shy student may seem to the student herself like "forced participation". An eager, outgoing classmate watching your effort to encourage the shy student, moreover, may not see you as either encouraging or coercing, but as overlooking or ignoring other students who already want to participate. The variety of perceptions can lead to surprises in students' responses— most often small ones, but occasionally major.
At the broadest, society-wide level, classroom management challenges teachers because public schooling is not voluntary, and students' presence in a classroom is therefore not a sign, in and of itself, that they wish to learn. Instead, students' presence is just a sign that an opportunity exists for teachers to motivate students to learn. Some students, of course, do enjoy learning and being in school, almost regardless of what teachers do! Others do enjoy school, but only because teachers have worked hard to make classroom life pleasant and interesting. Those students become motivated because you have successfully created a positive learning environment and have sustained it through skillful management.
Fortunately it is possible to earn this sort of commitment from many students, and this chapter describes ways of doing so. We begin with ways of preventing management problems from happening by increasing students' focus on learning. The methods include ideas about arranging classroom space, about establishing procedures, routines, and rules, and about communicating the importance of learning to students and parents. After these prevention oriented discussions, we look at ways of refocusing students when and if their minds or actions stray from the tasks at hand. As you probably know from being a student, bringing students back on task can happen in many ways, and the ways vary widely in the energy and persistence required of the teacher. We try to indicate some of these variations, but because of space limitations and because of the richness of classroom life, we cannot describe them all. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/07%3A_Classroom_Management_and_the_Learning_Environment/7.02%3A_Why_Classroom_Management_Matters.txt |
The easiest management problems to solve are ones that do not happen in the first place! Even before the school year begins, you can minimize behavior problems by arranging classroom furniture and materials in ways that encourage a focus on learning as much as possible. Later, once school begins, you can establish procedures and rules that support a focus on learning even more.
Arranging classroom space
Viewed broadly, classrooms may seem to be arranged in similar ways, but there are actually important alternative arrangements to consider. Variations exist because of grade level, the subjects taught, the teacher's philosophy of education, and of course the size of the room and the furniture available. Whatever the arrangement that you choose, it should help students to focus on learning tasks as much as possible and minimize the chances of distractions. Beyond these basic principles, however, the "best" arrangement depends on what your students need and on the kind of teaching that you prefer and feel able to provide (Boyner, 2003; Nations & Boyett, 2002). The next sections describe some of the options. In considering them (and before moving too much furniture around your room!), you might want to try experimenting with spatial arrangements "virtually" by using one of the computer programs available on the Internet (see: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/178666310189912023/ for example).
Displays and wall space
All classrooms have walls, of course, and how you fill them can affect the mood or feeling of a classroom. Ample displays make a room interesting and can be used to reinforce curriculum goals and display (and hence publicly recognize) students' work. But too many displays can also make a room seem "busy" or distracting as well as physically smaller. They can also be more work to maintain. If you are starting a new school year, then, a good strategy is to decorate some of the wall or bulletin board space, but not to fill it all immediately. Leaving some space open leaves flexibility to respond to ideas and curriculum needs that emerge after the year is underway. The same advice applies especially for displays that are high maintenance, such as aquariums, pets, and plants. These can serve wonderfully as learning aids, but do not have to be in place on the first day of school. Not only the students, but also you yourself, may already have enough to cope with at that time.
Computers in the classroom
If you are like the majority of teachers, you will have only one computer in your room, or at most just a few, and their placement may be pre-determined by the location of power and cable outlets. If so, you need to think about computer placement early in the process of setting up a room. Once the location of computers is set, locations for desks, high-usage shelves, and other moveable items can be chosen more sensibly— in general, as already mentioned, so as to minimize distractions to students and to avoid unnecessary traffic congestion.
Visibility of and interactions with students
Learning is facilitated if the furniture and space allow you to see all students and to interact with them from a comfortable distance. Usually this means that the main, central part of the room— where desks and tables are usually located— needs to be as open and as spacious as possible. While this idea may seem obvious, enacting it can be challenging in practice if the room itself is small or shaped unusually. In classrooms with young students (kindergarten), furthermore, open spaces tend to allow, if not invite, physical movement of children— a feature that you may consider either constructive or annoying, depending on your educational goals and the actual level of activity that occurs.
Spatial arrangements unique to grade levels or subjects
The best room arrangement sometimes depends on the grade level or subject area of the class. If you teach in elementary school, for example, you may need to think especially about where students can keep their daily belongings, such as coats and lunches. In some schools, these can be kept outside the classroom— but not necessarily. Some subjects and grade levels, furthermore, lend themselves especially well to small group interaction, in which case you might prefer not to seat students in rows, but instead around small-group tables or work areas. The latter arrangement is sometimes preferred by elementary teachers, but is also useful in high schools wherever students need lots of counter space, as in some shops or art courses, or where they need to interact, as in English as a Second Language courses (McCafferty, Jacobs, & Iddings, 2006). The key issue in deciding between tables and rows, however, is not grade level or subject as such, but the amount of small group interaction you want to encourage, compared to the amount of whole-group instruction. As a rule, tables make working with peers easier, and rows make listening to the teacher more likely and group work slightly more awkward physically.
Ironically, some teachers also experience challenges about room arrangement because they do not actually have a classroom of their own, because they must move each day among other teachers' rooms. "Floating" is especially likely for specialized teachers (e.g. music teachers in elementary schools, who move from class to class) and in schools have an overall shortage of classrooms. Floating can sometimes be annoying to the teacher, though it actually also has advantages, such as not having to take responsibility for how other teachers' rooms are arranged. If you find yourself floating, it helps to consider a few key strategies, such as:
• consider using a permanent cart to move crucial supplies from room to room
• make sure that every one of your rooms has an overhead projector (do not count on using chalkboards or
computers in other teachers' rooms)
• talk to the other teachers about having at least one shelf or corner in each room designated for your
exclusive use
Establishing daily procedures and routines
Procedures or routines are specific ways of doing common, repeated classroom tasks or activities. Examples include checking daily attendance, dealing with students who arrive late, or granting permission to leave the classroom for an errand. Academically related procedures include ways of turning in daily homework (e.g. putting it on a designated shelf at a particular time), of gaining the teacher's attention during quiet seat work (e.g. raising your hand and waiting), and of starting a "free choice" activity after completing a classroom assignment.
Procedures serve the largely practical purpose of making activities and tasks flow smoothly— a valuable and necessary purpose in classrooms, where the actions of many people have to be coordinated within limited time and space. As such, procedures are more like social conventions than like moral expectations. They are only indirectly about what is ethically right or ethically desirable to do (Turiel, 2006). Most procedures or routines can be accomplished in more than one way, with only minor differences in outcomes. There is more than one way, for example, for the procedure of taking attendance: the teacher could call the role, delegate a student to call the role,or note students' presence on a seating chart. Each variation accomplishes essentially the same task, and the choice may be less important than the fact that the class coordinates its actions somehow, by committing to some sort of choice.
For teachers, of course, an initial management task is to establish procedures and routines as promptly as possible. Because of the conventional quality of procedures, some teachers find that it works well simply to announce and explain key procedures without inviting much discussion from students ("Here is how we will choose partners for the group work"). Other teachers prefer to invite input from students when creating procedures (asking the class, "What do you feel is the best way for students to get my attention during a quiet reading time?"). Both approaches have advantages as well as disadvantages. Simply announcing key procedures saves time and insures consistency in case you teach more than one class (as you would in high school). But it puts more responsibility on the teacher to choose procedures that are truly reasonable and practical. Inviting students' input, on the other hand, can help students to become aware of and committed to procedures, but at the cost of requiring more time to settle on them. It also risks creating confusion if you teach multiple classes, each of which adopts different procedures. Whatever approach you choose, of course, they have to take into account any procedures or rules imposed by the school or school district as a whole. A school may have a uniform policy about how to record daily attendance, for example, and that policy may determine, either partly or completely, how you take attendance with your particular students.
Establishing classroom rules
Unlike procedures or routines, rules express standards of behavior for which individual students need to take responsibility. Although they are like procedures in that they sometimes help in insuring the efficiency of classroom tasks, they are really about encouraging students to be responsible for learning and showing respect for each other.
Exhibit \(1\): Sample set of classroom rules
• Treat others with courtesy and politeness.
• Make sure to bring required materials to class and to activities.
• Be on time for class and other activities.
• Listen to the teacher and to others when they are speaking.
• Follow all school rules
Note three things about the examples in Exhibit \(1\). One is that the rules are not numerous; the table lists only five. Most educational experts recommend keeping the number of rules to a minimum in order to make them easier to remember (Thorson, 2003; Brophy, 2004). A second feature is that they are stated in positive terms ("Do X...") rather than negative terms ("Do not do Y..."), a strategy that emphasizes and clarifies what students should do rather than what they should avoid. A third feature is that each rule actually covers a collection of more specific behaviors. The rule "Bring all materials to class", for example, covers bringing pencils, paper, textbooks, homework papers, and permission slips— depending on the situation. As a result of their generality, rules often have a degree of ambiguity that sometimes requires interpretation. Infractions may occur that are marginal or "in a grey area", rather than clear cut. A student may bring a pen, for example, but the pen may not work properly. You may therefore wonder whether this incident is really a failure to follow the rule, or just an unfortunate (and in this case minor) fault of the pen manufacturer.
As with classroom procedures, rules can be planned either by the teacher alone, or by the teacher with advice from students. The arguments for each approach are similar to the arguments for procedures: rules "laid on" by the teacher may be more efficient and consistent, and in this sense more fair, but rules influenced by the students may be supported more fully by the students. Because rules focus strongly on personal responsibility, however, there is a stronger case for involving students in making them than in making classroom procedures (Brookfield, 2006; Kohn, 2006). In any case the question of who plans classroom rules is not necessarily an either/or choice. It is possible in principle to impose certain rules on students (for example, "Always be polite to each other") but let the students determine the consequences for violations of certain rules (for example, "If a student is discourteous to a classmate, he/she must apologize to the student in writing"). Some mixture of influences is probably inevitable, in fact, if only because the class needs to take into account your own moral commitments as the teacher as well as any imposed by the school (like "No smoking in the school" or "Always walk in the hallways").
Pacing and structuring lessons and activities
One of the best ways to prevent management problems is by pacing and structuring lessons or activities as smoothly and continuously as possible. This goal depends on three major strategies:
• selecting tasks or activities at an appropriate level of difficulty for your students
• providing a moderate level of structure or clarity to students about what they are supposed to do, especially
during transitions between activities
• keeping alert to the flow and interplay of behaviors for the class as a whole and for individuals within it.
Each strategy presents special challenges to teachers, but also opportunities for helping students to learn.
Choosing tasks at an appropriate level of difficulty
As experienced teachers know and as research has confirmed, students are most likely to engage with learning when tasks are of moderate difficulty, neither too easy nor too hard and therefore neither boring nor frustrating (Britt, 2005). Finding the right level of difficulty, however, can be a challenge if you have little experience teaching a particular grade level or curriculum, or even if students are simply new to you and their abilities unknown. Whether familiar or not, members of any class are likely to have diverse skills and readiness-a fact that makes it challenging to determine what level of difficulty is appropriate. A common strategy for dealing with these challenges is to begin units, lessons, or projects with tasks that are relatively easy and familiar. Then, introduce more difficult material or tasks gradually until students seem challenged, but not overwhelmed. Following this strategy gives the teacher a chance to observe and diagnose students' learning needs before adjusting content, and it gives students a chance to orient themselves to the teacher's expectations, teaching style, and topic of study without becoming frustrated prematurely. Later in a unit, lesson, or project, students seem better able to deal with more difficult tasks or content (Van Merrionboer, 2003). The principle seems to help as well with "authentic" learning tasks— ones that resemble real-world activities, such as learning to drive an automobile or to cook a meal, and that present a variety of complex tasks simultaneously. Even in those cases it helps to isolate and focus on the simplest subtasks first (such as "put the key in the ignition") and move to harder tasks only later (such as parallel parking).
Sequencing instruction is only a partial solution to finding the best "level" of difficulty, however, because it does not deal with enduring individual differences among students. The fundamental challenge to teachers is to individualize or differentiate instruction fully: to tailor it not only to the class as a group, but to the lasting differences among members of the class. One way to approach this sort of diversity, obviously, is to plan different content or activities for different students or groups of students. While one group works on Task A, another group works on Task B; one group works on relatively easy math problems, for example, while another works on harder ones. Differentiating instruction in this way complicates a teacher's job, but it can be done, and has in fact been done by many teachers (it also makes teaching more interesting!). In the next chapter, we describe some classroom management strategies that help with such multi-tasking.
Providing moderate amounts of structure and detail
Chances are that at some point in your educational career you have wished that a teacher would clarify or explain an assignment more fully, and perhaps give it a clearer structure or organization. Students' desire for clarity is especially common with assignments that are by nature open-ended, such as long essays, large projects, or creative works. Simply being told to "write an essay critiquing the novel", for example, leaves more room for uncertainty (and worry) than being given guidelines about what questions the essay should address, what topics or parts it should have, and what its length or style should be (Chesebro, 2003). As you might suspect, some students desire clarity more than others, and improve their performance especially much when provided with plenty of structure and clarity. Students with certain kinds of learning difficulties, in particular, often learn effectively and stay on task only if provided with somewhat explicit, detailed instructions about the tasks expected of them (Marks, et al., 2003).
As a teacher, the challenge is to accommodate students' need for clarity without making guidance so specific or detailed that students do little thinking for themselves. As a (ridiculously extreme) example, consider a teacher gives "clear" instructions for an essay by announcing not only exactly which articles to read and cite in the essay and which topics or issues to cover, but even requires specific wording of sentences in their essays. This much specificity may reduce students' uncertainties and make the teacher's task of evaluating the essays relatively straightforward and easy. But it also reduces or even eliminates the educational value of the assignment— assuming, of course, that its purpose is to get students to think for themselves.
Ideally, then, structure should be moderate rather than extreme. There should be just enough to give students some sense of direction and to stimulate more accomplishment than if they worked with less structure or guidance. This ideal is an application of Vygotsky's idea of the zone of proximal development that we discussed in Chapter 2: a place (figuratively speaking) where students get more done with help than without it. The ideal amount of guidance —the "location" of the zone of proximal development— varies with the assignment and the student, and it (hopefully) decreases over time for all students. One student may need more guidance to do his or her best in math, but less guidance in order to write her or his best essay. Another student may need the reverse. But if all goes well, both students may need less at the end of the year than at the beginning.
Managing transitions
Transitions between activities is often full of distractions and "lost" time, and is a time when inappropriate behaviors are especially likely to occur. Part of the problem is intrinsic to transitions: students may have to wait before a new activity actually begins, and therefore get bored at the very moment when the teacher is preoccupied with arranging materials for the new activity. From the point of view of the students, transitions may seem essentially like unsupervised group time, when seemingly any behavior is tolerated.
Minimizing such problems requires two strategies, one of which is easier to implement than the other. The easier strategy is for you, as teacher, to organize materials as well as possible ahead of time, so that you minimize the time needed to begin a new activity. The advice sounds simple, and mostly is, but it sometimes takes a bit of practice to implement smoothly. When one of us (Kelvin) first began teaching university, for example, particular papers or overhead transparencies sometimes got lost in the wrong folder in spite of Kelvin's efforts to keep them where they were easy to find. The resulting delays about finding them slowed the pace of class and caused frustrations.
A second, more complex strategy is to teach students ways to manage their own behavior during transitions (Marzano & Marzano, 2004). If students talk too loudly at these times, for example, then discuss with them what constitutes appropriate levels or amounts of talk, and discuss the need for them to monitor their own sound level.Or if students stop work early in anticipation of ending an activity, then talk about— or even practice— waiting for a signal from yourself to indicate the true ending point for an activity. If certain students continue working beyond the end of an activity. On the other hand, try giving them warning of the impending end in advance, and remind them about to take responsibility for actually finishing work once they hear the advance warning, and so on. The point of these tactics is to encourage responsibility for behavior during transitions, and thereby reduce your own need to monitor students at that crucial time.
None of these ideas, of course, mean that you, as teacher, should give up monitoring students' behavior entirely. Chances are that you still will need to notice if and when someone talks too loudly, finishes too early, or continues too long, and you will still need to give some students appropriate reminders. But the amount of reminding will be less to the extent that students can remind and monitor themselves— a welcome trend at any time, but especially during transitions.
Maintaining the flow of activities
A lot of classroom management is really about keeping activities flowing smoothly, both during individual lessons and across the school day. The trouble is that there is never just "one" event happening at a time, even if only one activity has been formally planned and is supposed to be occurring. Imagine, for example, that everyone is supposed to be attending a single whole-class discussion on a topic; yet individual students will be having different experiences at any one moment. Several students may be listening and contributing comments, for example, but a few others may be planning what they want to say next and ignoring the current speakers, still others may be ruminating about what a previous speaker said, and still others may be thinking about unrelated matters—the restroom, food, or sex. Things get even more complicated if the teacher deliberately plans multiple activities: in that case some students may interact with the teacher, for example, while others do work in an unsupervised group or work independently in a different part of the room. How is a teacher to keep activities flowing smoothly in the face of such variety?
A common mistake of beginning teachers in multi-faceted settings like these is to pay too much attention to any one activity, student, or small group, at the expense of noticing and responding to all the others. If you are helping a student on one side of the room when someone on the other side disturbs classmates with off-task conversation, it can be less effective either to finish with the student you are helping before attending to the disruption, or to interrupt yourself to solve the disruption on the other side of the room. Although one of these responses may be necessary, either one involves disruption somewhere. There is a risk that either the student's chatting may spread to others, or the interrupted student may become bored with waiting for the teacher's attention and wander off-task herself.
A better solution, though one that at first may seem challenging, is to attend to both events at once— a strategy that was named withitness in a series of now-classic research studies several decades ago (Kounin, 1970). Withitness does not mean that you focus on all simultaneous activities with equal care, but only that you remain aware of multiple activities, behaviors, and events to some degree. At a particular moment, for example, you may be focusing on helping a student, but in some corner of your mind you also notice when chatting begins on the other side of the room. You have, as the saying goes, "eyes in the back of your head". Research has found that experienced teachers are much more likely to show withitness than inexperienced teachers, and that these qualities are associated with managing classrooms successfully (Emmer & Stough, 2001).
Simultaneous awareness— withitness— makes possible responses to the multiple events that are immediate and nearly simultaneous— what educators sometimes called overlapping. The teacher's responses to each event or behavior need not take equal time, nor even be equally noticeable to all students. If you are helping one student with seat work at the precise moment when another student begins chatting off-task, for example, a quick glance to the second student may be enough to bring the second one back to the work at hand, and may scarcely interrupt your conversation with the first student, or be noticed by others who are not even involved. The result is a smoother flow to activities overall.
As a new teacher, you may find that withitness and overlapping develop more easily in some situations than in others. It may be easier to keep an eye (or ear) on multiple activities during familiar routines, such as taking attendance, but harder to do the same during activities that are unfamiliar or complex, such as introducing a new topic or unit that you have never taught before. But skill at broadening your attention does increase with time and practice. It helps to keep trying. Merely demonstrating to students that you are "withit", in fact, even without making deliberate overlapping responses, can sometimes deter students from off-task behavior. Someone who is tempted to pass notes in class, for example, might not do so because she believes that you will probably notice her doing it anyway, whether or not you are able to notice in fact.
Communicating the importance of learning and of positive behavior
Altogether, the factors we have discussed— arranging space, procedures, and rules, and developing withitness— help communicate an important message: that in the classroom learning and positive social behavior are priorities. In addition, teachers can convey this message by offering timely feedback to students about performance, by keeping accurate records of the performance, and by deliberately communicating with parents or caregivers about their children and about class activities.
Communicating effectively is so important for all aspects of teaching, in fact, that we discuss it more fully later in this book (see Chapter 8, "The nature of classroom communication"). Here we focus on only one of its important aspects: how communication contributes to a smoothly functioning classroom and in this way helps prevent behavior problems.
Giving timely feedback
The term feedback, when used by educators, refers to responses to students about their behavior or performance. Feedback is essential if students are to learn and if they are to develop classroom behavior that is socially skilled and "mature". But feedback can only be fully effective if offered as soon as possible, when it is still relevant to the task or activity at hand (Reynolds, 1992). A score on a test is more informative immediately after a test than after a six-month delay, when students may have forgotten much of the content of the test. A teacher's comment to a student about an inappropriate, off-task behavior may not be especially welcome at the moment the behavior occurs, but it can be more influential and informative then; later, both teacher and student will have trouble remembering the details of the off-task behavior, and in this sense may literally "not know what they are talking about". The same is true for comments about a positive behavior by a student: hearing a compliment right away makes it easier to the comment with the behavior, and allows the compliment to influence the student more strongly. There are of course practical limits to how fast feedback can be given, but the general principle is clear: feedback tends to work better when it is timely.
The principle of timely feedback is consistent, incidentally, with a central principle of operant conditioning discussed in Chapter 2: reinforcement works best when it follows a to-be-learned operant behavior closely (Skinner, 1957)- I n this case a teacher's feedback serves as a form of reinforcement. The analogy is easiest to understand when the feedback takes the form of praise; in operant conditioning terms, the reinforcing praise then functions like a "reward". When feedback is negative, it functions as an "aversive stimulus" (in operant terms), shutting down the behavior criticized. At other times, though, criticism can also function as an unintended reinforcement. This happens, for example, if a student experiences criticism as a reduction in isolation and therefore as in increase in his importance in the class— a relatively desirable change. So the inappropriate behavior continues, or even increases, contrary to the teacher's intentions. Exhibit 9 diagrams this sequence of events.
Exhibit \(2\): Attracting attention as negative reinforcement
Exhibit \(2\): Attracting attention as negative reinforcement
Example of Unintended Negative Reinforcement in the Classroom:
Student is isolated socially Student publicly misbehaves Student gains others’ attention
Reinforcement can happen in class if an undesirable behavior, leads to a less aversive state for a student. Social isolation can be reduced by public misbehavior, which stimulates attention that is reinforcing. Ironically, the effort to end misbehavior ends up stimulating the misbehavior.
Maintaining accurate records
Although timeliness in responding to students can sometimes happen naturally during class, there are also situations where promptness depends on having organized key information ahead of time. Obvious examples are the scores, marks, and grades returned to students for their work. A short quiz (such as a weekly spelling test) may be possible to return quite soon after the quiz— sometimes you or even the students themselves can mark it during class. More often, though, assignments and tests require longer processing times: you have to read, score, or add comments to each paper individually. Excessive time to evaluate students' work can reduce the usefulness of a teacher's evaluations to students when she finally does return the work (Black, et al., 2004). During the days or weeks waiting for a test or assignment to be returned, students are left without information about the quality or nature of their performance; at the extreme they may even have to complete another test or do another assignment before getting information about an earlier one. (Perhaps you yourself have experienced this particular problem!)
Delays in providing feedback about academic performance can never be eliminated entirely, but they can be reduced by keeping accurate, well-organized records of students' work. A number of computer programs are available to help with this challenge; if your school does not already have one in use, then there are several downloadable either free or at low cost from the Internet. Describing these is beyond the scope of this book. For now we simply emphasize that grading systems benefit students' learning the most when they provide feedback as quickly and frequently as possible (McMillan, 2001), precisely the reason why accurate, well-organized record-keeping is important to keep.
Accurate records are helpful not only for scores on tests, quizzes, or assignments, but also for developing descriptive summaries of the nature of students' academic skills or progress. A common way to develop a description is the student portfolio, which is a compilation of the student's work and on-going assessments of it created by the teacher or in some cases by the student (Moritz & Christie, 2005; White, 2005). To know how a student's science project evolved from its beginning, for example, a teacher and student can keep a portfolio of lab notes, logs, preliminary data, and the like. To know how a student's writing skills developed, they could keep a portfolio of early drafts on various writing assignments. As the work accumulates, the student can discuss it with the teacher, and write brief reflections on its strengths thus far or on the steps needed to improve the work further. By providing a way to respond to work as it evolves, and by including students in making the assessments, portfolios provide relatively prompt feedback, and in any case provide it sooner than by waiting for the teacher to review work that is complete or final.
Communicating with parents and caregivers
Since parents and caregivers in a sense "donate" their children to schools (at least figuratively speaking), teachers are responsible for keeping them informed and involved to whatever extent is practical. Virtually all parents understand and assume that schools are generally intended for learning. Detailed communication can enrich parents' understanding, of how learning is addressed with their particular child's classroom, and show them more precisely what their particular child is doing. The better such understanding in turn encourages parents and caregivers to support their child's learning more confidently and "intelligently". In this sense it contributes indirectly to a positive learning environment in their child's class.
There are various ways to communicate with parents, each with advantages and limitations. Here are three
common examples:
A regular classroom newsletter: A newsletter establishes a link with parents or caregivers with comparatively little effort on the part of the teacher. At the beginning of the year, for example, a newsletter can tell about special materials that students will need, important dates to remember (like professional development days when there is no school), or about curriculum plans for the next few weeks. But newsletters also have limitations. They can seem impersonal, and they may get lost on the way home and never reach parents or caregivers. They can also be impractical for teachers with multiple classes, as in high school or in specialist subjects (like music or physical education), where each class follows a different program or curriculum.
Telephone calls: The main advantage of phoning is its immediacy and individuality. Teacher and parent or caregiver can talk about a particular student, behavior, or concern, and do it now. By the same token, however, phone calls are not an efficient way for informing parents about events or activities that affect everyone in common. The individuality of phoning may explain why teachers often use this method when a student has a problem that is urgent or unusual— as when he has failed a test, missed classes, or misbehaved seriously. Rightly or wrongly, a student's successes tend not to prompt phone calls to the student's home (though in fairness students may be more likely to tell parents about their successes themselves, making it less essential for the teacher to do so).
Parent-teacher conferences: Most schools schedule periodic times— often a day or evening per term— when teachers meet briefly with parents or caregivers who wish to meet. Under good conditions, the conferences have the individuality of phone calls, but also the richness of communication possible only in face-to-face meetings. Since conferences are available to all parents, they need not focus on behavior or academic problems, but often simply help to build rapport and understanding between parents or caregivers and the teacher. Sometimes too, particularly at younger grade levels, teachers involve students in leading their own conferences; the students display and explain their own work using a portfolio or other archive of accumulated materials (Benson & Barnett, 2005; Stiggins & Chappuis, 2005). In spite of all of these advantages, though, parent-teacher conferences have limitations. Some parents cannot get to conferences because of work schedules, child care, or transportation problems. Others may feel intimated by any school- sponsored event because they speak limited English or because they remember painful experiences from their own school days.
Even if you make several efforts to communicate, some parents may remain out of contact. In these cases it is important to remember that the parents may not be indifferent to their child or to the value of education. Other possibilities exist, as some of our comments above imply: parents may have difficulties with child care, for example, have inconvenient work schedules, or feel self-conscious about their own communication skills (Stevens & Tollafield, 2003). Even so, there are ways to encourage parents who may be shy, hesitant, or busy. One is to think about how they can assist the school even from home— for example, by making materials to be used in class or (if they are comfortable using English) phoning other parents about class events. A second way is to have a specific task for the parents in mind— one with clear structure, such as photocopying materials to be used by students later. A third is to remember to encourage, support, and respect the parents' presence and contributions when they do show up at school functions. Keep in mind that parents are experts about their own particular children, and without them, you would have no students to teach! | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/07%3A_Classroom_Management_and_the_Learning_Environment/7.03%3A_Preventing_Management_Problems_by_Focusing_Students_on_Learning.txt |
So far we have focused on preventing behaviors that are inappropriate or annoying. The advice has all been pro-active or forward-looking: plan classroom space thoughtfully, create reasonable procedures and rules, pace lessons and activities appropriately, and communicate the importance of learning clearly. Although we consider these ideas important, it would be naive to imply they are enough to prevent all behavior problems. For various reasons, students sometimes still do things that disrupt other students or interrupt the flow of activities. At such moments the challenge is not about long-term planning but about making appropriate, but prompt responses. Misbehaviors left alone can be contagious, a process educators sometimes call the ripple effect (Kounin, 1970). Chatting between two students, for example, can gradually spread to six students; rudeness by one can eventually become rudeness by several; and so on. Because of this tendency, delaying a response to inappropriate behavior can make the job of getting students back on track harder than responding to it as immediately as possible.
There are many ways to respond to inappropriate behaviors, of course, and they vary in how much they focus on the immediate behavior compared to longer-term features or patterns of a student's behavior. There are so many ways to respond, in fact, that we can describe only a sample of the possibilities here. None are effective all of the time, though all do work at least some of the time. We start with a response that may not seem on the surface like a remedy at all— simply ignoring misbehaviors.
Ignoring misbehaviors
A lot of misbehaviors are not important or frequent enough to deserve any response at all. They are likely to disappear (or extinguish, in behaviorist terms) simply if left alone. If a student who is usually quiet during class happens to whisper to a neighbor once in awhile, it is probably less disruptive and just as effective to ignore the infraction than to respond to it. Some misbehaviors may not be worth a response even if they are frequent, as long as they do not seem to bother others. Suppose, for example, that a certain student has a habit of choosing quiet seat-work times to sharpen her pencil. She is continually out of her seat to go to the sharpener. Yet this behavior is not really noticed by others. Is it then really a problem, however unnecessary or ill-timed it may be? In both examples ignoring the behavior may be wise because there is little danger of the behavior disrupting other students or of becoming more frequent. Interrupting your activities— or the students'— might cause more disruption than simply ignoring the problem.
That said, there can still be problems in deciding whether a particular misbehavior is truly minor, infrequent, or unnoticed by others. Unlike in our example above, students may whisper to each other more than "rarely" but less than "often": in that case, when do you decide that the whispering is in fact too frequent and needs a more active response from you? Or the student who sharpens her pencil, mentioned above, may not bother most others, but she may nonetheless bother a few. In that case how many bothered classmates are "too many"? Five, three, just one, or...? In these ambiguous cases, you may need more active ways of dealing with an inappropriate behavior, like the ones described in the next sections.
Gesturing nonverbally
Sometimes it works to communicate using gestures, eye contact, or "body language" that involve little or no speaking. Nonverbal cues are often appropriate if a misbehavior is just a bit too serious or frequent to ignore, but not serious or frequent enough to merit taking the time deliberately to speak to or talk with the student. If two students are chatting off-task for a relatively extended time, for example, sometimes a glance in their direction, a frown, or even just moving closer to the students is enough of a reminder to get them back on task. Even if these responses prove nor to be enough, they may help to keep the off-task behavior from spreading to other students.
A risk of relying on nonverbal cues, however, is that some students may not understand their meaning, or may even fail to notice them. If the two chatting students mentioned above are engrossed in their talking, for example, they may not see you glance or frown at them. Or they might notice but not interpret your cue as a reminder to get back on task. Misinterpretation of nonverbal gestures and cues is more likely with young children, who are still learning the subtleties of adults' nonverbal "language" (Guerrero & Floyd, 2005; Heimann, et al., 2006). It is also more likely with students who speak limited English or whose cultural background differs significantly from your own. These students may have learned different nonverbal gestures from your own as part of their participation in their original culture (Marsh, Elfenbein, & Ambady, 2003).
Natural and logical consequences
Consequences are the outcomes or results of an action. When managing a classroom, two kinds of consequences are especially effective for influencing students' behavior: natural consequences and logical consequences. As the term implies, natural consequences happen "naturally", without deliberate intention by anyone. If a student is late for class, for example, a natural consequence is that he misses information or material that needed to do an assignment. Logical consequences are ones that happen because of the responses of or decisions by others, but that also have an obvious or "logical" relationship to the original action. If one student steals another's lunch, for example, a logical consequence might be for the thief to reimburse the victim for the cost of the lunch. Natural and logical consequences are often woven together and thus hard to distinguish: if one student picks a fight with another student, a natural consequence might be injury not only to the victim, but also to the aggressor (an inherent byproduct of fighting), but a logical consequence might be to lose friends (the response of others to fighting). In practice both may occur.
In general research has found that both natural and logical consequences can be effective for minimizing undesirable behaviors, provided they are applied in appropriate situations (Weinstein, Tomlinson-Clarke, & Curran, 2004). Consider a student who runs impulsively down school hallways. The student is likely to have "traffic accidents", and thus (hopefully) to see that running is not safe and to reduce the frequency of running. Or consider a student who chronically talks during class instead of working on an assigned task. The student may have to make up the assignment later, possibly as homework. Because the behavior and the consequence are connected logically, the student is relatively likely to see the drawback of choosing to talk, and to reduce how much he or she talks on subsequent occasions. In either case, whether natural or logical, the key features that make consequences work are (a) that they are appropriate to the misbehavior and (b) that the student understands the connection between the consequences and the original behavior.
Notice, though, that natural and logical consequences do not always work; if they did, there would be no further need for management strategies! One limitation is that misbehaviors can sometimes be so serious that no natural or logical consequence seems sufficient or appropriate. Suppose, for example, that one student deliberately breaks another student's eyeglasses. There may be a natural consequence for the victim (he or she will not be able to see easily), but not for the student who broke the glasses. There may also be no consequences for the aggressor that are both logical and fully satisfactory: the aggressor student will not be able to repair the broken glasses himself, and may not be able to pay for new glasses either.
Another limitation of natural and logical consequences is that their success depends on the motives of the misbehaving student. If the student is seeking attention or acceptance by others, then consequences often work well. Bullying in order to impress others, for example, is more likely to lose friends than to win them— so bullying motivated in this way is self-limiting. If a student is seeking power over others, on the other hand, then the consequences of bullying may not reduce the behavior. Bullying in order to control others' actions by definition actually achieves its own goal, and its "natural" result (losing friends) would be irrelevant. Of course, a bully might also act from a combination of motives, so that natural and logical consequences limit bullying behavior, but only partially.
A third problem with natural and logical consequences is that they can easily be confused with deliberate punishment (Kohn, 2006). The difference is important. Consequences are focused on repairing damage and restoring relationships, and in this sense they focus on the future. Punishments highlight a mistake or wrongdoing and in this sense focus on the past. Consequences tend to be more solution focused. Punishments tend to highlight the person who committed the action, and they often shame or humiliate the wrong doer. (Table 17 summarizes these and other differences.)
Table \(1\): : Differences between consequences and punishments
Focused on future solutions
Focused on past mistakes
Focused on individual’s actions
Focused on character of student or child
Focused on repairing mistakes
Focused on establishing blame
Focused on restoring positive relationships
Focused on isolating wrong-doer
Tend to reduce emotional pain and conflict
Tend to impose emotional pain or conflict
Classroom examples of the differences between consequences and punishment are plentiful. If a student fails to listen to the teacher's instructions, then a consequence is that he or she misses important information, but a punishment may be that the teacher criticizes or reprimands the student. If a student speaks rudely to the teacher, a consequence may be that the teacher does not respond to the comment, or simply reminds the student to speak courteously. A punishment may be that the teacher scolds the student in the presence of others , or even imposes a detention ("Stay after school for 15 minutes").
Conflict resolution and problem solving
When a student misbehaves persistently and disruptively, you will need strategies that are more active and assertive than the ones discussed so far, and that focus on conflict resolution— the reduction of disagreements that persist over time. Conflict resolution strategies that educators and teachers tend to use usually have two parts (Jones, 2004). First, they involve ways of identifying what "the" problem is precisely. Second, they remind the student of classroom expectations and rules with simple clarity and assertiveness, but without apology or harshness. When used together, the two strategies not only reduce conflicts between a teacher and an individual student, but also provide a model for other students to follow when they have disagreements of their own. The next sections discuss the nature of assertion and clarification for conflict resolution in more detail.
Step 1: clarifying and focusing: problem ownership
Classrooms can be emotional places even though their primary purpose is to promote thinking rather than expression of feelings. The emotions can be quite desirable: they can give teachers and students "passion" for learning and a sense of care among members of the class. But feelings can also cause trouble if students misbehave: at those moments negative feelings— annoyance, anger, discomfort— can interfere with understanding exactly what is wrong and how to set things right again. Gaining a bit of distance from the negative feelings is exactly what those moments need, especially on the part of the teacher, the person with (presumably) the greatest maturity.
In a widely cited approach to conflict resolution called Teacher Effectiveness Training, the educator Thomas Gordon describes this challenge as an issue of problem ownership, or deciding whose problem a behavior or conflict it really is (Gordon, 2003). The "owner" of the problem is the primary person who is troubled or bothered by it. The owner can be the student committing the behavior, the teacher, or another student who merely happens to see the behavior. Since the owner of a problem needs to take primary responsibility for solving it, identifying ownership makes a difference in how to deal with the behavior or problem effectively.
Suppose, for example, that a student named David makes a remark that the teacher finds offensive (like "Sean is fat"). Is this remark the student's problem or the teacher's? If David made the comment privately to the teacher and is unlikely to repeat it, then maybe it is only the teacher's problem. If he is likely to repeat it to other students or to Sean himself, however, then maybe the problem is really David's. On the other hand, suppose that a different student, Sarah, complains repeatedly that classmates refuse to let her into group projects. This is less likely to be the teacher's problem rather than Sarah's: her difficulty may affect her ability to do her own work, but not really affect the teacher or classmates directly. As you might suspect, too, a problem may sometimes affect several people at once. David, who criticized Sean, may discover that he offended not only the teacher, but also classmates, who therefore avoid working with him. At that point the whole class begins to share in some aspect of "the" problem: not only is David prevented from working with others comfortably, but also classmates and the teacher begin dealing with bad feelings about David.
Step 2: active, empathetic listening
Diagnosing accurately who really has a problem with a behavior— who "owns" it— is helped by a number of strategies. One is active listening— attending carefully to all aspects of what a student says and attempting to understand or empathize as fully as possible, even if you do not agree with what is being said (Cooper & Simonds, 2003). Active listening involves asking questions in order continually to check your understanding. It also involves encouraging the student to elaborate on his or her remarks, and paraphrasing and summarizing what the student says in order to check your perceptions of what is said. It is important not to move too fast toward solving the problem with advice, instructions, or scolding, even if these are responses that you might, as a teacher, feel responsible for making. Responding too soon with solutions can shut down communication prematurely, and leave you with inaccurate impressions of the source or nature of the problem.
Step 3: assertive discipline and I-messages
Once you have listened well to the student's point of view, it helps to frame your responses and comments in terms of how the student's behavior affects you in particular, especially in your role as the teacher. The comments should have several features:
• They should be assertive— neither passive and apologetic, nor unnecessarily hostile and aggressive (Cantor, 1996). State the problem as matter-of-factly as possible: "Joe, you are talking while I'm explaining something", instead of either "Joe, do you think you could be quiet now?" or "Joe, be quiet!"
• The comments should emphasize I-messages (Gordon, 1981), which are comments that focus on how the problem behavior is affecting the teacher's ability to teach, as well as how the behavior makes the teacher feel. They are distinct from you-messages, which focus on evaluating the mistake or problem which the student has created. An I-message might be, "Your talking is making it hard for me to remember what I'm trying to say." A you-message might be, "Your talking is rude."
• The comments should encourage the student to think about the effects of his or her actions on others— a strategy that in effect encourages the student to consider the ethical implications of the actions (Gibbs, 2003). Instead of simply saying: "When you cut in line ahead of the other kids, that was not fair to them", you can try saying, "How do you think the other kids feel when you cut in line ahead of them?"
Step 4: negotiation
The first three steps describe ways of interacting that are desirable, but also fairly specific in scope and limited in duration. But in themselves, they may not be enough when conflict persists over time and develops a number of complications or confusing features. A student may persist in being late for class, for example, in spite of efforts by the teacher to modify this behavior. Or two students may repeatedly speak rudely to each other, even though the teacher has mediated this conflict in the past. Or a student may fail to complete homework, time after time. Because these problems develop over time, and because they may involve repeated disagreements, they can eventually become stressful for the teacher, the student, and any classmates who may be affected. Their persistence can tempt a teacher simply to dictate a resolution— a decision that can leave everyone feeling defeated, including the teacher.
Often in these situations it is better to negotiate a solution, which means systematically discussing options and compromising on one if possible. Although negotiation always requires time and effort, it is often less time or effort than continuing to cope with the original problem, and the results can be beneficial to everyone. A number of experts on conflict resolution have suggested strategies for negotiating with students about persistent problems (Davidson & Wood, 2004). The suggestions vary in detail, but usually include some combination of the steps we have already discussed above, along with a few others:
Decide as accurately as possible what the problem is. Usually this step involves a lot of the active listening described above.
Brainstorm possible solutions, and then consider their effectiveness. Remember to include students in this step; otherwise you end up simply imposing a solution on others, which is not what negotiation is supposed to achieve.
If possible, choose a solution by consensus. Complete agreement on the choice may not be possible, but strive for it as best you can. Remember that taking a vote may be a democratic, acceptable way to settle differences in some situations, but if feelings are running high, voting does not work as well. In that case voting may simply allow the majority to impose its will on the minority, leaving the underlying conflict unresolved.
Pay attention to how well the solution works after it is underway. For many reasons, things may not work out the way you or students hope or expect. You may need to renegotiate the solution at a later time. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/07%3A_Classroom_Management_and_the_Learning_Environment/7.04%3A_Responding_to_Student_Misbehavior.txt |
There are two primary messages from this chapter. One is that management issues are important, complex, and deserving of serious attention. The other is that strategies exist that can reduce, if not eliminate, management problems when and if they occur. We have explained some of those strategies— including some intended to prevent problems and others intended to remedy problems.
But there is an underlying assumption about management that this chapter emphasized fully: that good classroom management is not an end in itself, but a means for creating a classroom where learning happens and students are motivated. Amidst the stresses of handling a problem behavior, there is a risk of losing sight of this idea. Telling a student to be quiet is never a goal in itself, for example; it is desirable only because (or when) it allows all students to hear the teacher's instructions or classmates' spoken comments, or because it allows students to concentrate on their work. There may actually be moments when students' keeping quiet is not appropriate, such as during a "free choice" time in an elementary classroom or during a group work task in a middle school classroom. As teachers, we need to keep this perspective firmly in mind. Classroom management should serve students' learning, and not the other way around. The next chapter is based on this idea, because it discusses ways not just to set the stage for learning, as this chapter has done, but ways to plan directly for students' learning.
7.06: Summary Key Words and References
Chapter summary
Classroom management is the coordination of lessons and activities to make learning as productive as possible. It is important because classrooms are complex and somewhat unpredictable, because students respond to teachers' actions in diverse ways, and because society requires that students attend school. There are two major features of management: preventing problems before they occur and responding to them after they occur. Many management problems can be prevented by attending to how classroom space is used, by establishing daily procedures, routines, and rules, by pacing and structuring activities appropriately, and by communicating the importance of learning and of positive behavior to students and parents. There are several ways of dealing with a management problem after it occurs, and the choice depends on the nature of the problem. A teacher can simply ignore a misbehavior, gesture or cue students nonverbally, rely on natural and logical consequences, or engage conflict resolution strategies. Whatever tactics the teacher uses, it is important to keep in mind their ultimate purpose: to make learning possible and effective.
On the Internet
http://www.theteachersguide.com/ClassManagement.htm This is part of a larger website for teachers containing resources of all kinds. This section— about classroom management— has several articles with very "nuts and bolts" tips about management. You may also find their page of resources for substitute teachers useful.
https://teachnet.com/ Another website for teachers with lots of resources of all kinds. A section called "Power Tools" has dozens of brief articles about various aspects of classroom management.
Key terms
Active listening Overlapping
Classroom management Portfolio
Conflict resolution Problem ownership
I-messages Procedures
Learning environment Ripple effect
Logical consequences Rules
Natural consequences Withitness
Negotiation
References
Benson, B. & Barnett, S. (2005). Student-led conferencing using showcase portfolios. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
Black, P., Harrison, C, Lee C, Marshall, B., & Wiliam, D. (2004). Working inside the black box: Assessment for learning in the classroom. Phi Delta Kappan, 86(1), 8-21.
Bothmer, S. (2003). Creating the peaceable classroom. Tuscon, AZ: Zephyr Press.
Britt, T. (2005). Effects of identity-relevance and task difficulty on task motivation, stress, and performance. Motivation and Emotion, 29(3), 189-202.
Brophy, J. (2004). Motivating students to learn, 2 nd edition. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Brookfield, S. (2006). The skillful teacher: On technique, trust, and responsiveness in the classroom, 2 nd edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Brown, D. (2004). Urban teachers' professed classroom management strategies: Reflections of culturally responsive teaching. Urban Education, 39(3), 266-289.
Chesebro, J. (2003). Effects of teacher clarity and nonverbal immediacy on student learning, receiver apprehension, and affect. Communication Education, 52(2), 135-147.
Cooper, P. & Simonds, C. (2003). Communication for the classroom teacher, f h edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Davidson, J. & Wood, C. (2004). A conflict resolution model. Theory into Practice, 43(1), 6-13.
Emmer, E. & Stough, L. (2001). Classroom management: A critical part of educational psychology, with implications for teacher education. Educational Psychologist, 36(2), 103-112.
Gibbs, J. (2003). Moral development and reality: Beyond the theories ofKohlberg and Hoffman. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Good, T. & Brophy, J. (2002). Looking in classrooms, g th edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Gordon, T. (2003). Teacher effectiveness training. New York: Three Rivers Press.
Guerrero, L. & Floyd, K. (2005). Nonverbal communication in close relationships. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Heimann , M. Strid, K., Smith , L., Tjus , T., Ulvund , S. & Meltzoff, A. (2006). Exploring the relation between memory, gestural communication, and the emergence of language in infancy: a longitudinal study. Infant and Child Development, 15(3), 233-249.
Jones, T. (2004). Conflict resolution education: The field, the findings, and the future. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 22(1-2), 233-267.
Jones, V. & Jones, L. (2006). Comprehensive classroom management: Creating communities of support and solving problems, 6 th edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Kohn, A. (2006). Beyond discipline: From compliance to community. Reston, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Kounin, J. (1970). Discipline and group management in classrooms. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.
Marks, L. (2003). Instructional management tips for teachers of students with autism-spectrum disorder. Teaching Exceptional Children, 35(4), 50-54.
Marsh, A., Elfenbein, H. & Ambady, N. (2003). Nonverbal "accents": cultural differences in facial expressions of emotion. Psychological Science, 14(3), 373-376.
Marzano, R. & Marzano, J. (2004). The key to classroom management. Educational Leadership, 62, pp. 2-7.
McCafferty, S., Jacobs, G., & Iddings, S. (Eds.). (2006). Cooperative learning and second language teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Moritz, J. & Christie, A. (2005). It's elementary: Using elementary portfolios with young students. In C. Crawford (Ed.), Proceedings of the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education
International Conference 2005 (pp. 144-151). Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of
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Nations, S. & Boyett, S. (2002). So much stuff, so little space: Creating and managing the learner-centered classroom. Gainesville, FL: Maupin House.
Reynolds, A. (1992). What is competent beginning teaching? Review of Educational Research, 62(1), 1-35.
Stevens, B. & Tollafield, A. (2003). Creating comfortable and productive parent/teacher conferences. Phi Delta Kappan, 84(7), 521-525-
Stiggins, R. & Chappuis, J. (2005). Using student-involved classroom assessment to close achievement gaps. Theory into Practice 44(1), 11-18.
Thorson, S. (2003). Listening to students: Reflections on secondary classroom management. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Turiel, E. (2006). The development of morality. In W. Damon, R. Lerner, & N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology , vol. 3, pp. 789-857. New York: Wiley.
Van Meerionboer, J., Kirschner, P., & Kester, L. (2003). Taking the cognitive load off a learner's mind: Instructional design for complex learning. Educational Psychologist, 38(1), 5-13.
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Weinstein, C.,Tomlinson-Clarke, S., & Curran, M. (2004). Toward a conception of culturally responsive classroom management. Journal of Teacher Education, 55(1), 25-38. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/07%3A_Classroom_Management_and_the_Learning_Environment/7.05%3A_Keeping_Management_Issues_in_Perspective.txt |
"Be sincere; be brief; be seated."
(Franklin Delano Roosevelt)
Franklin Roosevelt was a former president of the United States, and he advised being brief and sincere when communicating. In advising to be seated, he was being somewhat more indirect; perhaps he was suggesting that conversation and dialog would be improved by reducing the power differences between individuals. If so, he was giving good advice, though perhaps it was also a bit misleading in its simplicity. As teachers, we face almost continual talk at school, supplemented by ample amounts of nonverbal communication— gestures, facial expressions, and other "body language". Often the talk involves many people at once, or even an entire class, and individuals have to take turns speaking while also listening to others having their turns, or sometimes ignoring the others if a conversation does not concern them. As the teacher, therefore, you find yourself playing an assortment of roles when communicating in classrooms: Master of Ceremonies, referee— and of course source of new knowledge. Your challenge is to sort the roles out so that you are playing the right ones in the right combinations at the right times. As you learn to do this, interestingly, much of your communication with students will indeed acquire the qualities recommended by Franklin Roosevelt. Often, you will indeed be more sincere and brief, and you will find that minimizing power differences between you and students is a good idea.
In this chapter we look at how you might begin to move toward these goals. We describe briefly several major features of classroom communication that distinguish it from communication in other familiar situations. Then we explain several techniques, both verbal and nonverbal, that contribute to effective communication, and describe how these manifest themselves in several common activity settings, which we call structures of participation. As you will see, how an activity is organized— its structure of participation— has a major effect on how students communicate with each other and with the teacher.
8.02: Communication in Classrooms VS Communication Elsewhere
Classroom events are often so complex that just talking with students can become confusing. It helps to think of the challenge as a problem in communication— or as one expert put it, of "who says what to whom, and with what effect" (Lasswell, 1964). In classrooms, things often do not happen at an even pace or in a logical order, or with just the teacher and one student interacting while others listen or wait patiently. While such moments do occur, events may sometimes instead be more like a kaleidoscope of overlapping interactions, disruptions, and decision— even when activities are generally going well. One student finishes a task while another is still only half-way done. A third student looks like she is reading, but she may really be dreaming. You begin to bring her back on task by speaking to her, only to be interrupted by a fourth student with a question about an assignment. While you answer the fourth student, a fifth walks in with a message from the office requiring a response; so the bored (third) student is overlooked awhile longer. Meanwhile, the first student— the one who finished the current task— now begins telling a joke to a sixth student, just to pass the time. You wonder, "Should I speak now to the bored, quiet reader or to the joke-telling student? Or should I move on with the lesson?" While you are wondering this, a seventh student raises his hand with a question, and so on.
One way to manage situations like these is to understand and become comfortable with the key features of communication that are characteristic of classrooms. One set of features has to do with the functions or purposes of communication, especially the balance among talk related to content, to procedures, and to controlling behavior. Another feature has to do with the nature of nonverbal communication— how it supplements and sometimes even contradicts what is said verbally. A third feature has to do with the unwritten expectations held by students and teachers about how to participate in particular kinds of class activities— what we will later call the structure of participation.
Functions of talk: content, procedures, and behavior control
Classrooms are different from many other group situations in that communication serves a unique combination of three purposes at once: content, procedures, or behavior control (Wells, 2006). Content talk focuses on what is being learned; it happens when a teacher or student states or asks about an idea or concept, for example, or when someone explains or elaborates on some bit of new knowledge (Burns & Myhill, 2004). Usually content talk relates in some obvious way to the curriculum or to current learning objectives, as when a teacher tells a high school history class, "As the text explains, there were several major causes of the American Civil War." But content talk can also digress from the current learning objectives; a first-grade student might unexpectedly bring a caterpillar to school and ask about how it transforms into a butterfly.
Procedural talk, as its name implies, is about administrative rules or routines needed to accomplish tasks in a classroom. It happens, for example, when the teacher says, "When you are done with your spelling books, put them in the bins at the side of the room", or when a student asks, "Do you want us to print our names at the top of page?" Procedural talk provides information that students need to coordinate their activities in what can be a relatively crowded space— the classroom— and under conditions in which time may be relatively short or tightly scheduled. It generally keeps activities organized and flowing smoothly. Procedural talk is not primarily about removing or correcting unwanted behavior, although certain administrative procedures might sometimes annoy a particular student, or students might sometimes forget to follow a procedure. Instead it is intended to provide the guidance that students need to coordinate with each other and with the teacher.
Control talk is about preventing or correcting misbehaviors when they occur, particularly when the misbehaviors are not because of ignorance of procedures. It happens, for example, when a teacher says, "Jill, you were talking when you should have been listening", or "Jason, you need to work on your math instead of doodling." Most control talk originates with the teacher, but students sometimes engage in it with each other, if not with the teacher. One student may look at a nearby classmate who is whispering out of turn and quietly say, "Shhh!" in an attempt to silence the behavior. Or a student may respond to being teased by a classmate by saying simply, "Stop it!" Whether originating from the teacher or a student, control talk may not always be fully effective. But its purpose is, by definition, to influence or control inappropriate behavior. Since control talk is obviously important for managing class effectively, we discussed it at length in Chapter 7.
What can make classroom discourse confusing is that two of its functions— content and procedures— often become combined with the third, control talk, in the same remark or interaction. A teacher may ask a content-related question, for example, as a form of control talk. She may, for example, ask, "Jeremy, what did you think of the film we just saw?" The question is apparently about content, but the teacher may also be trying to end Jeremy's daydreaming and to get him back on task— an example of control talk. Or a teacher may state a rule: "When one person is talking, others need to be listening." The rule is procedural in that it helps to coordinate classroom dialogue, but it may also control inattentive behavior. Double functions like these can sometimes confuse students because of their ambiguity, and lead to misunderstandings between certain students and teachers. A student may hear only the content or procedural function of a teacher's comment, and miss an implied request or command to change inappropriate behavior (Collins & Michaels, 2006). But double functions can also help lessons to flow smoothly by minimizing the disruption of attending to a minor behavior problem and by allowing more continuous attention to content or procedures.
Verbal, nonverbal, and unintended communication
Another way to understand classroom communication is to distinguish verbal from nonverbal communication, and intended both unintended forms of communication. As the name suggests, verbal communication is a message or information expressed in words, either orally or in writing. Classrooms obviously have lots of verbal communication; it happens every time a teacher explains a bit of content, asks a question, or writes information or instructions on the chalkboard. Non-verbal communications are gestures or behaviors that convey information, often simultaneously with spoken words (Guerrero, 2006). It happens, for example, when a teacher looks directly at students to emphasize a point or to assert her authority, or when the teacher raises her eyebrows to convey disapproval or disagreement. Nonverbal behaviors are just as plentiful as verbal communications, and while they usually add to a current verbal message, they sometimes can also contradict it. A teacher can state verbally, "This math lesson will be fun", and a nonverbal twinkle in the eye can send the confirm message nonverbally. But a simultaneous nonverbal sigh or slouch may send the opposite message— that the lesson will not, in fact be fun, in spite of the teacher's verbal claim.
Whether verbal or nonverbal, however, classroom communications often convey more meaning than is intended. Unintended communications are the excess meanings of utterances; they are the messages received by students without the teacher's awareness or desire. A teacher may say, "This section of the text won't be on the test, but read it anyway for background." But a student may instead hear the message, "Do not read this section of the text." What is heard is not what the teacher intended to be heard.
Like many public settings that involve a diversity of people, classrooms tend to rely heavily on explicit, verbal communication, while at the same time recognizing and allowing nonverbal communications to occur (Neill, 1991). This priority accounts for the characteristically businesslike style of teacher talk— a style that we discuss in detail in the next chapter. A major reason for relying on an explicit, businesslike verbal style is that diversity among individuals increases the chances of their misinterpreting each other. Because of differences in background, the partners may differ in how they expect to structure conversation as well as other kinds of dialog. Misunderstandings may result— sometimes without the partners being able to pinpoint the cause. Later in this chapter we suggest how to minimize these problems. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/08%3A_The_Nature_of_Classroom_Communication/8.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Communicating effectively requires using all forms of classroom talk in combinations appropriate for particular utterances and interactions. In various places earlier in this book, we have suggested ways of doing so, though in those places we usually did not frame the discussion around the term communication as such.
Effective content talk
In Chapter 8, for example, we suggested ways of talking about content so that it is most likely to be understood clearly, but in that chapter we described these as instructional strategies. In explaining ideas, for example, whether briefly or as a extended lecture, we pointed out that it helps to offer, in advance, organizing ideas, to relate new content to prior knowledge, and to organize and elaborate on new information. In the same chapter, we also suggested strategies about content talk intended for students, so that students understand their own thinking as well as possible. We especially highlighted two ways of learning: inquiry learning and cooperative learning. Table \(1\) summarizes instructional strategies both for students and for teachers, and indicates how they contribute to effective verbal communication about content.
Table \(1\): Strategies for supporting content talk
Strategy
Definition
How it helps communication
Content talk by teachers
Using advance organizers
Statements or ideas that give a concise overview of new material
Orients students’ attention to new ideas about to be learned; assists in understanding and remembering new material
Relating new material to prior knowledge
Explicit connections of new ideas to students’ existing knowledge
Facilitates discussion of new material by making it more meaningful to students
Elaborating and extending new information
Explanations of new ideas in full, complete terms
Avoids ambiguities and misunderstandings about new ideas or concepts
Organizing new information
Providing and following a clear structure when explaining new material
Assists in understanding and remembering new material
Content talk by students
Inquiry learning
Students pursue problems that they help to formulate for themselves
To formulate and and investigate a problem, students need to express clearly what they wish to find out.
Cooperative learning
Students work in small groups to solve a common problem or task
To work together, students need to explain ideas and questions to fellow students clearly.
Table \(2\):: Major strategies of effective procedural and control talk
These strategies are also discussed in Chapter 7 as features of classroom management, rather than of communication. Note, too, that the difference between procedural and content talk is arbitrary to some extent; in many situations one kind of talk serves the needs of the other kind.
Strategy for procedural talk
Strategy for control talk
Creating and discussing procedures for daily routines
Creating and discussing classroom rules of appropriate behavior
Announcing transitions between activities
Clarifying problem ownership
Providing clear instructions and guidance for activities
Listening actively and empathetically
Reminding students periodically of procedures for completing a task
Using I-messages
Effective procedural and control talk
In addition to communicating about content, teachers need to communicate procedures and expectations about appropriate classroom behavior. In Chapter 7 we described quite a few ways to communicate with students about these matters, though, in that chapter we did not refer to them as methods of communication, but as methods of classroom management, of creating a positive learning environment, and of resolving conflicts in the class. Table 19 summarizes several of the major strategies described in that chapter.) By framing communication in these ways, we called attention to their importance as forms of communication. As we pointed out, procedural talk and control talk matter are used in teaching simply because clear procedures and appropriate classroom behavior are necessary students are to learn. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/08%3A_The_Nature_of_Classroom_Communication/8.03%3A_Effective_Verbal_Communication.txt |
In spite of their importance, words are not the only way that teachers and students communicate. Gestures and behaviors convey information as well, often supporting a teacher's words, but sometimes also contradicting them. Students and teachers express themselves nonverbally in all conversations, so freely and automatically in fact that this form of communication can easily be overlooked.
Eye contact
One important nonverbal behavior is eye contact, which is the extent and timing of when a speaker looks directly at the eyes of the listener. In conversations between friends of equal status, for example, most native speakers of English tend to look directly at the speaker when listening, but to avert their gaze when speaking (Kleinke, 1986). Re-engaging eye contact, in fact, often signals that a speaker is about to finish a turn and is inviting a response from the listener.
But conversations follow different rules if they involve someone of greater authority talking with someone of lesser authority, such as between a teacher and a student. In that case, the person in authority signals greater status by gazing directly at the listener almost continuously, whether listening or speaking. This alternate pattern can sometimes prove awkward if either party is not expecting it. For students unused to continuous eye contact, it can feel like the teacher is staring excessively, intrusively, or inappropriately; an ironic effect can be for the student to feel more self-conscious rather than more engaged, as intended. For similar reasons, inexperienced or first-time teachers can also feel uncomfortable with gazing at students continuously. Nevertheless research about the effects of eye contact suggests that it may help anyone, whether a student or teacher, to remember what they are seeing and hearing (Mason, Hood, & Macrae, 2004).
Communication problems result less from eye contact as such than from differences in expectations about eye contact. If students' expectations differ very much from the teacher's, one party may misinterpret the other party's motivations. Among some non-white ethnic groups, for example, eye contact follows a pattern that reverses the conventional white, English-language pattern: they tend to look more intently at a partner when talking, and avert gaze when listening (Razack, 1998). The alternative pattern works perfectly well as long as both parties expect it and use it. As you might imagine, though, there are problems if the two partners use opposite patterns of eye contact. In that case one person may interpret a direct gaze as an invitation to start talking, when really it is an invitation to stop talking. Eventually the conversational partner may find himself interrupting too much, or simply talking too long at a turn. The converse can also happen: if the first person looks away, the partner may take the gesture as inviting the partner to keep listening, when really the first person is inviting the partner to start talking. Awkward gaps between comments may result. In either case, if the conversational partners are a teacher and student, rapport may deteriorate gradually. In the first case, the teacher may even conclude, wrongly, that the student is socially inept because the student interrupts so much. In the second case, the teacher may conclude— also wrongly— that the student is very shy or even lacking in language skill.
To avoid such misunderstandings, a teacher needs to note and remember students' preferred gaze patterns at times when students are free to look wherever and at whomever they please. Traditional seats-in-a-row desk arrangements do not work well for this purpose; as you might suppose, and as research confirms, sitting in rows makes students more likely to look either at the teacher or to look at nothing in particular (Rosenfeld, Lambert, & Black, 1985; Razack, 1998). Almost any other seating arrangement, such as sitting in clusters or in a circle, encourages freer patterns of eye contact. More comfortable eye contact, in turn, makes for verbal communication that is more comfortable and productive.
Wait time
Another important nonverbal behavior is wait time, which is the pause between conversational turns. Wait time marks when a conversational turn begins or ends. If a teacher asks a question, for example, the wait time both allows and prompts students to formulate an appropriate response. Studies on classroom interaction generally show that wait times in most classes are remarkably short— less than one second (Good & Brophy, 2002). Unfortunately wait times this short can actually interfere with most students' thinking; in one second, most students either cannot decide what to say or can only recall a simple, automatic fact (Tobin, 1987). Increasing wait times to several seconds has several desirable effects: students give longer, more elaborate responses, they express more complex ideas, and a wider range of students participate in discussion. For many teachers, however, learning to increase wait time this much takes conscious effort, and may feel uncomfortable at first. (A trick, if you are trying to wait longer, is to count silently to five before calling on anyone.) After a few weeks of practice, discomfort with longer wait times usually subsides, and the academic benefits of waiting become more evident.
As with eye contact, preferred wait times vary both among individuals and among groups of students, and the differences in expected wait times can sometimes lead to awkward conversations. Though there are many exceptions, girls tend to prefer longer wait times than boys— perhaps contributing to an impression that girls are unnecessarily shy or that boys are self-centered or impulsive. Students from some ethnic and cultural groups tend to prefer a much longer wait time than is typically available in a classroom, especially when English is the student's second language (Toth, 2004). When a teacher converses with a member of such a group, therefore, what feels to the student like a respectful pause may seem like hesitation or resistance to the teacher. Yet other cultural groups actually prefer overlapping comments— a sort of negative wait time. In these situations, one conversational partner will begin at exactly the same instant as the previous speaker, or even before the speaker has finished (Chami- Sather & Kretschmer, 2005). The negative wait time is meant to signal lively interest in the conversation. A teacher who is used to a one-second gap between comments, however, may regard overlapping comments as rude interruptions, and may also have trouble getting chances to speak.
Even though longer wait times are often preferable, they do not always work well with certain individuals or groups. For teachers, the most widely useful advice is to match wait time to the students' preferences as closely as possible, regardless of whether these are slower or faster than what the teacher normally prefers. To the extent that a teacher and students can match each other's pace, they will communicate more comfortably and fully, and a larger proportion of students will participate in discussions and activities. As with eye contact, observing students' preferred wait times is easier in situations that give students some degree of freedom about when and how to participate, such as open-ended discussions or informal conversations throughout the day.
Social distance
When two people interact, the physical space or distance between them— their social distance— often indicates something about how intimate or personal their relationship is (Noller, 2006). Social distance also affects how people describe others and their actions; someone who habitually is more distant physically is apt to be described in more general, abstract terms than someone who often approaches more closely (Fujita, et al., 2006). In white American society, a distance of approximately half a meter to a meter is what most people prefer when talking face- to-face with a personal friend. The closer end of this range is more common if the individuals turn sideways to each other, as when riding on an elevator; but usually the closest distances are reserved for truly intimate friendships, such as between spouses. If the relationship is more businesslike, individuals are more likely to situate themselves in the range of approximately one meter to a three meters. This is a common distance, for example, for a teacher talking with a student or talking with a small group of students. For still more formal interactions, individuals tend to allow more than three meters; this distance is typical, for example, when a teacher speaks to an entire class.
Just as with eye contact and wait time, however, individuals differ in the distances they prefer for these different levels of intimacy, and complications happen if two people expect different distances for the same kind of relationship. A student who prefers a shorter social distance than her partner can seem pushy or overly familiar to the partner. The latter, in turn, can seem aloof or unfriendly— literally "distant". The sources of these effects are easy to overlook since by definition the partners never discuss social distance verbally, but they are real. The best remedy, again, is for teachers to observe students' naturally occurring preferences as closely as possible, and to respect them as much as possible: students who need to be closer should be allowed to be closer, at least within reasonable limits, and those who need to be more distant should be allowed to be more distant. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/08%3A_The_Nature_of_Classroom_Communication/8.04%3A_Effective_Nonverbal_Communication.txt |
Many class activities take on patterns that guide communication in ways that class members learn to expect, often without even being reminded. Each pattern is a participation structure, a set of rights and responsibilities expected from students and teacher during an activity. Sometimes the teacher announces or explains the rights and responsibilities explicitly, though often they are just implied by the actions of class members, and individual students learn them simply by watching others. A lecture, for example, has a particular participation structure: students are responsible for listening, for raising a hand to speak, and for keeping comments brief and relevant if called on. The teacher, on the other hand, has the right to talk at length, but also the responsibility to keep the talk relevant and comprehensible.
In principle, a host of participation structures are possible, but just a handful account for most class activities (Cazden, 2001). Here are some of the most common:
• Lecturing— the teacher talks and students listen. Maybe students take notes, but maybe not.
• Questions and answers— the teacher asks a series of questions, calling on one student at a time to answer each of them. Students raise their hands to be recognized and give answers that are brief and "correct". In earlier times this participation structure was sometimes called recitation.
• Discussion— the teacher briefly describes a topic or problem and invites students to comment on it. Students say something relevant about the topic, but also are supposed to respond to previous speakers if possible.
• Group work— the teacher assigns a general task, and a small group of students work out the details of implementing it. The teacher may check on the group's progress before they finish, but not necessarily.
Each of these structures influences how communication among teachers and students tends to occur; in fact each is itself sort of an implied message about how, when, and with whom to interact. To see how this influence works, look in the next sections at how the participation structures affected classroom communication for one of us authors (Kelvin Seifert) as he taught one particular topic— children's play— over a twenty-year period. The topic was part of a university-level course for future teachers. During this time, Kelvin's goals about the topic remained the same: to stimulate students' thinking about the nature and purposes of play. But over time he tried several different structures of participation, and students' ways of communicating changed as a result.
Lecture
The first time Kelvin taught about children's play, he lectured about it. He used this structure of participation not because he believed on principle that it was the best, but because it was convenient and used widely by his fellow university teachers. An excerpt from Kelvin's lecture notes is shown in Table 20, and gives a sense of what he covered at that time.
Table \(1\): Year One Kelvin's Lecture Notes
1. Introduction to topic: What do we mean by play?
• excess energy
• seeking stimulation—relieve boredom
• escape from work
1. Six qualities defining play
• intrinsic motivation
• attention to the process, not the product
• non-literal behavior—make-believe
• no external rules
• self-governed
• active engagement
1. Implications for teaching
• devise activities with play-like qualities
• learn by watching children playing
In some ways the lecture proved effective: Kelvin covered the material efficiently (in about 20 minutes), related the topic to other ones in the course, defined and explained all key terms clearly, and did his best to relate the material to what he thought were students' own interests. These were all marks of good lecturing (Christensen, 2006). Students were mostly quiet during the lecture, but since only about one-third of them took notes, Kelvin had to assume that the rest had committed the material to memory while listening. The students quietness bothered him a little, but as a newcomer to university teaching, Kelvin was relieved simply to get through the class without embarrassment or active resistance from the students.
But there were also some negative signs. In spite of their courtesy, few students lingered after class to talk about children's play or to ask questions. Worse yet, few students chose children's play as a term paper topic, even though it might have made a highly interesting and enjoyable one. On the final exam few seemed able to relate concepts about play to their own experiences as teachers or leaders of recreational activities.
There was an even more subtle problem. The lecture about play focused overtly on a topic (play) that praised action, intrinsic motivation, and self-choice. But by presenting these ideas as a lecture, Kelvin also implied an opposite message unintentionally: that learning is something done passively, and that it follows an intellectual path set only by the teacher. Even the physical layout of the classroom sent this message— desks faced forward, as if to remind students to look only at the person lecturing. These are features of lecturing, as Kelvin later discovered, that are widely criticized in educational research (McKeachie & Svinicki, 2005; Benedict & Hoag, 2004). To some students the lecture format might even have implied that learning is equivalent to daydreaming, since both activities require sitting quietly and showing little expression. An obvious solution might have been to invite students to comment from time to time during the lecture, relating the topic to experiences and knowledge of their own. But during Kelvin's first year of teaching about play, he did little of this. The lecture medium, ironically, contradicted the lecture message, or at least it assumed that students would think actively about the material without ever speaking.
Questions and answers
Because of these problems, Kelvin modified his approach after a few years of teaching to include more asking of questions which students were invited to answer. This turned the lecture on children's play into something more like a series of explanations of key ideas, interrupted by asking students to express their beliefs, knowledge, or experience about children's play. Kelvin's preparation notes changes in appearance as a result (see Table 21). Asking questions and inviting brief responses was reassuring because it gave indications of whether students were listening and understanding the material. Questions served both to motivate students to listen and to assess how much and how well they knew the material. In this regard Kelvin was using a form of communication that was and continues to be very popular with many teachers (Cazden, 2001).
Table \(2\): Year Three: Kelvin's Question-and-Answer Notes
Nature and Purposes of Children’s Play
1. Introduction to topic: What do we mean by play? [First ask 1-2 students for their own answers to question.]
• excess energy [Ask: What evidence is there for this?]
• seeking stimulation—relieve boredom […or for this?]
• escape from work
1. Six qualities of children’s play [Invite students’ definitions, but keep them brief.]
• intrinsic motivation
• attention to the process, not the product
• nonliteral behavior—make-believe
• no external rules
• self-governed
• active engagement
[Can you think of examples and/or counterexamples of each quality?]
1. Implications for teaching
• devise activities with playlike qualities [What activities have you already seen as a student teacher?]
• learn by watching children playing [How could you do this? Invite suggested strategies from students.]
But there were also new challenges and problems. For one thing the topic of children's play took longer to cover than before, since Kelvin now had to allow time for students to respond to questions. This fact forced him to leave out a few points that he used to include. More serious, though, was his impression that students often did not listen to each other's responses; they only listened carefully to Kelvin, the teacher. The interactions often become simply two-way exchanges between the teacher and one student at a time: Kelvin asked, one student responded, Kelvin acknowledged or (sometimes) evaluated. (Mehan, 1979; Richards, 2006). Some of the exchanges could in principle have happened just as easily without any classmates present.
In general students still had little control over the course of discussion. Kelvin wondered if he was controlling participation too much— in fact whether the question-and-answer strategy attempted the impossible task of controlling students' very thought processes. By asking most of the questions himself and allowing students only brief responses, was Kelvin trying to insure e that students thought about children's play in the "right" way, his way? To give students more influence in discussion, it seemed that Kelvin would have to become less concerned about precisely what ideas about children's play he covered.
Classroom discussion
After several more years of teaching, Kelvin quit lectures altogether, even ones interspersed with questions and answers. He began simply leading general discussions about children's play. The change again affected his planning for this topic. Instead of outlining detailed content, he now just made concise notes that listed issues about children's play that students needed to consider (some of the notes are shown in Table 23). The shift in participation structure led to several major changes in communication between teacher and students as well as among students. Since students spoke more freely than before, it became easier to see whether they cared about the topic. Now, too, more students seemed motivated to think and learn about children's play; quite a few selected this topic, for example, for their term projects. Needless to say, these changes were all to the good.
Table \(3\): Year Eight: Kelvin's Discussion Notes
• Discuss possible explanations for play—what do students think are its true purposes? (10 minutes?)
• Can we define play? Brainstorm defining qualities, with examples. (30 minutes)
• Important question for all defining qualities: Are there exceptions—examples of play that do not show certain defining qualities, but are still play? (15 minutes)
• What is important about play for teaching? (10 minutes +)
• …for the welfare of children? (10 minutes +)
• Etc. (anything else brought up by students)
But there were also changes that limited the effectiveness of classroom communication, even though students were nominally freer to speak than ever. Kelvin found, for example, that certain students spoke more than their share of the time— almost too freely, in fact, in effect preventing more hesitant students from speaking. Sometimes, too, it seemed as if certain students did not listen to others' comments, but instead just passed the time waiting for their turn to speak, their hands propped permanently in the air. Meanwhile there were still others who passed the time apparently hoping not to speak; they were busy doodling or staring out the window. Since the precise focus of discussion was no longer under Kelvin's control, furthermore, discussions often did not cover all of the ideas about children's play that Kelvin considered important. On one occasion, for example, he meant for students to discuss whether play is always motivated intrinsically, but instead they ended up talking about whether play can really be used to teach every possible subject area. In itself the shift in focus was not bad, but it did make Kelvin wonder whether he was covering the material adequately. In having these misgivings, as it happened, he was supported by other educators who have studied the effects of class discussions on learning (McKeatchie & Svinciki, 2005).
Group work
By the time he had taught about children's play for twenty years, Kelvin had developed enough concerns about discussion as a communication strategy that he shifted approach again. This time he began using a form of collaborative group work: small teams of students carrying out projects on aspects of children's play that interested them, making observations of children at play, reporting on their results to the class, and writing a common report about their work. (Kelvin's work guidelines given to the groups are shown in Table 22.) Kelvin hoped that by giving students a common focus, communication among them would improve. Conversations would deal with the tasks at hand, students would necessarily listen to each other, and no one could afford either to dominate talk excessively or to fall silent.
Theorem \(4\): Year Twenty: Kelvin's Guidelines for Group Work
Nature and Purposes of Children’s Play
• Make sure you listen to everyone, and not just to the people you agree with the most. Part of the challenge of this project is to include all team members.
• You do not have to be best friends with someone in order to be partners. But you do have to get the work done.
• Remember that it takes many skills and abilities to do this project well. Among other things, you need to:
• 1) find and understand research and other publications about children’s play,
• 2) observe children skillfully when they are playing,
• 3) have confidence in describing what you learn to group mates,
• 4) write about what you learn, and 5) be tactful and respectful when listening and talking with partners.
In some ways these benefits did take place. With a bit of encouragement from Kelvin, students listened to each other more of the time than before. They also diversified their tasks and responsibilities within each group, and they seemed to learn from each other in the course of preparing projects. Participation in the unit about children's play reached an all-time high in Kelvin's twenty years of teaching at university. Yet even still there were problems. Some groups seemed much more productive than others, and observing them closely suggested that differences were related to ease of communication within groups. In some groups, one or two people dominated conversations unduly. If they listened to others at all, they seemed immediately to forget that they had done so and proceeded to implement their own ideas. In other groups, members all worked hard, but they did not often share ideas or news about each other's progress; essentially they worked independently in spite of belonging to the group. Here, too, Kelvin's experience corroborated other, more systematic observations of communication within classroom work groups (Slavin, 1995). When all groups were planning at the same time, furthermore, communication broke down for a very practical reason: the volume of sound in the classroom got so high that even simple conversation became difficult, let alone the expression of subtle or complex ideas. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/08%3A_The_Nature_of_Classroom_Communication/8.05%3A_Structures_of_Participation-_Effects_on_Communication.txt |
Teachers and students have identifiable styles of talking to each other that linguists call a register. A register is a pattern of vocabulary, grammar, and expressions or comments that people associate with a social role. A familiar example is the "baby-talk" register often used to speak to an infant. Its features— simple repeated words and nonsense syllables, and exaggerated changes in pitch— mark the speaker as an adult and mark the listener as an infant. The classroom language register works the same way; it helps indicate who the teacher is and who the student is. Teachers and students use the register more in some situations than in others, but its use is common enough that most people in our society have no trouble recognizing it when they hear it (Cazden, 2001). In the following scene, for example, the speakers are labeled only with letters of the alphabet; yet figuring out who is the teacher and who are the students is not difficult:
A: All right now, I want your eyes up here. All eyes on me, please. B, are you ready to work? We are going to try a new kind of math problem today. It's called long division. Does anyone know what long division is? C, what do you think it is?
C: Division with bigger numbers?
A: Any other ideas? D?
E (notD): Division by two digits.
A: ...I only call on people who raise their hands. D, can you help with the answer?
D: Division with remainders.
A: Close. Actually you're both partly right.
In this scene Person A must surely be the teacher because he or she uses a lot of procedural and control talk, and because he or she introduces a new curriculum topic, long division. The other Persons (B, C, D, and E) must be students because they only respond to questions, and because they individually say relatively little compared to Person A.
In general, effective classroom communication depends on understanding how features of the classroom talk register like these operate during actual class times. In the following sections therefore we describe details of classroom talk, and then follow with suggestions about how to use the register as effectively as possible. In both of these sections we assume that the better the communication, the better the learning and thinking displayed by students. For convenience we divide classroom talk into two parts, teacher talk and student talk.
How teachers talk
Although teacher talk varies somewhat with the tasks or purposes at hand, it also has uniformities that occur across a range of situations. Using detailed observations of discourse in science activities, for example, Jay Lemke identified all of the following strategies from observations of teachers' classroom talk (1990). Each strategy simultaneously influences the course of discussion and focuses students' attention, and in these ways also helps indirectly to insure appropriate classroom behavior:
Nominating, terminating, and interrupting speakers: Teachers often choose who gets to speak. ("Jose, what do you think about X?"). On the other hand, they often bring an end to a student's turn at speaking or even interrupt the student before he or she finishes. ("Thanks; we need to move on now.")
Marking importance or irrelevance: Teachers sometimes indicate that an idea is important ("That's a good idea, Lyla."). On the other hand, they sometimes also indicate that an idea is not crucial or important ("Your right, but that's not quite the answer I was looking for."), or fully relevant ("We're talking about the book Wuthering Heights, not the movie that you may have seen."). Marking importance and relevance obviously helps a teacher to reinforce key content. But the strategy can also serve to improve relationships among students if the teacher deliberately marks or highlights an idea offered by a quiet or shy student (O'Connor & Michaels, 1996; Cohen, et al., 2004). In that case marking importance can build both a student's confidence and the student's status in the eyes of classmates.
Signaling boundaries between activities: Teachers declare when an activity is over and a new one is starting— an example of the procedural talk that we discussed earlier. ("We need to move on. Put away your spelling and find your math books.") In addition to clarifying procedures, though, signaling boundaries can also insure appropriate classroom behavior. Ending an activity can sometimes help restore order among students who have become overly energetic, and shifting to a new activity can sometimes restore motivation to students who have become bored or tired.
• Asking "test" questions and evaluating students' responses: Teachers often ask test questions— questions to which they already know the answer. Then they evaluate the quality or correctness of the students' answers (Teacher: "How much is 6 x 7 ?" Student: "42." Teacher: "That's right."). Test questions obviously help teachers to assess students' learning, but they also mark the teacher as the expert in the classroom, and therefore as a person entitled to control the flow of discourse.
There are additional features of teacher-talk that are not unique to teachers. These primarily function to make teachers' comments more comprehensible, especially when spoken to a group, but they also help to mark a person who uses them as a teacher (Cazden, 2001; Black, 2004):
Exaggerated changes in pitch: When busy teaching, teachers tend to exaggerate changes in the pitch of their voice— reminiscent of the "sing-song" style of adults when directing speech to infants. Exaggerated pitch changes are especially characteristic of teachers of young students, but they happen at all grade levels.
Careful enunciation: In class teachers tend to speak more slowly, clearly, and carefully than when conversing with a friend. The style makes a speaker sound somewhat formal, especially when combined with formal vocabulary and grammar, mentioned next.
Formal vocabulary and grammar: Teachers tend to use vocabulary and grammar that is more formally polite and correct, and that uses relatively few slang or casual expressions. (Instead of saying "Get out your stuff, they more likely say, "Please get out your materials.") The formality creates a businesslike distance between teachers and students— hopefully one conducive to getting work done, rather than one that seems simply cold or uncaring. The touch of formality also makes teachers sound a bit more intelligent or intellectual than in casual conversation, and in this way reinforces their authority in the classroom.
How students talk
Children and youth also use a characteristic speech register when they are in a classroom and playing the role of students in the presence of a teacher. Their register— student talk— differs somewhat from the teacher's because of their obvious differences in responsibilities, levels of knowledge, and relationships with each other and with the teacher. Student-talk and teacher-talk are similar in that both involve language strategies that guide content and procedures, and that sometimes seek to limit the inappropriate behavior of others. Compared to teachers', though, students' language strategies often pursue these goals a bit more indirectly.
Agenda enforcement: Sometimes students interrupt a discussion to ask about or remind others, and especially the teacher, of an agreed-on agenda. If the teacher tells students to open their text to an incorrect page, for example, a student may raise her hand to correct the teacher— or even do so without raising a hand. This communication strategy is one of more public, direct ways that students influence activities in the classroom, but its power is limited, since it does not create new activities, but simply returns the class to activities agreed on previously.
Digression attempts: During a discussion or activity, a student asks a question or makes a statement that is not relevant to the task at hand. While the teacher is leading students in a discussion of a story that they read, for example, a student raises his hand and asks, "Mr X, when does recess begin?"
Side talk: One student talks to another student, either to be sociable ("Did you see that movie last week?") or to get information needed for the current assigned task ("What page are we on?"). Sometimes side talk also serves to control or limit fellow students' behavior, and in this way functions like control-talk by teachers (as when a student whispers, "Shhh! I'm trying to listen" or "Go ahead and ask her!"). The ability of such talk to influence classmates' behavior is real, but limited, since students generally do not have as much authority as teachers.
Calling out: A student speaks out of turn without being recognized by the teacher. The student's comment may or may not be relevant to the ongoing task or topic, and the teacher may or may not acknowledge or respond to it. Whether ignored or not, however, calling out may change the direction of a discussion by influencing fellow students' thinking or behavior, or by triggering procedural and control talk by the teacher. ("Jason, it's not your turn; I only call on students who raise their hands.")
Answering a question with a question: Instead of answering a teacher's "test" question directly, the student responds with a question other own, either for clarification or as a stalling tactic ("Do you mean X?"). Either way, the effect is to shift the discussion or questioning to content or topics that are safer and more familiar.
Silence: The student says nothing in response to a speaker's comments or to an invitation to speak. The speaker could be either the teacher or a fellow student. The silence makes the speaker less likely to continue the current topic, and more likely to seek a new one.
Eye contact, gaze aversion, and posture: The student looks directly at the teacher while the teacher is speaking, or else deliberately averts gaze. The student may also adopt any variety of postures while sitting (sit up straight vs slouching). As we discussed earlier in this chapter, the timing of eye gaze depends partly on cultural expectations that the student brings to school. But it may also represent a deliberate choice by the student— a message to the teacher and to classmates. The same can be said about sitting posture. In classroom situations, listening is conventionally indicated by looking directly at the teacher, and either sitting up straight or leaning slightly forward. Although these behaviors can be faked, they tend to indicate, and to be taken as, a show of interest in and acceptance of what a speaker is saying. By engaging in or avoiding these behaviors, therefore, students can sometimes influence the length and direction of a discussion or activity. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/08%3A_The_Nature_of_Classroom_Communication/8.06%3A_Communication_Styles_in_the_Classroom.txt |
The various features of classroom talk characterize the communication of most teachers and students, at least when they are in a classroom and "doing school". (Communication outside of school is a different matter: then teachers as well as students may speak, listen, and behave quite differently!) As you might suppose, the extent and balance among the features varies depending on grade level, curriculum area, and personalities of students or teachers. But failing to use a classroom register at all can easily create communication problems. Suppose, for example, that a teacher never asks informal test questions. In that case the teacher will learn much less than otherwise about her students' knowledge of the current material. Then also suppose that a student does not understand teachers' questions as test questions. That student may easily respond in ways that seem disrespectful (Teacher: "How much is 23 x 42?" Student: "I don't know; how much do you think it is?") (Bloome, et al., 2005).
The classroom talk register, then, constrains how communication between teachers and students can take place, but it also gives teachers and students a "language" for talking about teaching and learning. Given this double- edged reality, how can teachers use the classroom talk register to good advantage? How, in particular, can teachers communicate in ways that stimulate more and better thinking and discussion? In the next, final section of the chapter, we offer some suggestions for answering these questions. As you will see, the suggestions often reinforce each other. They are more like a network of ideas, not a list of priorities to be considered or followed in sequence.
Probing for learner understanding
How do you know whether a student understands what you are saying? One clue, of course, is by whether the student is looking at and concentrating on you and your comments. But this clue is not foolproof; we have all had moments of staring at a speaker while daydreaming, only to realize later that we have not heard anything that the speaker said. It is sometimes important, therefore, to probe more actively how much students are actually understanding during lessons or other activities.
Strategies for probing understanding generally involve mixing instruction with conversation (Renshaw, 2004). In explaining a new topic, for example, you can check for understanding by asking preliminary questions connecting the topic to students' prior experiences and knowledge about the topic. Note that this strategy combines qualities of both instruction and conversation, in the sense that it involves combining "test" questions, to which you already know the answer, with real questions, to which you do not. When introducing a science lesson about density to kindergarten children, for example, the teacher might reasonably ask both of the following:
Teacher: Which of these objects that I have do you expect will sink and which ones will float? (A test question— the teacher already will know the answer.)
Teacher: What other things have you seen that float? Or that sink? (A real question— the teacher is asking about their experience and does not know the answer.)
By asking both kinds of questions, the teacher scaffolds the children's learning, or creates a zone of proximal development, which we described in Chapter 2 as part of Vygotsky's theory of learning. Note that this zone has two important features, both of which contribute to children's thinking. One is that it stimulates students' thinking (by asking them questions), and the other is that it creates a supportive and caring atmosphere (by honoring their personal experiences with real questions). The resulting mix of warmth and challenge can be especially motivating (Goldstein, 1999).
When warmth and challenge are both present in a discussion, it sometimes even becomes possible to do what may at first seem risky: calling on individual students randomly without the students' volunteering to speak. In a study of "cold calling" as a technique in university class discussions, the researchers found that students did not find the practice especially stressful or punitive, as the teachers feared they might, and that spontaneous participation in discussion actually improved as a result (Dallimore, et al., 2006). The benefit was most likely to happen, however, when combined with gestures of respect for students, such as warning individuals ahead of class that they might be called on, or allowing students to formulate ideas in small groups before beginning to call on individuals.
Helping students to articulate their ideas and thinking
The classroom talk register is well designed to help students articulate ideas and thoughts, particularly when used in the context of discussion. In addition to the conversational probes, like the ones we described in the previous section, there are other ways to support students in expressing their ideas fully and clearly. One way is for the teacher to check repeatedly on her own understanding of students' contributions as a discussion unfolds. Consider this exchange:
Student (during a class discussion): It seems to me that we all need to learn more climate change.
Teacher: What do you mean by "learn more"? It's a big topic; what parts of it are you thinking about?
Still another strategy for helping students to articulate their ideas is to increase the wait time between when the teacher asks a question and when the teacher expects a student to answer. As we pointed out earlier, wait times that are longer than average— longer than one second, that is— give students more time to formulate ideas and therefore to express themselves more completely and precisely (Good & Brophy, 2002). In addition, longer wait times have the added advantage of indirection: instead of telling a student to say more, the teacher needs only to wait for the student to say more.
In general any communication strategy will help students become more articulate if it both allows and invites further comment and elaboration on their ideas. Taken together, the invitations closely resemble a description of class discussion, though they can actually be used singly at any time during teaching. Consider these possible conversational moves:
• The teacher asks the student to explain his initial idea more completely.
• The teacher rephrases a comment made by a student.
• The teacher compares the student's idea to another, related idea, and asks the student to comment.
• The teacher asks for evidence supporting the student's idea.
• The teacher asks the student how confident he is in his idea.
• The teacher asks another student to comment on the first student's idea.
Promoting academic risk-taking and problem-solving
In Chapter 8 we described major features of problem solving, as well as three techniques that assist in solving problems— problem analysis, working backwards from the beginning, and analogical thinking. While all of the techniques are helpful, they do not work if a student will not take the risk of attempting a solution to a problem in the first place. For various reasons students may sometimes avoid such risks, especially if he or she has sometimes failed at a task in the past, and is therefore concerned about negative evaluations again (Hope & Oliver, 2005).
What can a teacher say or do to counteract such hesitation? There are several strategies, all of which involve focusing attention on the process of doing an activity rather than on its outcome or evaluation.
• Where possible, call attention to the intrinsic interest or satisfaction of an activity. Consider, for example, an elementary-level activity of writing a Japanese haiku— a poem with exactly seventeen syllables. This activity can be satisfying in itself, regardless of how it is evaluated. Casually reminding individuals of this fact can contribute to students' sense of ease about writing the haiku and encourage them indirectly to do better work.
Minimize the importance of grades where possible. This strategy supports the one above; by giving students less to worry about, they become freer to experience the intrinsic satisfactions of an activity. In writing that haiku mentioned above, for example, you can try saying something like: "Don't worry too much about your grade; just do the best you can and you will come out well enough in the end."
Make sure students know that they have ample time to complete an activity. If students need to rush— or merely just thinks they do— then they are more likely to choose the safest, most familiar responses possible.
In writing an amusing story from their early childhood, for example, middle years students may need time to consider and choose among story possibilities. Then they may need additional time to experiment with ways of expressing the story in writing. In this case, to make sure students know that they have such time, try saying something like: "Writing a good story will take time, and you may have to return to it repeatedly. So we will start working on it today, but do not expect to finish today. We'll be coming back to it several
times in the next couple of weeks."
Show that you value unusual ideas and elegant solutions to problems. When a student does something out of the ordinary, show your enthusiasm for it. A visually appealing drawing, a well-crafted essay, a different solution to a math problem than the one you expected— all of these deserve an explicit compliment. Expressing your interest and respect does more than support the specific achievement. It also expresses a more general, underlying message that in your classroom, it is safe and rewarding to find and share the unusual and elegant.
Note that these communication strategies support problem-solving and the related skills of creativity that we discussed in Chapter 8. In describing creativity in that chapter, in particular, we called attention to the difference and importance of divergent (open-ended) thinking. As with problem-solving, though, divergent thinking may seem risky to some students unless they are encouraged to do so explicitly. The strategies for boosting academic risk-taking can help to communicate this encouragement— that process matters more than product, that there will be time enough to work, and that you, as teacher, indeed value their efforts.
Promoting a caring community
A caring community is one in which all members have a respected place, in which diversity among individuals is expected, and in which individuals assist each other with their work or activities wherever appropriate. Classrooms and even entire schools can be caring communities, though moving them in this direction takes work on the part of teachers and other school staff (Noddings, 1992, 2004). The key work in promoting a caring community involves arranging for students to work together on tasks, while at the same time communicating the teacher's commitment to mutual respect among students and between students and teachers. Many of the instructional strategies discussed earlier in this book, such as cooperative learning and inquiry learning (in Chapter 8), therefore contribute to community in the classroom.
More specifically, you can, as a teacher, encourage community by doing any or all of the following:
• Tell students that you value mutual respect, and describe some of the ways that students can show respect for each other and for school staff. Better yet, invite students themselves to describe how they might show respect.
• Look for ways to sustain relationships among students and teachers for extended times. These ways may be easier to find in elementary school, where a teacher and class normally remain together for an entire year, than in middle and secondary school, where students learn from many teachers and teachers teach many students. But still there are ways. Participating in extra-curricular activities (like sports teams or drama club), for example, can sometimes provide settings where relationships develop for relatively long periods of time— even more than a single school year.
• Ask for input from students about what they want to learn, how they want to learn it, and what kind of evaluation they consider fair. Although using their ideas may feel at first as if you are giving up your responsibility as the teacher, asking for students' input indicates respect for students. It is likely that many of their suggestions need clarification or revision to become workable, especially if the class must also cover a particular curriculum during a set time. But even just the asking for input shows respect, and can contribute to community in the classroom.
• If conflicts arise between students or between a student and teacher, encourage respectful communication as explicitly as you can. Some communication strategies about conflict resolution were described in Chapter 7 and are helpful in this regard: identifying true problem ownership, listening actively, assertive (not aggressive) I-messages, and negotiation.
• Find times and ways for the class to experience itself as a community. This suggestion may look a bit vague at first glance, but in practice it is actually quite concrete. Any action builds community if it is carried out by the group as a whole, especially if it is done regularly and repeatedly and if it truly includes every member of the class. Such actions become rituals, not in the negative sense of empty or mindless repetitions, but in the positive sense of confirmations by group members of their commitment to each other (Ehrenreich, 2007). In the elementary grades, an obvious example of a ritual is reciting the Pledge of Allegiance (or its equivalent in classrooms outside the United States). But there are many other examples of classroom routines that gradually acquire the (positive) qualities of ritual or community-affirmation, often without deliberate intention or effort. A daily, regular time to work through homework problems together in class, for example, may serve obvious academic purposes. But it may also gradually contribute to a classroom's identity as a class. With time and familiarity the group homework time may eventually come to represent "who we are" and of "what we do here" for that class. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/08%3A_The_Nature_of_Classroom_Communication/8.07%3A_Using_Classroom_Talk_to_Stimulate_Students_Thinking.txt |
As we have explained in this chapter, teachers and students communicate in multiple, overlapping ways. Communications may often be expressed in words— but not necessarily and not completely. They may be organized into lectures, questions, discussions, or group projects. They tend to be expressed in particular language registers that we have called simply teacher talk and student talk. All things considered, communication obviously serves a wide range of teaching and learning tasks and activities, from stimulating students' thinking, to orchestrating classroom routines, to managing inappropriate behaviors. It is an intrinsic part of the parts of teaching that involve interaction among class members.
Note, though, that teaching consists of more than interaction among class members. There are times when teachers prepare lessons or activities, for example, without talking to students or anyone else. There are also times when they develop their own skills as teachers— for example, by reading and reflecting, or by attending professional development seminars or workshops— which may involve communication, but not in the sense discussed in this chapter. It is to these other parts of teaching that we turn in the next chapter.
8.09: Summary Key Words and References
Chapter summary
Because communication in classrooms is more complex and unpredictable than in many other situations, it is important for teachers to understand its unique features and functions. It is helpful to think of classroom communication as serving a mixture of three purposes at once: content talk, procedural talk, and behavior control talk. It is also helpful to recognize that classroom communication has elements that are not only verbal, but also nonverbal and unintended.
To be effective in using verbal communication, teachers need to use appropriate instructional strategies related to content, such as using advance organizers, relating new information to prior knowledge, and organizing new information on behalf of students. It includes strategies that assist students to communicate, such as inquiry
learning and cooperative learning. To communicate well about procedures and about the behaviors expected of students, teachers need a variety of management techniques, such as those discussed in Chapter 7 and summarized again in Table 19. To be effective in using nonverbal communication, teachers need to use appropriate eye contact, allow ample wait time between speaking turns, and be aware of the effects of social distance on students.
Structures of participation influence communication by facilitating particular patterns of speaking and listening, while at the same time making other patterns less convenient or disapproved. Four common participation structures are lectures, questions-and-answers, classroom discussions, and group work.
Key Terms
Caring community Procedural talk
Class discussions Questions-and-answer
Collaborative group work Register
Communication Social distance
Content talk Student talk register
Control talk Teacher talk register
Eye contact Unintended communication
Lecture Verbal communication
Nonverbal communication Wait time
Participation structures
On the Internet
<https://www.uu.edu/programs/facultydevelopment/effectivestrategiesimproveteachandlearn.pdf > This URL offers tips for enhancing classroom communication. It is part of the more general website for Union University of Jackson, Tennessee.
< https://www.ideaedu.org/research-resources/idea-papers-series/ > This website contains over 40 short papers (1-4 pages each) on a variety of topics, including many related to enhancing communication, but also some related to classroom organization and management in general. Some of the papers refer to college or university teaching, but many are quite relevant to public school teaching.
<https://web.archive.org/web/20090129204639/http://www.fhsu.edu/~zhrepic/Teaching/GenEducation/nonverbcom/nonverbcom.htm> This website contains a thorough discussion of nonverbal communication— more detailed than possible in this chapter, and with photos and drawings to illustrate key points. It is an image of the original in the Internet Archive
< https://www.responsiveclassroom.org/ > This website contains many resources, among which are articles about classroom management and communication, including nonverbal communication. It is intended strictly for public school teachers. Once you get to the homepage, click on their "Newsletter" for the articles. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/08%3A_The_Nature_of_Classroom_Communication/8.08%3A_The_Bottom_Line-_Messages_Sent_Messages_Reconstructed.txt |
A few years ago one of us (Kelvin) had the privilege of co-teaching with an experienced first grade teacher, Carolyn Eaton. As part of a research project, Ms Eaton allowed some of her reading lessons to be observed. Here is what Kelvin saw when Ms Eaton was having a conference with Joey. They are reading a book "together", except that Ms Eaton wants Joey to do as much reading as possible himself. Joey's comments are capitalized, and Ms Eaton's are in lowercase.
JOEY: FIRST YOU READ-THEN ME. THIS IS WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO. I READ AFTER YOU, OK?
Ms Eaton: OK. [Ms Eaton begins.] "In the great green room there was a telephone, a red balloon, and a picture of..." Are you going to read, or what?
YES.
"In the great green room there was..." Are you ready yet? Ready to read?
OK. "IN THE GREAT GREEN ROOM. . . "
"...there was..."
"THERE WAS A..." [pauses, looking at Ms Eaton rather than at the words]
"...a telephone..."
YES, THAT'S IT, A TELEPHONE! "IN THE GREAT GREEN ROOM THERE WAS A TELEPHONE, A RED BALLOON..."
"and a picture of..."
"AND A PICTURE OF" [pauses, staring at the wall]. .A COW JUMPING?"
"a cow jumping over the moon".
"OVER MOON" [smiles from both Joey and Ms Eaton].
Joey, what does this say? [She points to the word telephone.]
"THERE WAS A TELEPHONE".
How about here? [She points to next page, which reads "And there were three little bears, sitting on chairs".]
"THERE WERE BEARS, THREE BEARS, AND THEY SAT ON CHAIRS".
Can you read the whole book?
SURE!
OK, then you start this time.
[Joey looks at first page, alternately at the picture and at the words.]
"IN THE GREAT GREENROOM THERE WAS A TELEPHONE".
[Actual text: "In the great green room, there was a telephone",]
"AND THERE WAS A RED BALLOON",
[Actual text: "...and a red balloon",]
"AND A PICTURE OF THE COW JUMPING OVER THE MOON".
[Actual text: "...and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon".]
"AND THERE WERE..." THREE BEARS?... "LITTLE BEARS SITTING ON CHAIRS".
[Actual text: "And there were three little bears, sitting on chairs,..."]
Could you read this book with you eyes closed?
SURE; WANT TO SEE ME DO IT?!
Well, not right now; maybe another time. Could you read it without the pictures, just looking at the words? That's how I do best— when I see the words instead of the pictures.
[Joey pauses to consider this.] MAYBE, BUT NOT QUITE SO WELL.
Let's try it. [Ms Eaton proceeds to copy the words on a large sheet for Joey to "read" later.]
As Carolyn Eaton's behavior suggests, there are decisions to make "on the fly", even during the very act of teaching. Ms Eaton wonders when to challenge Joey, and when to support him. She also wonders when to pause and ask Joey to take stock of what he has read, and when to move him on ahead— when to consolidate a student's learning, and when to nudge the student forward. These are questions about instructional strategies which facilitate complex learning, either directly or indirectly. In this chapter we review as many strategies as space allows, in order to give a sense of the major instructional options and of their effects. We concentrate especially on two broad categories of instruction, which we call direct instruction and student-centered instruction. As we hope that you will see, each approach to teaching is useful for certain purposes. We begin, though, by looking at the ways students think, or at least how teachers would like students to think. What does it mean for students to think critically (astutely or logically)? Or to think creatively? Or to be skillful problem solvers? Forms of thinking lead to choices among instructional strategies.
9.02: Forms of Thinking Associated with Classroom Learning
Although instructional strategies differ in their details, they each encourage particular forms of learning and thinking. The forms have distinctive educational purposes, even though they sometimes overlap, in the sense that one form may contribute to success with another form. Consider three somewhat complex forms of thinking that are commonly pursued in classroom learning: (l) critical thinking, (2) creative thinking, and (3) problem-solving. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/09%3A_Facilitating_Complex_Thinking/9.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Critical thinking
Critical thinking requires skill at analyzing the reliability and validity of information, as well as the attitude or disposition to do so. The skill and attitude may be displayed with regard to a particular subject matter or topic, but in principle it can occur in any realm of knowledge (Halpern, 2003; Williams, Oliver, & Stockade, 2004). A critical thinker does not necessarily have a negative attitude in the everyday sense of constantly criticizing someone or something. Instead, he or she can be thought of as astute: the critical thinker asks key questions, evaluates the evidence for ideas, reasons for problems both logically and objectively, and expresses ideas and conclusions clearly and precisely. Last (but not least), the critical thinker can apply these habits of mind in more than one realm of life or knowledge.
With such a broad definition, it is not surprising that educators have suggested a variety of specific cognitive skills as contributing to critical thinking. In one study, for example, the researcher found how critical thinking can be reflected in regard to a published article was stimulated by annotation— writing questions and comments in the margins of the article (Liu, 2006). In this study, students were initially instructed in ways of annotating reading materials. Later, when the students completed additional readings for assignments, it was found that some students in fact used their annotation skills much more than others— some simply underlined passages, for example, with a highlighting pen. When essays written about the readings were later analyzed, the ones written by the annotators were found to be more well reasoned— more critically astute— than the essays written by the other students.
In another study, on the other hand, a researcher found that critical thinking can also involve oral discussion of personal issues or dilemmas (Hawkins, 2006). In this study, students were asked to verbally describe a recent, personal incident that disturbed them. Classmates then discussed the incident together in order to identify the precise reasons why the incident was disturbing, as well as the assumptions that the student made in describing the incident. The original student— the one who had first told the story— then used the results of the group discussion to frame a topic for a research essay. In one story of a troubling incident, a student told of a time when a store clerk has snubbed or rejected the student during a recent shopping errand. Through discussion, classmates decided that an assumption underlying the student's disturbance was her suspicion that she had been a victim of racial profiling based on her skin color. The student then used this idea as the basis for a research essay on the topic of "racial profiling in retail stores". The oral discussion thus stimulated critical thinking in the student and the classmates, but it also relied on their prior critical thinking skills at the same time.
Notice that in both of these research studies, as in others like them, what made the thinking "critical" was students' use of metacognition— strategies for thinking about thinking and for monitoring the success and quality of one's own thinking. This concept was discussed in Chapter 2 as a feature of constructivist views about learning. There we pointed out that when students acquire experience in building their own knowledge, they also become skilled both at knowing how they learn, and at knowing whether they have learned something well. These are two defining qualities of metacognition, but they are part of critical thinking as well. In fostering critical thinking, a teacher is really fostering a student's ability to construct or control his or her own thinking and to avoid being controlled by ideas unreflectively.
How best to teach critical thinking remains a matter of debate. One issue is whether to infuse critical skills into existing courses or to teach them through separate, free-standing units or courses. The first approach has the potential advantage of integrating critical thinking into students' entire educations. But it risks diluting students' understanding and use of critical thinking simply because critical thinking takes on a different form in each learning context. Its details and appearance vary among courses and teachers. The free-standing approach has the opposite qualities: it stands a better chance of being understood clearly and coherently, but at the cost of obscuring how it is related to other courses, tasks, and activities. This dilemma is the issue— again— of transfer, discussed in Chapter 2. Unfortunately, research to compare the different strategies for teaching critical thinking does not settle the matter. The research suggests simply that either infusion or free-standing approaches can work as long as it is implemented thoroughly and teachers are committed to the value of critical thinking (Halpern, 2003).
A related issue about teaching critical thinking is about deciding who needs to learn critical thinking skills the most. Should it be all students, or only some of them? Teaching all students seems the more democratic alternative and thus appropriate for educators. Surveys have found, however, that teachers sometimes favor teaching of critical thinking only to high-advantage students— the ones who already achieve well, who come from relatively high- income families, or (for high school students) who take courses intended for university entrance (Warburton & Torff, 2005). Presumably the rationale for this bias is that high- advantage students can benefit and/or understand and use critical thinking better than other students. Yet, there is little research evidence to support this idea, even if it were not ethically questionable. The study by Hawkins (2006) described above, for example, is that critical thinking was fostered even with students considered low-advantage.
Creative thinking
Creativity is the ability to make or do something new that is also useful or valued by others (Gardner, 1993). The "something" can be an object (like an essay or painting), a skill (like playing an instrument), or an action (like using a familiar tool in a new way). To be creative, the object, skill, or action cannot simply be bizarre or strange; it cannot be new without also being useful or valued, and not simply be the result of accident. If a person types letters at random that form a poem by chance, the result may be beautiful, but it would not be creative by the definition above. Viewed this way, creativity includes a wide range of human experience that many people, if not everyone, have had at some time or other (Kaufman & Baer, 2006). The experience is not restricted to a few geniuses, nor exclusive to specific fields or activities like art or the composing of music.
Especially important for teachers are two facts. The first is that an important form of creativity is creative thinking, the generation of ideas that are new as well as useful, productive, and appropriate. The second is that creative thinking can be stimulated by teachers' efforts. Teachers can, for example, encourage students' divergent thinking— ideas that are open-ended and that lead in many directions (Torrance, 1992; Kim, 2006). Divergent thinking is stimulated by open-ended questions— questions with many possible answers, such as the following:
• How many uses can you think of for a cup?
• Draw a picture that somehow incorporates all of these words: cat, fire engine, and banana.
• What is the most unusual use you can think of for a shoe?
Note that answering these questions creatively depends partly on having already acquired knowledge about the objects to which the questions refer. In this sense divergent thinking depends partly on its converse, convergent thinking, which is focused, logical reasoning about ideas and experiences that lead to specific answers. Up to a point, then, developing students' convergent thinking— as schoolwork often does by emphasizing mastery of content— facilitates students' divergent thinking indirectly, and hence also their creativity (Sternberg, 2003; Runco, 2004; Cropley, 2006). But carried to extremes, excessive emphasis on convergent thinking may discourage creativity.
Whether in school or out, creativity seems to flourish best when the creative activity is its own intrinsic reward, and a person is relatively unconcerned with what others think of the results. Whatever the activity— composing a song, writing an essay, organizing a party, or whatever— it is more likely to be creative if the creator focuses on and enjoys the activity in itself, and thinks relatively little about how others may evaluate the activity (Brophy, 2004). Unfortunately, encouraging students to ignore others' responses can sometimes pose a challenge for teachers. Not only is it the teachers' job to evaluate students' learning of particular ideas or skills, but also they have to do so within restricted time limits of a course or a school year. In spite of these constraints, though, creativity still can be encouraged in classrooms at least some of the time (Claxton, Edwards, & Scale-Constantinou, 2006). Suppose, for example, that students have to be assessed on their understanding and use of particular vocabulary. Testing their understanding may limit creative thinking; students will understandably focus their energies on learning "right" answers for the tests. But assessment does not have to happen constantly. There can also be times to encourage experimentation with vocabulary through writing poems, making word games, or in other thought-provoking ways. These activities are all potentially creative. To some extent, therefore, learning content and experimenting or playing with content can both find a place— in fact one of these activities can often support the other. We return to this point later in this chapter, when we discuss student-centered strategies of instruction, such as cooperative learning and play as a learning medium. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/09%3A_Facilitating_Complex_Thinking/9.03%3A_Critical_Thinking_and_Creative_Thinking.txt |
Somewhat less open-ended than creative thinking is problem solving, the analysis and solution of tasks or situations that are complex or ambiguous and that pose difficulties or obstacles of some kind (Mayer & Wittrock, 2006). Problem solving is needed, for example, when a physician analyzes a chest X-ray: a photograph of the chest is far from clear and requires skill, experience, and resourcefulness to decide which foggy-looking blobs to ignore, and which to interpret as real physical structures (and therefore real medical concerns). Problem solving is also needed when a grocery store manager has to decide how to improve the sales of a product: should she put it on sale at a lower price, or increase publicity for it, or both? Will these actions actually increase sales enough to pay for their costs?
Problem solving in the classroom
Problem solving happens in classrooms when teachers present tasks or challenges that are deliberately complex and for which finding a solution is not straightforward or obvious. The responses of students to such problems, as well as the strategies for assisting them, show the key features of problem solving. Consider this example, and students' responses to it. We have numbered and named the paragraphs to make it easier to comment about them individually:
A teacher gave these instructions: "Can you connect all of the dots below using only four straight lines?" She drew the following display on the chalkboard:
The problem itself and the procedure for solving it seemed very clear: simply experiment with different arrangements of four lines. But two volunteers tried doing it at the board, but were unsuccessful. Several others worked at it at their seats, but also without success.
Scene #2: coaxing students to re-frame the problem
When no one seemed to be getting it, the teacher asked, "Think about how you've set up the problem in your mind— about what you believe the problem is about. For instance, have you made any assumptions about how long the lines ought to be? Don't stay stuck on one approach if it's not working!"
Scene #3: Alicia abandons a fixed response
After the teacher said this, Alicia indeed continued to think about how she saw the problem. "The lines need to be no longer than the distance across the square," she said to herself. So she tried several more solutions, but none of them worked either.
The teacher walked by Alicia's desk and saw what Alicia was doing. She repeated her earlier comment: "Have you assumed anything about how long the lines ought to be?" Alicia stared at the teacher blankly, but then smiled and said, "Hmm! You didn't actually say that the lines could be no longer than the matrix! Why not make them longer?" Soshe experimented again using oversized lines and soon discovered a solution:
Scene #4: Willem's and Rachel's alternative strategies
Meanwhile, Willem worked on the problem. As it happened, Willem loved puzzles of all kinds, and had ample experience with them. He had not, however, seen this particular problem. "It must be a trick," he said to himself, because he knew from experience that problems posed in this way often were not what they first appeared to be. He mused to himself: "Think outside the box, they always tell you..." And that was just the hint he needed: he drew lines outside the box by making them longer than the matrix and soon came up with this solution:
When Rachel went to work, she took one look at the problem and knew the answer immediately: she had seen this problem before, though she could not remember where. She had also seen other drawing -related puzzles, and knew that their solution always depended on making the lines longer, shorter, or differently angled than first expected. After staring at the dots briefly, she drew a solution faster than Alicia or even Willem. Her solution looked exactly like Willem's.
This story illustrates two common features of problem solving: the effect of degree of structure or constraint on problem solving, and the effect of mental obstacles to solving problems. The next sections discuss each of these features, and then looks at common techniques for solving problems.
The effect of constraints: well-structured versus ill-structured problems
Problems vary in how much information they provide for solving a problem, as well as in how many rules or procedures are needed for a solution. A well-structured problem provides much of the information needed and can in principle be solved using relatively few clearly understood rules. Classic examples are the word problems often taught in math lessons or classes: everything you need to know is contained within the stated problem and the solution procedures are relatively clear and precise. An ill-structured problem has the converse qualities: the information is not necessarily within the problem, solution procedures are potentially quite numerous, and a multiple solutions are likely (Voss, 2006). Extreme examples are problems like "How can the world achieve lasting peace?" or "How can teachers insure that students learn?"
By these definitions, the nine-dot problem is relatively well-structured— though not completely. Most of the information needed for a solution is provided in Scene #1 : there are nine dots shown and instructions given to draw four lines. But not all necessary information was given: students needed to consider lines that were longer than implied in the original statement of the problem. Students had to "think outside the box", as Willem said— in this case, literally.
When a problem is well-structured, so are its solution procedures likely to be as well. A well-defined procedure for solving a particular kind of problem is often called an algorithm; examples are the procedures for multiplying or dividing two numbers or the instructions for using a computer (Leiserson, et al., 2001). Algorithms are only effective when a problem is very well-structured and there is no question about whether the algorithm is an appropriate choice for the problem. In that situation it pretty much guarantees a correct solution. They do not work well, however, with ill-structured problems, where they are ambiguities and questions about how to proceed or even about precisely what the problem is about. In those cases it is more effective to use heuristics, which are general strategies— "rules of thumb", so to speak— that do not always work, but often do, or that provide at least partial solutions. When beginning research for a term paper, for example, a useful heuristic is to scan the library catalogue for titles that look relevant. There is no guarantee that this strategy will yield the books most needed for the paper, but the strategy works enough of the time to make it worth trying.
In the nine-dot problem, most students began in Scene #1 with a simple algorithm that can be stated like this: "Draw one line, then draw another, and another, and another". Unfortunately this simple procedure did not produce a solution, so they had to find other strategies for a solution. Three alternatives are described in Scenes #3 (for Alicia) and 4 (for Willem and Rachel). Of these, Willem's response resembled a heuristic the most: he knew from experience that a good general strategy that often worked for such problems was to suspect a deception or trick in how the problem was originally stated. So he set out to question what the teacher had meant by the word line, and came up with an acceptable solution as a result.
Common obstacles to solving problems
The example also illustrates two common problems that sometimes happen during problem solving. One of these is functional fixedness: a tendency to regard the functions of objects and ideas as fixed (German & Barrett, 2005). Over time, we get so used to one particular purpose for an object that we overlook other uses. We may think of a dictionary, for example, as necessarily something to verify spellings and definitions, but it also can function as a gift, a doorstop, or a footstool. For students working on the nine-dot matrix described in the last section, the notion of "drawing" a line was also initially fixed; they assumed it to be connecting dots but not extending lines beyond the dots. Functional fixedness sometimes is also called response set, the tendency for a person to frame or think about each problem in a series in the same way as the previous problem, even when doing so is not appropriate to later problems. In the example of the nine-dot matrix described above, students often tried one solution after another, but each solution was constrained by a set response not to extend any line beyond the matrix.
Functional fixedness and the response set are obstacles in problem representation, the way that a person understands and organizes information provided in a problem. If information is misunderstood or used inappropriately, then mistakes are likely— if indeed the problem can be solved at all. With the nine-dot matrix problem, for example, construing the instruction to draw four lines as meaning "draw four lines entirely within the matrix" means that the problem simply could not be solved. For another, consider this problem: "The number of water lilies on a lake doubles each day. Each water lily covers exactly one square foot. If it takes 100 days for the lilies to cover the lake exactly, how many days does it take for the lilies to cover exactly half of the lake?" If you think that the size of the lilies affects the solution to this problem, you have not represented the problem correctly. Information about lily size is not relevant to the solution, and only serves to distract from the truly crucial information, the fact that the lilies double their coverage each day. (The answer, incidentally, is that the lake is half covered in 99 days; can you think why?)
Strategies to assist problem solving
Just as there are cognitive obstacles to problem solving, there are also general strategies that help the process be successful, regardless of the specific content of a problem (Thagard, 2005). One helpful strategy is problem analysis— identifying the parts of the problem and working on each part separately. Analysis is especially useful when a problem is ill-structured. Consider this problem, for example: "Devise a plan to improve bicycle transportation in the city." Solving this problem is easier if you identify its parts or component subproblems, such as (1) installing bicycle lanes on busy streets, (2) educating cyclists and motorists to ride safely, (3) fixing potholes on streets used by cyclists, and (4) revising traffic laws that interfere with cycling. Each separate subproblem is more manageable than the original, general problem. The solution of each subproblem contributes the solution of the whole, though of course is not equivalent to a whole solution.
Another helpful strategy is working backward from a final solution to the originally stated problem. This approach is especially helpful when a problem is well-structured but also has elements that are distracting or misleading when approached in a forward, normal direction. The water lily problem described above is a good example: starting with the day when all the lake is covered (Day 100), ask what day would it therefore be half covered (by the terms of the problem, it would have to be the day before, or Day 99). Working backward in this case encourages reframing the extra information in the problem (i. e. the size of each water lily) as merely distracting, not as crucial to a solution.
A third helpful strategy is analogical thinking— using knowledge or experiences with similar features or structures to help solve the problem at hand (Bassok, 2003). In devising a plan to improve bicycling in the city, for example, an analogy of cars with bicycles is helpful in thinking of solutions: improving conditions for both vehicles requires many of the same measures (improving the roadways, educating drivers). Even solving simpler, more basic problems is helped by considering analogies. A first grade student can partially decode unfamiliar printed words by analogy to words he or she has learned already. If the child cannot yet read the word screen, for example, he can note that part of this word looks similar to words he may already know, such as seen or green, and from this observation derive a clue about how to read the word screen. Teachers can assist this process, as you might expect, by suggesting reasonable, helpful analogies for students to consider.
9.05: Broad Instructional Strategies that Stimulate Complex Thinking
Because the forms of thinking just described— critical thinking, creativity and problem solving— are broad and important educationally, it is not surprising that educators have identified strategies to encourage their development. Some of the possibilities are shown in Table 24 and group several instructional strategies along two dimensions: how much the strategy is student-centered and how much a strategy depends on group interaction. It should be emphasized that the two-way classification in Table 24 is not very precise, but it gives a useful framework for understanding the options available for planning and implementing instruction. The more important of the two dimensions in the table is the first one— the extent to which an instructional strategy is either directed by the teacher or initiated by students. We take a closer look at this dimension in the next part of this chapter, followed by discussion of group-oriented teaching strategies.
Table \(1\): Major instructional strategies grouped by level of teacher direction and student focus
Directed by student(s) more
Emphasizes groups somewhat more
Cooperative learning
Inquiry
Discovery Learning
Self-reflection
Independent study
Concept maps
Emphasizes individuals somewhat more
Lectures Mastery learning
Direct instruction Textbook readings
Madeline Hunter’s “Effective Teaching” Advance organizers
Outlining
Recalling, relating, and elaborating
Directed by teacher more
Definitions of Terms in Table \(1\):
Lecture – Telling or explaining previously organized information—usually to a group
Assigned reading – Reading, usually individually, of previously organized information
Advance organizers – Brief overview, either verbally or graphically, of material about to be covered in a lecture or text
Outlining – Writing important points of a lecture or reading, usually in a hierarchical format
Taking notes – Writing important points of a lecture or reading, often organized according to the learning needs of an individual student
Concept maps – Graphic depiction of relationships among a set of concepts, terms, or ideas; usually organized by the student, but not always
Madeline Hunter’s “Effective Teaching” – A set of strategies that emphasizes clear presentation of goals, the explanation and modeling of tasks to students and careful monitoring of students’ progress toward the goals | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/09%3A_Facilitating_Complex_Thinking/9.04%3A_Problem-Solving.txt |
As the name implies, teacher-directed instruction includes any strategies initiated and guided primarily by the teacher. A classic example is exposition or lecturing (simply telling or explaining important information to students) combined with assigning reading from texts. But teacher-directed instruction also includes strategies that involve more active response from students, such as encouraging students to elaborate on new knowledge or to explain how new information relates to prior knowledge. Whatever their form, teacher-directed instructional methods normally include the organizing of information on behalf of students, even if teachers also expect students to organize it further on their own. Sometimes, therefore, teacher-directed methods are thought of as transmitting knowledge from teacher to student as clearly and efficiently as possible, even if they also require mental work on the part of the student.
Lectures and readings
Lectures and readings are traditional staples of educators, particularly with older students (including university students). At their best, they pre-organize information so that (at least in theory) the student only has to remember what was said in the lecture or written in the text in order to begin understanding it (Exley & Dennick, 2004). Their limitation is the ambiguity of the responses they require: listening and reading are by nature quiet and stationary, and do not in themselves indicate whether a student is comprehending or even attending to the material. Educators sometimes complain that "students are too passive" during lectures or when reading. But physical quietness is intrinsic to these activities, not to the students who do them. A book just sits still, after all, unless a student makes an effort to read it, and a lecture may not be heard unless a student makes the effort to listen to it.
Advance organizers
In spite of these problems, there are strategies for making lectures and readings effective. A teacher can be especially careful about organizing information for students, and she can turn part of the mental work over to students themselves. An example of the first approach is the use of advance organizers— brief overviews or introductions to new material before the material itself is presented (Ausubel, 1978). Textbook authors (including ourselves) often try deliberately to insert periodic advance organizers to introduce new sections or chapters in the text. When used in a lecture, advance organizers are usually statements in the form of brief introductory remarks, though sometimes diagrams showing relationships among key ideas can also serve the same purpose (Robinson, et al., 2003). Whatever their form, advance organizers partially organize the material on behalf of the students, so that they know where to put it all, so to speak, as they learn them in more detail.
Recalling and relating prior knowledge
Another strategy for improving teacher-directed instruction is to encourage students to relate the new material to prior familiar knowledge. When one of us (Kelvin) first learned a foreign language (in his case French), for example, he often noticed similarities between French and English vocabulary. A French word for picture, for example, was image, spelled exactly as it is in English. The French word for splendid was splendide, spelled almost the same as in English, though not quite. Relating the French vocabulary to English vocabulary helped in learning and remembering the French.
As children and youth become more experienced in their academics, they tend to relate new information to previously learned information more frequently and automatically (Goodwin, 1999; Oakhill, Hartt, & Samols, 2005). But teachers can also facilitate students' use of this strategy. When presenting new concepts or ideas, the teacher can relate them to previously learned ideas deliberately— essentially modeling a memory strategy that students learn to use for themselves. In a science class, for example, she can say, "This is another example of..., which we studied before"; in social studies she can say, "Remember what we found out last time about the growth of the railroads? We saw that..."
If students are relatively young or are struggling academically, it is especially important to remind them of their prior knowledge. Teachers can periodically ask questions like "What do you already know about this topic?" or "How will your new knowledge about this topic change what you know already?" Whatever the age of students, connecting new with prior knowledge is easier with help from someone more knowledgeable, such as the teacher. When learning algorithms for multiplication, for example, students may not at first see how multiplication is related to addition processes which they probably learned previously (Burns, 2001). But if a teacher takes time to explain the relationship and to give students time to explore it, then the new skill of multiplication may be learned more easily.
Elaborating information
Elaborating new information means asking questions about the new material, inferring ideas and relationships among the new concepts. Such strategies are closely related to the strategy of recalling prior knowledge as discussed above: elaboration enriches the new information and connects it to other knowledge. In this sense elaboration makes the new learning more meaningful and less arbitrary.
A teacher can help students use elaboration by modeling this behavior. The teacher can interrupt his or her explanation of an idea, for example, by asking how it relates to other ideas, or by speculating about where the new concept or idea may lead. He or she can also encourage students to do the same, and even give students questions to guide their thinking. When giving examples of a concept, for example, a teacher can hold back from offering all of the examples, and instead ask students to think of additional examples themselves. The same tactic can work with assigned readings; if the reading includes examples, the teacher can instruct students to find or make up additional examples of their own.
Organizing new information
There are many ways to organize new information that are especially well-suited to teacher-directed instruction. A common way is simply to ask students to outline information read in a text or heard in a lecture. Outlining works especially well when the information is already organized somewhat hierarchically into a series of main topics, each with supporting subtopics or subpoints. Outlining is basically a form of the more general strategy of taking notes, or writing down key ideas and terms from a reading or lecture. Research studies find that that the precise style or content of notes is less important that the quantity of notes taken: more detail is usually better than less (Ward & Tatsukawa, 2003). Written notes insure that a student thinks about the material not only while writing it down, but also when reading the notes later. These benefits are especially helpful when students are relatively inexperienced at school learning in general (as in the earlier grade levels), or relatively inexperienced about a specific topic or content in particular. Not surprisingly, such students may also need more guidance than usual about what and how to write notes. It can be helpful for the teacher to provide a note-taking guide, like the ones shown in Exhibit \(1\).
Exhibit \(1\): Two Note Taking Guides
`Notes on Science Experiment`
`Guide to Notes About Tale of Two Cities`
1. Purpose of the experiment (in one sentence):
1. Equipment needed (list each item and define any special terms):
1)
2)
3)
4)
1. Procedure used (be specific!):
4.
1. Results (include each measurement, rounded to the nearest integer):
Observation #1
Observation #2
Observation #3
Observation #4
Average measurement, #1-4:
1. Main characters (list and describe in just a few words):
a)
b)
c)
d)
1. Setting of the story (time and place):
1. Unfamiliar vocabulary in the story (list and define):
a)
b)
c)
d)
4. Plot (write down only the main events):
a)
b)
c)
d)
1. Theme (or underlying “message”) of the story
In learning expository material, another helpful strategy— one that is more visually oriented— is to make concept maps, or diagrams of the connections among concepts or ideas. Exhibit 10 shows concept maps made by two individuals that graphically depict how a key idea, child development, relates to learning and education. One of the maps was drawn by a classroom teacher and the other by a university professor of psychology (Seifert, 1991). They suggest possible differences in how the two individuals think about children and their development. Not surprisingly, the teacher gave more prominence to practical concerns (for example, classroom learning and child abuse), and the professor gave more prominence to theoretical ones (for example, Erik Erikson and Piaget). The differences suggest that these two people may have something different in mind when they use the same term, child development. The differences have the potential to create misunderstandings between them (Seifert, 1999; Super & Harkness, 2003). By the same token, the two maps also suggest what each person might need to learn in order to achieve better understanding of the other person's thinking and ideas.
Mastery learning
This term refers to an instructional approach in which all students learn material to an identically high level, even if some students require more time than others to do so (Gentile, 2004). In mastery learning, the teacher directs learning, though sometimes only in the sense of finding, writing, and orchestrating specific modules or units for students to learn. In one typical mastery learning program, the teacher introduces a few new concepts or topics through a brief lecture or teacher-led demonstration. Then she gives an ungraded assignment or test immediately in order to assess how well students have learned the material, and which ones still need help. The students who have already learned the unit are given enrichment activities. Those needing more help are provided individual tutoring or additional self-guiding materials that clarify the initial content; they work until they have in fact mastered the content (hence the name mastery learning). At that point students take another test or do another assignment to show that they have in fact learned the material to the expected high standard. When the system is working well, all students end up with high scores or grades, although usually some take longer to do so than others.
As you might suspect, mastery learning poses two challenges. The first is ethical: is it really fair to give enrichment only to faster students and remediation only to slower students? This practice could deteriorate into continually providing the fast with an interesting education, while continually providing the slow only with boring, repetitious material. In using the approach, therefore, it is important to make all materials interesting, whether enrichment or remedial. It is also important to make sure that the basic learning goals of each unit are truly important— even crucial— for everyone to learn, so that even slower individuals spend their time well.
The other challenge of mastery learning is more practical: the approach makes strong demands for detailed, highly organized curriculum. If the approach is to work, the teacher must either locate such a curriculum, write one herself, or assemble a suitable mixture of published and self-authored materials. However the curriculum is created, the end result has to be a program filled with small units of study as well as ample enrichment and remedial materials. Sometimes providing these practical requirements can be challenging. But not always: some subjects (like mathematics) lend themselves to detailed, sequential organization especially well. In many cases, too, commercial publishers have produced curricula already organized for use in mastery learning programs (Fox, 2004).
Direct instruction
Although the term direct instruction is sometimes a synonym for teacher-directed instruction, more often it refers to a version of mastery learning that is highly scripted, meaning that it not only organizes the curriculum into small modules or units as described above, but also dictates how teachers should teach and sometimes even the words they should speak (Adams & Engelmann, 1996; Magliaro, Lockee, & Burton, 2005). Direct instruction programs are usually based on a mix of ideas from behaviorism and cognitive theories of learning. In keeping with behaviorism, the teacher is supposed to praise students immediately and explicitly when they give a correct answer. In keeping with cognitive theory, she is supposed to state learning objectives in advance of teaching them (providing a sort of mini-advance organizer), provide frequent reviews of materials, and check deliberately on how well students are learning. Direct instruction usually also introduces material in small, logical steps, and calls for plenty of time for students to practice.
Direct instruction programs share one of the challenges of other mastery learning approaches: because they hold all students to the same high standard of achievement, they must deal with differences in how long students require to reach the standard. But direct instruction has an additional challenge, in that they often rely on small-group interaction more heavily than other mastery learning programs, and use self-guiding materials less. This difference has the benefit that direct instruction works especially well with younger students (especially kindergarten through third grade), who may have limited skills at working alone for extended periods. The challenge is that reliance on small-group interaction can make it impractical to use direct instruction with an entire class or for an entire school day. In spite of these limits, however, research has found direct instruction to be very effective in teaching basic skills such as early reading and arithmetic (Adams & Engelmann, 1996).
Madeline Hunter's effective teaching model
A number of direct instruction strategies have been combined by Madeline Hunter into a single, relatively comprehensive approach that she calls mastery teaching (not to be confused with the related term mastery learning) or the effective teaching model (M. Hunter, 1982; R. Hunter, 2004). Important features of the model are summarized in Table \(1\). As you can see, the features span all phases of contact with students— before, during, and after lessons.
Table \(1\): Madeline Hunter’s “Effective Teaching Model”
Prepare students to learn.
• Make good use of time at the beginning of a lesson or activity, when attention is best
• Direct students’ attention to what lies ahead in a lesson—for example, by offering “advance organizers”
• Explain lesson objectives explicitly
Present information clearly and explicitly.
• Set a basic structure to the lesson and stay with it throughout
• Use familiar terms and examples
• Be concise
Check for understanding and give guided practice.
• Ask questions that everyone responds to—for example, “Raise your hand if you think the answer is X”
• Invite choral responses—for example, “Is this a correct answer or not?”
• Sample individuals’ understanding—for example, “Barry, what’s your example of X?”
Provide for independent practice.
• Work through the first few exercises or problems together
• Keep independent practice periods brief and intersperse with discussions that offer feedback
Source: R. Hunter, 2004
What happens even before a lesson begins? Like many forms of teacher-directed instruction, the effective teaching model requires curricula and learning goals that are tightly organized and divisible into small parts, ideas, or skills. In teaching about photosynthesis, for example, the teacher (or at least her curriculum) needs to identify the basic elements that contribute to this process, and how they relate to each other. With photosynthesis, the elements include the sun, plants, animals, chlorophyll, oxygen produced by plants and consumed by animals, and carbon dioxide that produced by animals and consumed by plants. The roles of these elements need to be identified and expressed at a level appropriate for the students. With advanced science students, oxygen, chlorophyll, and carbon dioxide may be expressed as part of complex chemical reactions; with first-grade students, though, they may be expressed simply as parts of a process akin to breathing or respiration.
Once this analysis of the curriculum has been done, the Hunter's effective teaching model requires making the most of the lesson time by creating an anticipatory set, which is an activity that focuses or orients the attention of students to the upcoming content. Creating an anticipatory set may consist, for example, of posing one or more questions about students' everyday knowledge or knowledge of prior lessons. In teaching about differences between fruits and vegetables, the teacher could start by asking: "If you are making a salad strictly of fruit, which of these would be OK to use: apple, tomato, cucumber, or orange?" As the lesson proceeds, information needs to be offered in short, logical pieces, using language as familiar as possible to the students. Examples should be plentiful and varied: if the purpose is to define and distinguish fruits and vegetables, for example, then features defining each group should be presented singularly or at most just a few at a time, with clear-cut examples presented of each feature. Sometimes models or analogies also help to explain examples. A teacher can say: "Think of a fruit as a sort of 'decoration' on the plant, because if you pick it, the plant will go on living." But models can also mislead students if they are not used thoughtfully, since they may contain features that differ from the original concepts. In likening a fruit to a decoration, for example, students may overlook the essential role of fruit in plant reproduction, or think that lettuce qualifies as a fruit, since picking a few lettuce leaves does not usually kill a lettuce plant.
Throughout a lesson, the teacher repeatedly checks for understanding by asking questions that call for active thinking on the part of students. One way is to require all students to respond somehow, either with an actual choral response (speaking in unison together), another way with a non-verbal signal like raising hands to indicate answers to questions. In teaching about fruits and vegetables, for example, a teacher can ask, "Here's a list of fruits and vegetables. As I point to each one, raise your hand if it's a fruit, but not if it's a vegetable." Or she can ask: "Here's a list of fruits and vegetables. Say together what each on is as I point to it; you say 'fruit' or 'vegetable', whichever applies." Even though some students may hide their ignorance by letting more knowledgeable classmates do the responding, the general level or quality of response can still give a rough idea of how well students are understanding. These checks can be supplemented, of course, with questions addressed to individuals, or with questions to which individuals must respond briefly in writing. A teacher can ask everyone, "Give me an example of one fruit and one vegetable", and then call on individuals to answer. She can also say: "I want everyone to make a list with two columns, one listing all the fruits you can think of and the other listing all the vegetables you can think of."
As a lesson draws to a close, the teacher arranges for students to have further independent practice. The point of the practice is not to explore new material or ideas, but to consolidate or strengthen the recent learning. At the end of a lesson about long division, for example, the teacher can make a transition to independent practice by providing a set of additional problems similar to the ones she explained during the lesson. After working one or two with students, she can turn the rest of the task over to the students to practice on their own. But note that even though the practice is supposedly "independent", students' understanding still has be checked frequently. Along set of practice problems therefore needs to be broken up into small subsets of problems, and written or oral feedback offered periodically.
What are the limits of teacher-directed instruction?
Whatever the grade level, most subjects taught in schools have at least some features, skills, or topics that benefit from direct instruction. Even subjects usually considered "creative" can benefit from a direct approach at times: to draw, sing, or write a poem, for example, requires skills that may be easier to learn if presented sequentially in small units with frequent feedback from a teacher. Research supports the usefulness of teacher- directed instruction for a variety of educational contexts when it is designed well and implemented as intended (Rosenshine & Mesister,i995; Good & Brophy, 2004). Teachers themselves also tend to support the approach in principle (Demant & Yates, 2003).
But there are limits to its usefulness. Some are the practical ones are pointed out above. Teacher-directed instruction, whatever the form, requires well-organized units of instruction in advance of when students are to learn. Such units may not always be available, and it may not be realistic to expect busy teachers to devise their own. Other limits of direct instruction have more to do with the very nature of learning. Some critics argue that organizing material on behalf of the students encourages students to be passive— an ironic and undesirable result if true (Kohn, 2000, 2006). According to this criticism, the mere fact that a curriculum or unit of study is constructed by a teacher (or other authority) makes some students think that they should not bother seeking information actively on their own, but wait for it to arrive of its own accord. In support of this argument, critics point to the fact that direct instruction approaches sometimes contradict their own premises by requiring students to do a bit of cognitive organizational work of their own. This happens, for example, when a mastery learning program provides enrichment material to faster students to work on independently; in that case the teacher may be involved in the enrichment activities only minimally.
Criticisms like these have led to additional instructional approaches that rely more fully on students to seek and organize their own learning. In the next section we discuss some of these options. As you will see, student-centered models of learning do solve certain problems of teacher-directed instruction, but they also have problems of their own. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/09%3A_Facilitating_Complex_Thinking/9.06%3A_Teacher-Directed_Instruction.txt |
Student-centered models of learning shift some of the responsibility for directing and organizing learning from the teacher to the student. Being student-centered does not mean, however, that a teacher gives up organizational and leadership responsibilities completely. It only means a relative shift in the teacher's role, toward one with more emphasis on guiding students' self-chosen directions. As we explained earlier in this chapter, teacher-directed strategies do not take over responsibility for students' learning completely; no matter how much a teacher structures or directs learning, the students still have responsibility for working and expending effort to comprehend new material. By the same token, student-centered models of learning do not mean handing over all organizational work of instruction to students. The teacher is still the most knowledgeable member of the class, and still has both the opportunity and the responsibility to guide learning in directions that are productive.
As you might suspect, therefore, teacher-directed and student-centered approaches to instruction may overlap in practice. You can see the overlap clearly, for example, in two instructional strategies commonly thought of as student-centered, independent study and self-reflection. In independent study, as the name implies, a student works alone a good deal of the time, consulting with a teacher only occasionally. Independent study may be student-centered in the sense that the student may be learning a topic or skill— an exotic foreign language, for example— that is personally interesting. But the opposite may also be true: the student may be learning a topic or skill that a teacher or an official school curriculum has directed the student to learn— a basic subject for which the student is missing a credit, for example. Either way, though, the student will probably need guidance, support, and help from a teacher. In this sense even independent study always contain elements of teacher-direction.
Similarly, self-reflection refers to thinking about beliefs and experiences in order to clarify their personal meaning and importance. In school it can be practiced in a number of ways: for example by keeping diaries or logs of learning or reading, or by retelling stories of important experiences or incidents in a student's life, or by creating concept maps like the ones described earlier in this chapter. Whatever form it takes, self-reflection by definition happens inside a single student's mind, and in this sense is always directed by the student. Yet most research on self-reflection finds that self-reflection only works well when it involves and generates responses and interaction with other students or with a teacher (Seifert, 1999; Kuit, Reay, & Freeman, 2001). To be fully self-reflective, students need to have access to more than their existing base of knowledge and ideas— more than what they know already. In one study about students' self-reflections of cultural and racial prejudices (Gay & Kirkland, 2003), for example, the researchers found that students tended to reflect on these problems in relatively shallow ways if they worked on their own. It was not particularly effective to write about prejudice in a journal that no one read except themselves, or to describe beliefs in a class discussion in which neither the teacher nor classmates commented or challenged the beliefs. Much more effective in both cases was for the teacher to respond thoughtfully to students' reflective comments. In this sense the use of self-reflection, like independent study, required elements of teacher- direction to be successful.
How might a teacher emphasize students' responsibility for directing and organizing their own learning? The alternatives are numerous, as they are for teacher-directed strategies, so we can only sample some of them here. We concentrate on ones that are relatively well known and used most widely, and especially on two: inquiry learning and cooperative learning. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/09%3A_Facilitating_Complex_Thinking/9.07%3A_Student-Centered_Models_of_Learning.txt |
Inquiry learning
Inquiry learning stands the usual advice about expository (lecture-style) teaching on its head: instead of presenting well-organized knowledge to students, the teacher (or sometimes fellow students) pose thoughtful questions intended to stimulate discussion and investigation by students. The approach has been described, used, and discussed by educators literally for decades, though sometimes under other names, including inquiry method (Postman & Weingartner, 1969), discovery learning (Bruner, 1960/2006), or progressive education (Dewey, 1933; Martin, 2003). For convenience, we will stay with the term inquiry learning.
The questions that begin a cycle of inquiry learning may be posed either by the teacher or by students themselves. Their content depends not only on the general subject area being studied, but also on the interests which students themselves have expressed. In elementary-level science, for example, a question might be "Why do leaves fall off trees when winter comes?" In high school social studies classes, it might be "Why do nations get into conflict?" The teacher avoids answering such questions directly, even if asked to do so. Instead she encourages students to investigate the questions themselves, for example by elaborating on students' ideas and by asking further questions based on students' initial comments. Since students' comments can not be predicted precisely, the approach is by nature flexible. The initial questioning helps students to create and clarify questions which they consider worthy of further investigation. Discussing questions about leaves falling off trees, for example, can prompt students to observe trees in the autumn or to locate books and references that discuss or explain the biology of tress and leaves.
But inquiry is not limited to particular grade levels or topics. If initial questions in a high school social studies class have been about why nations get into conflict, for example, the resulting discussions can lead to investigating the history of past wars and the history of peace-keeping efforts around the world. Whether the topic is high school social studies or elementary school biology, the specific direction of investigations is influenced heavily by students, but with assistance from the teacher to insure that the students' initiatives are productive. When all goes well, the inquiry and resulting investigations benefit students in two ways. The first is that students (perhaps obviously) learn new knowledge from their investigations. The second is that students practice a constructive, motivating way of learning, one applicable to a variety of problems and tasks, both in school and out.
Cooperative learning
Even though inquiry-oriented discussion and investigation benefits when it involves the teacher, it can also be useful for students to work together somewhat independently, relying on a teacher's guidance only indirectly. Working with peers is a major feature of cooperative learning (sometimes also called collaborative learning). In this approach, students work on a task in groups and often are rewarded either partially or completely for the success of the group as a whole. Aspects of cooperative learning have been part of education for a long time; some form of cooperation has always been necessary to participate on school sports teams, for example, or to produce a student-run school newspaper. What is a bit newer is using cooperative or collaborative activities systematically to facilitate the learning of a range of educational goals central to the academic curriculum (Prince, 2004).
Even though teachers usually value cooperation in students, circumstances at school can sometimes reduce students' incentives to show it. The traditional practice of assessing students individually, for example, can set the stage for competition over grades, and cultural and other forms of diversity can sometimes inhibit individuals from helping each other spontaneously. Strategies exist, however, for reducing such barriers so that students truly benefit from each other's presence, and are more likely to feel like sharing their skills and knowledge. Here, for example, are several key features that make cooperative learning work well (Johnson & Johnson, 1998; Smith, et al., 2005):
Students need time and a place to talk and work together. This may sound obvious, but it can be overlooked if time in class becomes crowded with other tasks and activities, or with interruptions related to school (like assemblies) but not to the classroom. It is never enough simply to tell students to work together, only to leave them wondering how or when they are to do so.
Students need skills at working together. As an adult, you may feel relatively able to work with a variety of partners on a group task. The same assumption cannot be made, however, about younger individuals, whether teenagers or children. Some students may get along with a variety of partners, but others may not. Many will benefit from advice and coaching about how to focus on the tasks at hand, rather than on the personalities of their partners.
Assessment of activities should hold both the group and the individuals accountable for success. If a final mark for a project goes only to the group as a whole, then freeloading is possible: some members may not do their share of the work and may be rewarded more than they deserve. Others may be rewarded less than they deserve. If, on the other hand, a final grade for a group project goes only to each member's individual contribution to a group project, then overspecialization can occur: individuals have no real incentive to work together, and cooperative may deteriorate into a set of smaller individual projects (Slavin, 1994).
Students need to believe in the value and necessity of cooperation. Collaboration will not occur if students privately assume that their partners have little to contribute to their personal success. Social prejudices from the wider society— like racial bias or gender sexism, for example— can creep into the operations of cooperative groups, causing some members to be ignored unfairly while others are overvalued. Teachers can help reduce these problems in two ways: first by pointing out and explaining that a diversity of talents is necessary for success on a group project, and second by pointing out to the group how undervalued individuals are contributing to the overall project (Cohen, Brody, & Sapon-Shevin, 2004).
As these comments imply, cooperative learning does not happen automatically, and requires monitoring and support by the teacher. Some activities may not lend themselves to cooperative work, particularly if every member of the group is doing essentially the same task. Giving everyone in a group the same set of arithmetic problems to work on collaboratively, for example, is a formula for cooperative failure: either the most skilled students do the work for others (freeloading) or else members simply divide up the problems among themselves in order to reduce their overall work (overspecialization). A better choice for a cooperative task is one that clearly requires a diversity of skills, what some educators call a rich group work task (Cohen, Brody, & Sapon-Shevin, 2004). Preparing a presentation about medieval castles, for example, might require (a) writing skill to create a report, (b) dramatic skill to put on a skit and (c) artistic talent to create a poster. Although a few students may have all of these skills, more are likely to have only one, and they are therefore likely to need and want their fellow group members' participation. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/09%3A_Facilitating_Complex_Thinking/9.08%3A_Inquiry_Learning_and_Cooperative_Learning.txt |
Although this description may make the requirements for cooperative learning sound somewhat precise, there are actually a variety of ways to implement it in practice. Error: Reference source not found summarizes several of them. As you can see, the strategies vary in the number of how many students they involve, the prior organization or planning provided by the teacher, and the amount of class time they normally require.
Table \(2\): Strategies for encouraging cooperative learning
Strategy
Type of groups involved:
What the teacher does:
What the students do:
Think-pair-share (Lyman, 1981)
Pairs of students, sometimes linked to one other pair
Teacher poses initial problem or question.
First, students think individually of the answer; second, they share their thinking with partner; third, the partnership shares their thinking with another partnership.
Jigsaw classroom, version #1
(Aronson, et al., 2001)
5-6 students per group, and 5-6 groups overall
Teacher assigns students to groups and assigns one aspect of a complex problem to each group.
Students in each group work together to become experts in their particular aspect of the problem; later the expert groups disband, and form new groups containing one student from each of the former expert groups.
Jigsaw classroom, version #2
(Slavin, 1994)
4-5 students per group, and 4-5 groups overall
Teacher assigns students to groups and assigns each group to study or learn about the same entire complex problem.
Students initially work in groups to learn about the entire problem; later the groups disband and reform as expert groups, with each group focusing on a selected aspect of the general problem; still later the expert groups disband and the original general groups reform to learn what the expert students can now add to their general understanding.
STAD (Student-Teams- Achievement Divisions)
(Slavin, 1994)
4-5 students per team (or group)
Teacher presents a lesson or unit to the entire class, and later tests them on it; grades individuals based partly onindividuals’ and the team’s improvement, not just on absolute level of performance.
Students work together to insure that team mates improve their performance as much as possible.
Students take tests as individuals.
Project-Based Learning (Katz, 2000)
Various numbers of students, depending on the complexity of the project, up to and including the entire class
Teacher or students pose a question or problem of interest to other students; teacher assists students to clarify their interests and to make plans to investigate the question further.
Students work together for extended periods to investigate the original question or problem; project leads eventually to a presentation, written report, or other product.
9.10: Instructional Strategies- An Abundance of Choices
Looking broadly at this chapter, you can see that choices among instructional strategies are numerous indeed, and that deciding among them depends on the forms of thinking that you want to encourage, the extent to which ideas or skills need to be organized by you to be understood by students, and the extent to which students need to take responsibility for directing their own learning. Although you may have personal preferences among possible instructional strategies, the choice will also be guided by the uniqueness of each situation of teaching— with its particular students, grade-level, content, and purposes. If you need to develop students' problem solving skills, for example, there are strategies that are especially well suited for this purpose; we described some (see, "Problem solving strategies" in this chapter). If you need to organize complex information so that students do not become confused by it, there are effective ways of doing so. If you want the students to take as much initiative as possible in organizing their own learning, this too can be done.
Yet having this knowledge is still not enough to teach well. What is still needed are ideas or principles for deciding what to teach. In this chapter we have still not addressed an obvious question: How do I find or devise goals for my teaching and for my students' learning? And assuming that I can determine the goals, where can I find resources that help students to meet them? | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/09%3A_Facilitating_Complex_Thinking/9.09%3A_Examples_of_Cooperative_and_Collaborative_Learning.txt |
Chapter summary
Teaching involves numerous instructional strategies, which are decisions and actions designed to facilitate learning. The choice of strategies depends partly on the forms of thinking intended for students— whether the goal is for students to think critically, for example, or to think creatively, or to solve problems. A fundamental decision in choosing instructional strategies is how much to emphasize teacher-directed instruction, as compared to student- centered models of learning. Teacher-directed strategies of instruction include lectures and readings (expository teaching), mastery learning, scripted or direct instruction, and complex teacher-directed approaches such as Madeline Hunter's effective teaching model. Student-centered models of learning include independent study, student self-reflection, inquiry learning, and various forms of cooperative or collaborative learning. Although for some students, curriculum content and learning goals may lend themselves toward one particular type of instruction, teaching is often a matter of combining different strategies appropriately and creatively.
On the Internet
< https://www.encyclo.co.uk/local/21145> This web page lists over 900 instructional strategies— about ten times as many as in this chapter! The strategies are arranged alphabetically and range from simple to complex. For many strategies there are links to other web pages with more complete explanations and advice for use. This is a good page if you have heard of a strategy but want to find out its definition quickly.
< http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/index.html> Like the web page above, this one also describes instructional strategies. It includes fewer (about 200), but they are discussed in more detail and organized according to major categories or types of strategies— a good feature if you have a general idea of what sort of strategy you are looking for, but are not sure of precisely which one. Page could not be accessed in 2021, this is the 2015 Internet Archive link
Key terms
Advance organizers Independent study
Algorithms Instructional strategies
Analogical thinking Lectures
Collaborative learning Mastery learning
Concept map Overspecialization
Convergent thinking Problem analysis
Cooperative learning Problem representation
Creative thinking Problem-solving
Critical thinking Response set
Divergent thinking Self-reflection
Effective teaching model Student-centered models of learning
Freeloading Teacher-directed instruction
Functional fixedness Transfer
Heuristics Well-structured problem
Ill-structured problem Working backward
References
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"If you don't know where you're going, you could end up someplace else."
(Casey Stengel)
Casey Stengel, a much-admired baseball coach, was talking about baseball when he made this remark. But he could easily have been speaking of teaching as well. Almost by definition, education has purposes, goals, and objectives, and a central task of teaching is to know what these are and to transform the most general goals into specific objectives and tasks for students. Otherwise, as Casey Stengel said, students may end up "someplace else" that neither they, nor the teacher, nor anyone else intends. A lot of the clarification and specification of goals needs to happen before a cycle of instruction actually begins, but the benefits of planning happen throughout all phases of teaching. If
students know precisely what they are supposed to learn, they can focus their attention and effort more effectively. If the teacher knows precisely what students are supposed to learn, then the teacher can make better use of class time and choose and design assessments of their learning that are more fair and valid. In the long run everyone benefits.
This chapter is therefore about instructional planning, the systematic selection of educational goals and objectives and their design for use in the classroom. We will divide this idea into four parts, and discuss them one at a time. First is the problem of selecting general goals to teach; where can a teacher find these, and what do they look like? Second is the problem of transforming goals into specific objectives, or statements concrete enough to guide daily activity in class; what will students actually do or say into order to learn what a teacher wants them to learn? Third is the problem of balancing and relating goals and objectives to each other; since we may want students to learn numerous goals, how can we combine or integrate them so that the overall classroom program does not become fragmented or biased? Fourth is the challenge of relating instructional goals to students' prior experiences and knowledge. We have discussed this challenge before from the perspective of learning theory (in Chapter 2), but in this chapter we look at it from the more practical perspective of curriculum planning
10.02: Selecting General Learning Goals
At the most general or abstract level, the goals of education include important philosophical ideas like "developing individuals to their fullest potential" and "preparing students to be productive members of society". Few teachers would disagree with these ideas in principle, though they might disagree about their wording or about their relative importance. As a practical matter, however, teachers might have trouble translating such generalities into specific lesson plans or activities for the next day's class. What does it mean, concretely, to "develop an individual to his or her fullest potential"? Does it mean, for example, that a language arts teacher should ask students to write an essay about their personal interests, or does it mean that the teacher should help students learn to write as well as possible on any topic, even ones that are not of immediate interest? What exactly should a teacher do, from day to day, to "prepare students to be productive members of society" as well? Answers to questions like these are needed to plan instruction effectively. But the answers are not obvious simply by examining statements of general educational goals.
National and state learning standards
Some (but not all) of the work of transforming such general purposes into more precise teaching goals and even more precise objectives has been performed by broad US organizations that represent educators and other experts about particular subjects or types of teaching (Riley, 2002). The groups have proposed national standards, which are summaries of what students can reasonably be expected to learn at particular grade levels and in particular subjects areas. In the United States, in addition, all state governments create state standards that serve much the same purpose: they express what students in the state should (and hopefully can) learn at all grade levels and in all subjects. Examples of organizations that provide national standards are listed in Table 27, and examples of state standards are listed in Table 28 for one particular state, Ohio, in the area of language arts.
Table \(1\): Organizations with statements of US educational standards
Subject
Organization
English and Language Arts
Council of Teachers of English
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
Mathematics
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Physical Education and Health
National Association for Sport and Physical Education
American Cancer Society
Science
National Academies of Science
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Social Studies
National Council for the Social Studies Center for Civic Education
National Council on Economic Education National Geographic Society
National Center for History in the Schools
Technology
International Society for Technology in Education
Other Specialized Standards Statements:
American Indian Content Standards
Center for Educational Technology in Indian America
Ethical Standards for School Counselors
American School Counselors Association
Information Literacy Standards
American Association of School Librarians
Business Education
National Business Education Association
Parent Education and Involvement
Parent-Teacher Association (PTA)
Source: <http://www.education-world.com/standards>, accessed December 5, 2006. Summaries of all of these standards, as well as access to the relevant web pages of the corresponding organizations, can be found at this website. Because standards are revised continually, and because of the dynamic nature of websites, the information may differ slightly from the above when you actually access it.
Table \(2\): Examples of state curriculum standards about language arts
Grade-level:
Classroom example:
Kindergarten-Grade 3: Read accurately high- frequency sight words.
Play a game: “How many words can you see around the classroom that you can read already?”
Grade 4-7: Infer word meaning through identification and analysis of analogies and other word relationships.
Have students keep a journal of unfamiliar words which they encounter and of what they think the words mean.
Grade 8-10: Recognize the importance and function of figurative language.
Have students write a brief essay explaining the meaning of a common figure of speech, and speculating on why it became common usage.
Grade 11-12: Verify meanings of words by the author’s use of definition, restatement, example, comparison, contrast and cause and effect.
Have students analyze an essay that includes unfamiliar terms using clues in the essay to determine their meaning.
Source for standards: Ohio Department of Education, 2003, p. 30-31
Because they focus on grade levels and subject areas, general statements of educational standards tend to be a bit more specific than the broader philosophical goals we discussed above. As a rule of thumb, too, state standards tend to be more comprehensive than national standards, both in coverage of grade levels and of subjects. The difference reflects the broad responsibility of states in the United States for all aspects of public education; national organizations, in contrast, usually assume responsibility only for a particular subject area or particular group of students. Either type of standards provides a first step, however, toward transforming the grandest purposes of schooling (like developing the individual or preparing for society) into practical classroom activities. But they provide a first step only. Most statements of standards do not make numerous or detailed suggestions of actual activities or tasks for students, though some might include brief classroom examples— enough to clarify the meaning of a standard, but not enough to plan an actual classroom program for extended periods of time. For these latter purposes, teachers rely on more the detailed documents, the ones often called curriculum frameworks and curriculum guides.
Curriculum frameworks and curriculum guides
The terms curriculum framework and curriculum guide sometimes are used almost interchangeably, but for convenience we will use them to refer to two distinct kinds of documents. The more general of the two is curriculum framework, which is a document that explains how content standards can or should be organized for a particular subject and at various grade levels. Sometimes this information is referred to as the scope and sequence for a curriculum. A curriculum framework document is like a standards statement in that it does not usually provide a lot of detailed suggestions for daily teaching. It differs from a standards statement, though, in that it analyzes each general standard in a curriculum into more specific skills that students need to learn, often a dozen or more per standard. The language or terminology of a framework statement also tends to be somewhat more concrete than a standards statement, in the sense that it is more likely to name behaviors of students— things that a teacher might see them do or hear them say. Sometimes, but not always, it may suggest ways for assessing whether students have in fact acquired each skill listed in the document. Table 29 shows a page from a curriculum framework published by the California State Board of Education (Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Committee, 1999). In this case the framework explains the state standards for learning to read, and the excerpt in Table 29 illustrates how one particular standard, that "students speak and write with command of English conventions appropriate to this grade level", is broken into nine more specific skills. Note that the excerpt names observable behaviors of students (what they do or say); we will discuss this feature again, more fully, in the next part of this chapter, because it is helpful in classroom planning. In spite of this feature, though, the framework document does not lay out detailed activity plans that a teacher could use on a daily basis. (Though even so, it is over 300 pages long!)
Table \(3\): An Excerpt from Reading/Language Arts Framework for California Public Schools
Comments:
Written and oral English language conventions, third grade
Students write and speak with a command of standard English conventions appropriate to this grade level.
Sentence Structure
1.1 Understand and be able to use complete and correct declarative, interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences in writing and speaking.
Grammar
1.2 Identify subjects and verbs that are in agreement and identify and use pronouns, adjectives, compound words, and articles correctly in writing and speaking.
1.3 Identify and use past, present, and future verb tenses properly in writing and speaking.
1.4 Identify and use subjects and verbs correctly in speaking and writing simple sentences.
Punctuation
1.5 Punctuate dates, city and state, and titles of books correctly.
1.6 Use commas in dates, locations, and addresses and for items in a series.
Capitalization
1.7Capitalize geographical names, holidays, historical periods, and special events correctly.
Spelling
1.8 Spell correctly one-syllable words that have blends, contractions, compounds, orthographic patters, and common homophones.
1.9 Arrange words in alphabetical order.
Teachers' need for detailed activity suggestions is more likely to be met by a curriculum guide, a document devoted to graphic descriptions of activities that foster or encourage the specific skills explained in a curriculum framework document. The descriptions may mention or list curriculum goals served by an activity, but they are also likely to specify materials that a teacher needs, time requirements, requirements for grouping students, drawings or diagrams of key equipment or materials, and sometimes even suggestions for what to say to students at different points during the activity. In these ways the descriptions may resemble lesson plans.
Since classroom activities often support more than one specific skill, activities in a curriculum guide may be organized differently than they might be in a framework document. Instead of highlighting only one standard at a time, as the framework document might, activities may be grouped more loosely— for example, according to the dominant purpose or goal of an activity ("Activities that encourage the practice of math facts") or according to a dominant piece of equipment or material ("Ten activities with tin cans"). Table 30 shows a description of a kindergarten-level activity about "autumn leaves" that might appear in a curriculum guide. Note that the activity meets several educational objectives at once— tracing shapes, knowledge of leaves and of colors, descriptive language skill. Each of these skills may reflect a different curriculum standard.
Table \(4\): Activity: Autumn Leaves
Level: Kindergarten
Themes and Curriculum Connections: trees, autumn, color naming, color comparisons, size comparisons, functions of leaves, growth, the life cycle. See also Standards #xx-yy.
Best time to do it: Fall (October), or whenever leaves are available
Materials needed: (1) small paper (6 x 6 inches); (2) access to leaves; (3) white glue; (4) felt pens or colored pencils
What to do: Give one piece of the small paper to each child. Invite children to color the sheet so that the entire sheet is decorated. Invite children to choose one leaf. Place leaf under the colored (decorated) paper and trace the shape of the leaf lightly in pencil. Then invite children to cut out the colored paper in the shape that has been traced of the leaf.
Cautions: (1) Some children may need individual help with tracing or cutting. (2) Try to use leaves that are still somewhat pliable, because some very old leaves (dried out) may crumble when traced.
Things to talk about: Are some leaves bigger than others? Do they change shape as they grow, or only their size? How do leaves benefit trees? How many different colors can real leaves be? | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/10%3A_Planning_Instruction/10.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Given curriculum frameworks and guides like the ones just described, how do you choose and formulate actual learning objectives? Basically there are two approaches: either start by selecting content or topics that what you want students to know (the cognitive approach) or start with what you want students to do (the behavioral approach). In effect the cognitive approach moves from the general to the specific, and the behavioral approach does the opposite. Each approach has advocates, as well as inherent strengths and problems. In practice, teachers often combine or alternate between them in order to give students some of the advantages of each.
From general to specific: selecting content topics
The cognitive approach assumes that teachers normally have a number of long-term, general goals for students, and it begins with those goals. It also assumes that each student work toward long-term, general goals along different pathways and using different styles of learning. Because of these assumptions, it is necessary to name indicators, which are examples of specific behaviors by which students might show success at reaching a general learning goal. But it is neither desirable nor possible for a list of indicators to be complete— only for it to be representative (Gronlund, 2004). Consider this example from teaching middle-school biology. For this subject you might have a general goal like the following, with accompanying indicators:
Goal:
The student will understand the nature and purpose of photosynthesis.
Indicators:
1. explains the purpose of photosynthesis and steps in the process
2. diagrams steps in the chemical process
3. describes how plant photosynthesis affects the animal world
4. writes a plan for how to test leaves for presence of photosynthesis
5. makes an oral presentation and explains how the experiment was conducted
Using a strictly cognitive approach to planning, therefore, a teacher's job has two parts. First she must identify, find, or choose a manageable number of general goals— perhaps just a half dozen or so. (Sometimes these can be taken or adapted from a curriculum framework document such as discussed earlier.) Then the teacher must think of a handful of specific examples or behavioral indicators for each goal— just a half dozen or so of these as well. The behavioral indicators clarify the meaning of the general goal, but are not meant to be the only way that students might show success at learning. Then, at last, thoughtful planning for individual lessons or activities can begin. This approach works especially well for learning goals that are relatively long-term— goals that take many lessons, days, or weeks to reach. During such long periods of teaching, it is impossible to specify the exact, detailed behaviors that every student can or should display to prove that he or she has reached a general goal. It is possible, however, to specify general directions toward which all students should focus their learning and to explain the nature of the goals with a sample of well-chosen indicators or examples (Popham, 2002).
The cognitive, general-to-specific approach is reasonable on the face of it, and in fact probably describes how many teachers think about their instructional planning. But critics have argued that indicators used as examples may not in fact clarify the general goal enough; students therefore end up unexpectedly— as Casey Stengel said at the start of this chapter— "someplace else". Given the general goal of understanding photosynthesis described above, for example, how are we to know whether the five indicators that are listed really allow a teacher to grasp the full meaning of the goal? Put differently, how else might a student show understanding of photosynthesis, and how is a teacher to know that a student's achievement is s a legitimate display of understanding? To some educators, grasping the meaning of goals from indicators is not as obvious as it should be, and in any case is prone to misunderstanding. The solution, they say, is not to start planning with general goals, but with specific behaviors that identify students' success.
From specific to general: behavioral objectives
Compared to the cognitive approach, the behavioral approach to instructional planning reverses the steps in planning. Instead of starting with general goal statements accompanied by indicator examples, it starts with the identification of specific behaviors— concrete actions or words— that students should perform or display as a result of instruction (Mager, 2005). Collectively, the specific behaviors may describe a more general educational goal, but unlike the indicators used in the cognitive approach, they are not a mere sampling of the possible specific outcomes. Instead they represent all the intended specific outcomes. Consider this sampling of behavioral objectives:
Objectives: Learning to use in-line roller blade skates (beginning level)
1. Student ties boots on correctly.
2. Student puts on safety gear correctly, including helmet, knee and elbow pads.
3. Student skates 15 meters on level ground without falling.
4. Student stops on demand within a three meter distance, without falling.
The objectives listed are not merely a representative sample of how students can demonstrate success with roller-blading. Instead they are behaviors that every student should acquire in order to meet the goal of using roller blades as a beginner. There simply are no other ways to display learning of this goal; getting 100 per cent on a written test about roller blading, for example, would not qualify as success with this goal, though it might show success at some other goal, such as verbal knowledge about roller blading. Even adding other skating behaviors (like "Student skates backwards" or "Student skates in circles") might not qualify as success with this particular goal, because it could reasonably be argued that the additional skating behaviors are about skating at an advanced level, not a beginning level.
In the most commonly used version of this approach, originated by Robert Mager (1962, 2005), a good behavioral objective should have three features. First, it should specify a behavior that can in fact be observed. In practice this usually means identifying something that a student does or says, not something a student thinks or feels. Compare the following examples; the one on the left names a behavior to be performed, but the one on the right names a thinking process that cannot, in principle, be seen:
Behavioral objective Not behavioral object
The student will make a list of animal species that live in the water but breathe air and a separate list of species that live in the water but do not require air to breathe. The student will understand the difference between fish and mammals that live in the water,
The second feature of a good behavioral objective is that it describes conditions of performance of the behavior. What are the special circumstances to be provided when the student performs the objective? Consider these two examples:
Special condition of performance is specified A special condition of performance is not
Given a list of 50 species, the student will circle those that live in water but breathe air and underline thosethat live in water but do not breathe air. After three days of instruction, the student will Identify species that live in water but breathe air, as well as species that live in water but do not breathe air.
The objective on the left names a special condition of performance— that the student will be given a particular kind of list to work from— which is not part of the instruction itself. The objective on the right appears to name a condition— "three days of instruction". But the condition really describes what the teacher will do (she will instruct), not something specific to students' performance.
The third feature of a good behavioral objective is that it specifies a minimum level or degree of acceptable performance. Consider these two examples:
Specifies minimum level Does not specify minimum level
Given a list of 50 species, the student will circle all of those that live in water but breathe air and underline all of those that live in water but do not breathe air. The student will do so within fifteen minutes. The student will circle names of species that live in water but breathe air and underline those that live in water but do not breathe air.
The objective on the left specifies a level of performance— 100 per cent accuracy within 15 minutes. The objective on the right leaves this information out (and incidentally it also omits the condition of performance mentioned on the left).
Behavioral objectives have obvious advantages because of their clarity and precision. They seem especially well suited for learning that by their nature they can be spelled out explicitly and fully, such as when a student is learning to drive a car, to use safety equipment in a science laboratory, or install and run a particular computer program. Most of these goals, as it happens, also tend to have relatively short learning cycles, meaning that they can be learned as a result of just one lesson or activity, or of just a short series of them at most. Such goals tend not to include the larger, more abstract goals of education. In practice, both kinds of goals— the general and the specific- form a large part of education at all grade levels.
Finding the best in both approaches
When it comes to teaching and learning the large or major goals, then, behavioral objectives can seem unwieldy. How, a teacher might ask, can you spell out all of the behaviors involved in a general goal like becoming a good citizen? How could you name in advance the numerous conditions under which good citizenship might be displayed, or the minimum acceptable level of good citizenship expected in each condition? Specifying these features seems impractical at best, and at times even undesirable ethically or philosophically. (Would we really want any students to become "minimum citizens"?) Because of these considerations, many teachers find it sensible to compromise between the cognitive and behavioral approaches. Here are some features that are often part of a compromise:
• When planning, think about BOTH long-term, general goals AND short-term, immediate objectives. A thorough, balanced look at most school curricula shows that they are concerned with the general as well as the specific. In teaching elementary math, for example, you may want students to learn general problem solving strategies (a general goal), but you may also want them to learn specific math facts (a specific objective). In teaching Shakespeare's plays in high school, you may want students to be able to compare the plays critically (a general goal), but doing so may require that they learn details about the characters and plots of the major plays (a specific objective). Since general goals usually take longer to reach than specific objectives, instructional planning has to include both time frames.
• Plan for what students do, not what the teacher does. This idea may seem obvious, but it is easy to overlook it when devising lesson plans. Consider that example again about teaching Shakespeare. If you want students to learn the details about Shakespeare's plays, it is tempting to plan objectives like "Summarize the plot of each play to students", or "Write and hand out to students an outline of the plays". Unfortunately these objectives describe only what the teacher does, and makes the assumption (often unwarranted) that students will remember what the teacher says or puts in writing for them. A better version of the same objective should focus on the actions of students, not of teachers— for example, "Students will write a summary, from memory, of each of the major plays of Shakespeare". This version focuses on what students do instead of what the teacher does. (Of course you may still have to devise activities that help students to reach the objective, such as providing guided practice in writing summaries of plays.)
• To insure diversity of goals and objectives when planning, consider organizing goals and objectives by using a systematic classification scheme of educational objectives. At the beginning of this section we stated that there is a need, when devising goals and objectives, for both the specific and the general. Actually a more accurate statement is that there is a need for goals and objectives that refer to a variety of cognitive processes and that have varying degrees of specificity or generality. One widely used classification scheme that does so, for example, is one proposed 50 years ago by Benjamin Bloom (1956) and revised recently by his associates (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). We describe this system, called a taxonomy of objectives, in the next section.
Taxonomies of Educational Objectives
When educators have proposed taxonomies of educational objectives, they have tended to focus on one of three areas or domains of psychological functioning: either students' cognition (thought), students' feelings and emotions (affect), or students' physical skills (psychomotor abilities). Of these three areas, they have tended to focus the most attention on cognition. The taxonomy originated by Benjamin Bloom, for example, deals entirely with cognitive outcomes of instruction.
Bloom's Taxonomy
In its original form, Bloom's Taxonomy of educational objectives referred to forms of cognition or thinking, which were divided into the six levels (Bloom, et al., 1956). Table 31 summarizes the levels, and offers two kinds of examples— simple ones based on the children's story, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and complex ones more typical of goals and objectives used in classrooms. The levels form a loose hierarchy from simple to complex thinking, at least when applied to some subjects and topics. When planning for these subjects it can therefore be helpful not only for insuring diversity among learning objectives, but also for sequencing materials. In learning about geography, for example, it may sometimes make sense to begin with information about specific places or societies (knowledge and comprehension), and work gradually toward comparisons and assessments among the places or societies (analysis and synthesis).
Table \(1\): Bloom’s Taxonomy of Objectives: cognitive domain
Type or level of learning
Simple example
Classroom example
Knowledge: recall of information, whether it is simple or complex in nature
“Name three things that Goldilocks did in the house of the three bears.”
“List all of the planets of the solar system.”
“State five key features of life in the middle ages.”
Comprehension: grasping the meaning of information, by interpreting it or translating it from one form to another
“Explain why Goldilocks preferred the little bear’s chair.”
“Convert the following arithmetic word problem to a mathematical equation.”
“Describe how plants contribute to the welfare of animal life.”
Application: using information in new, concrete situations
“Predict some of the things Goldilocks might have used if she had entered your house.”
“Illustrate how positive reinforcement might affect the behavior of a pet dog.”
“Use examples from the plot to illustrate the theme of novel.”
Analysis: breaking information into its components to understand its structure
“Select the part of Goldilocks and the Three Bears where you think Goldilocks felt most comfortable.”
“Compare the behavior of domestic dogs with the behavior of wolves.”
“Diagram the effects of weather patterns on plant metabolism.”
Synthesis: putting parts of information together into a coherent whole
“Tell how the story would have been different if it had been three fishes.”
“Design an experiment to test the effects of gravity on root growth.”
“Write an account of how humans would be different if life had originated on Mars instead of Earth.”
Evaluation: judging the value of information for a particular purpose
“Justify this statement:
Goldilocks was a bad girl.”
“Appraise the relevance of the novel for modern life.”
“Assess the value of information processing theory for planning instruction.”
Such a sequence does not work well, however, for all possible topics or subjects. To learn certain topics in mathematics, for example, students may sometimes need to start with general ideas (like "What does it mean to multiply?") than with specific facts (like "How much is 4 x 6?") (Egan, 2005). At other times, though, the reverse sequence may be preferable. Whatever the case, a taxonomy of cognitive objectives, like Bloom's, can help to remind teachers to set a variety of objectives and to avoid relying excessively on just one level, such as simple recall of factual knowledge (Notar, et al., 2004).
Bloom's Taxonomy revised
A few years ago two of Benjamin Bloom's original colleagues, Linda Anderson and David Krathwohl, revised his taxonomy so as to clarify its terms and to make it more complete (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001; Marzano, 2006). The resulting categories are summarized and compared to the original categories in Table 32. As the chart shows, several categories of objectives have been renamed and a second dimension added that describes the kind of thinking or cognitive processing that may occur. The result is a much richer taxonomy than before, since every level of the objectives can now take four different forms. Remembering, for example, can refer to four different kinds of memory: memory for facts, for concepts, for procedures, or for metacognitive knowledge. Table \(2\) gives examples of each of these kinds of memory.
Table \(2\) : Bloom’s Taxonomy of cognitive objectives—revised
Original term from Bloom’s Taxonomy (1956)
Revised term emphasizing cognitive processing (2001)
A new dimension added: types of knowledge learned (2001)
Example of cognitive process remembering combined with possible types of knowledge
Knowledge
Remembering
• factual knowledge
• conceptual knowledge
• procedural knowledge
• metacognitive knowledge
Memory for facts: recalling the names of each part of a living cell
Comprehension
Understanding
Application
Applying
Memory for concepts: recalling the functions of each part of a living cell
Analysis
Analyzing
Evaluation
Evaluating
Memory for procedures: recalling how to view a cell under a microscope
Memory for metacognition: recalling not the names of the parts, but a technique for remembering the names of the parts of a living cell
Synthesis
Creating
Caption: The revision to Bloom’s Taxonomy distinguishes between cognitive processes (left-hand column in the table) and types of knowledge learned (right-hand column). The original version has terms similar to the cognitive processing terms in the revised version. According to the revised version, any type of knowledge (from the right-hand column) can, in principle, occur with any type of cognitive processing (left-hand column).
Taxonomies of affective objectives and psychomotor objectives
Although taxonomies related to affect, or the feelings and emotions of students, are used less commonly than cognitive taxonomies for planning instruction, various educators have constructed them. One of the most widely known was also published by colleagues of Benjamin Bloom and classifies affect according to how committed a student feels toward what he is learning (Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia, 1964/1999). Table 33 summarizes the categories and gives brief examples. The lowest level, called receiving, simply involves willingness to experience new knowledge or activities. Higher levels involve embracing or adopting experiences in ways that are increasingly organized and that represent increasingly stable forms of commitment.
Table \(3\) : Taxonomies of objectives: affective domain and psychomotor domain
Affective domain
Psychomotor domain
Receiving
Willingness to attend to particular experience
Imitation
Repeating a simple action that has been demonstrated
Responding
Willingness to participate actively in an experience
Manipulation
Practice of an action that has been imitated but only learned partially
Valuing
Perception of experience as worthwhile
Precision
Quick, smooth execution of an action that has been practiced
Organization
Coordination of valued experiences into partially coherent wholes
Articulation
Execution of an action not only with precision, but also with modifications appropriate to new circumstances
Characterization by a value complex
Coordination of valued experiences and of organized sets of experiences into a single comprehensive value hierarchy
Naturalization
Incorporation of an action into the motor repertoire, along with experimentation with new motor actions
Taxonomies related to abilities and skills that are physical, or psychomotor, have also been used less widely than affective taxonomies, with the notable exception of one area of teaching where they are obviously relevant: physical education. As you might expect, taxonomic categories of motor skills extend from simple, brief actions to complex, extended action sequences that combine simpler, previously learned skills smoothly and automatically (Harrow, 1972; Simpson, 1972). One such classification scheme is shown in Table 33. An example of a very basic psychomotor skill might be imitating the action of throwing a ball when modeled by someone else; an example of the latter might be performing a 10 minute gymnastics routine which the student has devised for himself or herself. Note, though, that many examples of psychomotor skills also exist outside the realm of physical education. In a science course, for example, a student might need to learn to operate laboratory equipment that requires using delicate, fine movements. In art classes, students might learn to draw, and in music they might learn to play an instrument (both are partly motor skills). Most first graders are challenged by the motor skills of learning to write. For students with certain physical disabilities, furthermore, motor skill development is an important priority for the student's entire education. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/10%3A_Planning_Instruction/10.03%3A_Formulating_Learning_Objectives.txt |
So far our discussion of instructional planning has described goals and objectives as if they are selected primarily by educators and teachers, and not by students themselves. The assumption may be correct in many cases, but there are problems with it. One problem is that choosing goals and objectives for students, rather than by students, places a major burden on everyone involved in education— curriculum writers, teachers, and students. The curriculum writers have to make sure that they specify standards, goals, and objectives that are truly important for students to learn (what if it really does not matter, for example, whether a science student learns about the periodic table of the elements?). Teachers have to make sure that students actually become motivated to learn the specified goals and objectives, even if the students are not motivated initially. Students have to master pre-set goals and objectives even if they might not have chosen them personally. Some critics of education have argued that these requirements can be serious impediments to learning (Kohn, 2004). The problems are widespread and especially noticeable in two forms of teaching. One is with the youngest students, who may especially lack patience with an educational agenda set by others (Kohn, 1999; Seitz, 2006). The other is with culturally diverse classrooms, where students and their families may hold a variety of legitimate, but unconventional expectations about what they should learn (J. Banks & C. Banks, 2005).
In response to concerns like these, some educators advocate planning instruction around goals set or expressed either by students themselves or by the cultures or communities with which students identify. Their suggestions vary in detail, but can be organized into two broad categories: (l) emergent curriculum and (2) multicultural and anti-bias curriculum.
Emergent curriculum
An emergent curriculum is one that explicitly builds on interests expressed by students, rather than goals set by curriculum writers, curriculum documents, or teachers. As you might suspect, therefore, instructional planning for an emergent curriculum does not have the same meaning that the term has had in the chapter up to now. Instead, since an emergent curriculum by definition unfolds spontaneously and flexibly, students' interests may be predictable, but usually not very far in advance (Peterson, 2002). Suppose, for example, that a first-grade teacher plans a unit around Halloween, and that as one of the activities for this unit she reads a book about Halloween. In listening to the book, however, the students turn out to be less interested in its Halloween content than in the fact that one of the illustrations in the book shows a picture of a full moon partially hidden by clouds. They begin asking about the moon: why it is full sometimes but not other times, why it rises in different places each month, and whether the moon really moves behind clouds or whether the clouds actually do the moving. The teacher encourages their questions and their interest in moon astronomy. Over the next days or weeks, she arranges further activities and experiences to encourage students' interest: she sets aside her original plans about Halloween and finds books about the moon and about how the solar system works. She invites a local amateur astronomer to visit the group and talk about his observations of the moon. Several children build models of the moon out of paper mache. Some find books describing trips of the space shuttles to the moon. Others make a large mural depicting a moonscape. And so on; the original goals about Halloween are not so much rejected, as set aside or forgotten in favor of something more immediately interesting and motivating.
While these activities could in principle happen because of recommendations from a curriculum document, the key point about emergent curriculum is that they happen for a very different reason: these activities happen and the goals emerge because the children want them. A teacher's challenge is therefore not planning activities that match predetermined curriculum goals or objectives, but to respond flexibly and sensitively as students' interests become known and explicit. Teachers' responsiveness is facilitated by two practices that are especially prominent when a teacher adopts an emergent approach to curriculum. The first is careful, continuous observation of students. The teacher watches and listens, and may keep informal written records of students' comments and activities. The information allows her to respond more effectively to the interests they express, and at the same time it provides a type of assessment of students' progress— information about what the students are actually learning.
A second strategy that facilitates teachers' success is curriculum webbing, a process of brainstorming connections among initiatives suggested by students and ideas suggested by the teacher. In some cases webs can be created jointly with students by brainstorming with them about where their current interests may lead. In other cases they can be created independently by the teacher's own reflections. In still others, when a classroom has more than one adult responsible for it, they can be created jointly with fellow teachers or teacher assistants. The latter approach works especially well in preschool, kindergartens, or special education classrooms, which often have more than one adult responsible for the class (Vartuli & Rohs, 2006).
To some, emergent curriculum may seem like a formula for curriculum and management disasters. But the approach has often proved quite successful, particularly in early childhood education and the earliest grade levels of elementary school (Seitz, 2006; Wurm, 2005). Something akin to emergent curriculum is quite possible, in principle, even with older students. In Chapter 8, for example, we described a high school program in which students began with problems and experiences that were personally relevant, and discussed the problems with classmates to formulate research problems which they then studied more formally and systematically (Hawkins, 2006). In essence this strategy created an emergent curriculum analogous to the ones described above for young children. What the high school students studied was not predetermined, but emerged from their own expressed interests.
Multicultural and anti-bias education
A culture is an all-encompassing set of values, beliefs, practices and customs of a group or community— its total way of life. Cultures may be shared widely, even by much if not all of an entire nation, or they may be shared by relatively few, such as a small community within a large city. Sometimes the term culture is even applied to the way of life of an individual family or of a specialized group in society; some might argue, for example, that there is a culture of schooling shared by teachers, though not necessarily by all students.
Because culture by definition touches on all aspects of living, it is likely to affect students' perspectives about school, their ways of learning and their motivations to learn. The differences go beyond obvious differences in holidays, language, or food preferences. In some cultures, for example, individuals keep good eye contact with someone to whom they are speaking, and expect the same from others. In other cultures, such behavior is considered intrusive or overly aggressive, and avoiding eye contact while speaking is considered more respectful. Or another example: in some cultures it is expected that individuals will be punctual (or on time), whereas in others punctuality is considered overly compulsive, and a more casual approach to time is the norm. Students regularly bring differences like these to school, where they combine with expectations from teachers and other school staff, and contribute indirectly to differences in achievement and satisfaction among students.
To be fully effective, therefore, instructional planning has to take into account the diversity in students' cultural backgrounds, whether the differences are observable or subtle. Planning also has to work deliberately to reduce the social biases and prejudices that sometimes develop about cultural differences. Multicultural education and anti-bias education are two terms referring to these purposes. Their meanings often overlap significantly, depending on the context or on who is using the terms. Generally, though, the first term— multicultural education- has somewhat more to do with understanding the differences among cultures. The latter term— anti-bias education —has more to do with overcoming social prejudices and biases resulting from cultural differences. For convenience in this chapter, we will use the single term multicultural education to refer to both understanding differences and overcoming prejudices.
Fully effective multicultural education has several features. The most obvious and familiar one is content integration: the curriculum uses examples and information from different cultures to illustrate various concepts or ideas already contained in the curriculum (Vavrus, 2002). In studying holidays, for example, an elementary- school teacher includes activities and information about Kwanzaa as well as Christmas, Hanukkah, or other holidays happening at about the same time. In studying the US Civil War, another example, a middle-years teacher includes material written from the perspective of African-American slaves and Southern landowners. In teaching Language arts, students learn basic vocabulary of any non-English languages spoken by some members of the class.
But there is more to multicultural education than integrating content from diverse cultures. Among other features, it also requires an equity pedagogy, which is an effort to allow or even encourage, a variety of learning styles— styles at which students may have become skillful because of their cultural backgrounds (Crow, 2005; C. Banks & J. Banks, 1995). In elementary language arts, for example, there may be more than one "best" way to tell a story. Should a student necessarily have to tell it alone and standing in front of the whole class, or might the student tell it jointly with a friend or in a smaller group? In learning to write a story, is legitimate variety also possible there? Should a written story necessarily begin with a topic sentence that announces what the story is about, or can it save a statement of topic for the ending or even it leave it out altogether in order to stimulate readers to think? The best choice is related in part to the nature and purpose of the story, of course, but partly also to differences in cultural expectations about story telling. Choosing a story form also points toward another feature of multicultural education, the knowledge construction process, which is the unstated, unconscious process by which a cultural group creates knowledge or information. The popular media, for example, often portray Hispanic- Americans in ways that are stereotypical, either subtly or blatantly (Lester & Ross, 2003). A fully multicultural curriculum finds way to call these images to the attention of students and to engage them in thinking about how and why the images oversimplify reality.
Yet there is even more to a fully multicultural education. In addition to content integration, equity pedagogy, and knowledge construction, it fosters prejudice reduction, or activities, discussions and readings that identify students' negative evaluations of cultural groups (Jacobson, 2003; J. Banks & C. Banks, 2004). The activities and discussions can of course take a somewhat philosophical approach— examining how students feel in general, what experiences they remember having involving prejudice, and the like. But the activities and discussions can also take a more indirect and subtle form, as when a teacher periodically speaks in a student's native language as a public sign of respect for the student. Gestures and discussions like these are especially effective if they contribute to the fifth element of multicultural education, empowering the school and social structure, in which all teachers and staff members find ways to convey respect for cultural differences, including even during extra-curricular and sports activities. A sports team or a debate club should not be limited to students from one cultural background and exclude those from another— or more subtly, accept everyone but give the more desirable roles only to individuals with particular social backgrounds. To the extent that cultural respect and inclusion are school-wide, teaching and learning both become easier and more successful, and instructional planning in particular becomes more relevant to students' needs. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/10%3A_Planning_Instruction/10.04%3A_Students_as_a_Source_of_Instructional_Goals.txt |
Whether instructional goals originate from curriculum documents, students' expressed interests, or a mixture of both, students are more likely to achieve the goals if teachers draw on a wide variety of resources. As a practical matter, this means looking for materials and experiences that supplement— or occasionally even replace— the most traditional forms of information, such as textbooks. Precisely what resources to use depend on factors unique to each class, school, or community, but they might include one or more of the following.
The Internet as a learning tool
The Internet has become a fixture of modern society, and it offers a huge variety of information on virtually any topic, including any school subject and any possible grade level from kindergarten through university. At the time of writing this book (2007), about two-thirds of all households in the United States and Canada have at least some sort of Internet access, and virtually 100 per cent of public and private schools have some access (Parsad & Jones, 2006). These circumstances make the Internet a potential major resource for teachers and students— a virtual library many times larger than even the largest physical (or "bricks and mortar") libraries in the world.
But the vastness of the Internet is not entirely a blessing. A major problem is that the sheer volume of information available, which can sometimes make searching for a specific topic, article, or document overwhelming and inefficient. Search engines (teachers should be aware of the privacy policies of various search engines as most will track the behavior of students which can conflict with school policies) can help with this problem, though they do not solve it completely. When searching the term photosynthesis, for example, Google and other similar search engines return over six million web pages that discuss or refer this topic in some way! If a teacher is planning a unit about photosynthesis, or if a student is writing an essay about it, which of these web pages will prove most helpful? Choosing among web pages is a new, somewhat specialized form of computer literacy, one that can be learned partially by trial-and-error online, but that also benefits from assistance by a teacher or by more experienced peers (Ragains, 2006).
Another problem with the Internet is inequity of access. Even though, as we mentioned above, virtually all schools now have access of some sort, the access is distributed quite unevenly across communities and income groups (Skinner, Biscope, & Poland, 2003; Parsad & Jones, 2005). For one thing, the large majority of Web pages are posted in English, and this fact naturally poses a challenge for any students who still learning to read or write English. For another, schools vary widely in how much Internet service they can provide. In general, well-to-do schools and those in cities provide more access than those located in less well-off areas or in rural areas— though there are many exceptions. A richly endowed school might have an Internet connection in every classroom as well as multiple connections in a school library or in specialized computer rooms. Students as well as faculty would be able to use these facilities, and one or more teachers might have special training in Internet research to help when problems arise. At the other extreme, a school might have only a few Internet connections for the entire school, or even just one, located in a central place like the library or the school office. Usage by students would consequently be limited, and teachers would essentially teach themselves how to search the Internet and how to troubleshoot technical problems when they occur.
In spite of these problems, the Internet has considerable potential for enhancing students' learning, precisely because of its flexibility and near universality. Some of the best recent successes involve the creation of a learning commons (sometimes also called an information commons or teaching commons), a combination of a website and an actual, physical place in a school or library that brings together information, students and teachers so that both (though perhaps especially students) can learn (Haas & Robertson, 2004; Beagle, 2006). A learning commons includes an online library catalogue and online Internet service, but it also offers other services: online information and advice about study skills, for example, as well as access to peer tutors and support groups, either online or in person, that can help with difficulties about writing or doing assignments. As you might suspect, using a learning commons effectively sometimes requires reorganizing certain features of teaching and learning, chiefly toward greater explicit collaboration among students and teachers.
Using local experts and field trips
Two other ways of enhancing learning include bringing local experts to the classroom and taking the class on field trips outside the classroom. Both of these strategies help to make learning more vivid, as well as more relevant to the particular community and lives that students lead.
Local experts
Classroom visits by persons with key experience can often add a lot to many curriculum subjects and topics. In one tenth grade science class studying environmental issues, for example, the teacher invited the city forester, the person responsible for the health of trees planted in city parks and along city boulevards. The forester had special knowledge of the stresses on trees in urban environments, and he was able to explain and give examples of particular problems that had occurred and their solutions. In a second grade class with many Hispanic students, on the other hand, a teacher aide was able to serve as an expert visitor by describing her memories of childhood in a Spanish-speaking community in New Mexico. Later she also recruited an older Hispanic friend and relative to the class to describe their experiences growing up in Central America. She also acted as their English-Spanish interpreter. In all of these examples, the experts made the learning more real and immediate. Their presence counteracted the tendency to equate school learning with book-based knowledge— a common hazard when basing instructional planning primarily on curriculum documents.
Field trips
In addition to bringing the world to the classroom by inviting visitors, teachers can do the converse, they can take the classroom to the world by leading students on field trips. Such trips are not confined to any particular grade level. In the early grades of elementary school, for example, one common goal of the curriculum is to learn about community helpers— the police, firefighters, store owners, and others who make a community safe and livable. As indicated already, representatives of these groups can visit the class and tell about their work. But the class can also visit the places which these people tell about: a police station, a fire hall, a local retail store, and the like. Such trips offer a more complete picture of the context in which community professionals work than is possible simply from hearing and reading about it. The benefits are possible for older students as well. In learning about water-borne diseases as part of a biology class, for example, one middle-school class took a field trip to the local water-treatment facility, where staff members explained where the town's water came from and how the water was cleaned to become drinkable at any tap.
From a teacher's point of view, of course, there are certain risks about arranging classroom visitors or field trips. One is that a visitor may turn out not to communicate well with children or young people— he or she may assume too much prior knowledge, for example, or veer off the chosen topic. Another problem is that field trips often require additional funds (for admission fees or to pay for a bus), and require support from additional adults— often parents— to supervise students outside of school. Some of these problems are by-passed by arranging "virtual" field trips and hearing from "virtual" visitors: using computer software or media to show students places and activities which they cannot visit in person (Clark, 2006). Generally, though, a computer-based experience cannot compare with a real trip or visitor in vividness, and the benefits of actual, in-person field trips or visitors often therefore outweigh the challenges of arranging them.
Service learning
Still another way to enhance learning is to incorporate service learning, which is activity that combines real community service with analysis and reflection on the significance of the service (Johnson & O'Grady, 2006; Thomsen, 2006). Picking up trash in an urban stream bed, for example, is a community service which students can perform. To transform this service into service learning, students also need to note and reflect on the trash that they find; talk and write about the ecological environment of the stream and of the community; and even make recommendations for improving the local environment. To accomplish these objectives, service learning activities should not be sporadic, nor used as a punishment— as when a teacher or principal assigns trash pick-up as an after- school detention activity.
Under good conditions, service learning enhances instructional plans both morally and intellectually. Morally, it places students in the role of creating good for the community, and counteracts students' perception that being "good" simply means complying with teachers' or parents' rules passively. Intellectually, service learning places social and community issues in a vivid, lived context. The environment, economic inequality, or race relations, for example, are no longer just ideas that people merely talk about, but problems that people actually act upon (Dicklitch, 2005).
As you might suspect, though, making service learning successful is not automatic. For one thing, service learning lends itself well only to certain curriculum areas (for example, community studies or social studies). For another, some students may initially resist service learning, wondering whether it benefits them personally as students (Jones, Gilbride-Brown, & Gasiorski, 2005). Also, some service projects may inadvertently be invented only to benefit students, without adequate consultation or advice from community members. Bringing food hampers to low-income families may seem like a good idea to middle-class students or instructors, but some families may perceive this action less as a benefit than as an act of charity which they therefore resent. But none of these problems are insurmountable. Evaluations generally find that service learning, when done well, increases students' sense of moral empowerment as well as their knowledge of social issues (Buchanan, Baldwin, & Rudisill, 2002). Like many other educational practices, insuring success with service learning requires doing it well. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/10%3A_Planning_Instruction/10.05%3A_Enhancing_Student_Learning_Through_a_Variety_of_Resources.txt |
To succeed, then, instructional plans do require a variety of resources, like the ones discussed in the previous section. But they also require more: they need to connect with students' prior experiences and knowledge. Sometimes the connections can develop as a result of using the Internet, taking field trips, or engaging in service learning, particularly if students are already familiar with these activities and places. More often than not, though, teachers need to find additional ways to connect curriculum with students' experiences— ways that fit more thoroughly and continuously into the daily work of a class. Fortunately, such techniques are readily at hand; they simply require the teacher to develop a habit of looking for opportunities to use them. Among the possibilities are four that deserve special mention: (1) modeling behavior and modeling representations of ideas, (2) activating prior knowledge already familiar to students, (3) anticipating preconceptions held by students, and (4) providing guided and independent practice, including its most traditional form, homework.
Modeling
The term modeling can mean either a demonstration of a desired behavior or a representation of an important theory, idea, or object. Each of these meanings can link curriculum goals with students' prior knowledge and experience.
Modeling as a demonstration
In the first meaning, modeling refers to performing or demonstrating a desired new behavior or skill, as when a teacher or classmate demonstrates polite behaviors or the correct solution to a math problem. In this case we say that the teacher or classmate models the desired behavior, either deliberately or in the course of other ongoing activity. Students observe the modeled behavior and (hopefully) imitate it themselves. Research repeatedly shows that modeling desired behaviors is an effective way to learn new behaviors, especially when the model is perceived as important (like the teacher), similar to the learner (like a student's best friend), or has a warm, positive relationship with the learner (like the teacher or the student's friend) (Bandura, 2002; Gibson, 2004). Modeling in this sense is sometimes also called observational learning. It has many of the same properties as the classic operant conditioning discussed in Chapter 2, except that reinforcement during observational learning is witnessed in others rather than experienced by the learner directly. Watching others being reinforced is sometimes called vicarious reinforcement. The idea is that if, for example, a student observes a classmate who behaves politely with the teacher and then sees that classmate receive praise for the behavior (vicarious reinforcement), the student is more likely to imitate the polite behavior that he saw. As in classic operant conditioning, furthermore, if the student observes that politeness by classmates is ignored (extinction or no reinforcement), then the student is much less likely to imitate the politeness. Worse yet, if the student observes that negative behaviors in others lead to positive consequences (like attention from peers), then the student may imitate the negative behaviors (Rebellon, 2006). Cursing and swearing, and even bullying or vandalism, can be reinforced vicariously, just as can more desired behaviors.
Modeling— in this first sense of a demonstration— connects instructional goals to students' experiences by presenting real, vivid examples of behaviors or skills in a way that a student can practice directly, rather than merely talk about. There is often little need, when imitating a model, to translate ideas or instructions from verbal form into action. For students struggling with language and literacy, in particular, this feature can be a real advantage.
Modeling— as simplified representation
In a second meaning of modeling, a model is a simplified representation of a phenomenon that incorporates the important properties of the phenomenon. Models in this sense may sometimes be quite tangible, direct copies of reality; when I was in fourth grade growing up in California, for example, we made scale models of the Spanish missions as part of our social studies lessons about California history. But models can also be imaginary, though still based on familiar elements. In a science curriculum, for example, the behavior of gas molecules under pressure can be modeled by imagining the molecules as ping pong balls flying about and colliding in an empty room. Reducing the space available to the gas by making the room smaller, causes the ping pong balls to collide more frequently and vigorously, and thereby increases the pressure on the walls of the room. Increasing the space has the opposite effect. Creating an actual room full of ping pong balls may be impractical, of course, but the model can still be imagined.
Modeling in this second sense is not about altering students' behavior, but about increasing their understanding of a newly learned idea, theory, or phenomenon. The model itself uses objects or events that are already familiar to students— simple balls and their behavior when colliding— and in this way supports students' learning of new, unfamiliar material. Not every new concept or idea lends itself to such modeling, but many do: students can create models of unfamiliar animals, for example, or of medieval castles, or of ecological systems. Two-dimensional models— essentially drawings— can also be helpful: students can illustrate literature or historical events, or make maps of their own neighborhoods. The choice of model depends largely on the specific curriculum goals which the teacher needs to accomplish at a particular time.
Activating prior knowledge
Another way to connect curriculum goals to students' experience is by activating prior knowledge, a term that refers to encouraging students to recall what they know already about new material being learned. Various formats for activating prior knowledge are possible. When introducing a unit about how biologists classify animal and plant species, for example, a teacher can invite students to discuss how they already classify different kinds of plants and animals. Having highlighted this informal knowledge, the teacher can then explore how the same species are classified by biological scientists, and compare the scientists' classification schemes to the students' own schemes. The activation does not have to happen orally, as in this example; a teacher can also ask students to write down as many distinct types of animals and plants that they can think of, and then ask students to diagram or map their relationships— essentially creating a concept map like the ones we described in Chapter 8 (Gurlitt, et al., 2006). Whatever the strategy used, activation helps by making students' prior knowledge or experience conscious and therefore easier to link to new concepts or information.
Anticipating preconceptions of students
Ironically, activating students' prior knowledge can be a mixed blessing if some of the prior knowledge is misleading or downright wrong. Misleading or erroneous knowledge is especially common among young students, but it can happen at any grade level. A kindergarten child may think that the sun literally "rises" in the morning, since she often hears adults use this expression, or that the earth is flat because it obviously looks flat. But a high school student may mistakenly believe that large objects (a boulder) fall faster than small ones (a pebble), or that a heavy object dropped (not thrown) from a moving car window will fall straight down instead of traveling laterally alongside the car while it falls.
Because misconceptions are quite common among students and even among adults, teachers are more effective if they can anticipate preconceptions of students wherever possible. The task is twofold. First the teacher must know or at least guess students' preconceptions as much as possible in advance, so that she can design learning activities to counteract and revise their thinking. Some preconceptions have been well-documented by educational research and therefore can in principle be anticipated easily— though they may still sometimes take a teacher by surprise during a busy activity or lesson (Tanner & Allen, 2005; Chiu & Lin, 2005). Exhibit 9.8 lists a few of these common preconceptions. Others may be unique to particular students, however, and a teacher may only by able to learn of them through experience— by listening carefully to what students say and write and by watching what they do. A few preconceptions may be so ingrained or tied to other, more deeply held beliefs that students may resist giving them up, either consciously or unconsciously. It may be hard, for example, for some students to give up the idea that girls are less talented at math or science than are boys, even though research generally finds this is not the case (Hyde & Linn, 2006).
Table \(1\) : Several misconceptions about science
Misconception
What to do
Stars and constellations appear in the same place in the sky every night.
Ask students to observe carefully the locations of a bright star once a week for several weeks.
The world is flat, circular like a pancake.
Use a globe or ball to find countries located over the horizon; use computer software (e.g. Global Earth) to illustrate how a round Earth can look flat up close.
Dinosaurs disappeared at the same time that human beings appeared and because of human activity.
Construct a timeline of major periods of Darwinian evolution.
Rivers always flow from North to South.
Identify rivers that flow South to North (e.g. the Red River in North Dakota and Canada); talk about how Southern locations are not necessarily “lower”.
Force is needed not only to start an object moving, but to keep it moving.
Explain the concept of inertia; demonstrate inertia using low-friction motion (e.g. with a hovercraft or dry- ice puck).
Volume, weight, and size are identical concepts.
Have students weigh objects of different sizes or volumes, and compare the results.
Seasons happen because the Earth changes distance from the sun.
Explain the tilt of Earth’s axis using a globe and light as a model; demonstrate reduced heating of surfaces by placing similar surfaces outdoors at different angles to the sun’s rays.
Sources: Chi, 2005; D. Clark, 2006; Slotta & Chi, 2006; Owens, 2003.
The second task when anticipating preconceptions is to treat students' existing knowledge and beliefs with respect even when they do include misconceptions or errors. This may seem obvious in principle, but it needs remembering when students persist with misconceptions in spite of a teacher's efforts to teach alternative ideas or concepts. Most of us— including most students— have reasons for holding our beliefs, even when the beliefs do not agree with teachers, textbooks, or other authorities, and we appreciate having our beliefs treated with respect. Students are no different from other people in this regard. In a high school biology class, for example, some students may have personal reasons for not agreeing with the theory of evolution associated with Charles Darwin. For religious reasons they may support explanations of the origins of life that give a more active, interventionist role to God (Brumfiel, 2005). If their beliefs disagree with the teacher's or the textbook, then the disagreement needs to be acknowledged, but acknowledged respectfully. For some students (and perhaps some teachers), expressing fundamental disagreement respectfully may feel awkward, but it needs to be done nonetheless.
Guided practice, independent practice, and homework
So far, we have focused on bridging the goals or content of a curriculum to events, beliefs, and ideas from students' lives. In studying human growth in a health class, for example, a teacher might ask students to bring photos of themselves as a much younger child. In this case a concept from the curriculum— human growth— then is related to a personal event, being photographed as a youngster, that the student finds meaningful.
But teachers can also create bridges between curriculum and students' experiences in another way, by relating the process of learning in school with the process of learning outside of school. Much of this task involves helping students to make the transition from supervised learning to self-regulated learning— or put differently, from practice that is relatively guided to practice that is relatively independent.
Guided practice
When students first learn a new skill or a new set of ideas, they are especially likely to encounter problems and make mistakes that interfere with the very process of learning. In figuring out how to use a new software program, for example, a student may unknowingly press a wrong button that prevents further functioning of the program. In translating sentences from Spanish into English in language class, for another example, a student might misinterpret one particular word or grammatical feature. This one mistake may cause many sentences to be translated incorrectly, and so on. So students initially need guided practice— opportunities to work somewhat independently, but with a teacher or other expert close at hand prevent or fix difficulties when they occur. In general, educational research has found that guided practice helps all learners, but especially those who are struggling (Bryan & Burstein, 2004: Woodward, 2004). A first-grade child has difficulty in decoding printed words, for example, benefits from guidance more than one who can decode easily. But both students benefit in the initial stages of learning, since both may make more mistakes then. Guided practice, by its nature, sends a dual message to
students: it is important to learn new material well, but it is also important to become able to use learning without assistance, beyond the lesson where it is learned and even beyond the classroom.
Guided practice is much like the concepts of the zone of proximal development (or ZPD) and instructional scaffolding that we discussed in Chapter 2 in connection with Vygotsky's theory of learning. In essence, during guided practice the teacher creates a ZPD or scaffold (or framework) in which the student can accomplish more with partial knowledge or skill than the student could accomplish alone. But whatever its name— guided practice, a ZPD, or a scaffold— insuring success of guidance depends on several key elements: focusing on the task at hand, asking questions that break the task into manageable parts, reframing or restating the task so that it becomes more understandable, and giving frequent feedback about the student's progress (Rogoff, 2003). Combining the elements appropriately takes sensitivity and improvisational skill— even artfulness— but these very challenges are among the true joys of teaching.
Independent practice
As students gain facility with a new skill or new knowledge, they tend to need less guidance and more time to consolidate (or strengthen) their new knowledge with additional practice. Since they are less likely to encounter mistakes or problems at this point, they begin to benefit from independent practice— opportunities to review and repeat their knowledge at their own pace and with fewer interruptions. At this point, therefore, guided practice may feel less like help than like an interruption, even if it is well-intentioned. A student who already knows how to use a new computer program, for example, may be frustrated by waiting for the teacher to explain each step of the program individually. If a student is already skillful at translating Spanish sentences into English in a language class, it can be annoying for the teacher to "help" by pointing out minor errors that the student is likely to catch for herself.
By definition, the purpose of independent practice is to provide more self-regulation of learning than what comes from guided practice. It implies a different message for students than what is conveyed by guided practice, a message that goes beyond the earlier one: that it is now time to take more complete responsibility for own learning. When all goes well, independent practice is the eventual outcome of the zone of proximal development created during the earlier phase of guided practice described above: the student can now do on his or her own, what originally required assistance from someone else. Or stated differently, independent practice is a way of encouraging self-determination about learning, in the sense that we discussed this idea in Chapter 6. In order to work independently, a student must set his or her own direction and monitor his or her own success; by definition, no one can do this for the student.
Homework
The chances are that you already have experienced many forms of homework in your own educational career. The widespread practice of assigning review work to do outside of school is a way of supplementing scarce time in class and of providing independent practice for students. Homework has generated controversy throughout most of its history in public education, partly because it encroaches on students' personal and family-oriented time, and partly because research finds no consistent benefits of doing homework (Gill & Schlossman, 2004; Kohn, 2004). In spite of these criticisms, though, parents and teachers tend to favor homework when it is used for two main purposes. One purpose is to review and practice material that has already been introduced and practiced at school; a sheet of arithmetic problems might be a classic example. When used for this purpose, the amount of homework is usually minimal in the earliest grades, if any is assigned at all. One educational expert recommends only ten minutes per day in first grade at most, and only gradual increases in amount as students get older (Cooper & Valentine, 2001).
The second purpose for supporting homework is to convey the idea of schoolwork being the "job" of childhood and youth. Just as on an adult job, students must complete homework tasks with minimal supervision and sometimes even minimal training. Doing the tasks, furthermore, is a way to get ahead or further along in the work place (for an adult) or at school (for a child). One study in which researchers interviewed children about these ideas, in fact, found that children do indeed regard homework as work in the same way that adults think of a job (Cornu & Xu, 2004). In the children's minds, homework tasks were not "fun", in spite of teachers' frequent efforts to make them fun. Instead they were jobs that needed doing, much like household chores. When it came to homework, children regarded parents as the teachers' assistants— people merely carrying out the wishes of the teacher. Like any job, the job of doing homework varied in stressfulness; when required at an appropriate amount and level of difficulty, and when children reported having good "bosses" (parents and teachers), the job of homework could actually be satisfying in the way that many adults' jobs can be satisfying when well-done. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/10%3A_Planning_Instruction/10.06%3A_Creating_Bridges_Among_Curriculum_Goals_and_Students%27_Prior_Experiences.txt |
This chapter started with one premise but ended with another. It started with the idea that teachers need to locate curriculum goals, usually from a state department of education or a publisher of a curriculum document. In much of the chapter we described what these authorities provide for individual classroom teachers, and how their documents can be clarified and rendered specific enough for classroom use. In the middle of the chapter, however, the premise shifted. We began noting that instruction cannot be planned simply for students; teachers also need to consider involving students themselves in influencing or even choosing their own goals and ways of reaching the goals. Instructional planning, in other words, should not be just for students, but also by students, at least to some extent. In the final parts of the chapter we described a number of ways of achieving a reasonable balance between teachers' and students' influence on their learning. We suggested considering relatively strong measures, such as an emergent or an anti-bias curriculum, but we also considered more moderate ones, like the use of the Internet, of local experts and field trips, of service learning, and of guided and independent practice. All things considered, then, teachers' planning is not just about organizing teaching; it is also about facilitating learning. Its dual purpose is evident in many features of public education, including the one we discuss in the next two chapters, the assessment of learning.
10.08: Summary Key Words and References
Chapter Summary
In the United States, broad educational goals for most subject areas are published by many national professional associations and by all state departments of education. Usually the state departments of education also publish curriculum framework or curriculum guides that offer somewhat more specific explanations of educational goals, and how they might be taught.
Transforming the goals into specific learning objectives, however, remains a responsibility of the teacher. The formulation can focus on curriculum topics that can analyzed into specific activities, or it can focus on specific behaviors expected of students and assembled into general types of outcomes. Taxonomies of educational objectives, such as the ones originated by Benjamin Bloom, are a useful tool with either approach to instructional planning.
In addition to planning instruction on students' behalf, many teachers organize instruction so that students themselves can influence the choice of goals. One way to do so is through emergent curriculum; another way is through multicultural and anti-bias curriculum.
Whatever planning strategies are used, learning is enhanced by using a wide variety of resources, including the Internet, local experts, field trips, and service learning, among others. It is also enhanced if the teacher can build bridges between curriculum goals and students' experiences through judicious use of modeling, activation of prior knowledge, anticipation of students' preconceptions, and an appropriate blend of guided and independent practice.
Key terms
• Affective objectives
• Anti-bias education
• Bloom's taxonomy
• Content integration
• Curriculum framework
• Educational goals
• Emergent curriculum
• Equity pedagogy
• Guided practice
• Independent practice
• Indicators
• Instructional planning
• Learning commons
• Learning objectives
• Modeling as demonstration
• Modeling as simplified representation
• Multicultural education
• National standards
• Psychomotor objectives
• Scope and sequence
• Service learning
• State standards
• Taxonomy of educational objectives
On the Internet
These are some of many websites that explains what behavioral objectives are, and how to write them. They give more detail than is possible in this chapter. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/10%3A_Planning_Instruction/10.07%3A_Planning_for_Instruction_as_well_as_for_Learning.txt |
Kym teaches sixth grade students in an urban school where most of the families in the community live below the poverty line. Each year the majority of the students in her school fail the state-wide tests. Kym follows school district teaching guides and typically uses direct instruction in her Language Arts and Social Studies classes. The classroom assessments are designed to mirror those on the state-wide tests so the students become familiar with the assessment format. When Kym is in a graduate summer course on motivation she reads an article called, "Teaching strategies that honor and motivate inner-city African American students" (Teel, Debrin-Parecki, & Covington, 1998) and she decides to change her instruction and assessment in fall in four ways. First, she stresses an incremental approach to ability focusing on effort and allows students to revise their work several times until the criteria are met. Second, she gives students choices in performance assessments (e.g. oral presentation, art project, creative writing). Third, she encourages responsibility by asking students to assist in classroom tasks such as setting up video equipment, handing out papers etc. Fourth, she validates student' cultural heritage by encouraging them to read biographies and historical fiction from their own cultural backgrounds. Kym reports that the changes in her students' effort and demeanor in class are dramatic: students are more enthusiastic, work harder, and produce better products. At the end of the year twice as many of her students pass the State-wide test than the previous year.
Afterward. Kym still teaches sixth grade in the same school district and continues to modify the strategies described above. Even though the performance of the students she taught improved the school was closed because, on average, the students' performance was poor. Kym gained a Ph.D and teaches Educational Psychology to preservice and inservice teachers in evening classes.
Kym's story illustrates several themes related to assessment that we explore in this chapter on teacher-made assessment strategies and in the Chapter 12 on standardized testing. First, choosing effective classroom assessments is related to instructional practices, beliefs about motivation, and the presence of state-wide standardized testing. Second, some teacher-made classroom assessments enhance student learning and motivation —some do not. Third, teachers can improve their teaching through action research. This involves identifying a problem (e.g. low motivation and achievement), learning about alternative approaches (e.g. reading the literature), implementing the new approaches, observing the results (e.g. students' effort and test results), and continuing to modify the strategies based on their observations.
Best practices in assessing student learning have undergone dramatic changes in the last 20 years. When Rosemary was a mathematics teacher in the 1970s, she did not assess students' learning she tested them on the mathematics knowledge and skills she taught during the previous weeks. The tests varied little format and students always did them individually with pencil and paper. Many teachers, including mathematics teachers, now use a wide variety of methods to determine what their students have learned and also use this assessment information to modify their instruction. In this chapter the focus is on using classroom assessments to improve student learning and we begin with some basic concepts
11.02: Basic Concepts
Assessment is an integrated process of gaining information about students' learning and making value judgments about their progress (Linn & Miller, 2005). Information about students' progress can be obtained from a variety of sources including projects, portfolios, performances, observations, and tests. The information about students' learning is often assigned specific numbers or grades and this involves measurement. Measurement answers the question, "How much?" and is used most commonly when the teacher scores a test or product and assigns numbers (e.g. 28 /30 on the biology test; 90/100 on the science project). Evaluation is the process of making judgments about the assessment information (Airasian, 2005). These judgments may be about individual students (e.g. should Jacob's course grade take into account his significant improvement over the grading period?), the assessment method used (e.g. is the multiple choice test a useful way to obtain information about problem solving), or one's own teaching (e.g. most of the students this year did much better on the essay assignment than last year so my new teaching methods seem effective).
The primary focus in this chapter is on assessment for learning, where the priority is designing and using assessment strategies to enhance student learning and development. Assessment for learning is often formative assessment, i.e. it takes place during the course of instruction by providing information that teachers can use to revise their teaching and students can use to improve their learning (Black, Harrison, Lee, Marshall & Wiliam, 2004). Formative assessment includes both informal assessment involving spontaneous unsystematic observations of students' behaviors (e.g. during a question and answer session or while the students are working on an assignment) and formal assessment involving pre-planned, systematic gathering of data. Assessment of learning is formal assessment that involves assessing students in order to certify their competence and fulfill accountability mandates and is the primary focus of the next chapter on standardized tests but is also considered in this chapter. Assessment of learning is typically summative, that is, administered after the instruction is completed (e.g. a final examination in an educational psychology course). Summative assessments provide information about how well students mastered the material, whether students are ready for the next unit, and what grades should be given (Airasian, 2005). | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/11%3A_Teacher-Made_Assessment_Strategies/11.01%3A_Introduction.txt |
Using assessment to advance students' learning not just check on learning requires viewing assessment as a process that is integral to the all phases of teaching including planning, classroom interactions and instruction, communication with parents, and self-reflection (Stiggins, 2002). Essential steps in assessment for learning include:
Step 1 : Having clear instructional goals and communicating them to students
In the previous chapter we documented the importance of teachers thinking carefully about the purposes of each lesson and unit. This may be hard for beginning teachers. For example, Vanessa, a middle school social studies teacher, might say that the goal of her next unit is: "Students will learn about the Cvil War." Clearer goals require that Vanessa decides what it is about the US Civil War she wants her students to learn, e.g. the dates and names of battles, the causes of the US Civil War, the differing perspectives of those living in the North and the South, or the day-to-day experiences of soldiers fighting in the war. Vanessa cannot devise appropriate assessments of her students' learning about the US Civil War until she is clear about her own purposes.
For effective teaching Vanessa also needs to communicate clearly the goals and objectives to her students so they know what is important for them to learn. No matter how thorough a teacher's planning has been, if students do not know what they are supposed to learn they will not learn as much. Because communication is so important to teachers a specific chapter is devoted to this topic (Chapter 8), and so communication is not considered in any detail in this chapter.
Step 2: Selecting appropriate assessment techniques
Selecting and administrating assessment techniques that are appropriate for the goals of instruction as well as the developmental level of the students are crucial components of effective assessment for learning. Teachers need to know the characteristics of a wide variety of classroom assessment techniques and how these techniques can be adapted for various content, skills, and student characteristics. They also should understand the role reliability, validity, and the absence of bias should play is choosing and using assessment techniques. Much of this chapter focuses on this information.
Step 3: Using assessment to enhance motivation and confidence
Students' motivation and confidence is influenced by the type of assessment used as well as the feedback given about the assessment results. Consider, Samantha a college student who takes a history class in which the professor's lectures and text book focus on really interesting major themes. However, the assessments are all multiple choice tests that ask about facts and Samantha, who initially enjoys the classes and readings, becomes angry, loses confidence she can do well, and begins to spend less time on the class material. In contrast, some instructors have observed that that many students in educational psychology classes like the one you are now taking will work harder on assessments that are case studies rather than more traditional exams or essays. The type of feedback provided to students is also important and we elaborate on these ideas later in this chapter.
Step 4: Adjusting instruction based on information
An essential component of assessment for learning is that the teacher uses the information gained from assessment to adjust instruction. These adjustments occur in the middle of a lesson when a teacher may decide that students' responses to questions indicate sufficient understanding to introduce a new topic, or that her observations of students' behavior indicates that they do not understand the assignment and so need further explanation. Adjustments also occur when the teacher reflects on the instruction after the lesson is over and is planning for the next day. We provide examples of adjusting instruction in this chapter and consider teacher reflection in more detail in Appendix C.
Step 5: Communicating with parents and guardians
Students' learning and development is enhanced when teachers communicate with parents regularly about their children's performance. Teachers communicate with parents in a variety of ways including newsletters, telephone conversations, email, school district websites and parent-teachers conferences. Effective communication requires that teachers can clearly explain the purpose and characteristics of the assessment as well as the meaning of students' performance. This requires a thorough knowledge of the types and purposes of teacher made and standardized assessments (this chapter and Chapter 12) and well as clear communication skills (Chapter 8).
We now consider each step in the process of assessment for learning in more detail. In order to be able to select and administer appropriate assessment techniques teachers need to know about the variety of techniques that can be used as well as what factors ensure that the assessment techniques are high quality. We begin by considering high quality assessments. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/11%3A_Teacher-Made_Assessment_Strategies/11.03%3A_Assessment_for_Learning-_An_Overview_of_the_Process.txt |
For an assessment to be high quality it needs to have good validity and reliability as well as absence from bias.
Validity
Validity is the evaluation of the "adequacy and appropriateness of the interpretations and uses of assessment results" for a given group of individuals (Linn & Miller, 2005, p. 68). For example, is it appropriate to conclude that the results of a mathematics test on fractions given to recent immigrants accurately represents their understanding of fractions? Is it appropriate for the teacher to conclude, based on her observations, that a kindergarten student, Jasmine, has Attention Deficit Disorder because she does not follow the teachers oral instructions? Obviously in each situation other interpretations are possible that the immigrant students have poor English skills rather than mathematics skills, or that Jasmine may be hearing impaired.
It is important to understand that validity refers to the interpretation and uses made of the results of an assessment procedure not of the assessment procedure itself. For example, making judgments about the results of the same test on fractions may be valid if the students all understand English well. A teacher concluding from her observations that the kindergarten student has Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) may be appropriate if the student has been screened for hearing and other disorders (although the classification of a disorder like ADD cannot be made by one teacher). Validity involves making an overall judgment of the degree to which the interpretations and uses of the assessment results are justified. Validity is a matter of degree (e.g. high, moderate, or low validity) rather than all-or none (e.g. totally valid vs invalid) (Linn & Miller, 2005).
Three sources of evidence are considered when assessing validity— content, construct and predictive. Content validity evidence is associated with the question: How well does the assessment include the content or tasks it is supposed to? For example, suppose your educational psychology instructor devises a mid-term test and tells you this includes chapters one to seven in the text book. Obviously, all the items in test should be based on the content from educational psychology, not your methods or cultural foundations classes. Also, the items in the test should cover content from all seven chapters and not just chapters three to seven— unless the instructor tells you that these chapters have priority.
Teachers' have to be clear about their purposes and priorities for instruction before they can begin to gather evidence related content validity. Content validation determines the degree that assessment tasks are relevant and representative of the tasks judged by the teacher (or test developer) to represent their goals and objectives (Linn & Miller, 2005). It is important for teachers to think about content validation when devising assessment tasks and one way to help do this is to devise a Table of Specifications. An example, based on Pennsylvania's State standards for grade 3 geography, is in . In the left hand column is the instructional content for a 20-item test the teacher has decided to construct with two kinds of instructional objectives: identification and uses or locates. The second and third columns identify the number of items for each content area and each instructional objective. Notice that the teacher has decided that six items should be devoted to the sub area of geographic representations- more than any other sub area. Devising a table of specifications helps teachers determine if some content areas or concepts are over-sampled (i.e. there are too many items) and some concepts are under-sampled (i.e. there are too few items).
Table \(1\) : Example of Table of Specifications: grade 3 basic geography literacy
Content
Instructional objective Identifies Uses or locates
Total number of items
Per cent of items
Identify geography tools and their uses
Geographic representations: e.g. maps, globe, diagrams and photographs
Spatial information: sketch & thematic maps
Mental maps
3
1
1
3
1
1
6
2
2
30%
10%
10%
Identify and locate places and regions Physical features (e.g. lakes, continents) Human features (countries, states, cities)
Regions with unifying geographic characteristics e.g. river basins
1
3
1
2
2
1
3
5
2
15%
25%
10%
Number of items
10
10
20
Percentage of items
50%
50%
100%
Construct validity evidence is more complex than content validity evidence. Often we are interested in making broader judgments about student's performances than specific skills such as doing fractions. The focus may be on constructs such as mathematical reasoning or reading comprehension. A construct is a characteristic of a person we assume exists to help explain behavior. For example, we use the concept of test anxiety to explain why some individuals when taking a test have difficulty concentrating, have physiological reactions such as sweating, and perform poorly on tests but not in class assignments. Similarly mathematics reasoning and reading comprehension are constructs as we use them to help explain performance on an assessment. Construct validation is the process of determining the extent to which performance on an assessment can be interpreted in terms of the intended constructs and is not influenced by factors irrelevant to the construct. For example, judgments about recent immigrants' performance on a mathematical reasoning test administered in English will have low construct validity if the results are influenced by English language skills that are irrelevant to mathematical problem solving. Similarly, construct validity of end-of-semester examinations is likely to be poor for those students who are highly anxious when taking major tests but not during regular class periods or when doing assignments. Teachers can help increase construct validity by trying to reduce factors that influence performance but are irrelevant to the construct being assessed. These factors include anxiety, English language skills, and reading speed (Linn & Miller 2005).
A third form of validity evidence is called criterion-related validity. Selective colleges in the USA use the ACT or SAT among other criteria to choose who will be admitted because these standardized tests help predict freshman grades, i.e. have high criterion-related validity. Some K-12 schools give students math or reading tests in the fall semester in order to predict which are likely to do well on the annual state tests administered in the spring semester and which students are unlikely to pass the tests and will need additional assistance. If the tests administered in fall do not predict students' performances accurately then the additional assistance may be given to the wrong students illustrating the importance of criterion- related validity. | textbooks/socialsci/Education_and_Professional_Development/Educational_Psychology_(Seifert_and_Sutton)/11%3A_Teacher-Made_Assessment_Strategies/11.04%3A_Selecting_Appropriate_Assessment_Techniques_I-_High_Quality_Assessments.txt |
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