Many wonder what is the point in spending a considerable amount of time, effort, and resources to develop knowledge about methods of instructions. Simply, instructional design is an effective way to alleviate many or the pressing problems that plague education. Instructional design is the science that links learning theories and educational practices (Dewey, 1900) in order to optimize desired instructional outcomes such as course completion and student achievement.
Some may wonder, Isn't that is the purpose of the curriculum or aren't those ideas built into the curriculum? Well, the answer is no. The curriculum is mainly concerned with what to teach, whereas instruction and instructional design is concerned with how to teach it.
Faculty are at a critical place. We need to make our methods of instruction more effective, efficient, and appealing to a broader audience. Our instructional methods need to be engaging, promote critical thinking and enhance active learning strategies. We need to utilize learning theories, instructional design theories, and the instructional design process to help design, scaffold, and build the instructional components that support and optimize our learning episodes.
Technology has become the friend of the educator. Technology provides educational options and opportunities to enhance teaching and learning. It is not just about teaching online, but includes all the other ways that classroom and clinical activities can be enhanced by technology.
The sequence of instructional design is a thoughtful and deliberate process that begins with learning theories. What adult learning theories are you most familiar with? What learning theories have you experienced as a faculty member and as a student. What learning theory is most effective for you as a student and an instructor?
I feel that behaviorism and cognitivism are the two theories intertwined that I see most frequently in adult learners and the two that I feel are most effective for myself. I do not feel that you can utilize one of these theories independently to be effective. The mind of the individual is important for learning to occur and the outside environment effects all learning, whether through suggestion or through encouragement.
ReplyDeleteI am familiar with and have experienced behaviorism and cognitivism. Behaviorism involves learning from the environment and includes learning that can be witnessed by others. Cognitivism involves learning from the inside or in the mind and may not be witnessed by others. Both learning theories are effective. It depends on the learning style of the learner. As the instructor for skills lab, the most effective theory is behaviorism because the students need to demonstrate the skills in order to learn them.
ReplyDeleteI am familiar with Behaviorism and Cognitivism.
ReplyDeleteTheories that I have experienced as:
Faculty Member: behaviorism and cognitivism
Student: behaviorism and cognitivism
My opinion is that the most effective learning theory is a combination of both behaviorism and cognitivism.
I am familiar with behavior and cognitive learning theories but I am also familiar with the theory of constructivism which I believe to be a hybrid theory that encompasses both the behavioral and cognitive learning theories and includes other learning theories such as situated cognition, experiential learning theory and on-line learning theories. As a clinical instructor, I am huge on experiential learning and situated learning theory. I believe learning is a mix and combination of many different learning theories that come together to produce learning.
ReplyDeleteThe learning theory I am most familiar with is Malcolm Knowles Andragogy or adult learning theory and once I was introduced to this learning theory my course design and development has changed. I went from being a teacher and instructor to more of a facilitator role giving more empowerment to students. I agree that there are many learning theories and they can all be combined in a classroom to reach all learners. I like to allow the students to incorporate their own experience within the course thus making the value of learning a collaborative experience. We can all learn from each other and our experiences.
ReplyDeleteThe learning theory I do my best to model and apply as an educator is an emancipatory pedagogy. Hills and Watson (2011) describe this learning theory and highlight the need for caring behaviors, co-creation of knowledge, and shared power in academia. Caring transactions between learner and educator facilitates an environment where students can challenge taken for granted assumptions and question traditional ways of knowing and being. In addition, it honors individuality and humanity, as each individual contributes to the learning process through sharing of knowledge acquired from past experiences.
ReplyDeleteI also love Freire's (2000) pedagogy of the oppressed. I think it adds a lot of insight to teaching and learning. However, there are some concepts of Freire's I find lacking. I think Hills and Watson (2011) do a good job of placing a positivist twist on the this classic piece of literature.
Lastly, as a student I like transformational learning and the adult learning theory of Knowles. I am self-directed and want what I am learning to be directly applied to my life and my profession.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury Publishing.
Hills, M., & Watson, J. (2011). Creating a caring science curriculum: An emancipatory pedagogy for nursing. Springer Publishing Company.
The most adult learning theories that I familiar with are behaviorism and humanism, which I believe that they could easily and effectively applied in education. These two types of adult learning theories are fit with the educational environment that presents at the college of nursing at Baghdad University.
ReplyDeleteMy father built a house - without experience. The house (now 50+ years old), is still standing. He built an airplane that we later flew. Therefore, I grew up and learned by problem-solving. He frequently asked us as children, "why is this working / not working... or how does this work?" That leads me to teach in the same manner. (Problem based learning). Solving problems demands that a student has a basic knowledge of what is going on, but must find a way to resolve the problem or how to make it better. In other words, a problem is identified and a solution to the problem is found and implemented.
ReplyDeleteNursing is a complex environment, ever changing, and spontaneous. Therefore, I see teaching nursing just as complex. There are some standards that as educators we must ensure that they know, so the Behavior Theory must be used for evaluating the student’s knowledge of theory; however, we teach adult learners most effectively, by using the Cognitive theory. Actual clinicals require several models of learning. In the clinical setting, the instructor has an opportunity to seek opportunities for each student. These opportunities can be seen as spontaneous moments of a “teaching opportunity”, a group understanding, or visualization of the skill being performed. All of which can be theory based from cognitive, humanism, constructivism, and problem-based learning. I believe that flexibility and patience for that right moment, when the light bulb goes off in the student’s brain, is priceless. Using different models of learning theories can help us apply the knowledge and practice to the students waiting for the opportunity to learn.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I believe it is essential to rely on more than one theory such as behaviorism, cognitive theory, and social learning theory. Using more than one learning theory could be attributed to that learning is a comparatively constant change in persons’ mental processing, emotional performance, and/or conduct owing to experience. Moreover, learners have varying bodies of knowledge and/or skills, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. Thus, there is no a single theory that can address all these factors that are influential in learning.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I believe it is essential to rely on more than one theory such as behaviorism, cognitive theory, and social learning theory. Using more than one learning theory could be attributed to that learning is a comparatively constant change in persons’ mental processing, emotional performance, and/or conduct owing to experience. Moreover, learners have varying bodies of knowledge and/or skills, thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. Thus, there is no a single theory that can address all these factors that are influential in learning.
ReplyDelete