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Ideas on Teaching
Using the "Instructional Design Process"
GENERAL PROCESS
1. Use a systematic, integrated design approach to preparing
a course to teach, rather than just lecturing on a "list
of topics."
2. Make sure that the (a) Goals, (b) Teaching/Learning Activities,
and (c) Feedback and Assessment are all linked to and reflect
each other.
3. Keep "Situational Factors" in mind when making
specific decisions.
SITUATIONAL FACTORS
1. Keep "Situational Factors" in mind, when you work
out the specific ideas regarding Goals, Teaching/Learning Activities,
and Feedback and Assessment.
2. These include many things, but especially:
- The educational, professional, and life CONTEXT of the
learning situation: e.g., is this a required course or an
elective, are professional certification requirements important,
how does this course fit into students' lives?
- The nature of the SUBJECT being studied: e.g., is it convergent
(striving for a single correct answer) or divergent (striving
to create multiple interpretations)? Is it very abstract
or close to human experiences?
- Characteristics of the LEARNER: e.g., their background
knowledge, initial interest, learning styles, etc.
- Characteristics of the TEACHER: e.g., level of familiarity
with the subject, teaching skills, beliefs and values regarding
teaching and learning, and feelings about students, the
subject, and the learning process.
GOALS
1. Be mindful of the general value of a given course. Is this
course primarily going to be helpful to students by…
- Enhancing the quality of their PERSONAL LIVES (e.g., developing
a philosophy of life, increasing their ability to derive
meaning from literature, music, and art)
- Preparing them to contribute responsibly and productively
to one or more of the many COMMUNITIES in which they live:
family, local community, church, special interest groups,
national state, world)
- Preparing them for the world of WORK
2. Use verbs, rather than nouns, to describe your learning goals.
- Nouns describe topics, e.g., "Causes of the Civil
War."
- Verbs describe learning, i.e., what we want students to
learn to "do"; for example, REMEMBER key dates,
people, and places, ASSESS the credibility of different
explanations of the Civil War, be able to FIND information
about the civil war on the Internet.
3. Use verbs that are clear and specific, rather than general
and vague.
- "Remember," "Assess" and "Find"
are better than overly general verbs like "Understand"
and "Appreciate."
4. Make your goals significant, i.e., strive for "Higher
Level Learning"."
- Include higher level thinking skills and non-cognitive
goals, that include but go beyond the "Understand and
remember" level of learning. A "Taxonomy of Higher
Level Learning" includes such things as
- Foundational knowledge (knowing)
- Application (thinking, acting)
- Integration (connecting)
- Human Dimension (shaping one's Self and interacting
with Others)
- Motivation (caring)
- Learning How to Learn (learning)
TEACHING/LEARNING ACTIVITIES
1. Make sure the teaching/learning activities you use are sufficient
for the goals you have chosen.
2. Use "Active Learning." This includes both…
- Experience: "Doing" and "Observing",
and
- Reflective Dialogue: With Self and with Others
3. Expand the kinds of learning experiences you
create, to include (a) multiple kinds of Experience and (b)
frequent opportunities for Reflective Dialogue on the meaning
of students' learning experiences.
4. Take advantage of the "Power of Interaction."
- That means linking one kind of active learning to another.
For example, have students write their thoughts on a topic
(Dialogue with Self), then engage in a small group discussion
with others (Dialogue with Others), then observe some related
phenomena (Observation), and finally engage in some action
(Doing).
5. Create a Dialectic between Experience and Dialogue.
- Make sure that students alternate back and forth between
(a) having some kind of Experience, either Doing or Observing,
and (b) Reflective Dialogue, either with Self and/or with
Others.
- New experiences have the potential to give learners a
new perspective on what is true (beliefs) and/or what is
good (values) in the world. Dialogue helps learners construct
the many possible meanings of experience and the insights
that can be derived from them.
FEEDBACK AND ASSESSMENT
1. Remember that Grading, Assessment, Feedback,
and Self-Assessment (by students) are all important, but each
one involves different procedures.
2. Make sure that all aspects of "Feedback and Assessment"
reflect both the Goals and the Teaching/Learning Activities
of the course.
3. Feedback: Create forms of dialogue with students from
which they can receive helpful information on how improve their
learning and the quality of their performance.
4. Self-Assessment: Find ways to help students learn
how to assess their own work.
5. Assessment: Assessment, as used here, means "evaluating
students' readiness to engage in relevant future activities,"
e.g., future courses, graduate school, experiencing the arts,
or future employment.
6. Decide what future activities you are preparing students
for.
7. Clarify the criteria that are important for assessing student
performance.
8. Create assessment procedures that validly indicate students'
readiness for those future activities.
9. Grading: Develop a grading system that clearly and
fairly communicates to others the readiness of students for
relevant future activities.
Prepared by:
Dr. L. Dee Fink
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