Instructional Strategies
Instructional strategies are used to clarify ideas and help to determine how best to teach the instructional content. Seels and Richey state that this area is concerned with the "specifications for selecting and sequencing events and activities within a lesson” (p.31). The instructional strategies are selected based on the goals and objectives that are identified for the learning process. The strategies are planned before any instruction is developed. In order to identify the best instructional strategies, designers use learning and instructional theories, learner characteristics, the desired outcomes, and the learning environment. Instructional theories are based on learning theory and research of behaviorist, cognitivists, and constructivists. The behaviorist such as Skinner and Thorndike believe that learning happens when a correct response is demonstrated following the presentation of a stimulus. Behaviorists define learning as what comes from the student’s behavior (they can do something after instruction that they could not do before). Further, they stress the importance of specifying desired instructional outcomes that are clear and observable. Instructional strategies that are based onbehaviorism may include instructional cues to elicit correct responses from the student, multiple opportunities or trials (drill and practice), and discrimination or recalling facts.
Instructional theories that are based on cognitive learning theories propose that knowledge is viewed as symbolic, mental construction in the mind of individuals. Learning becomes the process of committing the symbol representations to memory where they may be processed. Instructional strategies, on the basis of this theory, may include demonstrations, outlining, content mapping and use of advanced organizers. The theory of Conditions for Learning developed by Robert M. Gagné (1965) is a Instructional Model. This theory states that there are several different types or levels of learning. The importance of these classifications is that each different type requires different types of instruction. Gagne identifies five major categories of learning: verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills and attitudes. Different internal and external conditions must be present for each type of learning. The theory outlines nine instructional events and corresponding cognitive processes for designing insrtruction. These events should satisfy or provide the necessary conditions for learning and serve as the basis for designing instruction and selecting appropriate media (Gagne, Briggs & Wager, 1992).
Lastly, constructivists such as Vygotsky, Piaget and Dewey believe that no one can have exactly the same experience as another person. Knowledge is believed to be built on our previous experiences and that individuals construct their own knowledge, therefore, no two people's knowledge can be exactly the same. Learning results in changes in the whole person not just changes in behavior and cognitive processes but also changes in values and perspectives. Constructivists believe that students should be provided with strong and safe environments in which the student has freedom to learn. Examples of instructional theories are: Learning by Doing, Open-Learning Environments, Designing Constructivist Learning Environments, and Multiple Approaches to Understanding. Each of these instructional theories suggests specific instructional strategies that are based on constructivist theory of knowledge. For example, Roger Schank's Learning By Doing model. The primary goal is to foster skill development and learning of factual information. Key values are:
- learning to do (skills), not just to know (factual knowledge),
- learning that occurs in the context of a goal that is relevant, meaningful, and interesting to the student,
- content knowledge that is learned in the context of relevant tasks closely related to how students will use it outside the learning environment.
Another example is Mayer’s SOI model. He suggests that during the learning process learner’s Select relevant information, Organize incoming information, and Integrate incoming information with existing knowledge. The learner uses both incoming material from the environment along with prior knowledge stored in the long-term memory to make sense of the new information presented (Reigeluth, p. 148). Key values are:
- instruction that focuses on the process of learning as well as the product of learning
- transfer ( knowledge use), as well as retention
- how to learn, as well as what to learn
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