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Instructional theoryFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An Instructional theory is "a theory that offers explicit guidance on how to better help people learn anddevelop."[1] Instructional theories focus on how to structure material for promoting the education of humanbeings, particularly youth. Originating in the United States in the late 1970s, instructional theory istypically influenced by three general influences in educational thought: the behaviorist, the cognitive, andthe constructivist schools of thought. Instructional theory is heavily influenced by the 1956 work ofBenjamin Bloom, a University of Chicago professor, and the results of his Taxonomy of EducationObjectives — one of the first modern codifications of the learning process. One of the first instructionaltheorists was Robert M. Gagne, who in 1965 published Conditions of Learning for the Florida StateUniversity's Department of Educational Research.

Contents

1 Definition2 Overview3 Critiques4 See also5 References

Definition

Instructional theory is different than learning theory. A learning theory describes how learning takes place,and an instructional theory prescribes how to better help people learn.[1] Learning theories often informinstructional theory, and three general theoretical stances take part in this influence: behaviorism (learningas response acquisition), cognitivism (learning as knowledge acquisition), and constructivism (learning asknowledge construction).[2] Instructional theory helps us create conditions that increases the probability oflearning.[3]

Overview

Instructional theories identify what instruction or teaching should be like. [4] It outlines strategies that aneducator may adopt to achieve the learning objectives. Instructional theories are adapted based on theconcept being taught and more importantly, as per the learning style of the students. They are used as aneducational tool using which teachers and trainers can help a learner to learn. Instructional theoriesencompass different instructional models, instructional strategies and instructional methods. [5] Instructionaltheory ­ [6]

Is discussed in universal methods of instruction based on David Merrill's First Principles ofInstructionIs tailored according to the situation

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Includes Task Space and Instructional spaceTells student how to learn a concept, apply it to different contexts with practice and immediatefeedback

Instructional theory should carry out 4 tasks ­ knowledge selection, knowledge sequence, interactionmanagement and setting of interaction environment.[7]

Instructions can be of several types, which are generally presented as dichotomies ­ [6]

Learner centered Vs. Teacher centered instruction ­ with respect to the focus, instruction can be basedon the capability and style of the learner or the teacher

Learning by doing Vs. Teacher presenting ­ Students often learn more by doing rather than simplylistening to instructions given by the teacher

Attainment based Vs. time based progress ­ The instruction can either be based on the focus on themastery of the concept or the time spent on learning the concept

Customized Vs. standardized instruction ­ The instruction can be different for different learners or theinstruction can be given in general to the entire classroom

Criterion referenced Vs. norm referenced instruction ­ Instruction related to different types ofevaluations

Collaborative Vs. individual instruction ­ Instruction can be for a team of students or individualstudents

Enjoyable Vs. Unpleasant instructions ­ Instructions can create a pleasant learning experience or anegative one (often to enforce discipline). Teachers must take care to ensure positive experiences.

Critiques

Paulo Freire's work appears to critique instructional approaches that adhere to the knowledge acquisitionstance, and his work Pedagogy of the Oppressed has had a broad influence over a generation of Americaneducators with his critique of various "banking" models of education and analysis of the teacher­studentrelationship. http://www.dsa­atlanta.org/pdf_docs/Macedo_intro_POTO.pdf

Freire explains, "Narration (with the teacher as narrator) leads the students to memorize mechanically thenarrated content. Worse yet, it turns them into “containers,” into “receptacles” to be “filled” by the teacher.The more completely she fills the receptacles, the better a teacher she is. The more meekly the receptaclespermit themselves to be filled, the better students they are." http://www.dsa­atlanta.org/pdf_docs/Macedo_intro_POTO.pdf . In this way he explains educator creates an act ofdepositing knowledge in a student. The student thus becomes a repository of knowledge. Freire explainsthat this system that diminishes creativity and knowledge suffers. Knowledge, according to Freire, comesabout only through the learner by inquiry and pursuing the subjects in the world and through interpersonalinteraction.

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Freire further states, "In the banking concept of education, knowledge is a gift bestowed by those whoconsider themselves knowledgeable upon those whom they consider to know nothing. Projecting anabsolute ignorance onto others, a characteristic of the ideology of oppression, negates education andknowledge as processes of inquiry. The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite;by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence. The students, alienated like the slavein the Hegelian dialectic, accept their ignorance as justifying the teacher’s existence — but, unlike theslave, they never discover that they educate the teacher." Freire then offered an alternative stance and wrote,"The raison d'etre of libertarian education, on the other hand, lies in its drive towards reconciliation.Education must begin with the solution of the teacher­student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of thecontradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students. " http://www.dsa­atlanta.org/pdf_docs/Macedo_intro_POTO.pdf

See also

Educational technology (the use of electronic educational technology is also called e­learning)EdupunkInstructional designInstructional technologyLearning theoryTeaching methodTraining Within Industry was developed during WWII and is still in use around the worldFirst Principles of Instruction instructional theory developed by M. David Merrill

References1. Reigeluth, C.M. (1999). What is instructional design theory? In C.M. Reigeluth (Ed.) Instructional design

theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory (Vol. 2, pp. 5­29). Manwah, NJ: Lawrence ErlbaumAssociates.

2. Mayer, R. E. (1992). Cognition and instruction:O n their historic meeting within educational psychology. Journalof Educational Psychology, 84, 405­412.

3. http://www.appliedidt.com/blog/2013/07/03/instructional­theory­versus­learning­theory/4. http://www.reigeluth.net/#!pubsinsttheor/c22eq5. http://teachinglearningresources.pbworks.com/w/page/19919560/Instructional%20Approaches6. Reigeluth, Charles M (2012). "Instructional theory and technology for the new paradigm of education" (PDF).RED, Revista de Educación a distancia 32 (1): 1. Retrieved 24 September 2015.

7. Merrill, David M; Jones, MK (1992). "Instructional transaction shells: Responsibilities, methods, andparameters". Educational Technology 32 (2): 5.

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed. ISBN 0­8264­1276­9.

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