Psychological foundations of instructional design for emerging computer-based instructional technologies: Part I

Computer-based instruction (CBI) has strong historical roots in behavioral psychology. In many cases, behavioral CBI is very effective in meeting instructional needs. Criticisms of CBI, centering around inadequate attention to higher-level learning, underline some of the shortcomings of rigid adherence to behavioral design paradigms. Recent advances in cognitive psychology have revealed alternatives rarely applied outside of experimental settings. Whereas both behavioral and cognitive influences are potentially important, few attempts have been made to extrapolate the contributions of both to the design of CBI. In this article, the contributions of behavioral and cognitive psychology to the design of CBI are reviewed and analyzed.     

Preparing CBI print‐based support material: an information/instructional design perspective

Computer‐based instructional (CBI) materials are frequently accompanied by student study guides. This report details Grant MacEwan Community College's experience in producing print‐based material to support its computer‐managed learning (CML) system. Thus the report is written from a CBI perspective, and attempts to place emphasis on the recognition of cognitive processes in the development of CBI and related materials. Grant MacEwan material has been developed using the instructional design principles promoted by Gagne and Briggs (1979). The first part of this report focuses on content organization. The ideas presented may be applicable to any setting requiring the development of independent study print support material.     

Marrying theory building and the improvement of school practice: a permanent challenge for instructional psychology

Recent research on learning and instruction has substantially advanced our understanding of the processes of knowledge and skill acquisition. However, school practices have not been innovated and improved in ways that reflect this progress in the development of a theory of learning from instruction.It is argued in this article that to be successful in making psychological theory and research applicable to education one should develop a strategy that combines the following basic characteristics:

• •good communication with practitioners which means that the relevant outcomes are translated in such a way that they become palatable, accessible, and usable for the teachers;
• •an orientation toward a fundamental change of teachers' belief systems about the goals of education and about good teaching and productive learning;
• •a holistic (as opposed to a partial) approach to the teaching–learning environment, i.e. all relevant components of the learning environment should be addressed.

Taking this into account a successful approach for bridging the theory–practice gap is presented. This approach consists in carrying out design experiments involving the creation and evaluation in real classrooms of complex instructional interventions that embody our present understanding of effective learning processes and powerful learning environments. In order to make a reasonable chance to be successful, such attempts at fundamentally changing the classroom environment and culture should be undertaken in partnership between researchers and reflective practitioners. Such partnership is essential to promote mutual good communication, but also in view of modifying and reshaping teachers' beliefs about education, learning, and teaching. This intervention approach which is illustrated with a recent research example, has a twofold goal: it intends to advance theory building, while at the same time contributing to the optimisation of classroom practices.     

Principles of CBI Design and the Adult Learners The Need for Further Research

The increasing use of computer-based instruction in performance improvement/HRD is accompanied by a growing need for guidelines directing its effective design and use. Current CBI research has limitations that have not been addressed. Research deficiencies include a limited number of studies in many areas, contradictory findings, and questionable generalizability to adults in the workplace due to an almost exclusive use of college age and younger students as research subjects. This article examines principles of CBI design found in the performance improvement/HRD literature and their applicability to adults in the workplace. Five major areas are discussed: learner control, feedback, screen design, use of group methods, and computer anxiety. CBI designers are urged to be cautious in adopting current research guidelines. Further research on CBI for adults in the workplace is urged.     

An instructional design framework for authentic learning environments

The instructional technology community is in the midst of a philosophical shift from a behaviorist to a constructivist framework, a move that may begin to address the growing rift between formal school learning and real-life learning. One theory of learning that has the capacity to promote authentic learning is that of situated learning. The purpose of this three-part study was first, to identify critical characteristics of a situated learning environment from the extensive literature base on the subject; second, to operationalize the critical characteristics of a situated learning environment by designing a multimedia program that incorporated the identified characteristics; and third, to investigate students' perceptions of their experiences using a multimedia package based on a situated learning framework. The learning environment, for preservice teachers, comprised a multimedia program on assessment in mathematics together with recommended implementation conditions for the classroom. Eight students were observed and interviewed to explore their perceptions of the situated learning environment. Findings suggest that the use of the situated learning framework provided effective instructional design guidelines for the design of an environment for the acquisition of advanced knowledge. Since 1992, as a Senior Instructional Designer, she has worked principally in multimedia and Web-based projects. He has been teaching with, and researching innovative uses of, instructional technologies in secondary schools and universities for the past 20 years. The authors would like to thank Professor Tom Reeves for his encouragement and support, and to acknowledge the significant role he has played in the development of our ideas and research direction.     

Cognitive load theory,educational research,and instructional design: some food for thought

Cognitive load is a theoretical notion with an increasingly central role in the educational research literature. The basic idea of cognitive load theory is that cognitive capacity in working memory is limited, so that if a learning task requires too much capacity, learning will be hampered. The recommended remedy is to design instructional systems that optimize the use of working memory capacity and avoid cognitive overload. Cognitive load theory has advanced educational research considerably and has been used to explain a large set of experimental findings. This article sets out to explore the open questions and the boundaries of cognitive load theory by identifying a number of problematic conceptual, methodological and application-related issues. It concludes by presenting a research agenda for future studies of cognitive load.     

我国探究教学研究综述

我国探究教学研究可以分为理论研究与实践研究两方面。在理论方面,从研究问题来看,主要研究了探究教学的涵义、价值、理论基础、类型、特点、条件、要素、模式、设计、实施与评价、师资培训等问题;从研究视角来看,主要有教育学视角、心理学视角、哲学视角、学科视角、比较视角等。在实践方面,主要研究了探究教学程序、案例研析、影响因素、存在问题与建议等方面的问题。我国探究教学研究的趋势是:构建高水准的探究教学理论体系,探究教学理论研究与实践研究的融合发展,探究教学研究方法的多元化和内在化。     

Text density level as a design variable in instructional displays

Presenting narrative text in computer-based instruction (CBI) is more difficult than in print lessons due to limited screen resolution and display area. The present research aimed at achieving a more compatible match between lesson content and the attributes of the presentation media. Subjects received either a print or CBI statistics lesson containing low-density (concise) narrative text, high-density (conventional) text, or the density type they preferred (learner-control). Results showed the low-density lesson to reduce completion time relative to the high-density version, while yielding equivalent achievement. Subjects receiving the lesson in the print mode had shorter completion times and higher achievement than their CBI counterparts. Attitude results showed that CBI was favorably regarded, but perceived as longer and slow-moving than print. Implications of results for designing instructional material in accord with CBI attributes and learner characteristics are discussed.     

Some implications of cognitive theory for instructional design

This article examines some of the implications of recent developments in cognitive theory for instructional design. It is argued that behavioral theory is inadequate to prescribe instructional strategies that teach for understanding. Examples of how instructional designers have adopted relevant aspects of cognitive theory are described. However, it is argued that such adoption is only a first step. The growing body of evidence for the indeterminism of human cognition requires even further changes in how instructional designers think and act. A number of bodies of scholarly research and opinion are cited in support of this claim. Three implications of cognitive theory for design are offered: instructional strategies need to be developed to counter the reductionism implicit in task analysis; design needs to be integrated into the implementation of instruction; designers should work from a thorough knowledge of theory not just from design procedures.     

A reflexive model for teaching instructional design

Although there are numerous models to practive instructional design (ID), few instructional models to teach instructional design have been documented. This article documents a five-year study of two instructors who collaborated on formally studying their teaching of a master's level instructional design course. A reflexive instructional approach was used, in which the teachers examined their teaching while students were being prompted to reflect on their learning of instructional design through a course-long ID project. In this article we summarize our views on learning, teaching, and instructional design. A design and development framework from developmental research (Richey & Nelson, 1996) was used to describe our teaching in terms of the design decisions, model implementation, and model evaluation across six deliveries of the ID course from 1994–1998.     

学习动机研究的特点、问题及走向

从20世纪40、50年代开始,学习动机研究呈现出如下特点:在理论取向上,认知观和社会认知观取代早期的机械论,将学习动机与学习者所处的具体环境和学习中的认知要素结合起来加以研究,并开始关注学习动机的发展问题;在研究方法上,确立测量学习动机的主要指标和方法。但这些研究还存在着以下几个问题:动机概念的术语五花八门,缺乏区分效度;不同理论取向并存,难于构建一个完整的动机研究模式;研究者对学习动机基本性质的看法存在着重大分歧;过于倚重自我报告的问卷研究遭到越来越多的质疑。未来,在研究的理论取向上,社会认知理论的优势地位将更加突显,对学习动机内在结构的分析将更加全面系统,在社会认知观的指导下,将建立环境因素、学习动机、学习策略与学习结果关系的整合模型;在研究方法上,定量研究与定性研究的结合将得到普遍运用。     

Advancements in instructional design theory: Contextual module analysis and integrated instructional strategies

In the past decade, research and theoretical advancements in both cognitive science and instructional technology have led to updates in instructional design theory. In this article, we review two areas in which the updates make important contributions: information analysis for higher-order cognition, and instructional strategies to improve acquisition of such higher-order processes. From our reviews of the literature, we propose procedures for conducting a contextual module analysis and designing integrated instructional strategies. An additional purpose of the article is to demonstrate the need for researchers in educational technology to lead in the discovery of theories contributing to acquisition of higher-order cognition.     

《人力资源管理》课程知识重构探究

本文以《人力资源管理》课程为例,在建构主义学习理论指导下进行知识重构研究。课程内容设计上,将价值链理论融入传统人力资源知识体系,进行线上线下结合的课程架构;教学模式设计上,以建构主义理论学习观、知识观、教学观、师生观为指导构建"项目式"教学实施方案。最终形成"新思维、双系统、多手段、全方位"的教学模式,以期满足高校提升教学科研水平以及人才培养质量之要求。     

Neuroimaging of cognitive load in instructional multimedia

This paper reviews research literature on cognitive load measurement in learning and neuroimaging, and describes a mapping between the main elements of cognitive load theory and findings in functional neuroanatomy. It is argued that these findings may lead to the improved measurement of cognitive load using neuroimaging. The paper describes how current measures of cognitive load cannot accurately show the distinction between different types of cognitive load in different learning conditions, and existing approaches to cognitive load assessment are limited in terms of their precision and methodology. A literature review discusses the conceptual framework of Sweller's [Sweller, J. (1994). Cognitive load theory, learning difficulty, and instructional design. Learning and Instruction 4, 295-312; Sweller, J. (1999). Instructional design in technical areas. Camberwell, Australia: ACER Press] cognitive load theory, and describes various approaches to load measurement and their limitations. The paper then describes how the core components of cognitive load - intrinsic, extraneous, and germane load - may be observable using neuroimaging techniques, and argues for the exploration of new links between education research and neuroscience.     

Towards a framework for effective instructional explanations in science teaching

ABSTRACT

Instructional explanations have sometimes been described as an ineffective way to teach science, representing a transmissive view of learning. However, science teachers frequently provide instructional explanations, and students also offer them in cooperative learning. Contrary to the transmissive view regarding explanation, studies suggest that instructional explanations might be successful if they are based on an interaction between explainers and explainees, including the diagnosis of understanding and adaptation to the explainee’s needs. The present article has three goals: (1) It will propose a framework for potentially effective instructional explanations, presenting five core ideas of what constitutes effective instructional explanations and two concerning how they should be implemented into science teaching. (2) To justify the framework, the article will review studies on the effectiveness of instructional explanations. It will identify factors that have been researched for their impact on the effectiveness of instructional explanations and discuss them for their applicability to science teaching. (3) This article will connect the research on instructional explanations with the idea of basic dimensions of instructional quality in science. It will discuss the core ideas as particular expressions of the basic dimensions of instructional quality, specifically ‘cognitive activation’ and ‘constructive support’.     

Making learning whole: an instructional approach for mediating the practices of authentic science inquiries

This design experiment aimed to answer the question of how to mediate the practices of authentic science inquiries in primary education. An instructional approach based on activity theory was designed and carried out with multi-age students in a small village school. An open-ended learning task was offered to the older students. Their task was to design and implement instruction about the Ice Age to their younger fellows. The objective was collaborative learning among students, the teacher, and outside domain experts. Mobile phones and GPS technologies were applied as the main technological mediators in the learning process. Technology provided an opportunity to expand the learning environment outside the classroom, including the natural environment. Empirically, the goal was to answer the following questions: What kind of learning project emerged? How did the students’ knowledge develop? What kinds of science learning processes, activities, and practices were represented? Multiple and parallel data were collected to achieve this aim. The data analysis revealed that the learning project both challenged the students to develop explanations for the phenomena and generated high quality conceptual and physical models in question. During the learning project, the roles of the community members were shaped, mixed, and integrated. The teacher also repeatedly evaluated and adjusted her behavior. The confidence of the learners in their abilities raised the quality of their learning outcomes. The findings showed that this instructional approach can not only mediate the kind of authentic practices that scientists apply but also make learning more holistic than it has been. Thus, it can be concluded that nature of the task, the tool-integrated collaborative inquiries in the natural environment, and the multiage setting can make learning whole.     

Learning practice and technology: extending the structurational Practice Lens to educational technology research

Scholars in the field of educational technology have been calling for robust use of social theory within learning technology research. In view of that, interest has been noted in applying Giddens’ structuration theory to the understanding of human interaction with technology in learning settings. However, only few such attempts have been published to date with recent reviews indicating the scarcity of structurational accounts from the educational technology field. Addressing this gap and advancing a critical use of the theory in the field, an attempt is made in this paper to lend coherency to structuration-based research into learning technology. Specifically, a critical consideration of the structurational Practice Lens is offered drawing from its application in a case study that explored technology-mediated learning practices in the institutional context of higher education. Conceptual and analytical aspects are addressed with a view to augment the framework, and to extend its relevance and applicability in educational technology research.     

走出教学设计研究的现实困境：创建可用的教学设计理论

当前教学设计研究面临两大现实困境：一方面由于其受心理学以及心理学实验的影响较深。研究成果不能有效反映现实情境,对教学实践的指导作用受到质疑;另一方面已有的教学设计研究集中在描述性问题和因果性问题上,缺乏对“如何设计”这一机制性或过程性问题的深入思考。当前国际有关学习与教学设计研究的发展趋势表明,教学设计研究需要创建可用的、境脉申的、聚焦学习的教学设计理论。在创建和改进教学设计理论过程中,“前设性”与“涌现性”的理论创建与改进研究路线是两条可能的研究路线。这种研究路线必须扎根于真实课堂情境,在真实教学境脉中发现和解决问题,并将革新的学习环境设计活动与基于证据的经验研究结合起来。这是创建可用的教学设计理论、走出教学设计现实困境的必由之路。