Implications of cognitive theory for instructional design: Revisited

The field of cognitive science is contributing significantly to the research and theory on learning, and to the development of intelligent tutoring systems. The instructional design literature indicates an interest in cognitive theory as well as attempts to integrate it into our theory and research base. However, cognitive psychologists do not necessarily find this synthesis satisfactory. The purpose of this article is to point out the conflicts, so that instructional designers can be aware of the nature of our coexistence. This paper was written while the author was with Human Resources Research Organization, Alexandria, VA.     

Implications of instructional psychology for the design of educational television

This article examines the implications of a cognitive model of learning for the design of educational broadcast television. Specifically examined are research studies with instructional implications for such functions as pacing, cueing, modeling, and transformation of the television presentation. Robert B. Kozma is Associate Professor at School of Education, Associate Research Scientist at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, and Project Director, National Center for Research to Improve Post Secondary Teaching and Learning, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, 1984. Appreciation is expressed to Barbara Beath, Edward Saunders, anonymous reviewers, and students in the author’s seminar on educational television for their helpful comments.     

Implications of educational theory for the design of instructional multimedia

Interactive multimedia provides a useful vehicle to reconsider the place of educational theories in the design of interactive learning environments. This paper serves to address a number of such theories, especially those centred on student learning, and in particular, attempts to draw out the implications they present for designing effective instructional multimedia. It is argued that we need to develop coherency rather than divergency, in our theoretical perspectives so that we might optimise the development of new technologies in teaching and learning. This rationale is then used to advance one such perspective, based on the role of dynamic modelling tools.     

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.     

Strategy orientations,learner activity,and learning outcomes: Implications for instructional support of learning

Investigated were the differential effects of strategy orientations (memory strategy, organization strategy, application strategy, and read-and-study control) orthogonally crossed with learner activity (guided versus active) and outcomes (memory, organization, and application). Subjects were 136 undergraduates, randomly assigned to 1 of 8 treatments. One day after they studied a passage on the topic of radar, outcome measures were completed. Guided activities were found to be superior to the learner-active counterparts on a composite achievement score. The hypothesized interaction of strategy orientation and kind of measure was supported. Performance was highest, in every comparison, on the outcome measure that paralleled the strategy-orientation treatment. The main effect of strategy orientation on the total achievement score was not significant. These findings were discussed in terms of the transfer-appropriate processing theory, the encoding specificity principle, and generative learning theory, with implications for further research and instructional design.     

Metacognition,elaboration, and knowledge acquisition: Implications for instructional design

The robustness of the effect of precise elaborations on memory and the relationship of these effects to metacognitions about learning was investigated in two studies. Twenty-six naive experimenters administered prepared tasks to 130 subjects. Participants rated the comprehensibility of each sentence as it was read. An unexpected cued-recall test with a confidence rating for each answer given was administered, followed by rating the ease of learning the types of items used in three treatments: precisely elaborated, imprecisely elaborated, and unelaborated base sentences. Both studies resulted in very similar findings: Memory for precise elaborations was 50% greater than for either imprecisely elaborated or unelaborated statements. Comprehension ratings of the three sets of statements were not significantly different. Confidence ratings of correctly answered items were significantly higher than of incorrectly answered items.     

A history of instructional design and technology: Part I: A history of instructional media

This is the first of a two-part article that will discuss the history of the field of instructional design and technology in the United States. A definition of the field is provided and the major features of the definition are identified. A rational for using instructional design and technology as the label for the field is also presented. Events in the history of instructional media, from the early 1900s to the present day, are described. The birth of school museums, the visual and audiovisual instruction movements, the use of media during World War II, and the interest in instructional television, computers, and the Internet are among the topics discussed. The article concludes with a summarization of the effects media have had on instructional practices, and a prediction regarding the effect computers, the Internet, and other digital media will have on such practices over the next decade. Portions of this article are from a chapter that will appear inTrends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology (Reiser & Dempsey, in press). Some segments of the article previously appeared in a book chapter by Reiser (1987).     

Liberating learning object design from the learning style of student instructional designers

Learning objects are a new form of learning resource, and the design of these digital environments has many facets. To investigate senior instructional design students' use of reflection tools in designing learning objects, a series of studies was conducted using the Reflective Action Instructional Design and Learning Object Review Instrument tools. Analysis revealed that most participants found the reflection questions useful in design but also that intensive use of the tools is needed to free learning object design from the personal learning traits of the designers.     

Designing for learning in the Yellow House: a comparison of instructional and learning design origins and practices

ABSTRACT

For the past two decades, there has been persistent debate around whether there is a difference between the fields of instructional design (ID) and learning design (LD). While differences in the two approaches are certainly apparent, there are cross-over points that can provide ID and LD researchers and practitioners with opportunities for dialogue about the purposes and remit of research-based practices for optimal design. Though potentially disruptive, initiating dialogues among learning and instructional designers could lead to more thorough and critical analyses of both ID and LD repertoires. Should boundary crossings occur, there is a potential for a third space for the contemplation, research, and practice of design. A goal of this article is to use the notion of Van Gogh’s Yellow House as an anchoring metaphor for the third space – a location for shared discourse, inspiration, collaboration, and challenge for a community of designers of/for learning. Using the impressionist and expressionist terminology to help elucidate the ways of thinking of designers of both traditions, this article examines the history, underlying philosophical approaches, methodologies, and design goals of ID and LD. We conclude that the emergence of a third space for design can help us move beyond the LD and ID dichotomies. We suggest that a socio-materialist perspective alleviates issues of incommensurability by acknowledging ontological multiplicity.     

Designing databases as tools for higher-level learning: Insights from instructional systems design

This article reports on a naturalistic study of online and CD-ROM databases to identify design characteristics that are important to high school students' use of these information resources for higher-level learning as well as for information access and retrieval. Primary data collection techniques were interactive observations of 92 students and informal interviews with 54 students, 4 teachers, and the school library media specialist. The article presents an inventory of specific problems students experienced while using 7 CD-ROM and 18 online databases and discusses implications for database design based on the study results. By showing how the lens of instructional systems design can be applied to the study of a specific information technology, this article provides a new perspective on database design and suggests how electronic information resources can be designed to promote higher-level learning through enhancing students' opportunities to process, evaluate, and apply the information they retrieve from these resources.The paper on which this article was based received the 1993 AECT Special Research Award for qualitative research.     

Cognitive styles and instructional design in university learning

Changes in conceptualization and measurement of the verbalizer–visualizer dimension led us to re-examine the hypothesis that students learn best when instructional material matches their cognitive style. First-year psychology university students (n = 41) studied information on three personality theories presented in text only, text+picture, or text+schematic diagram format, demonstrated recall and comprehension of each theory, and completed an adapted cognitive styles questionnaire. Spatial and object visual scale scores were not correlated, but the latter showed a significant though relatively weak negative correlation with verbal scale scores. Recall could be predicted from students' verbal and object visual scores when presentation format matched these cognitive styles. All three styles significantly predicted students' comprehension, but only when they matched the presentation format. The results support the distinction between spatial and object visual styles, and provide evidence that learning outcomes improve when instructional material is matched to students' cognitive styles.     

Preservice teacher use of learning and instructional design principles

Although many instructional technologists have suggested that teachers should be trained in using instructional design models, few studies have been conducted to determine if teachers can be successful in acquiring and applying these models. The purpose of this study was to examine preservice teacher success in acquiring and applying principles of learning and instructional design. Preservice teachers enrolled in a professional teacher preparation program were taught the essentials of learning and competency-based instruction and were required to plan a lesson using these concepts. Results indicate that most of the preservice teachers were successful in acquiring and using the principles of learning and instructional design.