Rethinking classroom-oriented instructional development models to mediate instructional planning in technology-enhanced learning environments

Although classroom-oriented instructional development (ID) models have the potential to help teachers think and plan for effective instruction with technology, research studies have shown that they are not widely employed. Many of these models have not factored in the complexities that teachers faced when planning for instruction in technology-enhanced learning environments (TELE). They also fail to facilitate teachers’ critical re-examination of their existing practices and exploration of other practices to take up the affordances of technologies for effective instruction. Adopting an activity theoretical perspective towards instructional planning in the TELE, this paper examines two existing ID models: Reiser and Dick 1996. Instructional planning: A guide for teachers. Boston: Allen and Bacon] and Morrison, Ross, and Kemp 2004. Designing effective instruction (4th ed.) New York: Wiley]. It then constructs a classroom-oriented expansive and reflective ID model that: (1) facilitates the teacher's re-examination of their existing practices to identify contradictions in his/her instructional planning process in the TELE; (2) treats the ID elements in a nonlinear and non-sequential way; (3) accounts for the decisions made by other participants in the TELE, especially students and other teachers; (4) supports teachers’ formulation of solutions to the contradictions and transforms practices to take up the affordances of technology in the TELE; and (5) recognizes the need for teachers to move beyond the current activity by reflecting upon it so as to enable the emergence of new norms of practice.