Instructional-design Theories and Models

A New Paradigm of Instructional Theory, Volume II

Charles M. Reigeluth, Charles M. Reigeluth

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135706661
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

Instructional theory describes a variety of methods of instruction (different ways of facilitating human learning and development) and when to use--and not use--each of those methods. It is about how to help people learn better. This volume provides a concise summary of a broad sampling of new methods of instruction currently under development, helps show the interrelationships among these diverse theories, and highlights current issues and trends in instructional design. It is a sequel to Instructional-Design Theories and Models: An Overview of Their Current Status, which provided a "snapshot in time" of the status of instructional theory in the early 1980s. Dramatic changes in the nature of instructional theory have occurred since then, partly in response to advances in knowledge about the human brain and learning theory, partly due to shifts in educational philosophies and beliefs, and partly in response to advances in information technologies. These changes have made new methods of instruction not only possible, but also necessary in order to take advantage of new instructional capabilities offered by the new technologies. These changes are so dramatic that many argue they constitute a new paradigm of instruction, which requires a new paradigm of instructional theory. In short, there is a clear need for this Volume II of Instructional Design Theories and Models. To attain the broad sampling of methods and theories it presents, and to make this book more useful for practitioners as well as graduate students interested in education and training, this volume contains twice as many chapters, but each half as long as the ones in Volume I, and the descriptions are generally less technical. Several unique features are provided by the editor to help readers understand and compare the theories in this book: *Chapter 1, which discusses the characteristics of instructional theory and the nature of the new paradigm of instruction, helps the reader identify commonalities across the theories.
*Chapter forewords, which summarize the major elements of the instructional-design theories, are useful for reviewing and comparing theories, as well as for previewing a theory to decide if it is of interest, and for developing a general schema that will make it easier to understand.
*Editor's notes provide additional help in understanding and comparing the theories and the new paradigm of instruction to which they belong.
*Units 2 and 4 have introductory chapters to help readers analyze and understand the theories in those units. This is an essential book for anyone interested in exploring new approaches to fostering human learning and development and thinking creatively about ways to best meet the needs of learners in all kinds of learning contexts. Readers are invited to use Dr. Charles Reigeluth's Web site to comment and to view others' comments about the instructional design theories in this book, as well as other theories. Point your browser to: www.indiana.edu/~idtheory

Unit 2
Fostering Cognitive Development

FOREWORD

This unit opens with a chapter that helps the reader analyze and understand the theories in the unit. Chapter 3 presents a framework showing six of the more important dimensions on which instructional-design theories can differ from each other, such as the type(s) of learning each addresses and who controls the learning process. Chapter 3 also provides a framework for thinking about problem-based learning.

It was not easy to decide which theories to include in this unit, for there is much exciting work being done on the new paradigm of instructional theory in the cognitive domain. I was particularly sorry not to be able to get contributions from John Anderson (see e.g., Anderson, 1976; Neves & Anderson, 1981) and Rand Spiro (see, e.g., Spiro, Feltovich, Jacobson, & Coulson, 1992). I was also sorry not to be able to get contributions from outside of North America. Due to the amount of excellent work being done, I intend to begin work immediately on a Volume III, and I encourage anyone who knows of good work that I should include to contact me at [email protected].

It was also difficult to decide how to group and sequence the chapters in this unit. I have arranged them loosely on the basis of major similarities. Chapters 4–7 are concerned primarily with understanding—ways of fostering it and kinds of understanding worth fostering. Chapters 8–11 focus primarily on problem-based learning. Chapters 11–13 emphasize collaboration and self-regulation in learning. Chapters 14–15 are concerned primarily with higher-order thinking skills. And chapters 16–18 address a variety of other concerns. However, it was difficult to categorize the chapters because most of them deal to some extent with most of the categories.

I encourage you to explore the extent to which these 15 theories are incompatible with each other, or are compatible in the sense of being complementary to each other (addressing areas the others don’t address), or are compatible in the sense of offering many of the same methods, albeit perhaps using different terminology. The chapter forewords and editor’s notes are intended to help you to think about these issues and to compare and contrast the theories.

The chapter forewords have a section that summarizes the values underlying both the goals that the theory pursues and the methods that it offers to attain those goals. The values are described as a list of things (nouns and gerunds) that are valued (considered important). Alternative formats for describing values include “importance” statements:

• The importance of…,

And “should” statements:

• The instruction should…

As you read through the chapters in this unit, you might find it helpful to periodically review the list of questions on pp. 1–2 (see Unit 1 Foreword).

—C.M.R.

REFERENCES

Anderson, J.R. (1976). Language, memory and thought . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Neves, D.M., & Anderson, J.R. (1981). Knowledge compilation: Mechanisms for the automatization of cognitive skills. In J.R.Anderson (Ed.), Cognitive skills and their acquisition . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Spiro, R.J., Feltovich, P.J., Jacobson, M.J., & Coulson, R.L. (1992). Cognitive flexibility, constructivism, and hypertext: Random access instruction for advanced knowledge acquisition in ill-structured domains. In T.Duffy & D.Jonassen (Eds.), Constructivism and the technology of instruction: A conversation . Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

3
Cognitive Education and the Cognitive Domain

Charles M.Reigeluth

Julie Moore
Indiana University

INTRODUCTION

In the industrial-age paradigm of instructional-design theory, work focused almost exclusively on the cognitive domain, and within that domain, it focused almost exclusively on remember-level and application-level learning (memorization and procedural-skill development). While information technologies and information-age roles make those levels of learning less important now, they still have an important place. But higher levels of learning are becoming relatively much more important for the vast majority of learners. And there is a greater need for methods of instruction that allow for much greater customization of the learning experience and much greater utilization of information technology, fellow learners, and other resources for learning. This unit of the book describes a variety of emerging instructional-design theories to meet these needs: a new paradigm of instructional theories for the information age.

While it is certainly impossible to include all such instructional theories, the ones found in chapters 4–18 represent a wide array of thinking about what it means to teach and learn, and how we can best facilitate that learning. The influence of constructivism on instructional design since Volume I of Instructional-Design Theories and Models (Reigeluth, 1983) is reflected in many of the design theories presented in the present volume. The purpose of this chapter is twofold. First, it serves as an introduction to the theories in this book related to cognitive development. Second, this chapter provides a framework of dimensions with which to compare and contrast the various instructional theories. We offer this framework as a tool to help readers better understand the differences and commonalties among the disparate theories included in this unit. Finally, due to the promise of problem-based learning (PBL), we offer additional issues for thinking about theories for the design of PBL.

KINDS OF LEARNING

Before we go any further, it would be helpful to define exactly what we mean by cognitive domain and cognitive education. While there may be many different kinds of learning (Gardner, 1983), most theorists (Bloom, 1956; Gagné, 1985) categorize kinds of learning in three domains: cognitive, affective, and motor. For our purposes we will make a small addition to Bloom’s (1956) definition of the cognitive domain as the domain that deals with the recall or recognition of knowledge and the development of understandings and intellectual abilities and skills. Thus, cognitive education is composed of the set of instructional methods that assist students in learning knowledge to be recalled or recognized, as well as developing students’ understandings and intellectual abilities and skills. Since metacognition (the ability to think about one’s own thinking) is an intellectual skill, we consider it to fall in the cognitive domain.

Bloom and his colleagues (1956) developed a taxonomy that is widely used to categorize types of educational objectives for the cognitive domain. Their work has provided a common language for educators and has become the standard for identifying and classifying educational objectives and activities. The main types of learning they identified are shown in Table 3.1.

Much of the focus of the new paradigm of instructional theories seeks to push us beyond the lower levels of objectives to the higher levels, commonly referred to as higher order thinking skills. This will be evident in many of the instructional theories in this unit, especially chaps. 14–15.

TABLE 3.1 BLOOM’S TAXONOMY

Knowledge	Students working at this level can remember and recall information ranging from concrete to abstract.
Comprehension	At the comprehension level, students are able to understand and make use of something being communicated. Bloom felt that this level was the major emphasis of schools and colleges. In this level, students can translate, interpret, and extrapolate the communication.
Application	Students can apply appropriate concepts or abstractions to a problem or situation even when not prompted to do so.
Analysis	Students can break down the material into its parts and define the relationship between the parts.
Synthesis	Students create a product, combining parts from previous experience and new material to create a whole.
Evaluation	Students make judgements about the value of materials, ideas, and so forth.

Various instructional theorists have proposed other taxonomies of types of learning in the cognitive domain. Gagné (1985) proposed a taxonomy of learning outcomes with three ma...