Evaluating Theories Of Instruction

In the past, I have been somewhat successful with differentiating instruction. I can’t say I have been 100% successful.

According to Smith and Ragan (2008) “Instructional Design is a process in which many items of materials are developed, designed, and delivered” (Smith and Ragan 2008). Instructional design has given me information on strategies to develop effective lesson plans in which will support my students to be fully engaged with the activities provided in a classroom environment. Instructional design also supports ideas on planning lessons for students with diverse and cultural needs for all learners. The eight learning outcome supported ideas for my students to become more familiar with integrating technology in class with their peers in which supported a diverse environment. While incorporating technology into my activities strategies of

understand in this lesson. In the next session we go back to the board and re-cap on to check their understanding about what they said.

Differentiated instruction in a type of teaching approach in which the teacher makes changes to lesson plans or unit curriculum so that students of all levels achieve the same level of learning. The whole lesson might not have to be changed, usually they just will make changes to the content, process or product of a given lesson.

This course gave me the opportunity to rediscover and learn and understand my learning style and strategies. It provided me with a better understanding of the different learning styles and theories. What I found surprising was the fact that as an instructional designer you can increase the motivation level in the learner. Instruction designers can achieve learning environments and stimulate and sustain motivation, even though they cannot control it. The learner is the one responsible for their motivation, but it is clear that the environment can have a strong impact on both the direction and intensity of a person’s motivation. Furthermore, constructivism and social learning theories are very enlightening. The information of learning constructivist theories brings an understanding of the circumstance in which learning occurs and the social contexts that learners bring to the learning environment. The learning theories give a good foundation on the academic level and developments in the motivational research area, and the ARCS Model makes it possible to apply it to the online learning environment. I was also surprised to learn that I am also a social learner. I am a very private person and didn’t consider myself a social learner, however, I have learned that I enjoy more socializing in an online platform than in the classroom or a face-to-face contact. I also learned that I use

Teachers have an important task of translating learning theories into practice. Knowledge about learning theories allows teachers to consider different approaches and apply various techniques and valuable strategies in specific contexts and with specific learners to promote learning. This essay will provide an insight into three well-known theories of how children learn. It will examine Behaviourism, Social Constructivism and Humanism and how these learning theories underpin a range of pedagogical approaches to teaching and learning and promote inclusive practice.

After reading several learning theories, the learning theory that I have chosen to use to evaluate my personal learning strengths and weaknesses is the cognitive theory - Information processing theory (Atkinson and Shriffin, 1968) as I feel this one suits my learning style better.

The question of how students learn best has fueled a controversial debate within the field of educational psychology and instructional design. There is limited consensus as to which type of instructional technique best supports conceptual learning. Instructional techniques cover a wide spectrum of guidance that ranges from direct instruction, which often encompasses the use of lectures and worked examples, to pure discovery learning which includes little to no teacher guidance at its most extreme interpretation. Research on cognitive load theory and motivational strategies have both touted the benefits and criticized elements of both these instructional techniques (Hiebert, Carpenter, Fennema, Fuson, Human, & Murray, 1996; Kirschner,

Direct instruction was first developed by Siegfried Englemann and Wesley C. Becker. Few studies have been conducted on teaching styles, two of the instruction models that are used today is direct-instruction and lecture-instruction models. Schwerdt and Wuppermann (2011) suggest that few rigorous studies look inside the classroom to see what kinds of

There are various instructional approaches but one that is widely employed by many teachers is the direct instruction approach. This is the classic teaching style that many people remember during K-12 grade school. The teacher would stand in front of the class lecturing while writing on the black board. That is why direct instruction is also known as “Chalk and Talk” (Evans, 2006). Direct instruction is not out of date and is still appropriate in many situations today. The following will discuss direct instruction and a few scenarios in which this teaching approach is appropriate.

Teaching with purpose to have a desired outcome is one perspective to examine Dr. Robert Marzano’s book The Art and Science of Teaching. The instructional situation that I am familiar with is elementary. As I examine Marzano’s ten instructional design questions, that represent a logical planning sequence for effective instructional design, I will use elementary lenses.

Cognitive and behavioral learning theories tend to dominate modern discussions of learning theories. Employed in both educational and clinical settings, both have important contributions to understanding how and why individuals learn. Is one approach statistically better than the other, or do they each have their own place where one approach may be more effective under specific circumstances? Each theory has supporters who claim the efficacy of their theory is superior. Comparison of the theories is necessary to determine if one is significantly better than the other, or even if one theory may be slightly more effective than the other. Determining if one competing theory

There are many theories that are relevant to classroom teaching today. Marsh (2008, p. 17) states that “each theory is nothing more than a set of reasonable suggestions”. A teacher should look at the information available to them and take what is necessary to achieve a positive learning environment in their classroom. This may mean taking a little part of one theory and combining in with another part of a different theory, there is no singular theory or theorist that encompasses everything that is required in a modern classroom. Some of the most important theories of learning are motivation, constructivism and behaviourism. Teachers choose their teaching style and strategy to complement their students, to arrive at their own personal

1. The main goal of the analysis being conducted is to assess whether the new curriculum on basic electricity in basic science yields better achievement outcomes compared to the existing curriculum, which is a more traditional teaching approach, for elementary school students in both urban and suburban schools. In doing this analysis some questions that will be key to this study is to reveal if this new curriculum is beneficial when compared to the traditional teaching approach. Indeed, some students are randomly assigned to both the new curriculum and to the traditional teaching approach. As a result, through this randomization biases will be kept from occurring. This investigation is important because it will be determined what yielded better results through focusing on examining differences in the posttest variable for children who did or did not experience the new curriculum.

Theorist, Jerome Bruner was one of the 20th century’s most influential educational psychologists. Here, his theories he wrote about the process of pedagogy. His theory of instruction describes the key components of curriculum; its sequence of activities in which learners become self-sufficient problem-solver. (Bruner, 1966) avers that, “a theory of instruction is prescriptive in that it sets forth rules concerning the most effective way of teaching knowledge or skills. It also sets up criteria and states the condition for meeting them. Instruction, he further put forward is an effort to assist or shape growth with improving rather than describing learning”. In essence, it is concerned with how what one desires of teaching can be best learnt.