Constructivism
- Focuses on the learner
- Instructor acts as facilitator
- Builds on the work of Piaget (schema) and Vygotsky (socially constructed meaning)
- Adults needs are different than children
- They need to know the why
- They need to experience the learning
- They need to see learning as problem solving
- They need to see the immediate value in the learning
- Visual representations are a better way to reach an audience
- Visuals provide more “bang for their buck” quickly
- We gather information through our 5 (or maybe 6) senses including vision
- Attention
- We are more likely to focus on something that is relevant to us or that we see as important to our work or life
- Perception
- How we see things is unique to us
- Our perception can change based on experience
- The root of constructivist theory - individual imposes their own meaning
- Visualization - mental image
- Imagination
- People can ‘see” a thing they have never seen before
- Asks “what if?”
- Attention
- Affective Domain - how you feel
- Cognitive Domain - how you think
- Conative Domain - how you instinctively do what you do
Developing Technical Training by Ruth Colvin Clark Chapters 1-2
Instructional Systems Development - helps avoid the pitfalls of ineffective and expensive training
- A needs assessment will help identify learning objectives for those being trained
- Four Ingredients for Instruction
- Content - you should subtract the knowledge and skills that the intended audience already has
- 5 types of content: facts, concepts, processes, procedures, principles
- Should be targeted toward the application level as opposed to just remembering
- Performance Outcome - should include observable action
- Instructional Method
- Two types: informational displays and practice exercises with feedback
- Instructional Media - “No one medium is better than another as long as it can carry the required methods.”
- Content - you should subtract the knowledge and skills that the intended audience already has
- Lesson structure
- Introduction
- Statement or interaction to motivate the learner
- Relates to how the lesson fits in the course
- Summary of the main content
- Lesson Body
- knowledge needed
- the major task
- Lesson Summary
- Introduction
- Text design
- Organize information into chunks
- Eliminate unnecessary words by using tables
- Use white space to separate information