Every class I participated in as a student or as a teacher had at least one student who was challenging to manage. Their behavior was usually hard to control and creates extra work for the teacher to get them to pay attention and stop distracting other students. Skinner's behavioral learning theory gives teachers tools to use to modify this behavior by focusing on how students learn. Behavioral learning theory emphasizes the impact environment has on learning behavior and is crucial to understand how to motivate and help students in the classroom. This theory is essential for teachers because it suggests that teachers can directly affect how their students learn. It also allows teachers to understand that a student's home environment and lifestyle can impact their behavior, helping teachers see it objectively and improve their behavior. Teachers show students how they should react and respond to certain stimuli to remind students of the desired behavior continually. Behavioral learning theory has been a game-changer in the classroom, allowing teachers to make significant student behavior and learning changes. Positive reinforcement and repetition are critical to the success of the behavioral learning theory. Reinforcing desired behavior with consistent, positive feedback from the teacher will increase the desired behavior. Repeating the reinforcement is necessary, so the student's behavior is tied to a reward, so the student sees a direct correlation between the behavior and the reward. The correlation between behavior and the reward is another example of the stimulus-response sequence. In education, behavior is observed before and after instruction to determine if there are behavior changes after instruction. Observing behavior changes after instruction indicates the teaching was effective. If there is no change in behavior, the instruction is not effective, and the instruction needs to change to improve the student's performance. These observations are an essential part of formative evaluation that continues to be used in education today. By observing students before instruction, desired behaviors are identified as objectives of the instruction. Using these observations to determine learning outcomes also reinforces the need for repetition of the behaviors. Positive and negative reinforcement can motivate student behaviors. If two students perform similarly on a test, but only one receives positive reinforcement from the teacher, the student who did not receive praise is experiencing negative reinforcement and will not feel that his/her performance matters. The students receiving the positive reinforcement correlates this with continuing to get good grades. Feedback and reinforcement are considered equals in Skinner's theory, and this influenced the importance of instructional feedback in future instructional design models. Atkinson and Shiffrin's cognitive information processing theory is similar to Skinner's behavioral approach in the belief that environment plays an essential role in learning. The critical difference is that cognitive information processing theory assumes that each learner has internal processes that explain how they learn (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018). Cognitive information processing theory is based on a multi-store memory model with three different memory stores: sensory, short-term, and long-term memory. Stimuli from the environment are inputs that are recognized and coded through the five senses in the sensory memory. Short-term memory filters the information briefly and maintains the information by verbally or mentally repeating it, connecting it to long-term memory information. The focus shifts to how instruction can promote or hold back learning based on how information is processed in cognitive information processing theory. Feedback is used to reinforce correct behavior and to modify behavior by providing correct information to the learner. Prior knowledge retained long-term is a necessary part of learning new knowledge. This new way of thinking of feedback and how information is processed impacted the strategies teachers used in their classroom. This theory continues to be influential and is the basic outline for later instructional design models. Gagne's nine events of instruction model is based on the learning conditions that support the internal processes students use to learn. The focus is on how what we know about learning can design instruction that facilitates the desired outcomes. The nine events are presented in three phases: preparation and planning, instruction and practice, and assessment and transfer. This model has survived the test of time and continues to be used today. Selecting appropriate instructional events and planning them in the right format and sequence is crucial in a successful lesson plan. Both behavioral and cognitive information processing theories were developed out of psychology research programs in the 1960s and 1970s and are the basis for instructional design development. Future models were developed based on both theories, and they continue to play a role in education today. Teachers use behavioral learning strategy techniques in their classroom in many ways, including drills, question and answer, demonstration, repetition, and consistent positive reinforcement. These techniques give teachers the ability to modify students' behavior and create an environment in which their students learn. Behavioral learning works better for some course content than others. For example, learning a foreign language requires repetition and drills using the language. Analytical knowledge does not. Using formative evaluation to adjust instruction to attain the desired outcome continually is crucial to higher education today and is something every instructor should be doing. Similarly, Gagne's nine events of instruction are still used in higher education today and are even more critical for online learning. I use the nine events with my online students, and it works exceptionally well.
technology (4th ed.). Pearson.
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We continue to use early instructional design models to guide instructional design today. The new models build on the ones that came before. The programmed instruction movement in the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s was instrumental in developing the systems approach to education. The movement is based on developments in education and training that occurred as far back as the 1940s. By the mid-1960s, many of the current instructional design concepts were linked to create systematically designed instructional materials. Skinner and others used an empirical approach to develop programmed instruction using trial and revision of the materials (Lumsdaine & Glaser, 1960). Data was collected on the materials' effectiveness, identifying instructional weaknesses, and the materials were revised as needed. Today, we call this formative evaluation. Identifying the specific objectives students using the materials are expected to attain is the first step. Preparing objectives that include a description of desired behaviors, the conditions under which the behaviors are to be performed, and the criteria to judge the behaviors are still supported today in the instructional design process (Reiser & Dempsey, 2018). The focus on instructional design grew exponentially in the 1970s resulting in a large increase in the number of instructional design models based on previous models. Revised and updated versions of some of these systems-based models are still taught and used today in higher education.
There have been considerable changes to how we teach and learn since I graduated from college in 1985. I used an electric typewriter with memory to type my papers and make revisions and updates. I used a computer for the first time as a word processor through my employer in the late 1980s. Fast-forward to the present day, where personal electronic devices are used in every aspect of higher education. I am an administrator and adjunct professor in higher education. The classes I teach have always been virtual, so using a computer and electronic instructional materials is an integral part of teaching. Having experience with virtual learning platforms has helped me navigate the virtual world we are in today due to the pandemic. As an administrator, I see how other professors struggle to migrate their in-person instruction to a virtual platform. Our students made the switch to virtual education pretty quickly. The struggles they have encountered are with professors who cannot navigate the virtual platforms to engage students in ways beyond lecturing through a computer screen. One of our professors with over 25 years of tenure preferred to use an overhead projector in his classroom and had no idea how to transfer his instructional material to accommodate virtual learning. Just as there was resistance from teachers to early new mediums of instructional practice, there was significant resistance to moving to virtual instruction in late 2020. As a result, I worked with the Office of Technology Services and Library Services to offer our faculty training and support. We started this training before our university moved to virtual learning to provide the training modules in-person. This was essential to ensuring educational instruction was seamless and remained robust in a virtual setting. We continue to offer training and support virtually to our faculty. Our campus provides the Adobe Creative Cloud free to all faculty, staff, and students. Students have always taken advantage of this opportunity, and we are finally getting professors beyond video production faculty to use the software to enhance their teaching and instruction. Unfortunately, some faculty are resistant to the necessary changes for virtual learning and are opting to take a semester off from teaching or retire. This is a trend that I think will be seen across higher education. Instructional design began with the need for training materials during World War II. Psychologists and educators with experience in experimental research conducted research and developed training materials for the military. These materials were developed based on their research and theory on instruction, learning, and human behavior. Assessment and evaluation were used to determine who would be good candidates for specific programs to increase their success rate (Reiser et al., 2018). My father was an officer in the United States Marine Corps and would tell me stories of the testing he went through in Officer Candidate School. His goal was to become a fighter pilot, but the test results showed he would make a better commanding officer in combat. He ended up serving in the Korean War and lead his company in the Battle of Okinawa. This same design was used to address instructional education problems after the war. The Cold War and the space race caused a significant increase in funding for math and science education. I remember an influx of new math and science programs at my elementary school in the late 1960s. One of my classmates' fathers worked at NASA and spoke to my 5th-grade class about a new type of exercise developed for astronauts called aerobic conditioning. At the time, I had no idea this would become a fitness trend in the 1980s. The human performance improvement movement in the 1990s has had a significant impact on instructional design. My university uses a performance review system that includes goal setting, self-assessment, and evaluation by the supervisor to address performance issues. The focus on real-world learning also increased in the 1990s. Applying what students were learning to real-world problems is still a priority today. Computers and other personal electronic devices have had a more significant impact on instructional design than any other medium. Students can learn virtually from anywhere in the world and interact with the instructor and peers via email, chat rooms, and social media. Information can be created and shared in a variety of formats. Some higher learning institutions were ahead of the curve with virtual learning and have not been affected much by the pandemic. My institution is moving forward on how to maintain a virtual learning presence and in-person learning when we are allowed to re-open our campus. I think there will be another increase in instruction design methods based on virtual learning. Lumsdaine, A.A., & Glaser, R. (Eds.). (1960). Teaching machines and programmed learning: A source book. Washington, DC: National Education Association. Reiser, R.A. & Dempsey, J.V. (2018). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (4th ed.). Pearson. |
AuthorI am a higher education administrator with over 15 years of experience in communications and operations. The views in my blog are my own. Archives
February 2023
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