Objectives for Unit II

1
Objectives for Unit II

• 1. Describe recent trends in terms of key ideas
  and practices.
• 2. Describe how recent trends could be applied in
  a given situation.
• 3. Describe how various trends are related.

2
Constructivism

• What is it?
• A set of
• ideas/beliefs regarding how individuals acquire
  knowledge and principles regarding what
  educators can do to promote learning.
• Very different point of view from that of
  behavioral and cognitive learning theories (major
  theories underlying instructional design)
• What impact has it had?
• Principles often employed in school settings
• Extent of use in training settings is not known

3
Constructivism Topics to be Covered Today

• What are some of the key constructivist ideas
  regarding instruction and assessment?
• Should we use these ideas when we design training
  programs for business and industry or the
  military?
• What are some of the areas of concern some
  instructional designers have regarding
  constructivism?

4
Journey to Cedar Creek

• Jasper Woodbury is traveling from his house to
  Cedar Creek to buy a boat. He wants to get back
  home before sunset.
• Group Task
• Watch this video and decide (in your small
  group)
• Does Jasper's boat have enough fuel in it to
• get him back to his dock?
• - If not, can Jasper get the fuel he
  needs? How?
• What is the latest time Jasper can leave in
  order
• for him to get home before sunset?

5
Constructivist Instructional Principles

• Problems presented to learners should be relevant
  to them
• Problems presented to learners should be
  realistic ("authentic"), representative of
  complexity of real world
• Let learners take the lead in solving problems
  teacher should serve as consultant/facilitator
• Require learners to work together and reflect
  upon the learning experience (community of
  learners and reflexivity)

6
Constructivist Assessment Principles

• Measure learning by examining how learners
• go about solving
• real world problems
• that are built into the instructional process
• Assessment is not a separate activity to be
  carried out after instruction
• A wide variety of methods should be used to
  assess learners
• subjective teacher judgment (via observation,
  interviews, etc.)
• 'objective' tests

7
Constructivism Areas of Concern
(Dick, Educational Technology,1991)

• There is also a problem of assessing group work.
  How are individuals evaluated and with what
  degree of evidence?
• Designers determine what a student must know or
  be able to do before beginning instruction. Why
  are constructivists not concerned that the gap
  will be too great between the schema of some
  students and the tools and information they are
  provided?

8
Constructivism Opinions of our Class

• part of generally useful
• Instructional principles Jasper? for
  training?
• relevant instruction
• authentic complex problems
• learner-centered
• learning community/reflexivity
• Assessment ideas
• assessment not a separate event
• teacher judgment crucial
• use wide variety of data