Thoughts on Instructional Design Theories

Now that you have at least briefly reviewed a number of instructional design theories, which do you think will be most effective for you in your teaching practice? Why? How do you think incorporating elements of instructional design can enhance your teaching and lesson planning?

After reviewing the information about instructional design theories I have to say that I agree with a statement that was highlighted in the article entitled “Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features from an Instructional Design Perspective”. In this article a viewpoint related to instructional design is something that I really connected with. It states that “individuals addressing practical learning problems cannot afford the luxury of restricting themselves to only one theoretical position”. In many ways, I agree with this statement about instructional design. As teachers, our job is to be able to adapt our teaching or lesson planning to effectively meet the needs of our students. We have to be able to assess where our students are in the learning process and be willing to incorporate different theories/ strategies into our lesson designs in order to effectively teach.  As was also stated in the article, “depending upon the demands of the task and where the learners are in terms of content to be delivered or discovered, different strategies based on different theories appear to be necessary. One must be able to intelligently choose, on the basis of information gathered about the learner’s present level of competence and the type of learning task, the appropriate methods for achieving optimal instructional outcomes.”  However, if I had to determine an instructional design theory that I felt would be most effective in my teaching practice, I suppose that I find myself in the most agreement with the cognitive theories because they “emphasize making knowledge meaningful and helping learners organize and relate new information to existing knowledge”.  I view this as one of the better ways for students to learn because I feel as though knowledge is better retained when an individual is able to apply meaning to new concepts and relate that information to other ideas that they have previously learned. Although I have not had a tremendous amount of experience as a classroom teacher, I have seen where students who are simply presented new information without having prior knowledge with which to connect the new concepts, tend to struggle in retaining those new ideas. In my opinion, it seems more effective if, as a teacher, I can design lessons that will illustrate to the students how they can related new information to what they already know and apply that information to new circumstances.

In regards to specific instructional design models, I really liked the idea behind the ASSURE model of instructional design.  The A stands for analyze learners, S equals state standards & objectives, the second S means select strategies, technology, media & materials, the U stands for utilize technology, media & materials, the R means require learner participation, and the E is for evaluate & revise. I like the way that this design model helps teachers and instructors to focus on different areas of the learning process, while really emphasizing the need to assess the learners’ current knowledge at the beginning of the design process in order to develop a more effective lesson.

While I can see the greatest benefit in incorporating cognitive learning theories into my instructional design, as I stated earlier, I also believe that teachers have to be flexible with the idea of incorporating a variety of theories into their lessons in order to effectively meet the needs of their students.  Incorporating different elements of instructional design can enhance a teacher’s ability to better assist their students in the learning process if the teacher is willing to utilize different theories and ideas that best meet the needs of their students. Having knowledge of a variety of design and learning theories will allow teachers to be flexible in their instructional approach and easily adapt a lesson to improve the learning outcome. Ultimately, I view my job as a teacher as the facilitator of the learning process. It is important for me to accurately assess where my students are, where I want them to be, and how I can best help them to get there. Incorporating elements of instructional design into my lesson planning can assist me in evaluating those elements in order to provide my students with the best learning environment that I am capable of creating and thus, affording them greater opportunities for successful learning to occur.