Instructional Design Research Research Articles

Conceptualizing climate change in the context of a climate system: implications for climate and environmental education

Today there is much interest in teaching secondary students about climate change. Much of this effort has focused directly on students’ understanding of climate change. We hypothesize, however, that in order for students to understand climate change they must first understand climate as a system and how changes to this system due to both natural and human influences result in climatic and environmental changes and feedbacks. The purpose of this article is to articulate a climate system framework for teaching about climate change and to stimulate discussion about what secondary students should know and understand about a climate system. We first provide an overview of the research on secondary students’ conceptions of climate and climate change. We then present a climate system framework for teaching about climate and climate change that builds on students’ conceptions and scientific perspectives. We conclude by articulating a draft conceptual progression based on students’ conceptions and our climate system framework as a means to inform curriculum development, instructional design, and future research in climate and environmental education.

A critical-realist response to the postmodern agenda in instructional design and technology: a way forward

Although providing an invigorating foundation for instructional design and technology theory and research, the postmodern agenda would benefit from clearer articulation and further refinement of ontological, epistemological, and methodological positions. Consequently, we reveal possible weaknesses in the radically constructivist-inspired position and, in the spirit of scholarly dialogue, counter with a critical-realist perspective that presents a potentially more innovative and defensible approach to the discovery of scientific knowledge about teaching and learning infused with technology. Without doubt, we concur with postmodernists that issues of agency, identity, race, gender and ethnicity must be addressed and given a central position in instructional design and technology research and practice. Under the critical-realist designator, case study, ethnographic, arts-based, and phenomenological methodologies are appropriate and can co-exist. Our point of distinction is that as a scientific venture, instructional design and technology as a discipline must be more public and transparent in warrants, claims and discourse for proposed change to take place. We conclude by indicating future lines of inquiry inspired by the critical-realist perspective, detailing topics in technology integration and digital games.

Symposium 7: Current challenges in learning design and pedagogical patterns research

The goal of this symposium is to bring together experts in learning design and pedagogical patterns research to exchange their current views on learning design as well as their experiences in evaluating the application of their proposed approaches in practice. Four papers are included, which between them they cover different aspects of the following three themes: i) Approaches to visualising and representing design patterns, ii) Computational representation of enacted patterns and iii) Analyses of emerging enacted patterns. In particular we are interested in exploring how can designs be represented, shared and discussed, and how they might be used and by whom. The first paper acts as a position paper in relation to the remaining four. It provides an overview of different types of design representations and demonstrates how these can be used in different contexts. The second explores design aspects around creativity and collaboration. Collaborative design is also picked up in the third paper, but in the context of pedagogical patterns. The final paper looks at issues to do with sharing and discussing designs and puts forward a number of theoretical frameworks for understanding new emergent practices in web 2.0 spaces. The symposium will use the content of the papers as a basis for exploring the three themes and will attempt to draw out new insights into addressing these questions. Modern networked learning environments have the potential to enhance significantly the student learning experience; offering new ways in which they can communicate and interact with each other and with their tutors. However, the sheer variety of new technologies available now is bewildering. Those tasked with designing learning experiences need new forms of guidance to take advantage of the affordances of new technologies and to make pedagogically informed design decisions. The learning design and pedagogical patterns research fields that have emerged in recent years are attempting to provide solutions to these issues. Learning design research is concerned with articulating and representing the design process and providing tools and methods to help designers in their design process (Lockyer et al., 2008). Pedagogical patterns research is concerned with elicited empirically derived good practice and representing that within a standard format according to the underlying pedagogical pattern principles (Retalis and Goodyear, forthcoming). This series of papers provides a snapshot of current thinking in these fields. The symposium will aim to draw out some common synergies across these fields. These fields are related, but distinct from instructional design research (Spector et al., 2008; Reigeluth et al. 2009); learning design because of its emphasis on the holistic design process and its alignment to a socio-cultural perspective and pedagogical patterns in terms of its derivation from Alexander’s work in Architecture. Designing effective technology-enhanced learning environments in an efficient and affordable way is a demanding task, which requires creativity and a significant amount of expertise [Goodyear, 2002]. On the one hand, people new to e-learning design need advice from experts, experienced peers, and users so as to avoid investing a large amount of resources in ‘re-inventing the wheel’ or in creating solutions that may be educationally ineffective. On the other hand practitioners, instructional designers and content experts need to effectively collaborate for the joint development of learning designs thus leading to an increase of the quality of e-learning provision across Europe. Currently, several initiatives have been set up and a lot of attempts have been made in order to explore conceptualizations of learning designs such as IMS LD, educational modelling languages like EML, learning flow design patterns, pedagogical patterns and of course visual tools for creating learning designs. The learning design research community faces a big challenge: to find powerful ways of providing structured, teacher-friendly, formalized and visual representations of learning designs.

Enhancing instructional design efficiency: Methodologies employed by instructional designers

AbstractInstructional systems design (ISD) has been frequently criticised as taking too long to implement, calling for a reduction in cycle time—the time that elapses between project initiation and delivery. While instructional design research has historically focused on increasing learner efficiencies, the study of what instructional designers do to increase efficiency during the design of instruction, including web‐based training, has not yet been fully examined. The purpose of this qualitative developmental study was to identify and understand the methodologies used by experienced instructional designers to increase the efficiency of the instructional design process. Data were gathered from 11 instructional designers working within two business and industry consulting firms that provide learning solutions to global clients. Results revealed 47 efficiency methodologies found within the four categories of design model, instructional design team member roles, instructional design processes and instructional design tools. Additionally, 14 supporting instructional designer competencies were found within the category of instructional designer knowledge, skills and attitudes.

Productive failure in mathematical problem solving

This paper reports on a quasi-experimental study comparing a “productive failure” instructional design (Kapur in Cognition and Instruction 26(3):379–424, 2008) with a traditional “lecture and practice” instructional design for a 2-week curricular unit on rate and speed. Seventy-five, 7th-grade mathematics students from a mainstream secondary school in Singapore participated in the study. Students experienced either a traditional lecture and practice teaching cycle or a productive failure cycle, where they solved complex problems in small groups without the provision of any support or scaffolds up until a consolidation lecture by their teacher during the last lesson for the unit. Findings suggest that students from the productive failure condition produced a diversity of linked problem representations and methods for solving the problems but were ultimately unsuccessful in their efforts, be it in groups or individually. Expectedly, they reported low confidence in their solutions. Despite seemingly failing in their collective and individual problem-solving efforts, students from the productive failure condition significantly outperformed their counterparts from the lecture and practice condition on both well-structured and higher-order application problems on the post-tests. After the post-test, they also demonstrated significantly better performance in using structured-response scaffolds to solve problems on relative speed—a higher-level concept not even covered during instruction. Findings and implications of productive failure for instructional design and future research are discussed.

A Low-Technology Strategy for Increasing Engagement of Students with Autism and Significant Learning Needs

Active engagement is critical to promote learning for students with autism. Although evidence-based strategies exist for promoting engagement for individual students with autism, there are few strategies designed for use with small groups. This study used an ABCAC design to assess the effects of a low-technology use strategy, namely interactive books with and without music on the engagement levels of six students with autism and significant learning needs in kindergarten through fourth grades. Findings indicate that the use of interactive books paired with music showed increased levels of engagement during small group instruction. Implications related to research-based instruction, teacher education, instructional design, and future research are discussed.

Understanding How Adolescents with Reading Difficulties Utilize Technology-Based Tools

This article reports the findings from a study that examined how adolescent students with reading difficulties utilized cognitive tools that were embedded in a technology-based middle school science curriculum. The curriculum contained salient features of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) theoretical framework. Sixteen general education teachers implemented the curriculum in 62 inclusive classrooms. Students' (N = 1153) tool use was monitored throughout the four-week curriculum to determine if there was a relationship between students' reading ability, use of cognitive tools, and their comprehension of scientific concepts and processes. Students were grouped into three reading ability levels based on their performance on a standardized reading test. Findings from this study indicate that students who scored below the 50th percentile on the reading assessment utilized and benefited from the tools in highly similar ways. Implications and recommendations for instructional design research and practice are discussed.

Effects of an Inductive Versus a Deductive Instructional Approach on the Constructive Feedback and Problem-Solving Skills of Supervisors

This study investigated the effects of an inductive versus a deductive instructional approach on the constructive feedback and problem-solving skills of supervisors. Sixteen supervisors were randomly assigned to either an inductive or a deductive instructional group for one of the instructional units in a supervisory training program. The topic of the unit was the constructive feedback process. Supervisors' acquisition and transfer of skill in giving constructive feedback, problem-solving skill, facilitation of subordinate problem-solving skill, and attitudes toward training were assessed. The findings showed that while supervisors in the deductive group demonstrated greater ability to transfer their learning, supervisors in the inductive group perceived that the quality of their training experience was better. No significant differences were found on either measure of problem-solving skill. Implications of these findings for instructional design theory, research, and practice are discussed.

Instructional Design Paradigms: Is Object-Oriented Design Next?

The current systematic approaches taught to. and perhaps used by, instructional designer's share much in common with structured computer software design approaches. The computing field is currently undergoing major changes fostered by the growth of object-oriented (OO) analysis, design, and programming methods. The OO paradigm may also offer a revised focus for ID research. Several instructional design (ID) researchers are already adopting OO computing terminology. The suggested cross-over of OO from computing to instructional design is tied to design trends and ongoing research in II).

지식 테크놀로지 확장 맥락에서의 교수설계 연구 방향 모색

지식 테크놀로지 확장 맥락에서의 교수설계 연구 방향 모색

What lies beyond effectiveness and efficiency? Adventure learning design

Educational technology and instructional design research has focused on evaluating interventions and innovations in terms of their effectiveness, efficiency, and appeal. While such indicators of learning outcomes are important, designers should also strive for engaging, socially just, and transformational instruction. To illuminate the capabilities of adventure learning, we evaluate three such projects in terms of effectiveness, efficiency, engagement, social justice, and transformational capability. Findings indicate the diverse impact adventure learning has had on K-16 learners and teachers.

Evaluating the learning in learning objects

A comprehensive review of the literature on the evaluation of learning objects revealed a number of problem areas, including emphasizing technology ahead of learning, an absence of reliability and validity estimates, over‐reliance on informal descriptive data, a tendency to embrace general impressions of learning objects rather than focusing on specific design features, the use of formative or summative evaluation, but not both, and testing on small, vaguely described sample populations using a limited number of learning objects. This study explored a learning‐based approach for evaluating learning objects using a large, diverse, sample of secondary school students. The soundness of this approach was supported by estimates of reliability and validity, using formal statistics where applicable, incorporating both formative and summative evaluations, examining specific learning objects features based on instructional design research, and testing of a range of learning objects. The learning‐based evaluation tool produced useful and detailed information for educators, designers and researchers about the impact of learning objects in the classroom.

Functional Contextualism in Instructional Design and Research: Introduction to the Special Forum

In February of each year, the Research section of Educational Technology Research and Development conducts a competition for the Young Scholar Award. The award recipient is invited, based on blind peer reviews, to further refine the paper for eventual publication in ETR&D. This issue includes the paper entitled, “Constructing a Pragmatic Science of Learning and Instruction with Functional Contextualism,” written by Eric Fox, the 2004 Young Scholar recipient. When Fox’s manuscript was originally reviewed, its contents evoked strong and diverse reactions by the referees regarding the implications for research and practice in instructional design. Accordingly, I decided to solicit additional formal reactions from several leading researchers and theorists in the field. Those contributing were Michael Hannafin, David Jonassen, William Winn, and Charles Reigeluth. Their critiques, along with a concluding rejoinder by Fox, also appear in this issue. I believe that most readers will find the dialogue and debate to be both scholarly and provocative.

Beyond Two Decades of Motivation: A Review of the Research and Practice in Instructional Design and Human Performance Technology

Existing models and methods of instructional design and performance improvement offer promise for enhancement in nearly every area of human resource development. However, they fall short of potential in addressing human motivation in ways that enable workplace performers and their organizations to thrive. This article reviews dominant models for instructional design and human performance technology currently in use, and compares their treatment of motivation in light of recent research in human motivation. The review illustrates an implementation gap between what research demonstrates about human motivation and what current instructional design models make available for use in workplace learning and development. It further underscores the need for a new, integrative, systemic model of motivation to aid in designing instruction by implementing recent research principles in workplace contexts. It calls for a new model of motivation for instructional design that is current, comprehensive, integrative, and flexible to meet the demands of new paradigm human resource development.

Pedagogy under Construction: Learning to Teach Collaboratively

Usually a teacher's first step to prepare for class is to write a syllabus, and Professor M had copies ready on day one of Teaching Mass Communications in College. Instead of distributing them, however, he offered class members an option. They could follow a traditional route and use his detailed outline, or they could immediately put constructivist learning theory into practice by choosing to build their syllabus and chart their course. With this gauntlet dropped, he left them alone to decide. The class members opted to be constructivists, and this article reports the participants' observations during, and critique of, this quasi-experimental study. Contructivist learning theory posits that students learn best when they are active. Then, the participants reasoned, wouldn't the best way to study Teaching Mass Communications in College be to approach the class as active learners? Constructivists see as actively constructed by learners, not passively acquired from instructors. For this reason, students learn more effectively when they own the process and work collaboratively on tasks that seem real and authentic. Journalism educators often apply some of these constructivist notions in their classes but rarely to the degree used in this graduate-level pedagogy class. This article presents a case study of a constructivist pedagogy class and argues for the use of constructivist theory in mass communication higher education. defined The world changes as we employ different perspectives to make observations on our world (Kuhn, 1970). Old theories are discarded or changed when a new theory or idea displays superior power in explaining the world. One such paradigm shift in the teaching field comes with the emergence of constructivism. The term has at least two major senses: epistemological and educational. While at times these two senses are related, they are not identical. (Phillips, 2000; Howe & Berv, 2000). Constructivism used in a philosophical and epistemological sense describes a thesis that, disciplines (or public bodies of knowledge) are human constructs (Phillips, 2000, p. 6). This thesis sometimes is also called social constructivism or social constructionism. (Phillips, 2000). At other times, some philosophers do not use the term at all; instead, they label constructivist-type epistemology as Kantianism, post-Kantianism, pragmatism, or naturalism (Howe & Berv, 2000). The second sense of the term is psychological, educational, and pedagogical. In this sense, constructivism refers to a set of views about how individuals learn (and about how those who help them to learn ought to teach) (Phillips, 2000, p. 7). Even when constructivism is used in this educational sense, it is a very loose label, and careful distinctions might be required. For example, Howe and Berv warn that an individual instructor might adopt a constructivist learning theory but not a constructivist pedagogy, and vice versa (Howe & Berv, 2000). While the epistemological use of the term is not particularly new, the educational use of the term is only a decade or two old, at least in the U.S. learning theory literature. During the 1960s and 1970s, American instructional design theory and research went through a paradigm shift - from behaviorism (which focuses on a stimulus-response-reinforcement model) to cognitive psychology (which focuses on the mental processes of the learner) (Tennyson, 1997). [Because behaviorism was never as strong in Europe, cognitive psychology theory such as Jean Piaget's work influenced European instructional design theory throughout the twentieth century (Tennyson & Schott, 1997; Steiner, 1997)]. It wasn't until the 1980s or even the 1990s that constructivist theories started to influence American instructional design theory, and learning began to be seen as knowledge construction (Mayer, 1999, p. …

Toward a design theory of problem solving

Problem solving is generally regarded as the most important cognitive activity in everyday and professional contexts. Most people are required to and rewarded for solving problems. However, learning to solve problems is too seldom required in formal educational settings, in part, because our understanding of its processes is limited. Instructional-design research and theory has devoted too little attention to the study of problem-solving processes. In this article, I describe differences among problems in terms of their structuredness, domain specificity (abstractness), and complexity. Then, I briefly describe a variety of individual differences (factors internal to the problem solver) that affect problem solving. Finally, I articulate a typology of problems, each type of which engages different cognitive, affective, and conative processes and therefore necessitates different instructional support. The purpose of this paper is to propose a metatheory of problem solving in order to initiate dialogue and research rather than offering a definitive answer regarding its processes.

Epistemology and Procedure in Aural Training: In Search of a Unification of Music Cognitive Theory with Its Applications

This paper reflects a reexamination of the desired knowledge base of aural cognition, the theoretical basis for constructing it, and the means of evaluating the success of its training. Reasons for the frustrations generated by the gap between current cognition research and its applications are presented. The pervasive model of knowledge acquisition, one rooted in objectivist theory, is examined, and the limitations of the training effected through this model are noted. distinction between well-structured and ill-structured content domains is introduced. Next an alternate, constructivist paradigm for training in ill-structured domains is proposed, and its advantages are cited. further inconsistency in the epistemological/procedural relationship is cited regarding teaching of analysis vs. teaching aural cognition. The article concludes with a call for a broadening of the epistemological basis of all the interrelated areas of aural training, instructional design, and cognition research itself. 18For examples of the use of qualitative methodology in our domain, see: Richard D. Ashley, Computer-based Learning: Models and Lessons for Computer Music Systems, Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 1989 (San Francisco: Computer Music Association, 1989), 9-12; Richard D. Ashley, A Computer Program for Analyzing Computer Musicians' Problem-solving, Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference 1990 (San Francisco: Computer Music Association, 1990), 14446; and Susan M. Piagentini, Skill Acquisition in Undergraduate Music Theory: Analysis as Problem Solving, paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Music Theory, Cincinnati, 1991. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.255 on Wed, 25 May 2016 05:25:00 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

What can we learn from chaos theory? An alternative approach to instructional systems design

In this article, the “goodness of fit” between ISD and chaos theory is explored by applying the key concepts of chaos theory to the process of developing an alternative ISD model. After a brief introduction to chaos theory and an exploration of the limitations of and/or the problems with conventional ISD models, the theoretical implications for developing an alternative ISD model are explored. The assumptions of a conventional ISD model are compared to those of chaos theory and dynamic nonlinear systems in order to derive theoretical implications and recommendations for future research and practice in instructional systems design and development.

Rapid prototyping in automated instructional design

In this article the impact of the tools being developed as part of the Second Generation Instructional Design (ID2) Research Program on the process of instructional design is described. ID2 supports rapid prototyping as a design and development process. Rapid prototyping is described and contrasted with the instructional systems development (ISD) process.

Current progress and future directions for research in instructional technology

Two perspectives on the status of current research are offered: (1) In the past 15 years, the field has made extraordinary advances in the technical excellence of research studies, and yet (2) our analytical investment at the front end of research planning has not kept pace. An analysis of present problems is accompanied by two suggestions for future developments in instructional technology research: (1) we need to go beyond descriptive research methods and adoptprescriptive research methodology; and (2) researchers should seek broader and deeper knowledge of previous research in both instructional design and development before they conduct studies.