QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT DURING YOUR READING
Summer
1998
July 30, 1998 -- THE LECTURE-DISCUSSION METHOD
Please see notes on use of the Lecture Method
in direct instruction.
July 29, 1998 -- BEHAVIORAL OBJECTIVES, EVALUATION, LECTURES
Reflective Questions:
- Consider the differences between evaluating a lesson plan
evaluation and evaluating student performance.
- What can the instructor do to make the lecture method more
involving for students?
Exercise
- Take one of your goals or generalized objectives and
elaborate it, that is, write enough words so that you know what you
have stated explicitly all the aspects you want the students to
learn.
- Follow the ABCD method to write one cognitive objective from
your generalized goal at levels 1, 2 or 3.
- Use same method and write one affective objective at level 1
or 2.
- If you have the time and it seems important, write one more
cognitive objective at levels 4, 5 or 6.
- Come back to 214 and write your behavioral objectives on the
board.
- In class, each group will examine and provide feedback on the work of
its members and
then report overall results to class.
July 28, 1998 - MOTIVATION,
TAXONOMIES, OBJECTIVES,
EVALUATION
Reflective
Questions:
- Why do you think there is so much emphasis in the instructional
literature on preparing objectives before the class? What are the
advantages? For whom? Are there disadvantages?
- Is there value in involving students in preparing the course
objectives? Are there drawbacks?
- How useful do you find Bloom's cognitive learning taxonomy? How about
the affective learning taxonomy? The psycho-motor? Do you see a way to
include all the levels of Bloom's taxonomy in preparing objectives for a
class? If so, should you? Which of the affective levels do you think
would be valuable to include in your objectives?
- How might the course objectives you prepare help you in planning an
evaluation for the class?
Exercise
- For a course or class of your choice, prepare a fairly comprehensive
tentative list of topics (and skills) that you might consider including.
List the
topics in no particular order down the left hand side of a notebook
page.
- Apply the following two criteria to each topic:
- How essential is this topic or skill to the course/class as a
whole?
- How interesting might the topic or skill be to your learner
population?
One way to do this is to make two columns on your page of topics and
skills and label the first "Essential Skill/Knowledge" and the second
"Potential Interest." Once you have done this, rate each topic or skill
as either High, ? (meaning that you are unsure or that it is
neither high
nor low), or Low. Rate each topic or skill on both criteria.
- Select all the topics or skills that are rated high on both
criteria.
Consider for inclusion each topic or skill that has a high rating on one
criteria. For each topic/skill that you selected, what do you want them
to learn?
- One or more Definitions?
- How to apply?
- To promote a critical attitude?
- What do you want your learners to be able to know?
- What do you want your learners to be able to do?
- What do you want your learners to feel following the course/class?
- The next step is to consider reality constraints: class time, class
size, expectations of time available to learners outside of class time.
Then you can begin
to formulate objectives. Try to write each one in a behavioral way (i.e.,
what you will be able to observe as an outcome).
July 27, 1998 - AUDIENCE ANALYSIS, LEARNING STYLES & MOTIVATION
- What motivates people to want to learn? What factors may cause people
to lose that motivation? See ERIC
Digest on Motivation on web site in addition to other readings)
- Today in class we will examine a number of ways of categorizing
learning styles --
As a group (although perhaps a nominal group) consider one of the
learner
populations someone in your group has selected and either apply one of the
category systems above (or another from your reading or background
knowledge) or create your own 3-4 categories that seem to
usefully group your learners according to their expected approach to
learning and their preferences for instructional activities.
- Based on the category system you have selected, estimate the percent
of learners in each group.
- Describe the instructional approach (e.g., lecture, discussion,
experiment, group activity, inquiry method, etc. or
combination) that you
think will best fit the dominant group (the one with the highest
percentage of learners). Describe the kinds of assignment/activity that
this group might find satisfying (e.g., reading, writing short papers,
writing a long paper, doing an independent project, working with others on
a project, doing in-class exercises, etc.).
- Consider the other two groups. How might the learning situation
and assignments/activities you
describe in 5 affect their motivation to learn the material? Provide some
reasons for your answer.
- A Challenge: Design a lesson (or a course) to accomodate all
the learners whatever their learning style.
July 23 and 24, 1998 - INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN -- NEEDS ASSESSMENT
There are many 'step' models for insructional design. For example,
LaGuardia uses a 12 step model (see text, p.34); Turner (on reading list)
uses an 8 step model. All the models, however, begin with a needs
assessment step. Here are some thought questions and mental exercises
relating to needs assessment:
- In needs assessment, Turner asserts that three different needs
should be considered:
- the needs of the learner
- the needs of the community or organization (the context)
- the intrinsic importance of the subject matter (what everyone ought to
know)
For a population of your choice (e.g., undergraduates, English TAs, MBA
students, Law students, law firm staff, NIEHS researchers, humanities
scholars, graduate
students in a particular discipline, etc.) state some of the needs of the
learners, the needs of the community in which they are a member (You may
need to define how you
see this community), and the LIS subject matter that you think these folks
should know. How do these three groups of needs differ?
- Turner lists five sources of information to help the course designer
determine needs:
- established standards
- what is being taught elsewhere
- what folks are predicting future needs will be
- what representatives of the learner population say when asked
- what the learners request
Which of these sources do you think would be the most valid or the most
useful for the population you identified above? Why?
- Pick a couple of these sources and show how you could use them as a
source of information about needs. For example, what relevant knowledge
or skills (or attitude) standards exist for your population? Another
example, what other agencies are offering user education to a group of
learners similar to yours? What are they doing and how are they doing it?
Another example, write a short survey that you might use with a sample of
your learners.
- Looking at the LIS skills area, Eisenberg suggests that what we need
to teach is a process. He calls his approach "the Big 6." The six skills
he identifies as necessary for every educated person are:
- Task Definition -- the ability to define a problem and to
identify the information needed
- Information Seeking Strategies -- the knowledge of a variety of
possible sources and the knowledge of how to select the best one(s)
- Location and Access -- the ability to locate sources and to
find information within the sources
- Use of Information -- the ability to gather information through
reading, listening, viewing, etc. and to extract relevant information
- Synthesis -- the ability to organize information from multiple
sources and to present the result
- Evaluation -- the ability to judge the result (effectiveness)
and to judge the process (efficiency)
Do you think every educated person ought to be competent in each of these
LIS skills? Are there other skills or knowledge that you think are
important?
- Based on your (admittedly incomplete) examination of the needs of your
learner population, identify 2-4 goals (the "ought to know"
statements).
- Rank the list of goals you created in order of importance.
- To what extent do you think any of these goals are currently already
being achieved? If you don't know, how could you find out?
July 22, 1998 - PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATION SUPPORT
- Which of the professional sites that you examined do you think is
the most useful?
- Do these sites provide good support for someone engaged in planning
and
implementing a training/education program?
- What aspects of these sites did you find most personally
useful?
- What uses do you think standards or guidelines for user education
might
have?
- Examine the Guidelines for Instruction Programs in Academic
Libaries (1996). How generalizable are these guidelines to
user education programs outside the academic library milieu? Are
there any aspects of a program that are not addressed?
- Examine the Model Statement of Objectives for Academic
Bibliographic Instruction (1997). How generalizable are these
objectives to user education programs outside the academic library
milieu? The objectives are organized into 4 main categories:
- How information is identified and defined by experts
- How information sources are structured
- How information sources are intellectually accessed by users
- How information sources are physically organized and accessed
What other categories might be included in a training/education
program?
- If you were to create a set of standards for an education program in a
different environment, would you follow a similar format? If not, what
changes would you make and why?
July 21,
1998 - LEARNING THEORY
One way to think about learning theories is to group them as models. One
such grouping is the following:
- Constructionist or Inductive Model
A view of learning that says that learners develop their own understanding
of the way the world works rather than having it delivered to them by
others (i.e., teachers) in an already-organized form. (Sometimes called
"active learning")
- Direct Instruction Model
A teacher-centered strategy that uses teacher explanation and modeling
combined with student practice and feedback to teach concepts and skills.
(Often termed a behavioral approach to learning)
- General Inquiry Model
a teaching strategy designed to teach students how to investigate problems
and questions with facts. The Inquiry Model is implemented in five steps:
- Identifying a question or problem
- Making hypotheses
- Gathering data
- Assessing hypotheses
- Generalizing
(This model is sometimes called the scientific approach or information
processing model)
- Cooperative Learning Model
A cluster of instructional strategies that actively involve students in
group work towards a common goal. With this model a lot of attention is
paid to the characteristics of the classroom environment and the roles of
the teacher and students in the environment. (Sometimes
called social learning)
- How do these definitions of models match the descriptions (and names)
of learning theories you encountered in your reading?
- On what basis (bases) would you select one learning theoretic approach
over another?
- How would you design an instructional session based on each one of
these approaches?
- What motivates a student to learn?
- Is there a relationship between your beliefs about motivation and your
embrace of one learning theory approach over another?
July 20, 1998
- HISTORY AND CONTEXT
- Why does an organization initiate a user education program?
- Does the reason for the program change over time?
- Is there an explicit mission or goal statement included in the
description of a particular education program?
- What are the alternatives to a formal education program?
Evelyn Daniel
Page revised 7/19/98.