Learning and instructional design
theories mostly focus on an individual activity and his/her consciousness as important
elements that happen in relevant to certain environmental context. This focus
drives instructional design theories to construct an instructional guide that
fits the context in which learning and performance take place (Jonassen,
Tessmer, & Hannum, 1998). It is assumed that the representation processes
of human mind are similar to the data structure of a computer. Therefore, “the central hypothesis of
cognitive science is that thinking can best be understood in terms of
representational structures in the mind and computational procedures that
operate on those structures” (Stanford University, 2002, Para.3). In Terms of students’ learning and thinking,
instructional design theories explain
how the learning happen and provide directions or outlines that facilitate the
learning process.
Constructivism is one of the instructional design theories. It describes that people are the creators for
their own understanding and knowledge and everything is built based on their experiences
of the world they live in. Therefore, in the context of classroom, it is recommended
that educators should use more active techniques that encourage students to
build and develop their own knowledge, such as experiment learning activities
and problem solving techniques that are related to the real world. According to
the Educational Broadcasting Corporation (2004), “Constructivist teachers
encourage students to constantly assess how the activity is helping them gain
understanding. By questioning themselves
and their strategies, students in the constructivist classroom ideally become expert
learners” (Para. 3).
Constructivism theory can be used
effectively in nursing education as a guide for effective learning. The instructions of constructivism theory can
be applied in the simulation lab; faculty can make scenarios that simulate the
reality of the clinical settings, so nursing students can build their own
knowledge and understanding about clinical practice in a safe environment that
allows for mistakes. It also gives students the opportunity to evaluate their
performance and reflect on they experienced.
Constructivist Foundations of Teaching for Learning
References:
Educational
Broadcasting Corporation (2004). Concept to classroom. Retrieved from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/
Jonassen, D. H.,
Tessmer, M., & Hannum, W. H. (1998). Task analysis methods for
instructional design. Routledge. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Stanford University
(2002). Cognitive science. Retrieved from http://stanford.library.usyd.edu.au/archives/spr2004/entries/cognitive-science/
Hi Haider
ReplyDeleteYou pick one of the most important learning theory in instructional design, which is constructivism. If you do not mind, I would like to share some basic and humble ideas about constructivism. Constructivism is a theory about how people learn and based on the work of developmental psychologists, constructivism asserts that people construct meaning through their interpretive interactions with and experiences in their social environments. It assumes that prior knowledge and experiences play an important role in learning and shape the foundation for subsequent actions. It spotlights the learner’s attention on the “why” of learning and opens the door to critical thinking and intellectual development.
The basic premise of constructivist theories is that people create their own meaning through experience and constructivism is said to embraces a "top-down", starting with the main idea, concepts and the supporting details as shown in the diagram below, rather than a "bottom-up" instructional methodology. This means that, rather than teach all of the details that lead to a main idea; students discover the main idea and then derive the details.
A constructivist teacher sets up problems and monitors students exploration, guides the direction of student inquiry and promotes new patterns of thinking. It is up to the teacher to facilitate the constructivist learning process. The structure of the learning environment should promote opportunities and events that encourage and support the process of understanding.
References
Rich, P. J. (2007). The current state of Instructional Technology. The foundations of instructional technology, 22-27.
Smith, P. L., & Ragan, T. J. (2005). Instructional Design third edition. Norman: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Thank you Weaam for your insightful contribution to my post. I also believe that the instructions of constructivism theory open the door for nursing students to think critically, because the essence of this type of instructional design theory is to encourage learners to develop their own knowledge and understanding.
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