Ken Thomas - Instructional Designer | Instructional Design Job Aids & White Papers | Instructional Methods & Strategies
The following tables describe the key instructional methods: |
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Anchored instruction | A type of authentic learning environment that is organized so that all learning originates from the learner's attempt to solve a real problem. |
| Authentic learning environments | When in the control of the instructional designer, authentic environments learning environments are approaches that focus on providing some degree of authenticity to the instructional event. In this context, authenticity is synonymous with real world. (Syn: Constructivist learning environments, situated learning) |
| Case-based learning | A broad method which organizes instruction around consideration of and interaction with a real-world scenario. |
| Cognitive apprenticeship | A method in which instruction is organized around the interactions of novice and expert, much as with an expert artisan and an apprentice. In this case, the work to be mastered is thought processes.(Syn: Apprenticeship learning) |
| Direct instruction | An instructional method that draws on carefully scripted instruction intended to promote efficient learning. The method was developed by Sigfried Engelmann. |
| Discovery-based learning | A broad method in which instruction is organized around a process of helping learners to discover a pre determined model, concept, or proposition. |
| Drill and practice | A method focused on rote learning and automatization through the repeated presentation of prompts and corrective feedback. |
| Expository teaching | Instruction depending primarily on teacher lecture. (Syn: Didactic, teacher-centered) |
| Hands-on learning | A method focused on learner involvement in discovery of principles and the mastery of skills or ideas through activity and direct experience - learning by doing. |
| Individualized instruction | A method that is responsive to the needs of individual students. |
| Inquiry-based instruction | A method in which instruction is organized by the interests of the students. Students are encouraged to ask questions and the learning is centered upon answering those questions. |
| Instructional game | A method in which the knowledge, skills, and abilities that are the focus of the instruction are acquired through a game devised for that purpose. |
| Instructional simulation | Instruction that simulates the critical elements of a real-life context to approximate the complexity surrounding the skill to be learned or the understanding to be gained. |
| Learner-centered instruction | A method that focuses on individual learners (e.g., their backgrounds, interests, capabilities, and needs) and on learning (e.g., knowledge about methods to promote the highest levels of motivation and learning for all kinds of learners). |
| Problem-based learning | Instruction that is organized around helping students to achieve or arrive at the solution to an ill-structured problem. |
| Project-based learning | Instruction organized around making a product, task, or service. |
| Role play | A method in which key ideas and skills are illustrated or practiced by learners assuming roles and contexts in which the ideas and skills would typically be applied. |
| Teacher-centered instruction | An instructional approach in which the teacher is the primary delivery channel for instructional content - often through presentation and lecture, (Syn: Expository, didactic, transmission-oriented) |
| Tutorial | A broad method that involves a high level of adaptation or instructional events to cater to the individual needs of the student. |
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Advance organizer | A component method, by all accounts attributed to David Ausubel, that is used at the beginning of an instructional sequence to help "bridge" the gap between what the learner knows and what she will be learning or doing. Also a component used at the beginning of an instructional sequence to begin defining a framework for what follows. Used to begin construction of a desired schema. |
| Analogy | A component method that draws comparisons between something familiar and something unfamiliar for the purpose of learning or understanding the latter. |
| Authentic tasks | A component method that is used for its similarity to the real world and for its motivational appeal to the learner. |
| Coaching | A method that centers on a more accomplished learner providing guidance and encouragement to a more novice learner in the context of instruction or a learning exercise. (Syn: Facilitating, mentoring) |
| Collaborative work | A method that capitalizes on the learning advantages that come from learners working together to solve a problem or accomplish a task. (Syn: Cooperative work) |
| Cooperative work | This method provides structures for completing work or products by dividing work among group members, Cooperative work is chosen because bigger projects can be tackled and completed by groups working collectively. (Syn' Collaborative work) |
| Demonstration | A basic component method in which an instructor demonstrates to learners how to do or make something. 'I his method is often followed by student trial of the same skill. (Syn: Model) |
| Elaboration | Expanding from a simple instance of a concept or skill to a more complex or nuanced instance to aid the learner's full grasp of the content. |
| Examples/ Nonexamples | The use of instances of a concept that illustrate key attributes of the concept in contrast with instances that do not illustrate the key attributes of the concept, to aid the learner in discrimination regarding salient characteristics or dimensions of the concept. |
| Feedback | A component method that provides the student with information about the quality of the performance and specific guidance about the correct and incorrect aspects of the performance. |
| Guided practice | A method involving the learner's practice of a skill. with supervision and assistance from the teacher is needed. |
| Peer tutoring | A technique in which a peer of the learner helps him or her to grasp ideas and concepts through dose monitoring and feedback. |
| Personalization | Instruction that focuses on tailoring methods to target the particular learning needs of each student. Depending on the scope of this method, it could be an approach or a component. (Syn: Customization, individualized instruction) |
| Practice | A component method involving repetitive interaction of learner with content. |
| Preview | A technique often used at the onset of instruction to establish instructional targets and raise the interest of the learner by some technique that allows the learner to glimpse what the instructional experience will be like. |
| Reciprocal teaching | Instruction that utilizes a pair of students or a small group to act as teachers for each other, thus requiring each student to bear some responsibility for helping the others to learn the content. |
| Reflection | A metacognitive method that helps a learner to derive deeper and broader understandings of an experience or that promotes self-evaluation through the comparison of one's work to a standard or through an analysis of individual change as a result of the learning experience. |
| Review | A summarizing method that draws together the main points of a learning experience to reinforce the grasp of key concepts. |
| Self-assessment | A component that guides students to reflect upon and compare their work to a standard. |
| Team work | A collaborative method that promotes learning through the accomplishment of an activity, project, or task as a group of learners. |
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Concrete-abstract | A microlevel sequencing method that organizes content from concrete, physical, being there experiences to abstract, symbolic experiences. (Syn: Inductive sequencing) |
| Deductive | A microlevel sequencing method that organizes content from general to specific. |
| Easy-difficult | A microlevel sequencing method that organizes content from the easiest examples to the most difficult examples. |
| Elaboration: Conceptual | A sequencing method that proceeds from general concepts to detailed concepts. (Syn: Progressive differentiation sequence) |
| Elaboration: Procedural | A sequencing method that proceeds from simpler versions of a complex procedure to more complex versions. (Syn: Shortest path sequence) |
| Elaboration: Theoretical | A sequencing method that proceeds from broader, more inclusive principles to narrower, more restricted principles. (Syn: Spiral curriculum) |
| Hierarchical | A sequencing method that teaches simpler component skills before the more complex skills of which they are a part. (Syn: Learning prerequisite sequence) |
| Procedural | A sequencing method that teaches the steps of a simple procedure in the order in which they are performed. (Syn: Forward chaining sequence) |
| Scaffolding | A variety of methods that include a sequence that gradually reduces and removes supports of various kinds (fading) and a sequence that gradually increases the acceptable standards of performance (shaping). (Syn: Fading, shaping) |