« September 2005 | Main | November 2005 »

October 05, 2005

Concept Maps, Instructional Design, and Constructivism

I am currently taking two online courses in the Global Human Resources Department Program of the College of Education at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

In both of those courses, and in others I have taken in the HRE Online program , the instructors have assigned what I know as “Concept Map” assignments.

To see some examples of Concept Maps I have created for the HRE courses, click here, here, and here.

I really enjoy these types of activities. Creating a concept map appeals to my preference for Visual and Kinesthetic learning (i.e. learning by doing) and my visual-spatial orientation. The “maps” (i.e. diagrams) often help me understand structures and see relationships between the different elements in the map. This morning I was re-reading Chapter 1 of Instructional Design by Smith, P.L. and Ragan, T.J. (1993) came across the following diagram that uses circles to describe the relationships among terms associated with instruction:

To better understand the diagram, it is helpful to read Smith and Ragan’s definitions of Education, Instruction, Training, and Education:

Education = all those experiences in which people learn.
Instruction = the delivery of information and activities that facilitate learners' attainment of intended, specific learning goals. In other words, instruction is the conduct of activities that are focused on learners learning specific things.
Teaching = those learning experiences in which the instructional message is delivered by a human being - not a videotape, textbook, or computer program-but a live teacher.
Training = instructional experiences that are focused upon individuals acquiring very specific skills that they will normally apply almost immediately. I am very interested in that little area of the diagram where teaching is outside of instruction.

Here is how Smith and Ragan describe that area of the diagram:

As Figure 1.1 shows, not all teaching is considered to be instruction. There are occasions in an educational environment in which a teacher does not focus learning experiences toward a specific learning goal. On these occasions, teachers may provide many learning activities, and during these activities learning goals may emerge, often from the learners themselves as they encounter the activities. For example, some preschool education falls within this category, such as instances in which learners are provided with a variety of manipulative materials that they can use to pursue many problems. These pursuits might lead to various learning outcomes, not all of which have been specifically anticipated by the teacher.

When I developed and taught the Instructional Design course for the Making the Virtual Classroom a reality program, I always had a difficult time seeing how Constructivism and ID could be compatible. I think this diagram helps me resolve some of the conflict I see between Instructional Design and constructivism as described Jonasson (1994):

"The conundrum that constructivism poses for instructional designers, however, is that if each individual is responsible for knowledge construction, how can we as designers determine and insure a common set of outcomes for leaning, as we have been taught to do?"

My interpretation of the diagram is that constructivist learning occurs in the portion of the teaching circle outside of instruction. Instructional Design, at least traditional Instructional Design, deals with the teaching and training that occurs within the Instruction circle. I do believe that a Constructivist approach can be affectively applied to training as well, so I have re-drawn the diagram to represent this:

Perhaps we need to develop a “Teaching Design Theory” that would include both the objectivist learning theory of ID and the tenets of Constructivism.

References:

Jonassen, D.H. (1994). Thinking technology: Toward a constructivist design model. Educational Technology, 34(4), 34-37.

Mergel B, (1998) Instructional Design and Learning Theory. Available: http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm

Smith, P. L., & Ragan, T. J. (1993). Instructional design. New York: Macmillan. http://fleming0.flemingc.on.ca/lrc/bild/kwork/instru%7E1.htm

Posted by at 12:39 PM | Comments (1)