Instructional Theory

William Allan Kritsonis, PhD

Research indicates that before effective instruction can take place, the

instructor must first consider “student readiness.” Research shows that

student readiness includes the students’ knowledge, skills and disposition

necessary to perform a given task. The instructor must take into account

the readiness of each student in order for effective instruction to take

place. An evaluation instrument should be designed to measure readiness

level of the student so that the instructor can assess the appropriate tasks

to assign based on student knowledge. Planning a task leads to the

achievement of the learning objective. The number of tasks planned

should be based on the difficulty level of the learning objective. In

general, greater number of tasks should be planned to achieve a more

difficult learning objective. The evaluation of the students’ current

knowledge and skills should be a basis for assigning tasks to students and

as a measurement for student readiness. When the instructor assigns

tasks, the knowledge level and skills level of the student must be

sufficient to meet the demands of the tasks. When teaching, the

instructor must take into consideration the mastery level of performance.

Learning should be attained for each task so students who learn to

perform a task are ready to perform the next task.

When defining instructional expectations, research indicates that

before effective instruction can take place, the student must know prior to

instruction what the learning objective is, what procedures are necessary

to perform the tasks required to achieve the learning objective and what

the criteria’s are for successful accomplishment of the learning objective.

The instructor must clearly define how the student is to achieve the

learning objective by defining the procedure that the student is to use in

achieving the learning objective. Instructor must clearly define “how”

they are to achieve the objective and “what” they must do in order to

accomplish the learning objective. Absence of this knowledge may

prevent the student from recognizing whether they have successfully

completed the given learning objective and whether the appropriate

procedure needed to accomplish the learning objective was used.

The instructor must provide the student with effective evaluation and

remediation. Evaluation can be defined as assessing student task

performance for the purpose of certifying, student competence in

performing the task being evaluated and diagnosing causes of

inadequacy. The instructor must remediate by correction of inadequate

task performance based on the evaluation. Evaluation serves as a

diagnostic tool for determining competence task performance and

inadequate task performance. When evaluations are conducted, students

are given immediate feedback on the competent of task performance and

new tasks can be assigned to the student based on the evaluation results.

Diagnosis of student inadequacies and student progress should include

frequent quizzes, tests, and other forms of performance evaluation.

Feedback is necessary to inform students and acknowledge their

achievements; encourage their next challenge with expectations of

success.

Students associate correction and remediation activities with their

incorrect responses if remediation is provided sooner rather than later.

This is why providing continuity is very necessary in instruction

strategies. Studies indicate that academic achievement is improved when

instruction is contiguous. Student tasks should be broken down into

small segments so that they can be performed as close together as

possible. Devices that can be used to promote contiguity include

focusing attention on the highlighting relationships and condensing time

as well as condensing space. During the instructional process, student

tasks performance should follow instruction as soon as possible;

evaluation should occur during or immediately, or very soon after

evaluation; remediation should occur immediately following feedback.

Two modes of repetition enhance learning. They include repeated

presentations of to-be-learned information to students and students’

repetition of assigned tasks. Repetition will enhance learning if the to-

be-learned task is repeatedly presented to the student and if the to-be-

learned task is practiced by students. Repetition must be frequent but

must avoid boredom. Too much repetition may interfere with learning

of the to-be-learned material. Once students have mastered material, it is

advised to move on to new or advanced material or students may become

bored.

Clarity of communication enhances the academic achievement of

students and facilitates the learning objectives they are assigned. Studies

indicate that students exposed to clear communications achieve at a rate

of one and one-half to three times higher than students not exposed to

clear communications. The instructor must provide examples and

illustrations of concepts being taught while avoiding irrelevant

interjections of subject matter and vagueness. Studies suggest that the

instructor should provide transitional terms such as “next”, “the last item

is”, and “this concludes”. It is also suggested that the instructor use

simple language and provide time for question and answers. In fact,

questions and answers have shown to be especially effective in enhancing

achievement.

Reducing student/teacher ratio is plays a very important role in the

academic achievement of students. As the student-to-teacher ratio

increases, academic achievement decreases. Studies have shown that

higher ratios mean that teachers spend more time in classroom

management as opposed to teaching. Higher ratios also mean that there

is more opportunity for off-task behavior. To maximize student

achievement it is suggested that teachers use one-on-one tutoring. Group

instruction achieves superior results when teamwork is being taught for

the purpose of enhancing group achievement. In-group instruction,

keeping students-to-teacher rations below 15:1 is ideal as the smaller the

group sizes the higher the academic achievement. 1:1 produces the

highest achievement. It is necessary to assess and diagnose student

performance often and provide remediation in-group instruction.

Reminders supposedly enhance higher mental functions such as

comprehension and problem solving. This may happen because

reminders cue recall of information especially when to-be-learned

material consists of a short list or small group of interrelated objects or

concepts. Reminders are also effective when larger number of concepts is

to be recalled or when the focus of instruction is English, foreign

language vocabulary instruction, science taxonomies, or other more

complex learning situations. In order for remainders to be effective in

the learning process the instructor is prompted to provide instruction on

commonly used effective reminders and how to use them. Provide

instruction on how to formulate and use reminders and allow the students

ample time to practice using the reminder tactics.

Subject matter unifiers also play an important in instructional theory

when the student highlights parts or whole relationships in the subject

matter. The evidence indicates that the use of unifiers may increase

student achievement by as much as five times that for students in learning

situations where unifiers were not used. The use of unifiers may be used

prior to, during, or after instruction. Students are taught to construct their

own unifying scheme either during or after instruction. Unifying

schemes employed to highlight relationships in the subject matter

included textual summaries, hierarchical tree diagrams, pictorial

representations, and subject matter outlines.

Providing transfer of learning instruction is defined as the application

of prior learning to enable the performance of new tasks. If people did

not transfer what they leonine to solve new problems, learning would be

useless. The challenge to education is to facilitate the transfer of learning

that is necessary for the achievement of learning objectives. Students

need to be taught how to determine the relevance of the knowledge and

skills they have learning to the performance of new tasks. Students

cannot transfer skills if they do not possess readiness characteristics

discussed in earlier in this paper.

Students must be able to work as team members to achieve team goals

and objectives. Providing teamwork instruction can be facilitated by the

instructor so that students are able to problem solve, determine goals and

objectives and get along with co-workers. To be productive members of

social communities, students must be able to address problems

confronting the community and participate in team sports and games.

Group teaching does not produce the highest student academic

achievement effects; however, it does promote teamwork that is essential

to success in civilized societies. The team members learn to share in

their successes and failures, rationally resolve conflicts, and appropriately

divide the labors. Teamwork ideally is composed of four to five

members’ teams. Team-building exercises should be conduced to allow

team members to get to know one another and build rapport. Groups

should be allowed time to brainstorm and the instructor should be

available to provide assistance and to recognize the teams for the degree

of improvement.

It is important that the instructor provide ample learning time for the

students to correctly perform tasks, contemplate their performance

beforehand, and test the behaviors they hypothesize, evaluate the results

of their performance, and made refinements. The instructor should

provide ample time and plan for learning activities, homework, library

projects, and laboratory activities. Allocation of too much time however,

may unnecessarily slow the progress of other students. The instructor

should monitor allocation of time closely as it is also necessary for

student to be kept on task. The more time students spend focused on the

assigned tasks without distractions, the more likely they will achieve the

learning objectives. Students who do not attend to assigned learning

tasks fail to learning and may become dropouts. Students that spend

more time focused on the given task achieve greater success in

elementary and secondary classrooms. It is important that the instructor

assign only tasks that are relevant to achieving the learning objectives for

students to stay on task. The instruction must be well planned and

organized and sell as demonstrate and guide student to the given task.

Internet Links

Learning theory: Objectivism vs constructivismhttp://media.hku.hk/cmr/edtech/Constructivism.html

Perspectives on instructionhttp://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtech540/Perspectives/Perspectives.html

What is the new paradigm of instructional theory?http://itech1.coe.uga.edu/itforum/paper17/paper17.html

Elaboration theoryhttp://www.gwu.edu/~tip/reigelut.html

Key Terms and Definitions:

The definitions in the following section are relevant to Instructional Theory and pertain to instructional contexts and settings.

Ability Grouping: The grouping of students according to their ability level for the purpose of instruction

Contiguity: The proximity of to-be-associated events in space and time

Control Motive: The penchant to improve the control of outcomes

Decision-making: Selection a course of action

Field-dependent/field independent cognitive style: The tendency to perceive events as either independent of their surrounding field or dependent upon their surrounding field

Instruction: A process in which educators evaluate students, assign tasks to student based on the evaluations, and teach students to perform assigned tasks in order to achieve a learning objective

Instructional Conditions: Assignment conditions that can affect students’ task performance, such as class size, disruptions, equipment, time allowed for task performance, and safety

Instructional Cycle: The cyclical execution of the acts of evaluating; assigning tasks; teaching in order to achieve a learning objective. It may be necessary to repeat the cycle a number of times to achieve a learning objective

Instructional Evaluation: The comparison of the performance of an instructional task with criteria of competent performance, and the diagnosis of insufficiencies in task performance

Instructional Expectations: The objective students are assigned to achieve and procedures to be followed to achieve the objectives.

Instructional Planning: The process of deriving learning objectives, planning instructional tasks, planning evaluations, planning task assignments and planning teaching.

Instructional Strategies: Procedures used to enhance the achievement of learning objectives

Instructional Units: Units of instruction consisting of a sequence of evaluation, task assignment, and teaching tactics leading progressively to the achievement of a unit-learning objective. A number of unit objectives are achieved as a means of achieving a policy objective

Learning objectives: Terminal tasks students are to learn to perform by means of instruction

Learning Time: time allotted to students for performing assigned tasks

Policy Objectives: Desired student outcomes to be achieved by educators. Policy objectives are established by policy-makers, such as school boards, for educators to achieve.

Predictive ability: The ability to forecast outcomes from antecedent conditions

Progressive tasks: A continuum of tasks leading progressively from entry-level tasks appropriate for students with specified readiness characteristics to the achievement of a learning objective

Readiness: Student knowledge, skills, and disposition necessary to perform a task

Reinforcement: The attempt to increase the probability that a desired assigned task will be performed by providing for the satisfaction of a motive when the desired tasks is performed.

Remedial Tasks: Tasks formulated to remediate students’ failure to adequately perform a task

Remediation: The correction of inadequate task performance

Reminders: memory joggers used to facilitate and improve recall of to-be-learned information or skills.

Repetition: The repeated presentation of to-be-learned material to students and/or student repetition of to-be-learned skills

Student/teacher ratio: The proportion of teachers to students the teachers are assigned to teach

Students: People being taught

Subject matter: The content to be learned by students

Subject matter unifiers: Presentations of the parts/whose relationships in subject matter students are assigned to learn to enhance their learning of the subject matter

Task planning: The formulation and organizing of progressive tasks and remedial tasks to achieve a learning objective based on student readiness characteristics

Tasks: student/subject matter interactions formulated to enable students to achieve learning objectives

Teaching: Guiding and facilitating student task performance in order to achieve a learning objective

Teaching time: The proportion of learning time spent guiding and facilitating student performance of assigned tasks

Teamwork: Cooperation among people to achieve a common objective

Time on Task: The amount of time students spend focused on the performance of assigned tasks

Transfer of learning: The application of prior learning to enable the performance of new tasks

References

Friedman, M.I. & Fisher, S.P. (1998). Handbook on effective instructional strategies: evidence for decision-making. SC: The Institute for Evidence-Based Decision-Making in Education, Inc.