Instructional designers

-

 


Introduction

“Instructional designers who have a solid understanding of how people learn can articulate the basics of various psychological perspectives that describe different approaches to how people learn. This ability allows them to use this knowledge to create instructional interventions that meet the goals of their clients” (Brown & Green, 2016, p 36). What is the learning environment that leads our students to learn effectively (Kurt, 2017)?

When mum cooks in the kitchen, she needs to know the taste of the family that is going to eat the food. If there are multiple guests, she needs to know what they would like. If the guests are in the count of hundreds, and mum does not know their individual tastes, she would need to know some patterns of food that would have enough variety to cover all guests. Her aim is to have everyone happy.

My Thought Process

The purpose of any design is to achieve desired results (Brown, 2016, pp.5). As an instructional designer in the classroom, I want to kid to become self-sufficient in learning as soon as possible. So, model needs to give me the outcome of (Kochar, 2010) user driven Learning in math. This is quite a challenge as my middle school math classroom is inclusive with kids at all levels possible.

If I use a model that is skewed towards cognition, the emotionally intense kids will get restless. If skewed towards emotions, the cognitively strong kids get bored. And if I mix them, then the kids who are mostly into sports need to move around. Hence, I need to understand what exactly that model which works for most kids is? For that I need to understand how a human brain works and then implement the learning in the math class in a way that most kids can learn. I need to understand all the three domains of Blooms namely, the cognitive, affective and psychomotor.

However, knowing the kids individually is not enough as at any point would I be using a single domain. Further, middle schools' kids, adolescents, can be quite unpredictable as their brain changes at rapid rate as prefrontal cortex develops (Khanacademymedicine, 2015). Hence the degree of uncertainty is very high (Brown, 2016, pp.7). Within this degree of uncertainty, I need to design my classroom plan.

I am not a traditional designer. I do not believe that we can convert designing to a set of linear processes. I go by the systems theory (Brown, 2016, pp.15). Seeing the entire group as a system, my design would have components of think, feel and move. I would challenge the kids to think, make the feeling for the subject positive and also give them an openness to move around the class. For example, I would teach a topic, organize think-pair-share (EduGains, 2010) session for them to be with their peers and make this a free seating or walking exercise. This way I would blend the three domains of learning in each and every session. Since I am using a blend of the three domains, I would need to know how a human processes information cognitively, how motivation happens and how the body supports us in learning.

Conclusion

However, as the mode is nonlinear dynamic, the most important thing for me would be to be very present and mindful in the classroom in order to observe from minute to minute if the learning is happening and be ready to tweak the model anytime. Hence the model I would take for myself is constructivism (Brown, 2016, pp.33) which one reaches when one has learnt about all the dimensions of human learning and can pick and use as per the demand of the situation. What I have learnt through this unit is that there is no end to learning about the ways a brain learns. 

The more I learn, the better a constructivist I will become.

  

References

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Judge a man by the questions he asks!

-
Image
Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers. (Voltaire) All our lives, we have been told that our smartness is measured by the answers that we have. And here comes Voltaire who says the opposite! My initial reaction is, ‘What does this mean?’ However, since it is Voltaire that says it, I think it must have some meaning and I dig deeper! As a listener, I may learn more by the questions I ask instead of by the quiet judgments I make. As a reader I may gain more by my questioning the text instead of believing what I read blindly. As a human being, I may contribute more to society by questioning the traditions than blindly following them. “The questions do mean a lot in life, not just for the sake of saying it, but for the sake that they define where your life is headed and how you are going to shape your life”, (Inspire99, 2019, para. 5) . As I read this blog piece, I felt pieces dropping in my mind and a change in the way I approached questions. Questions as a way to ...
Read more

Free Maths Resources

-
Image
PLEASE DO NOT DELETE ANY FILE.  Download only. Others need them too.  Click on each link to get the folder.  Algebra Geometry Numbers Probability Space Statistics or Data Handling Transformation Trigonometry Cross Curricular Games Creative Ideas Thinking Questions Good Websites Senior school Mental Maths Mixed Worksheets Book Links
Read more

Use body to make numbers

-
Image
  "Use your bodies and make the figure of 8". Not that great, but they tried. Activities such as these are taught for the pre-primary kids to do. They learn through their bodies. Primary teachers enjoyed it thoroughly!
Read more