AN INSTRUCTIONAL AN INSTRUCTIONAL THEORY: THEORY:

A BEGINNINGA BEGINNING

Philip L. HOSFORDPhilip L. HOSFORD

Aslı ÜlkümenAslı ÜlkümenMeltem ArslanMeltem Arslan

Parallel lines are two lines that never meet – unless you bend one or both of them.

and so it is also,with curriculum and instruction

Someday, somehow, somewhere

To help someonesee beyondfeel anewcreatively think and do -

T’ will be summer in my heart.

and so it is also,with teaching.

Two Qs that need to be Two Qs that need to be answered:answered:

What ought instruction to do?

Toward what ends should it be applied?

Objective-based thinkersObjective-based thinkers Subjective-based Subjective-based thinkersthinkers

• Strict scientific behaviorists

• reject the traditional concept that man is free to choose among different courses of action and is in the long run captain of his destiny

• we should develop and apply a behavioral technology

• Self--theorists, field theorists, Gestalt theorists

• an intermediate variable is crucial between stimulus and response in human behavior

• man’s survival as a species depends on the extent to which he frees himself from the domination of the stimulus and impulse

Why do we badly need a Why do we badly need a general theory?general theory?

by trial and error, by observation and analysis, and by experimental testing,

from objective psychology

from some methods of instruction titled "Theory of Instruction" according to the criteria in Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) booklet.

BUT!!!BUT!!!

all these theories are too limited to have a general value.

A good theory of A good theory of instruction shouldinstruction should

• provide the needed parameters,• help us plan good solutions to

any instructional problem,• direct instructional proceedings

regardless of goals, • prescribe the best in pedagogy

to achieve the goals of objective or subjective groups, or any other groups involved,

• prescribe procedures for fostering learning in the most efficient and effective way.

Our Current StatusOur Current Status

• homogeneous grouping,

• ability grouping, • tracking,• nongrading, • team teaching,• unit work,• the discovery method, • programmed learning, • computer-aided

instruction,

• learning centers, • interest centers, • individually prescribed

instruction, • performance

contracting, • audio-visuals• the industrial

technology. • self-analysis techniques

such as micro-teaching and interaction analysis

a synthesis of these innovations

the open classroom

An open classroom An open classroom based onbased on these four these four prepositionsprepositions

1) children want to learn, 2) learning styles differ, 3) first-hand experience is best,

4) the teacher is initially responsible for fostering the learning environment.

The Vocabulary ProblemThe Vocabulary Problem

• Education: everbody’s business

• Explanations: understandable to everyone

• To have a concensus: a precise vocabulary

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Write a definition for the word “curriculum”

Over the Past 20 Over the Past 20 Years:Years:

Group 1: Everything That Happens Group

Group 2: Everything That is Offered Group

Group 3: The Planned What and How Group

Group 4: The Planned What Group

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learning teaching curriculum instructional

program education educational program

• For Learning: information, change in behavior, process, skill, permanency, fact or knowledge, and concept.

• For Teaching: guiding, explaining, process, facilitator, knowledge, skill, assisting behavioral change, providing resources, and assisting learning.

• For Curriculum: body of knowledge, learning experiences, organized information, all that happens in school, structured knowledge and skills, organized experiences, school-planned, and prescribed results.

• For Instructional Program: formal process, method, subject matter, studies, activities, same as curricula, systematized teaching and learning, organized setting and materials, knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes.

• For Education: process, learnings, sum total behavior change, knowledge, skills, retention, acquisition, social competence and contribution, and optimum individual attainment.

• For Educational Program: formal approach, structure, total effect of instructional program, curriculum, instruction, educational offerings, formal and informal opportunities, school and non-school provided, and extracurricular opportunities.

• Learning - a process that results in changed behavior

• Teaching - any assistance that facilitates learning

• Curriculum - all available school-planned experiences

• Instructional Program - synonymous with curriculum

• Education - sum total of learning with both individual and social meaning

• Educational Program - sum total of planned educational experiences within and outside of school for which a community accepts responsibility.

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4 Aspects of Education4 Aspects of EducationThe Learner’s Education

The Educational Program

The Curriculum

Teacher Behavior

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1. That part of the curriculum in the Educational Program which impinges on the learner without teacher involvement. (Student use of materials.)

2. Teacher, student, curriculum interaction.

3. Student interacting with the Educational Program without teacher or curriculum involvement. (The whispering on the playground.)

4. Spontaneous teacher-pupil interaction within the framework of the Educational Program. (Cafeteria confrontation regarding student behavior.)

5. Teacher-curriculum interaction. (Planning-preparing for next day.)

6. Teacher-Educational Program interaction. (Ground-duty-schedule-committee work.

7. Teacher behavior affecting the learner and outside the Educational Program. (Observed teacher behavior outside school.)

8. All other teacher behavior. (Conventions, professional meetings, study.)

9. Curriculum in the Educational Program but not reach ing learner. (A text, not read.)

10. Curriculum not in the Educational Program. (A text, not purchased.)

11. All other aspects of the Educational Program.

12. All learnings not attributable to the Educational Program.

CurriculumCurriculum

Curriculum is the set of experiences planned to influence learners toward the goals of an organization.

InstructionInstruction

Instruction is the process of influencing learners toward some goal.

Instruction - Curriculum Development

Water(Hydrogen - Oxygen)

TeachingTeaching

• Teaching is the attempt to influence learners toward some goal through personal interaction.

• All teaching is instruction, but not all instruction is teaching.

LearningLearning

Learning is a process that results in a modification of performance potential.

• All teaching is instruction.• Not all instruction is teaching.• All instructional planning is

curriculum planning.• Not all instruction is planned.• An educational program is the

combination of curriculum and instruction: both are essential.

What is a What is a theory of theory of

instruction?instruction?

a theory is a guess or a theory is a guess or hypothesis.hypothesis.

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1) Very special theory

2) Special theory

3) General theory

a) teaching a second language

b) a theory giving direction to many projects and instructional activities

c) teaching English as a second language to Spanish-speaking adults

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an instructional theory an instructional theory shouldshould

1. include a set of postulates and definition of terms involved in these postulates,

2. make explicit the boundaries of its concern and the limitations under which it is proposed,

3. have internal consistency,4. be congruent with empirical data,5. be capable of generating hypotheses,6. contain generalizations that go beyond the

data,7. be verifiable,8. be stated in such a way that it is possible to

collect data to disprove it,9. not only explain past events, but predict future

events,10. represent qualitative synthesis (for now) but

ultimately express quantitative relationships among variables.

What are the 5 criteria of Hosford’s?

1. Definitions1. Definitions

A theory of instruction must provide for careful definition of terms, and these definitions must be internally consistent.

2. Boundries2. Boundries

All constraints limiting the theory must be clearly noted and their effects acknowledged.

3. Emprical Data3. Emprical Data

A theory of instruction must be based on an efficient and sufficient analysis of relevant empirical data.

4. 4. Generalization Beyond Generalization Beyond the Datathe Data

A theory of instruction must

• explain all events within its defined universe whether past, present, or future, anticipated or not

• resolve all conflicting data through a new and valid deduction

• generate some testable hypotheses.

5. Non-triviality5. Non-triviality

• A theory of instruction must not be insignificant.

• If it is obviously impossible to conduct any research to damage, modify, or disprove, it means this theory is trivial

Three Functions of a Three Functions of a Theory of Theory of

InstructionInstruction • Function 1: Research and

Development • Function 2: Curriculum

Improvement• Function 3: Relevancy

Definition

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THE REFERENT THE REFERENT STRUCTURESTRUCTURE

“I find myself forced to the conclusion that our survival may one day depend upon achieving a requisite mathematical literacy for rendering the seeming shocks change into something that is continuous and cumulative” (Bruner, 1963, p. 528).

CHANGE!!!

Axiom: Change is the only absolute in education.

• Law I: It is necessarily impossible to determine the absolute value of any instructional by any experiment whatsoever.

• Law II: It is necessarily impossible to determine an absolute set of instructional procedures that will be “best” for different learners, or for different learnings by one learner.

• Law III: Instructional events affect the pace and direction of change.

• Law IV: Intelligence is a relative idea, gaining meaning only in relation to a given space-time element.

• Rule 1: The value of evey instruction procedure is relative.

• Rule 2: In every case, a given instructional event will not be perceived congruently by two observers.

• Rule 3: There are as many evaluations of an instructional procedure or event as there are learners.

• Rule 4: Judgments regarding the value of a given instructional procedure will cluster about the consensus eventuating from those most closely involved with the process.

• Rule 5: In any cultural era, general intelligence will be comprised of several identifiable and measurable components.

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The PostulateThe Postulatessa) Information can only be registered by a learner through the filter of his own set of experiences.

b) Learning is episodic. It can be linked to a small snowball being rolled into a large base for snow man. It builds unevenly from the center out, bulging and dropping off here and there, increasing in overall size at an uneven rate within a given cultural population.

c) The power to learn, to become more competent, to develop one’s intelligence can be increased through instruction.

d) Learners have an intrinsic need to deal effectively with their environment over and above primary drivers.

e) The instructional process can satisfy the learner’s need to seek and to test, enabling him to revise his mental image of reality.

f) The instructional process is composed of a complex and dynamic set of vectors bearing on each other.

g) The learning environment limits learners’ actions, but is broad enough to offer choices, decisions, and activities.

h) Teachers affect or warp the space-time of learners.

i) Teachers live in a data-cluttered environment and constantly seek centrality.

j) Better ways to teach can be discovered during and from the act of teaching and the best way is always changing.

k) Motivation is essential but not sufficient for a given learning.

l) Experience is always necessary for the development of intelligence.

m) Human intelligence is broader and more inclusive than that measured any combination of tests available today.

Hypothesis 1Hypothesis 1

Scholastic Achievement and Teachers

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Equation 1: SA = G X E

SA: Scholastic AchievementG: Genetics E: Environment.

Equation 2: E: aS + bF + cP + dO

E: Environment S: SchoolingF: Family- HomeP: PeersO: Other

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Case 1: AliCase 1: Ali• 5th grade student at a

state school• has a well-educated and

caring family just like his friends

• has absenteesim problems

• has low scores

Case 2: KamilCase 2: Kamil• 6th grade student• was a successful student• At the beginning of the

term, he came down with measles.

• He couldn’t keep up with his friends after the illness.

• Now, he has low marks.

Case 3: SalihCase 3: Salih• 8th grade student at a state

school• has a caring family• Until 6 months ago, he was a

quite successful student• 6 months ago, they moved to

a new neighborhood and made new friends

• In the last 4 months, he has started to get low marks

Case 4: HasanCase 4: Hasan • 10th grade student at a

private school• comes from a rich family just

like his friends• Though his family is rich,

nobody in the family is educated

• has quite low scores but doesn’t care about his grades at all.

• Schooling: the S Variable

• Family-Home: the F Variable

• Peer: the P variable

• Others: The O Variable

All these All these variables lead variables lead to the following to the following

equationequation::

Equation 3: SA = G X (aS + bF + cP + dO)

A RecapitulationA Recapitulation From the hypotheses, it can be concluded that a teacher can contribute only one-fortieth of the measurable differences between his learners and those of the teacher across the hall.

However, However, Hypothesis Hypothesis 1 does not say1 does not say::

• that all efforts to improve the quality of teachers are in vain and that we can employ just anyone to teach our children.

• that efforts to improve teaching and associated skills and materials do not benefit us at all.

• that research is doomed to failure.

• that good teaching makes no difference.

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The Meaning of The Meaning of IntelligenceIntelligence

Intelligence is defined by one’s ability to place himself accurately in the midst of reality and to perform effectively in all situations, anticipated or novel.

Hypothesis 2- other Hypothesis 2- other components of IQcomponents of IQ

• Equation 4: GI= IQ + PQ + HRQ + ...

GI: General IntelligencePQ: Physical Abilities HRQ: Human Relationship Skills…..: CQ (Creativity Quotient), SQ

(Sensitivity Quotient)…

Hypohesis 3- The effect of Broadening Curriculum

Hypothesis 4- Hypothesis 4- Measuring Measuring TTeacher eacher

EffectivenessEffectiveness

There are three domains while a learner is giving his attention to a particular task

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Minimum Learning? Maximum Learning?

Minimum Learning Maximum Learning

These figures show These figures show thatthat: :

1) Openness to learning and learning residue are arithmetically proportional to the degree of intersection of any two domains.

2) Openness to learning and learning residue are geometrically proportional to the degree of intersection of the three domains.

3) The teacher can structure the environment of the learner to cause a change in any type of intersection.

VALIDATING VALIDATING THE THEORYTHE THEORY

Serving the Prescribed Serving the Prescribed FunctionsFunctions

• Function 1: Guiding research and Instruction: limitless direction for research

• Function 2: Guiding Curriculum Improvements: Only history can record

• Function 3: Defining Relevant Knowledge: 133 postulates to present the relevant knowledge

Teaching and Teaching and Its PurposeIts Purpose

What is your personal purpose of What is your personal purpose of teaching?teaching?

The Purpose of The Purpose of TeachingTeaching

• to facilitate the learners adjust his perceptions to reality, attaining harmony between internal organization and external experiences.

• to help students become better thinkers and doers.

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Which one is Which one is a better a better teacher?teacher?

Good teaching is an Good teaching is an either-or situation.either-or situation.

• Good teaching in a totalitarian state would be done by people whose personal interaction would influence learners toward valuing the goals of the state.

• Good teaching in a democratic state would be done by people who arrange for a vigorous marketplace of freely announced ideas.

Teaching must ...Teaching must ...

• Involve more than just purveying konwledge.

• Give authenticity from teachers regarding their belief in live to learners.

• Supply some sort of valid reason for learning what is taught to the learners.

• Help learners form the habits of reasoning, which set aside their personal biases.

• Help learners find ways of behaving that enhance their learning

• Help learners learn how to use their knowledge intelligently.

• Help students see that not all facts are pleasant- they may not like some at all, but they are real and must be assimilated if deductions are to be valid and true.

A Good TeacherA Good Teacher

• a demonstrator, • a confidante,• an adviser,• a reinforcer, • a manager,• an organizer arranging a

variety of experiences for learners.

Don’t forget good teachers are admired by most learners, but good teachers are not always admired by all learners.