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Title: Literature review on instructional delivery strategies
Introduction
Many instructional delivery strategies have been discussed in discourse on education. Generally, an ideal instructional delivery strategy is one that addresses diverse learning styles, students’ needs, and appropriateness of the content to be covered. This paper is a literature review of two of these instructional delivery strategies.
First instructional delivery strategy
The first instructional delivery strategy is based on the work of Morrison et al (2011). Morrison et al (2011) states that the task of creating an instructional strategy starts with task analysis. A good grasp of the instructional strategies of the learner as well as the strategist also need to be put into consideration. The rest of the work entail coming up with the instructor’s manual as well as the student’s manual. The instructor’s manual encompasses detailed lecture notes and exercises. On the other hand, the student’s manual contains an outline for all readings, lectures, and the problems that are done both before and after the lectures. The greatest difficulty, it appears, lies in writing every word in the instructor’s manual and student’s manual.
The strategy described by Morrison et al (2011) requires one to ponder over several questions in order to proceed in the right direction. First, one has to think about how to develop the design plan so as to develop the instruction. Some thoughts also have to be put into the guidelines to be followed when ‘writing’ the instruction. Moreover, one has to consider what makes good instruction from the perspective of the learner. It may be necessary for one to do role-playing somewhere during the process since students are highly likely to derive some benefits from such an activity.
Upon designing the ideal instructional strategies, the instruction designer gets ready to embark on the work of developing the instruction. This task entails translating the design plan into a full-fledged instruction (Holton, 2006). In this case, the instructional designer may choose from a variety of instruction formats, ranging from a printed manual to a multimedia unit that encompasses video content, coaching sessions, and immediate feedback.
In any type of instruction, text always emerges as the common feature, with each medium presenting the designer with different challenges and opportunities (Merrill, 2002). However, regardless of the medium used, there are some principles that apply to the development of all types of instruction (Gustafson, 1997). For Morrison et al (2011), emphasis is on print-based materials. According to Morrison et al (2011), these materials work best with such instructional delivery methods as group presentations, small-group activities, and self-paced instruction. In this case, the use of technology is best incorporated in the form of web-based and computer-based delivery systems.
Use of technology gives the strategist many opportunities for making the instructional delivery method effective, motivating, and exciting (Daly, 1996). In Hamel’s (2009) words, it makes the instruction ‘to possess some elements of aesthetics as opposed to being dry and pedantic’. Meanwhile, one has to remain focused on ways of solving the underlying performance problem. This is achieved by ensuring that all the objectives offer some support to the resolution of a specific instructional problem. Every objective needs to address a skill or content that will assist learners improve a performance-related problem. Moreover, the instructional strategies designed have to support the mastery of all objectives.
All strategies should be reviewed so as to ensure that every one of them supports both the content and performance as specified in the objectives. One needs to avoid the lure of losing focus on the problem. Morrison et al (2011) offer the example of the objective whereby learners are required to demonstrate how to balance the cargo load in an airplane correctly, only for the designed strategy to simply focus on assisting learners recall the steps. In such a case, there is a need for a quick review of objective classifications. This way, the strategies that one will have designed will help him maintain focus on the specific problem.
Upon ensuring that one is able to stay focused, learner analysis should be the next task at hand. A review of learner analysis enables the designer to determine the ideal reading level for his audience. The text should not be too difficult since the learners may not complete the instruction. On the other hand, text that is too simple may trigger a wave of boredom, making the learners feel ignored after perceiving the information as unimportant. Although it is not easy to accurately determine the reading level of the audience, it is important that the typical range of the learners’ abilities is determined.
Learner analysis also helps in determining whether the learners are familiar with the technical terms and contents that one is contemplating using in the instructional strategy. This is very crucial, especially in issues of technology, where one may wrongly assume that learners understand some very complicated terms. College learners with a computing and network administration background will definitely have no problem with computer jargon, as opposed to fresh high school graduates with no experience in the use of computers.
Having understood the sort of learners for whom the instructional strategy is being conceived, the instructor can shift his attention on the appropriate use of pacing. In this regard, pacing should be thought of not as speed of the lecturer’s speaking session, but as the way text materials are packaged. Pacing encompasses the use of examples, interactions, problems, and exercises to present an idea. The designer should vary the pace of an instruction through a variation in the number of examples, exercises, and problems in the instruction.
Considering the typical demarcation of an instruction into units, every section should start by introducing the concept (Hardré, 2001). Immediately after the basic explanation of concepts, some examples may be provided so as to slow down the pace. This increases the distance between various concepts, thus giving learners enough time to pause and reflect on what they have already learnt in comparison to fresh information. In case the material is less difficult, a faster pace is needed so as to maintain the interest of learners.
Second instructional delivery strategy
The second instructional delivery strategy is based on the work of Svinicki & McKeachie (2011). According to Svinicki & McKeachie (2011), professors often think that students learn from them, yet it seems that students learn more efficiently through reading as opposed to listening. The instructional delivery strategy developed by Svinicki & McKeachie, therefore, emphasizes textbooks as the basic tool for teaching the majority of courses. Moreover, there is a provision for students to keep going to the library to read various primary sources. This is contrary to the prediction of advocates who foresaw the demise of the textbook and the takeover of all its roles by the television, followed by teaching machines, and later on the computer.
According to Svinicki & McKeachie (2011), a key tenet to be put into consideration during the design of the ideal instructional delivery strategy is that learning is best facilitated through proper organization. Without organization, concepts and facts are easily interfered with, are easily forgotten, making them become inaccessible. Learners of today are bombarded with input from paperbacks, field experience, discussions, World Wide Web, reprints, and many other sources. For this reason, these students need a frame of reference within which they can assimilate the confusion caused by various points of view that are provided by the modern course. The best strategy, therefore, is one that enables students to attend to such differences while offering them to learn from many sources, including field experiences, laboratory settings, lectures, discussions, and reading from diverse sources.
According to Dick (2001), texts constitute a key component of a teacher’s assortment of tools. Indeed, newer teaching aids and methods supplement reading, instead of supplanting it (Svinicki & McKeachie, 2011). In fact, a large part of higher education involves issues touching on how to read, hence the use of terms such as reading social science, reading poetry, reading legal briefs, and reading literature.
A wise designer of an instructional delivery strategy should put into consideration various ways of getting students to do the assigned reading (Bost, 2006). In this strategy, focus is mainly on enabling the students understand the difference that it makes to come to class fully prepared. In many courses, lectures and reading assignments exist as independent parts of the course. Sometimes they overlap while at other times they exist in a supplementary relationship; they are rarely perceived as interdependent. Therefore, the first strategy of encouraging students to read is to frequently talk in a way that presupposes prior awareness of the content of the reading. This stirs up the learners’ curiosity thereby making them slowly get used to reading the relevant texts beforehand so that they can comprehend what is being said once they get into the classroom.
Passerini (2000) indicates that an alternative strategy involves having learners write up a one-minute paper at the start of all class periods, outlining the most salient ideas they got after reading “today’s” assignment. The exercise may also involve asking the students to write a question or anything they would like explained that emanates from the reading. Once the instructor has formed in students a habit of reading every assignment, they develop enough intrinsic motivation for the exercise and the quizzes become unnecessary.
According to Hodges (2004), study questions that are intended to guide the reading process among students can also be very helpful. However, in this strategy, a distinction should be made between questions of fact and questions designed to produce a thoughtful and integrative study (Hodges, 2004). The latter tend to be more effective for purposes of comprehending any reading assignment (Hodges, 2004).
Finally, the designer should come up with ways of handling the contemporary technology boom. Information technology has infiltrated learning institutions at virtually all levels, mainly in the form of mobile software and social networking sites. For instance, Google applications have already penetrated on-campus, distance learning and teaching in higher education, and online campus environments. This challenge is best addressed through the application of the basic principles of integrating modern technology into learning and teaching practices. Before any tool of technology is applied in a teaching task, one has to first and foremost understand it as well as potential implications for learning and teaching. Moreover, the course learning goals and objectives have to be considered, vis-à-vis the learners’ abilities and backgrounds.
Conclusion
In summary, it is imperative that diverse learning styles and students’ needs are put into consideration whenever one is coming up with an instructional delivery strategy. The appropriateness of the content to be covered should also be determined. In today’s era of information technology, every strategy should have a component of use of various information technologies in order to facilitate the achievement of all course goals and learning objectives.
References
Bost, L. (2006) Effective Instruction: An Inconspicuous Strategy for Dropout Prevention, Remedial and Special Education, 27(5), 301-311.
Daly, E. (1996) The Instructional Hierarchy: A conceptual model for understanding the effective components of reading interventions, School Psychology Quarterly, 11(4), 369-386.
Dick, W. (2001) The Systematic design of instruction (5th edition), New York: Longman.
Gustafson, K. (1997) Revisioning models of instructional development, Educational Technology Research and Development, 45(3), 73-89.
Hamel, C. (2009) Designing Instruction with Learning Objects, International Journal of Educational Technology, 3(4), 102-129.
Hardré, P. (2001) Designing Effective Learning Environments for Continuing Education, Performance Improvement Quarterly, 14(3), 43–74.
Hodges, C. (2004) Designing to Motivate: Motivational Techniques to Incorporate in E-Learning Experiences, The Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 2(3), 1-7.
Holton, E. (2006) Blended Delivery Strategies for Competency-Based Training, Advances in Developing Human Resources, 8(2), 210-228.
Merrill, M. (2002 A pebble-in-the-pond model for instructional design, Performance Improvement Quarterly, 41(7), 41–46.
Morrison, G., Ross, S., Kalman, H., & Kemp, J. (2011) Designing effective instruction (6th ed), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Passerini, K. (2000) developmental model for distance learning using the Internet, Computers & Education, 34(1), 1-15.
Svinicki, M and McKeachie, W. J. (2011). Teaching tips. (13th ed). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
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