Instructional
Design Basis – Motivational Theory
Hi All:
I am about to enter into a new phase in my
life, retirement. This is a time of ambivalence. I am looking forward to more freedom and yet
feel a sadness of leaving the profession I be been devoted to.
I found it curious
how the value of items has varied over time. It reminded me of the importance of keeping in
mind the “Hype” curve as trends such as mobile-learning, social-learning, and
gamification will and have come and gone.
This is even more important in our world of rapidly evolving technology.
It is my belief we humans change at much slower pace. Therefore, we as instructional
designers always need to remember technology is our tool not master.
The packing
process also reminded me of the wonderful depth and breadth of our profession. How it could be possible to spend an entire
career in one of the major theory bases that is a part of the field of
instructional systems design, and then, maybe never make a significant
contribution. (Refer back to the last post on the ISD InfoGraphic).
I reflected
on of the many times I would feel an inclination of confidence just slightly
above the subliminal level and a new challenge would emerge. For example:
How are you skills in designing or implementing “propaedeutics”? Yep propaedeutics! I was first introduced to the term when
reading an article by Marilyn Garber on The
Dialogic Classroom: Strategies of Discussion in the Humanities which I discovered,
again, while packing. The term means “pertaining
to or the nature of preliminary instruction” (1). As I continued down this rabbit hole I
discovered: advanced organizers, WWIIFM, YCDI, scaffolding, effectiveness
grids, formative evaluations, how to share objectives effectively, enhancing
adult motivation to learn, group think and group dynamics, and the pre attentive
perceptual processing related to instructional message design; just to scratch
the surface.
I also
found a series of mini-posters I created and adorned my office with just like
the alphabet letters in an elementary school classroom. After reviewing them, I
will declare they have served me well and I think the wisdom, guidance, and challenge
are timeless regardless of what ID model, theory of learning or technology you adhere
to. Here they are:
“Designed instruction must be based on the knowledge of how human beings learn.” Robert M. Gagne’
“Instructional design assumes that instructional interventions result in learning outcomes, and that the correct sequence of instructional interventions or events will make learning more efficient.” Jonassen & Harris.
“Over decades, the results of media comparisons studies have shown that learning outcomes are a functional of instructional methods, NOT of delivery media.” Ruth Colvin Clark
“We can only transmit verbal and pictorial symbols from which you construct your own meanings. The most we can hope for is that our messages are in such a manner that your skills and knowledge can be used to decode and interpret them as closely as possible in the way we intended” Heinich.
“If the course or training is required, then the motivational goal of instructional design is to make this learning worthy of the adult learner’s choice – to help that person eventually to think “I may not have wanted this to being with, but I do want it now.”” Raymond J. Wlodkowski.
I’m not
sure of when my next blog post will be, or if this is my last one. If it is my last, there could not be a better
way to close then by sharing the above.
Thank you
to all of you who have guided me on my journey and especially to those of you
who have challenged me with constructive comments and criticisms.
Success in
all you endeavors.
Cj
