Foundations for practice Walt Wager What do we know, and why do we believe it?

URL Other presentations are indexed by the presenter’s last name, e.g., Janet Hill’s presentation URL is:

Summary There are many different perspectives of what ID is, and what it should be. That’s OK As a profession we have some common goals. As practitioners we contextualize our knowledge to the role(s) we adopt. Because of our diverse backgrounds we will favor different orientations to our practice, sometimes too fiercely.

Seven (of many) orientations Behavioral Cognitive Constructivist Instructional Communications Social-Psychological Performance

Behavioral Orientation Basic premises – Behaviors that are rewarded are likely to be repeated. Behaviors that are not rewarded will extinguish. Intermittent reinforcement is more resilient to extinction than continuously reinforced behaviors

Behavioral related concepts: SR, SsR positive reinforcement negative reinforcement punishment shaping successive approximation desired behavior habituated behavior chaining backward chaining linear programmed instruction Basic orientation - performance-centered

Cognitive Orientation Basic Premises: Perceptual information is filtered and processed before being stored in memory, and perception is influenced by what is already in memory. A type learned skill called cognitive strategies or metacognitive skills mediate the processes of learning.

Cognitive related concepts: expectations/advance organizers short term memory long term memory knowledge structures - schemata rehearsal encoding instantiation accommodation assimilation information processing theories mental models schema theories - enterprise schemas types/domains of learning outcomes connectionism metacognition constructivism social cognition/ concepts; information search inert knowledge intrinsic (branched) programmed instruction Basic orientation, learning-centered

Constructivist Orientation Basic premises: Knowledge is constructed by the learner to make meaning of phenomena, events, data and information in their environment. Learning is facilitated by supporting the learner within a zone – from where they are to where they can get to with support.

Constructivist Related concepts: knowledge construction zone of proximal development scaffolding collaborative learning/ cooperative learning cognitive apprenticeship contextualized learning authentic tasks self-regulated learning Basic orientation, learner-centered

Instructional Orientation Basic premises: Learning is a complex activity, affected by many different types of variables, that can be facilitated in many ways including increasing student motivation, time management, quality of instruction, learning skills. Learning environments can be improved through the use of assessment and feedback

Instructional orientation related concepts: instruction/ events of instruction principles of effective practice courses, units, lessons, activities different types of learning outcomes conditions of learning aptitude motivation prerequisite skills cognitive skills - learning skills learning styles/ predispositions/ multiple intelligences time on task active learning discovery learning direct instruction component display theory concept elaboration theory problem-based learning quality of instruction systems design models mediated instruction mastery learning/ learning objectives methods-centered

Communications orientation Basic premises: Learning is a process of reducing uncertainty through information acquisition. Information is transmitted in a channel with a medium in one or more modes. Feedback from the receiver confirms that information was received correctly.

Communications related concepts intention message Channel(s) medium mode transmitter Receiver redundancy noise filters literacy synchronous asynchronous feedback message-centered

Social-psychological orientation Basic premises: Learning is culturally mediated. Curriculum as well as teaching practices are a function of cultural history, expectations and institutionalized norms. We live in a pluralistic society. In order to communicate effectively, we have to adopt different protocol in different cultures.

Social-psychological concepts: cultural expectations Stories, schemas self efficacy values, attitude, opinions, mores social hierarchies role theory learned helplessness diversity motivation theories social status need achievement culture-centered

Performance Orientation Basic premises: There are many ways to increase human performance including training, performance support systems, job engineering, and incentives. A performance technologist should identify the possible causes of the problem to look all possible solutions.

Performance Orientation user-centered objectives Performance assessment quality assessment ROI levels of evaluation needs assessment Just in time efficiency EPSS Knowledge management Learning organizations performance systems analysis stakeholders diffusion-adoption profit-centered

Questions for contemplation Can we determine where we want to be in the future? Do we want to control (or can we control) the nature of our travel? How do our orientations affect our trip? When should we embrace reorientation? Are we any different from any other professional discipline?

Summary There are many different perspectives of what ID is, and what it should be. That’s OK As a profession we have some common goals. As practitioners we contextualize our knowledge to the role(s) we adopt. Because of our diverse backgrounds we will favor different orientations to our practice, sometimes too fiercely.