Unit 2: Instructional Design Theory

Unit 2: Instructional Design Theory

            According to Mastrian, McGonigle, Mahan, and  Bixler (2011), learning theories are the primary foundation for the theories of instructional design. Instructional design theories are goal-oriented theories that lead the process or provide directions or outlines in terms of enhancing students learning.  

1.      Elaboration Theory:

Elaboration theory was developed in the late of 1970s by Charles Reigeluth; the basic strategies of the theory are to organize, sequence, and synthesize course materials (University of Colorado at Denver, 1992).   This instructional design theory works on the cognitive domain of learners. It aims to make instructions more effective and make more sense; in other words, elaboration theory provide instructions for learning in a meaningful way that motivate learners to have better understanding by building cognitive scaffolding that simplified complex knowledge and enable learners to address complex tasks.  Mastrian et al., (2011) clearly explain how elaboration theory can simplify complex knowledge. They point out that “in elaboration theory, topics and tasks are broken up into chunks of information as well as simplified into less-complicated, real-world that the learners can understand” (p. 95).

The focus of elaboration theory is on the content and the logical order of teaching the content (scope and sequence).  In other words, after breaking up the content to small parts of information and determine what to teach, faculty need to start with simple information and move students toward the most complex in order to help students organize and better understand the presented materials.  Educators based on this theory can also present the material either by topics by starting from broader to narrow or they can present materials by spiral sequence approach in which basic information about all topics is introduced to learners and teaching learners with more detailed or more complex. 

2.      The Four-Component Instructional Design Model (4C/ID Model).

I selected this theory because it kind of working in the opposite direction with elaboration theory.  Breaking up complex tasks into small chunks is the direction of most instructional design theories in order to simplify the process of learning these tasks; whereas,  the 4C/ID model guides the process of learning the complex tasks including their basic skills as whole instead of separating them into parts.  Based the 4C/ID model, designing instructions for learning complex tasks is guided by four main components that works as blueprint, which are learning tasks, supportive information, procedural information, and part-task practice (Mastrian et al., 2011). A very recent research by Vandewaetere et al (2015) studied the process of designing an educational program for healthcare field of study based on whole-task learning that is guided by 4C/ID model.  The authors indicate that when dealing with complex tasks, healthcare professionals should be competent in terms of critical reasoning, communication skills, decision making, and management skills.  Therefore, they need to be prepared in a way that they can take up more than one role at the same time. The 4C/ID model is the appropriate instructional design model to address the complexity of learning a complex task as whole, because this model mainly focuses on integrating knowledge, skills, and attitude.  Mastrian et al., (2011) also mentioned these three aspects (knowledge, skills, and attitude) as integral parts from the first component of 4C/ID that aims to promote schema construction.  

References:

Mastrian, K. G., McGonigle, D., Mahan, W. L. & Bixler, B. (2011). Integrating technology in nursing education: Tools for the knowledge era. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

University of Colorado at Denver (1992). A critical review of elaboration theory. Retrieved from http://carbon.ucdenver.edu/~bwilson/elab.html

Vandewaetere, M., Manhaeve, D., Aertgeerts, B., Clarebout, G., Van Merriënboer, J. J., & Roex, A. (2015). 4C/ID in medical education: How to design an educational program based on whole-task learning: AMEE Guide No. 93. Medical Teacher, 37(1), 4-20.