In education, instructional technology is “the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning,” according to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) Definitions and Terminology Committee. Instructional technology is often referred to as a part of educational technology but the use of these terms has changed over the years. Educational technology is the study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.” Labels do matter! While instructional technology covers the processes and systems of learning and instruction, educational technology includes other systems used in the process of developing human capability.
History
The first use of instructional technology cannot be attributed to a specific person or time. Many histories of instructional technology start in the early 20th century, while others go back to the 17th century. This depends on the definition of instructional technology. Definitions that focus on a systems approach tend to reach further back in history, while those definitions focused on sensory devices are more recent.
The use of audio and visual instruction was boosted as a military response to the problems of a labor shortage during World War II in the United States. There was a definitive need to fill the factories with skilled labor. Instructional technology provided a methodology for training in a systematic and efficient manner.
With it came the use of highly structured manuals, instructional films, and standardized tests. Thomas Edison saw the value of instructional technology in films but did not formalize the science of instruction as the US military did so well.
Current status
Instructional technology is a growing field of study which uses technology as a means to solve educational challenges, both in the classroom and in distance learning environments.
While instructional technology promises solutions to many educational problems, resistance from faculty and administrators to the use of technology in the classroom is not unusual. This reaction can arise from the belief–or fear–that the ultimate aim of instructional technology is to reduce or even remove the human element of instruction. However, most instructional technologists would counter that education will always require human intervention from instructors or facilitators.
Many graduate programs are producing instructional designers, who increasingly are being employed by industry and universities to create materials for distance education programs. These professionals often employ e-learning tools, which provide distance learners the opportunity to interact with instructors and experts in the field, even if they are not located physically close to each other.
More recently a new form of Instructional technology known as Human Performance Technology has evolved. HPT focuses on performance problems and deals primarily with corporate entities.
Relation to learning theory
The purpose of instructional technology, of course, is the promotion of learning. Learning theory (education) has influenced Instructional design and Instructional designers (the practitioners of Instructional Technology). Instructional Technologies promote communication and interactivity. These two come together under the general heading of Interaction.
Moore (1989) argues that there are three types of learner interaction (learner-content, learner-instructor, and learner-learner interactions). In the years since Moore’s article, several philosophical views have surfaced that relate Instructional technology to these types of interaction.
Most traditional researchers (those subscribing to Cognitivism) argue that learner-content interaction is perhaps the most important endeavor of Instructional technology. Some researchers (those subscribing to constructivism) argue that Moore’s social interactions, (learner-instructor and learner-learner interactions), are as useful as learner-content interaction.
Areas
Razavi (2005) advocates the idea that educational technology covers instructional technology. It includes instructional technology and the field study in human teaching and learning. So educational technology is broader than instructional technology. Instructional technology itself consists of two major parts: one is teaching technology and the other is learning technology. In the education industry, the term “instructional technology” is frequently used interchangeably with “educational technology.”
Human Performance Technology (HPT) has a focus on corporate environments. Learning sciences is a growing area of focus dealing instructional techniques and learning theories.
Teaching method
Teaching methods can best be defined as the types of principles and methods used for instruction. There are many types of teaching methods, depending on what information or skill the teacher is trying to convey. Class participation, demonstration, recitation, and memorization are some of the teaching methods being used. When a teacher is deciding on their method, they need to be flexible and willing to adjust their style according to their students. Student success in the classroom is largely based on effective teaching methods.
Diversity in Teaching in the Classroom
For effective teaching to take place, a good method must be adopted by a teacher. A teacher has many options when choosing a style by which to teach. The teacher may write lesson plans of their own, borrow plans from other teachers, or search online or within books for lesson plans. When deciding what teaching method to use, a teacher needs to consider students’ background knowledge, environment, and learning goals. Teachers are aware that students learn in different ways, but almost all children will respond well to praise. Students have different ways of absorbing information and of demonstrating their knowledge. Teachers often use techniques which cater to multiple learning styles to help students retain information and strengthen understanding. A variety of strategies and methods are used to ensure that all students have equal opportunities to learn. A lesson plan may be carried out in several ways: Questioning, explaining, modeling, collaborating, and demonstrating.
A teaching method that includes questioning is similar to testing. A teacher may ask a series of questions to collect information of what students have learned and what needs to be taught. Testing is another application of questioning. A teacher tests the student on what was previously taught in order to identify if a student has learned the material. Standardized testing is in about every middle school (i.e. Ohio Graduation Test (OGT), Proficiency Test, College entrance Tests (ACT and SAT).
Learning can be done in three ways- Auditory, Visual, and Kinaesthetic. It is important to try and include all three as much as possible into your lessons.
Explaining
This form is similar to lecturing. Lecturing is teaching by giving a discourse on a specific subject that is open to the public, usually given in the classroom. This can also be associated with modeling. Modeling is used as a visual aid to learning. Students can visualize an object or problem, then use reasoning and hypothesizing to determine an answer.
In your lecture you have the opportunity to tackle two types of learning. Not only can explaining (lecture) help the auditory learner through the speech of the teacher, but if the teacher is to include visuals in the form of overheads or slide shows, his/her lecture can have duality. Although a student might only profit substantially from one form of teaching, all students profit some from the different types of learning.
Demonstrating
Demonstrations are done to provide an opportunity to learn new exploration and visual learning tasks from a different perspective. A teacher may use experimentation to demonstrate ideas in a science class. A demonstration may be used in the circumstance of proving conclusively a fact, as by reasoning or showing evidence.
The uses of storytelling and examples have long since become standard practice in the realm of textual explanation. But while a more narrative style of information presentation is clearly a preferred practice in writing, judging by its prolificacy, this practice sometimes becomes one of the more ignored aspects of lecture. Lectures, especially in a collegiate environment, often become a setting more geared towards factorial presentation than a setting for narrative and/or connective learning. The use of examples and storytelling likely allows for better understanding but also greater individual ability to relate to the information presented. Learning a list of facts provides a detached and impersonal experience while the same list, containing examples and stories, becomes, potentially, personally relatable. Furthermore, storytelling in information presentation may also reinforce memory retention because it provides connections between factorial presentation and real-world examples/personable experience, thus, putting things into a clearer perspective and allowing for increased neural representation in the brain. Therefore, it is important to provide personable, supplementary, examples in all forms of information presentation because this practice likely allows for greater interest in the subject matter and better information-retention rates.
Often in lecture numbers or stats are used to explain a subject but often when many numbers are being used it is difficult to see the whole picture. Visuals that are bright in color, etc. offer a way for the students to put into perspective the numbers or stats that are being used. If the student can not only hear but see what is being taught, it is more likely they will believe and fully grasp what is being taught. It allows another way for the student to relate to the material.
Collaborating
Having students work in groups is another way a teacher can direct a lesson. Collaborating allows students to talk with each other and listen to all points of view in the discussion. It helps students think in a less personally biased way. When this lesson plan is carried out, the teacher may be trying to assess the lesson by looking at the student’s: ability to work as a team, leadership skills, or presentation abilities. It is one of the direct instructional methods.
A different kind of group work is the discussion. After some preparation and with clearly defined roles as well as interesting topics, discussions may well take up most of the lesson, with the teacher only giving short feedback at the end or even in the following lesson. Discussions can take a variety of forms, e.g. fishbowl discussions.
Collaborating (kinaesthetic) is great in that it allows to actively participate in the learning process. These students who learn best this way by being able to relate to the lesson in that they are physically taking part of it in some way. Group projects and discussions are a great way to welcome this type of learning.
Learning by teaching
Learning by teaching (German:LdL) is a widespread method in Germany, developed by Jean-Pol Martin. The students take the teacher’s role and teach their peers.
This method is very effective when done correctly. Having students teach sections of the class as a group or as individuals is a great way to get the students to really study out the topic and understand it so as to teach it to their peers. By having them participate in the teaching process it also builds self-confidence, self-efficacy, and strengthens students speaking and communication skills. Students will not only learn their given topic, but they will gain experience that could be very valuable for life.
Evolution of teaching methods
Ancient education
About 3000 BC, with the advent of writing, education became more conscious or self-reflecting, with specialized occupations requiring particular skills and knowledge on how to be a scribe, an astronomer, etc.
Philosophy in ancient Greece led to questions of educational method entering national discourse. In his Republic, Plato describes a system of instruction that he felt would lead to an ideal state. In his Dialogues, Plato describes the Socratic method.
It has been the intent of many educators since then, such as the Roman educator Quintilian, to find specific, interesting ways to encourage students to use their intelligence and to help them to learn.
Medieval education
Comenius, in Bohemia, wanted all boys and girls to learn. In his The World in Pictures, he gave the first vivid, illustrated textbook which contained much that children would be familiar with in everyday life, and use it to teach the academic subjects they needed to know. Rabelais described how the student Gargantua learned about the world, and what is in it.
Much later, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his Emile, presented methodology to teach children the elements of science and much more. In it, he famously eschewed books, saying the world is one’s book. And so Emile was brought out into the woods without breakfast to learn the cardinal directions and the positions of the sun as he found his way home for something to eat.
There was also Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi of Switzerland, whose methodology during Napoleonic warfare enabled refugee children, of a class believed to be unteachable, to learn – and love to learn. He describes this in his account of the educational experiment at Stanz. He felt the key to have children learn is for them to be loved, but his method, though transmitted later in the school for educators he founded, has been thought “too unclear to be taught today”. One result was, when he would ask, “Children, do you want to learn more or go to sleep?” they would reply, “Learn more!”
19th century – compulsory education
The Prussian education system was a system of mandatory education dating to the early 19th century. Parts of the Prussian education system have served as models for the education systems in a number of other countries, including Japan and the United States. The Prussian model had a side effect of requiring additional classroom management skills to be incorporated into the teaching process.
20th century
In the 20th century, the philosopher, Eli Siegel, who believed that all children are equally capable of learning regardless of ethnic background or social class, stated: “The purpose of all education is to like the world through knowing it.” This is a goal which is implicit in previous educators, but in this principle, it is made conscious. With this principle at basis, teachers, predominantly in New York, have found that students learn the curriculum with the kind of eagerness that Pestalozzi describes for his students at Stanz centuries earlier.
Many current teaching philosophies are aimed at fulfilling the precepts of a curriculum based on Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE). Arguably the qualities of a SDAIE curriculum are as effective if not more so for all ‘regular’ classrooms.
Some critical ideas in today’s education environment include:
- Instructional scaffolding
- Graphic organizers
- Standardized testing
According to Dr. Shaikh Imran, the teaching methodology in education is a new concept in the teaching learning process. New methods involved in the teaching learning process are television, radio, computer, etc.
Other educators believe that the use of technology, while facilitating learning to some degree, is not a substitute for educational method that brings out critical thinking and a desire to learn. Another modern teaching method is inquiry learning and the related inquiry-based science.
Elvis H. Bostwick recently concluded Dr. Cherry’s quantitative study “The Interdisciplinary Effect of Hands On Science”, a three-year study of 3920 middle school students and their Tennessee State Achievement scores in Math, Science, Reading and Social Studies. Metropolitan Nashville Public School is considered urban demographically and can be compared to many of urban schools nationally and internationally. This study divided students on the basis of whether they had hands-on trained teachers over the three-year period addressed by the study.
Students who had a hands-on trained science teacher for one or more years had statistically higher standardized test scores in science, math and social studies. For each additional year of being taught by a hands-on trained teacher, the student’s grades increased.