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Instructional design and Technology professionals (IDT) are responsible for "the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management and evaluation of processes and resources for learning" (Amirault, R., 2015). It's necessary to have an understanding of learning theories to choose the appropriate theory to underpin the the teaching and materials design for a specific lesson. Instructional designers play the roles of "analyst, evaluator, e-learning specialist, and project manager (Richey, Fields, & Foxon, 2001).
Ertmer & Newby (2013) propose three cognitive points for the teacher and instructional designer to consider:
Each student brings a unique learning history to the classroom which can affect learning outcomes,
What construct and framework of new data will link to the student's current experiences, expertise, and abilities, and
How to organize learning experiences with feedback to enable the student to assimilate and/or accommodate the new information within the learner's mind .
What do learners know and how do they know it
Cognitivism is concerned with how data is acquired, catalogued, stored, and retrieved from the mind (Ertmer & Newby, 2013, p 51).
Memory, transfer, and retrieval
Schunk (2012) contends that "cognitive theories place greater emphasis on presenting material such that learners can organize it, relate it to what they know, and remember it in a meaningful fashion."
Transfer happens when a student is able to apply the knowledge they have learned to different situations. Schunk (2012) explains that students' assimilation is key to understanding. Instructors can support transfer by providing information about how this data can be used in alternate settings (Schunk, 2012).
Design Principles
Ertmer & Newby (2013) suggest the following cognitive instructional design principles have a direct impact on student learning:
Involving the learner in the learning process
Using ranking analyses to uncover essential connections
Organizing data to support cognitive processing, and
Developing learning conditions that support students to make associations with prior learning.
Cognitive Strategies
Ertmer & Newby (2013) provide the following tips for cognitive teaching and instructional design:
"Advance organizers
Analogies and metaphors
Cognitive task analysis procedures
Concept mapping
Demonstrations
Environmental cues
Framing
Illustrative examples
Instructional explanations
Matched non-examples
Mnemonics
Outlining, and
Practice with corrective feedback."
Conclusion
Cognition is an important consideration for teachers and instructional designers as the presentation of material has a great impact on active learner engagement, which in turn affects the assimilation of material within existing knowledge and real experience. Each learner brings a unique history to the classroom that is enhanced by intentional learning design strategies to support the successful acquisition, cataloguing, storing, and retrieval of information from the mind (Ertmer & Newby, 2013).
Additional resources
The most common instructional design framework is ADDIE (Sharif & Cho, 2015). ADDIE may also be viewed as a systematic approach.
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References
Amirault, R. J. (2015). Technology transience and the challenge it poses to higher education. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 6(2), 1-17.
Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (2013). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4), 43-71. https://doi.org/10.1002/piq.21143
Richey, R. C., Fields, D. C., & Foxon, M. (2001). Instructional design competencies: The standards (3rd ed.). Eric.
Sharif, A., & Cho, S. (2015). 21st-century instructional designers: Bridging the perceptual gaps between identity, practice, impact and professional development. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 12(3), 72-85. https://doi.org/10.7238/rusc.v12i3.2176
Schunk, D. (2012). Learning theories: An educational perspective (6th ed.). Pearson.
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