A discussion of the Perspectives on Instructional Decision Making

As I read the section of chapter two devoted to the perspectives on instructional decision making, some memories from my undergrad training twenty-five years ago started to stir. I remember being totally confused by how these theories would help me in the day-to-day lessons I would be doing when I entered the classroom. I tried to keep these in mind as I struggled to prepare daily lessons in those early years.

Now, as a seasoned veteran, I see that I use a combination of these perspectives. One of the things experience has taught me is that most educational theory doesn't stand alone, but works hand in hand with other theories. Which perspective is used to make decisions about how to present a lesson, how long to take on a lesson, how to assess, etc. is going to depend alot on the subject you are teaching. It also depends on the students you have in class and the teacher themselves. I have found that often what works for one teacher may not work for another teacher, and may not work for all students.

For many of the classes I teach, direct instruction is the best approach. As I teach accounting, advanced features of Microsoft Office 2007 applications, and beginning Web Design, I find that the majority of my students enter these classes with little or no pre-existing knowledge of the subject. Therefore, it is my job to lead my students into an understanding of the concepts and procedures these subjects require. My instruction begins with an explanation of the new concepts to be learned. I follow with guided instruction where I am showing the students how to do the procedures as they are doing them along with me. When the guided instruction is complete, students are then given a project or two to apply what they have just learned. Assessment is done on the projects they do on their own, with the decision of when to continue depending on how well the students were able to do the projects on their own. With a subject like Accounting, everything builds on previous lessons in a systematic fashion, so often we move on even though there may not be mastery of a lesson. As things build, the vast majority of students will get enough practice that the mastery may develop over time rather than with each individual lesson.

When I teach advanced applications from MS Office, I often use an independent study approach to learning. There are very good tutorial textbooks available, so I let the students learn the various parts of each software at their own pace, with me setting deadlines for each lesson being complete. This way, the students who learn more quickly are not held back by the students who progress more slowly. Often I will provide addional projects for the students doing the best to keep them challenged so they don't become bored.

When I started teaching in the fall of 1989, I felt it was fairly easy to recognize which of Piaget's developmental stages students fell into. The maturity level of students was easily recognizable by the differences between Freshman, Sophomore, Juniors, and Seniors. Often we decided whether students were ready for certain classes based on year in school. Not all students within a grade level shared the same maturity level, but there seemed to be a fairly small gap within the grade level. The last few years, however, the maturity gaps seem to be much larger, and it is often hard to distinguish what grade level a person is at based on their maturity level. So, in recent years, I agree with the book that fewer students are reaching the formal stages during their high school career than we saw in the 1990's.