Paradigms, Theories, and Instructional Strategies

Paradigms, Theories, and Instructional Strategies Applications in Educational Technology C&I 579 Dr. Toledo Source: Dawson, K. (2003)

Defining Paradigms • A comprehensive belief system that guides research and practice in a field • Commonly cited paradigms in education (Guba, 1990) • Postpositivism • Interpretivism • Critical Theory

Defining Paradigms (con’t) • The nature of reality (ontology) • The nature of knowledge (epistemology) • The nature of how one comes to know (methodology)

Ontology (Nature of Reality)

Epistemology (Nature of Knowledge)

Methodology (How one comes to know) • Why we do what we do • Preferred methods • Relationship of research to practice

Why we do what we do

Preferred Methods

Relationship of research to practice

Theories from Post-Positivism • Behaviorism • Pavlov, Skinner • Stimulus-response (behavioral change) • (+)/(-) reinforcement; behavior mod • Information Processing • Atkinson, Ausabel • Internal, unobservable process involved in learning • Mnemonics, advanced organizers, encoding

Applications • Drill and practice/games http://www.funbrain.com/cashreg/index.html • Programmed instruction http://cie.bilkent.edu.tr/Course/index.htm • Computer assisted instruction http://www.plato.com/index2.asp • Tutorials http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/frog/Frog2/

Theories from Interpretivism • Constructivism • Cognitive Constructivism • Schema/mental models • Learning should be active and authentic • Social Constructivism • Zone of proximal development • Scaffolding

Theories from Interpretivism • Multiple Intelligences • Gardner • All students have talents and all can learn • Education suffers from “disteachia” • Cognitive Flexibility Theory • the ability to spontaneously restructure one's knowledge, in many ways, in adaptive response to radically changing situational demands

Applications • Telementoring http://wings.utexas.org • Case-based instruction http://www.icons.umd.edu/ • Collaborative learning http://www.iearn.org/circles/ • Situated learning http://the-voyage-of-the-mimi.scriptmania .com

Critical Theory • Built on skepticism and questioning • Questions the neutrality of technology • Opposes the belief that progress is inherently good • Deconstructionism – seeks to reveal hidden curriculum, agenda, and motives

Critical Theory • Emphasis on criticizing what has been done than producing models • Tend to promote previously mentioned applications with an emphasis on gender, culture, and equity

Applications • Social Action Projects http://virtual-architecture.wm.edu/ Telecollaboration/problemsolving.html#Structure-SocialActionProjects • Community Technology Centers http://www.ctcnet.org/ • Digital Divide Initiatives http://digitalequity.edreform.net/

Ways to deal with paradigms • Ignorance • Staunch loyalty • Paradigm flexibility • Develop a new paradigm

An Information Age Paradigm (Reigeluth, 1996)

An Eclectic Paradigm • Also termed pragmatic or mixed • Borrow methods from all paradigms to solve educational problems • View paradigms as only as meaningful as the context in which they are applied

Paradigms, Theories, and Instructional Strategies