34th Annual Teaching Public Administration Conference 2011 May 17 - 19, 2011

1. IDENTIFYING THE MOST EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE THE LEARNING OBJECTIVES OF BLOOM’S SIX COGNITIVE DOMAINS 34th Annual Teaching Public Administration Conference 2011 May 17 - 19, 2011 Kingsmill Resort, Williamsburg, Virginia

2. Blue Wooldridge Fellow, National Academy of Public Administration Professor bwooldri@vcu.edu Website: www.people.vcu.edu/~bwooldri Lindsey Evans PhD Candidate Susan T. Gooden Professor The L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs And Professor Gary Sarkozi School of Education VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY Richmond, VA 23284-2028

3. “For teaching to gain prestige in higher education, faculty members must make pedagogy a subject of scholarly debate.” (Watkins, 1990, p. A11) “Teaching will be considered a scholarly activity only when professors develop a conception of pedagogy that is very tightly coupled to scholarship in the disciplines themselves.” (Shulman, 1990, p. A11)

4. The Strategic Contingency Approach to Management Education and Training: This approach suggests that the design of an effective educational/training experience to achieve the strategic mission of the client organization is a function of the learning objectives to be achieved and the learning styles of the student. (Wooldridge, 2004)

5. STEPS IN THE STRATEGIC-CONTINGENCY APPROACH TO INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN • Identify the activities needed to achieve the Strategic Mission of the organization • Through job analysis and competency modeling identify specific job performances necessary to carry out these activities

6. STEPS IN THE STRATEGIC-CONTINGENCY APPROACH TO INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN (CON’T) • Determine the “performance gap” caused by a lack of competencies (See Mager & Pipe) • For those participants in #3, identify learner’s competency needs • Identify “Participant Oriented Behavioral Learning Objectives”

7. Groups learning objectives into useful categorizes • Select appropriate learning strategies based on level and type of learning objectives

8. Identify relevant learning styles –Cognitive-Affective-Physiological Cognitive styles have been defined as "...information processing habits representing the learner's typical mode of perceiving, thinking, problem solving and remembering," (Keefe, 1979, p. 8). Some of the more important cognitive styles are: • Perceptual Modality Preferences-preferred reliance on one of the three sensory modes (kinesthetic or psychomotor, visual or spatial, and auditory or verbal) of understanding experiences (Dunn, Dunn, & Price, 1978); • Field Independence vs. Dependence-analytical as opposed to a global way of experiencing the environment. independents perceive things as discrete from their background field, while dependents tend to be influenced by an embedding context (Witkin, et al, 1971). For a more detailed description of each of these learning styles see Wooldridge and Haimes-Bartolf (2005) and Wooldridge (1995).

9. Problem Statement Tradition often locks educators into sub-optimal behavior patters. Whenever instructional methods are selected on the basis of illogical or irrelevant criteria, we have committed an injustice to our students. Why might instructors knowingly use methods that are either inadequate or inappropriate for the objectives they hop to accomplish? Some possible reasons include a lack of knowledge about the competitive effectiveness of various approaches or even the perception that students like a certain method best.

10. Over the past 40 years some excellent work has been carried out that relates the effectiveness of different instructional methods to specific learning objectives. This includes the research of McCleary and McIntyre (1972); Carroll, Payne and Ivancevich (1972); and Olivas and Newstrom (1981). Carroll’s work was replicated by Newstrom (1980) and by Shoenfelt, et al, 1991). Shoenfelt added a tenth instructional method-computer assisted instruction. This “reputational approach” asked instructors to identify the most effective instructional strategies for the achievement of a specified set of learning objectives.

11. CURRENT RESEARCH Our research also used the “reputational approach” but with several new adjustments. • First, this study utilized a well known set of learning objectives, those associated with Bloom’s Six Cognitive Domains. • Secondly, this proposed study used a modern set of instructional strategies, including the relatively new strategies as Pod Casts and Video recordings of previous lectures. • Thirdly, this proposed study surveyed the instructors in a single academic discipline, public administration/public affairs.

12. Blooms Cognitive Domain • The cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual skills. • This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns, and concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills. • There are six major categories, starting from the simplest behavior to the most complex. The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties (Bloom, Mesia & Krathwohl, 1964).

13. Categories in the Cognitive Domain

14. Category Example and Key Words (verbs) Knowledge: Recall data or information. Examples: Recite a policy. Quote prices from memory to a customer. Knows the safety rules. Key Words: defines, describes, identifies, knows, labels, lists, matches, names, outlines, recalls, recognizes, reproduces, selects, states. Comprehension: Understand the meaning, translation, interpolation, and interpretation of instructions and problems. State a problem in one's own words. Examples: Rewrites the principles of test writing. Explain in one's own words the steps for performing a complex task. Translates an equation into a computer spreadsheet. Key Words: comprehends, converts, defends, distinguishes, estimates, explains, extends, generalizes, gives an example, infers, interprets, paraphrases, predicts, rewrites, summarizes, translates. Application: Use a concept in a new situation or unprompted use of an abstraction. Applies what was learned in the classroom into novel situations in the work place. Examples: Use a manual to calculate an employee's vacation time. Apply laws of statistics to evaluate the reliability of a written test. Key Words: applies, changes, computes, constructs, demonstrates, discovers, manipulates, modifies, operates, predicts, prepares, produces, relates, shows, solves, uses.

15. Analysis: Separates material or concepts into component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood. Distinguishes between facts and inferences. Examples: Troubleshoot a piece of equipment by using logical deduction. Recognize logical fallacies in reasoning. Gathers information from a department and selects the required tasks for training. Key Words: analyzes, breaks down, compares, contrasts, diagrams, deconstructs, differentiates, discriminates, distinguishes, identifies, illustrates, infers, outlines, relates, selects, separates. Synthesis: Builds a structure or pattern from diverse elements. Put parts together to form a whole, with emphasis on creating a new meaning or structure. Examples: Write a company operations or process manual. Design a machine to perform a specific task. Integrates training from several sources to solve a problem. Revises and process to improve the outcome. Key Words: categorizes, combines, compiles, composes, creates, devises, designs, explains, generates, modifies, organizes, plans, rearranges, reconstructs, relates, reorganizes, revises, rewrites, summarizes, tells, writes. Evaluation: Make judgments about the value of ideas or materials. Examples: Select the most effective solution. Hire the most qualified candidate. Explain and justify a new budget. Key Words: appraises, compares, concludes, contrasts, criticizes, critiques, defends, describes, discriminates, evaluates, explains, interprets, justifies, relates, summarizes, supports

16. Our Survey • This study gained input from higher educational instructors and faculty from public administration and public policy to determine which instructional strategy will work best with the taxonomy of educational objectives found in Bloom’s cognitive domain area • 254 survey respondents, 215 completed the entire instrument (84.6%)

22. Instructional Strategies • Lecture • Pod Casts • Reading • Role Playing • Simulation • Videos • Internship • Case Study • Computer Aided Instruction • Discussion • Field Trips • Group Project • Guest Lecture

29. REFERENCES BY Wooldridge “Preparing Public Administrators for an Era of Globalisation and Decentralisation: A Strategic-Contingency Approach.” International Review of Administrative Sciences. Vol. 70, N2, 385-403, 2004. "Assessing the Professional Orientation of Public Personnel Administration Courses" Public Personnel Management. Vol.18 #3, Fall, 1989. "Increasing the Productivity of Public Sector Training," Public Productivity Review. Vol. XII, No 2, Winter, 1988. "Increasing the Professional Management Orientation of Public Administration Courses," American Review of Public Administration, Vol. 17, No. 4, December 1987

30. “The field dependence/field independence learning styles: Implications for Adult Student Diversity, Outcomes Assessment and Accountability,” Haimes-Bartolf, M. In R. P. Sims and S. J. Sims (Eds.), Learning Styles and Learning: A Key to Meeting the Accountability Demands in Education. Nova Publishers. 2005. “Improving Public Administration Education Through an Instructional Design Approach,” with Carol Bracey, in Teaching Public Administration: What and How, (Stuart Nagel, Ed.) Nova Science Publishers 1999. "Increasing the Effectiveness of University/College Instruction: Integrating the Results of Learning Style Results into Course Design and Delivery." In The Importance of Learning Styles: Implications for Learning, Course Design, and Education, (Sims, R.R. & S. J. Sims, Eds). Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. 1995

31. For Further Dialogue on this topic Please Contact me at: bwooldri@vcu.edu 804-828-8037