Instructional Design: Leaning Experience Plans

1. Instructional Design: Leaning Experience Plans Learners need to ‘store’ declarative knowledge.

2. Introduction to declarative knowledge. Before planning to engage learners in lessons that assist them in acquiring and integrating knowledge, Learning Managers need to create learning experiences that determine what their learners know or understand about a topic. Declarative knowledge requires the learners to draw on their prior knowledge, this information may be factual, concepts or generalisations associated with a particular topic.

3. Engaging learners in ‘hands-on’ experiences are successful teaching methods because they enable the learners to demonstrate in a variety of ways what knowledge they have previously obtained about a topic. While most tasks require learners to use both procedural and declarative knowledge, experiences such as decision making, problem solving and experimental-inquiry tasks require learners to follow a specific step process (procedural knowledge) the declarative knowledge (students knowledge of a topic) is often the key to students success in completing the task.

4. Declarative Knowledge It is important for learning managers to demonstrate to their learners ways that new knowledge can be organised into patterns that allow them to see the relationship new information has with prior knowledge of a topic. If learners are able to fit new pieces of information with old they are more likely to be able to use and retain information when needed.

5. Three Phases of Declarative Knowledge

6. Construct Meaning Learners construct meaning by recalling prior knowledge and linking it with new information. During this learners must actively make and verify predictions. There are several strategies that can be used to help learners process new information. When learners are using a strategy they are more likely to succeed and further use this strategy if they understand the effect it will have on their learning. As learning managers it is important to cue learners to select a strategy that will help them to construct meaning and understand new information.

7. K-W-L Chart • Presenting students with a K-W-L Chart helps learners construct meaning in a simple 3 step strategy. • Learners must identify what they already know about a topic. • Learners have the opportunity to list information that they would like to acquire about a topic • Learners list new information which may answer questions, validate or invalidate previous concepts.

9. Silk Worm Slide Show

10. Organise Learners must organise new knowledge so that it is possible for them to identify the relationship it has with prior knowledge. If as learning managers we provided learners with organised information there is no assurance that students will make the connections required. Helping learners to organise information may assist them in dealing with large quantities of new information.

11. Descriptive Pattern Model

13. Store • In order for learners to easily access information they must consciously store it in their memory. Constructing meaning and organising strategies enable learners to do this so that it will eventually happen subconsciously. • Memorising or reviewing information repeatedly is a strategy used by most learning managers but has proven to be the least effective. When learners are able to link a visual image to new information they are proven to be able to successfully retain knowledge which can be easily accessed and used when needed. • It is important that when using this strategy that the information we want learners to recall is clear so that there is no chance for misinterpretation.

14. Highly structured systems for storing new knowledge While reviewing information a number of times may be the least effective strategy in ‘storing’ information it does have an important role in the learners ability to recall new knowledge. When learners are focusing on constructing meaning and organising new knowledge they are enhancing their ability to memorise some information about a topic. If learners are able to link visual connections to knowledge memorised it can reduce the time it takes to recall information and further store new knowledge. Because all learners process information differently it is important that learning managers explain ways learners can store knowledge using mental imagery, physical sensations and emotions.