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  Chapter 7 Organizing Instruction Steve is preparing an afterschool Fun with Science program for his elementary school. The program is intended to provide a variety of science-oriented experiences for students in the first through fifth grades. The school’s principal and the school PTA have expressed a need for the program, and Steve has developed the program’s instructional goals and objectives. Steve knows his learners well and is excited at the prospect of putting together a series of activities that are both educational and fun. However, he is having trouble deciding how to sort and arrange the lessons so that children engage in a variety of appropriate activities as they progress from first to fifth grade. Erin is an instructional designer for an international package delivery service. She has been given the task of creating a program that helps to ensure employee safety and wellness. She knows the instructional goals and objectives, and she has conducted a thorough task analysis to better understand the safety protocols and procedures employees need to learn. Erin now needs to decide what kinds of instruction will be offered. Guiding Questions How does organizing content and learning activities help an instructional designer? What is a curriculum? What are the events of instruction? What is the continuum of learning experiences? What are the various methods of instructional delivery? Key Terms curriculum (page 120) Dale’s cone of experience (page 123) distance education (page 120) enactive experiences (page 124) events of instruction (page 122) generative (instructional event) (page 123) iconic experiences (page 124) job aids (page 130) learning management system (LMS) (page 127) lesson plans (page 120) program of study (page 120) programmed instruction (page 126 ) scope and sequence (page 120) supplantive (instructional event) (page 123) syllabus (page 120) symbolic experiences (page 124) units (of instruction) (page 120) Chapter Overview Designing the best instruction possible involves organizing instructional activities to create a satisfying and effective learning experience. This is particularly important when the content to be covered is sizable (e.g., yearlong training; multiple years of study for a degree; an entire K-12 curriculum). The activities of any one lesson often have to fit appropriately into a larger educational scheme. Understanding how these larger schemes work and how to develop such a scheme allows one to deliver better instruction. Organizing content allows one to see the depth and breadth of the content to be covered, while organizing instructional activities allows one to see the range of methods used to communicate that content to the learner. A course of study organized by the content to be covered and the activities employed to cover them is called a curriculum. A curriculum for any course of study is described by its scope and sequence, the instructional events and learning experiences it encompasses, and the methods in which these events and experiences are delivered. Scope and Sequence There is a wide range of possibility when it comes to determining scope and sequence of instruction. Instruction can be designed to incorporate many activities over a long period of time (e.g., a program of study leading to a graduate degree), a single activity in a brief period of time (e.g., the instructions on the back of a packet of instant soup), or anything in between. The scope and sequence of the activities are determined by the instructional designer, based on the goals and objectives he or she has developed through needs, task, and learner analyses. In K-12 settings, people most often think in terms of curriculums, units, and lesson plans. The curriculum is the entire scope of what is to be learned from beginning (pre-K) to end (twelfth grade); therefore, a curriculum is most often measured in years. Units are measured in months or weeks; they are large sets of activities that relate to a specific theme (e.g., oceanography or Greek myths). Lesson plans contain the specific, day-to-day activities that comprise a unit. The activities articulated in lesson plans are measured in hours or minutes. The word “curriculum” is Latin in origin. Its original meaning is related to racing and racecourses. Literally translated, a curriculum is a race, a lap in a race, or a racetrack. Today, the word curriculum is used to refer to the organization of a course of study. A curriculum can be thought of as the set of markers necessary to define a course. (Translation source: “Words” by William Whitaker (2006).) In college and university settings, people think in terms of programs of study, syllabi, and classes. A program of study is the entire set of courses that, once completed, leads to the conferring of a degree (e.g., Bachelor of Arts; Master of Science). A syllabus is the scope and sequence description for a single course (which is usually one semester in length), and classes are the individual meetings held regularly throughout the semester (classes are sometimes referred to as lessons in postsecondary education, particularly in the case of nonsynchronous distance education, when students and the instructor do not meet at a specific time on a specific day but instead complete assignments that include presentations as well as reading and responding within a given period of time, usually a week or a few days). Nonacademic settings, such as business or government, may approach instruction in terms of competencies and certifications. These organizations may organize instructional activities in terms of courses or study guides that support individuals in improving work-related skills or achieving passing scores on professional certification examinations. According to Orlich, Harder, Trevisan, Brown, and Miller (2018), sequencing instruction serves two essential purposes: either to isolate a piece of knowledge (a concept or principle) to help students comprehend its unique characteristics or to relate that concept or principle to a larger organized body of knowledge. Determining the scope of instruction serves the essential purpose of placing some restriction on just how much of any topic is covered as part of the instruction. For any instructional event, one must determine both the scope (the amount of information) and the sequence (the order in which the information will be presented). Regardless of how one organizes and divides up the instruction, some scope and sequence must be developed at the outset in order to determine what is to be taught and the order in which it will be presented. Levels of Organization: Macro, Micro, Vertical, and Horizontal Curriculum expert George Posner (2003) describes organizing instruction by “macro and micro levels” and by “vertical and horizontal dimensions.” Macro and micro levels are relative terms when used in connection with instructional organization. According to Posner, the broadest macro level is that which refers to educational levels (e.g., the difference between elementary and secondary education). The micro level at its most specific refers to the relationships between concepts, facts, or skills within lessons. Posner’s descriptions of horizontal and vertical dimensions of instruction help to clarify the difference between scope and sequence. If one thinks of a program of study laid out sequentially (like a timeline), the sequence of study is the vertical dimension (for example, first grade, second grade, third grade, etc.). The horizontal dimension describes the scope—that is, all the various concurrent and integrated activities. Posner refers to organizing curriculum content that is taught concurrently as the “horizontal organization.” He refers to sequencing of content and activities (that is, deciding when content will be presented) as “vertical organization” (Posner, 2003). Organizational Structures: Content and Media Posner (2003) states there are only two basic methods of organizing a curriculum or program of study. Instruction can be organized by using either a content or a media structure. A content structure organizes the instruction by the concepts, skills, or attitudes students are to acquire (as described by the instructional objectives). A media structure organizes the instruction by the activities, methods, and materials used to teach the concepts, skills, or attitudes described by the instructional objectives. The Events of Instruction Associated with Posner’s micro level organization of instruction is determining the order of the activities within a given lesson, known commonly as the events of instruction. These events are discrete activities that work best in a specific order. The most elemental series of instructional events consists of an introduction, a body (a variety of activities related to the content), a conclusion, and an assessment (Smith & Ragan, 2005). As an example, consider a typical K-12 teacher’s lesson plan (see Figure 7.1). The activities and evaluation sections have been labeled by using the four elemental events of instruction. Figure  7.1  An Example of a K-12 Teacher’s Lesson Plan Source: Author The eminent instructional designer and scholar Robert Gagne (1916–2002) theorized that there are nine events of instruction (1985). Gain learners’ attention. Inform learners of the objective. Stimulate recall of prior learning. Present the stimulus. Provide guidance for the learners. Elicit learner performance. Provide feedback. Assess learner performance. Enhance retention and transfer (varied practice and reviews). To put this theory into practice, each of the events described requires at least one instructional activity. The order of the activities makes a difference in the effectiveness of the instruction. The careful consideration of instructional events is analogous to the consideration that goes into a well-planned meal: the order of dishes served affects the overall experience. Although the events of instruction are most often described in terms that make it seem as if the teacher is the active participant while the learners passively receive instruction, this should not be the case. Both directed and open-ended learning environments have carefully planned instructional events. In both environments, students may take an active role in each of the instructional events. Smith and Ragan (2005) observe that each instructional event can be viewed as having two aspects: the supplantive—those supplied by the instruction itself&#x201

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