Last night in class we were asked to define, in our own words, the aims and means of "Instructional Development." The example had two blanks to fill in; the paper read "e.g. To achieve _______ by means of _________." Everyone else in class filled in the blanks. I did too initially, but using "ideals" and "processes" just didn't work for me. I ended up writing the following:
"To create effective instruction using systematic processes as a basis in order to bring the status quo closer to identified ideals."
I have a tendency to be verbose in classes, but that really is how my mind works. For me to process new ideas, I have to use/apply them, otherwise they don't make sense. The guide of "in your own words" is what led me to think outside of filling in the blank, and to express the idea as I currently view it. I got teased a bit by my classmates, including "OK, Romi" [the author of our main text] and comments about how I must have been the kid who used all of my vocabulary words in one long sentence in elementary school. (For the record, they were separate sentences, thanks.) Jerry wrote on his page, displayed by the projector, "POST THIS ON YOUR BLOG."
The thing is, this is what I think now. Fully admitting that I am an ID novice and that I am expecting to grow, learn, and change my ideas over this semester and the next several years, this is a good reference point. Will I still believe this later? I don't know, but I will actually reflect on it. For 621, 631, and 841 last term, some of my ideas remained the same, but I made a lot of changes in my perceptions of learning and ID. That's why I'm a doctoral student. If I came in and left the same, I'd be wasting my money, time, and effort.
So, here it is, posted on my blog. Critique away, but know that I am going to be doing the same.
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3 comments:
Hi,
For your definition "To create effective instruction using systematic processes as a basis in order to bring the status quo closer to identified ideals."
What do you mean by "effective instruction" - how can you tell?
What do you by "identified ideals"?
Jerry
Sorry that should have read
What do you mean by "identified ideals"?
I think that my mind is blending together a bit of this class along with my FEA class and my evaluation class. "Effective instruction" would have to be assessed by some sort of criteria, wouldn't it? Very likely, it is also based heavily on context, as well as who is making the declaration of it being "effective." In the general sense, though, and disclaimers out of the way, I would view "effective instruction" as instruction that is able to close a gap in knowledge or skills.
"Identified ideals" would be pre-determined expected performance in comparison to what already exists. (Again, this is assuming skills/knowledge gap.)
At least this is how my brain is defining things at the moment. All wonky definitions subject to change. =)
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