Instructional Design and Teaching Styles

Formal Authority Approach

Overview

This approach to curriculum planning focuses on content. The instructor defines the theories, principles, concepts, or terms that students need to learn and organizes them into a sequenced set of goals and objectives. The instructor then selects activities appropriate to each part of the sequence. There are various ways of deciding how to structure activities based on further considerations, such as type of content or learning styles. Students are examined over the content to assure that the lesson was effectively prepared. This approach is most-closely linked to Section III of Angelo and Cross's inventory.

Instructors begin the planning process by choosing the goals of the course. Goals are broad statements of the aims of a course that provide a framework for a more detailed range of objectives. They give a sense of purpose and value more than precise, measurable outcomes.

Goals are normally derived from three sources.

  1. External factors, including society's expectations (businesses, graduate schools, and public norms), accreditation agencies, colleagues and professional societies, disciplinary norms and research, and publishers (especially text books);
  2. Internal factors, including peers, department, school/college and university committees and    priorities, evaluations, student characteristics( knowledge and opinion), and available resources
  3. Personal factors, the instructors personal values, commitments, beliefs, abilities, and qualifications, and experiences.

An instructor should review their course in light of these factors, collecting information about each. For instance,

The instructor should outline a primary course goal and a set of sub-goals that will help attain the major goal. The instructor will have to make a series of decisions about what goals can be included, how much attention each can be given (scope), and what order is best (sequence). The forces listed above should provide some criteria for making these decisions.

Lesson Plans

The lesson plan outlines the action steps by which the goals are achieved. The first step is to define objectives for each of the major goals. Objectives are precise and clearly stated knowledge, skills, and attitudes that define successful accomplishment of the goal. They provide the conceptual scaffold for the work teachers and learners do together. They typical describe actual, measurable behaviors.

There are a variety of ways to write objectives. They may include cognitive, affective, and psychomotor statements. Levels of expected performance are frequently described in terms of Bloom's cognitive taxonomy and occasionally in terms of his affective taxonomy (receiving, responding, valuing, organizing values, and characterization of complex values).  For example, if I want students to know about goals but know & comprehend objectives then I would lay out my plans using the following grid:

Students will be able to (SWBAT) . . .

Know ... Comprehend . . . Apply . . . Synthesize . . . Evaluate . . .
Goals xx        
Objectives xx xx      

Lessons are based on available time to cover objectives. Specific objectives may be combined or separated, expanded or eliminated because of the structure of the course. However, once objectives are selected, the instructor must choose activities that work together to reach the objective. Again, there are a variety of approaches used to design activities and the sequence that should be used to present the lesson's content. Essentially the overall structure is to present an overview, then cover the material in a logical order (topical, chronological spatial, cause-effect, etc), and finally review the main points. Actual sequence of activities will vary based on individual instructor's personal preferences or based on a specific instructional models. Effective activities usually accommodate learning differences (for example, incorporate visuals, questions periods, and reflective activities as part of the sequence). Out of class assignments are considered as part of the instructional unit.

In deciding how well activities are designed, the instructor should keep I mind the following questions: How does the activity accomplish the activity, Will the activity be accessible to all students? Is the activity feasible (given time, etc. constraints)? Is the instructor comfortable using this approach?

Evaluation

Evaluation is an essential element of the planning process. All assessments should be closely linked to the objectives and activities actually covered. (Students rightfully complain when they find exam questions that were never addressed in the learning activities.) Evaluations should also give instructors useful feedback on how well the lesson was designed to reach the objectives.

The two general categories for conducting assessments of the course and/or the students are formative and summative. Formative evaluations are designed to provide on-going feedback aimed at improving performance as the instructor and/or students continue to work on the material. Angelo and Cross provide a number of formative strategies that might be used.

Summative evaluations measure the final ability of students (or the course) to reach the standards set in the objectives. The most common approaches would include pretest and post-test of students on content. Student evaluations also provide helpful comments.

Some Useful Sources

Robert Diamond (1989).Designing and Improving Courses and Curricula in Higher Education.  SF: Jossey-Bass.

Ivor Davies(1973). Competency Based Learning. NY: McGraw-Hill.

Joan Stark and Lisa Lattuca (1997). Shaping the College Curriculum. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 

Connections to other Instructional Design and Teaching Styles pages:
Introduction
Facilitator Teaching Style
Demonstrator Teaching Style
Delegator Teaching Style

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