What’s Wrong with It?

Identifying Problems and Issues in Current Education Practice and Instructional Design

Have you ever encountered a teacher who gives you hundreds of pages of reading materials? Have you ever attended a class and left without remembering any of the lessons? Have you ever wished that lecture givers or teachers could do more about their presentations to catch your attention and to help your memory retain the information? Today, my discussion is about the current education practice and instructional design that students encounter. In this blog entry, we will answer the question: “What’s wrong with it?”

One education practice and instructional design that students encounter is receiving voluminous readings and assignments as requirements for a certain subject. In this practice, the result is information overload among students. When there is information overload, students’ learning process is impaired. Cognitive Load Theory tells us that our brain is like a glass. It can absorb and process knowledge or information anytime, but this glass is limited. Everything that we see, smell, touch, taste, or hear transmits information to our brain, stores this information in the memory, and eventually applies it to a certain situation when properly digested through a learning process. However, if too much information is given as with the extraneous cognitive load, students’ attention is distracted. Hence, instead of focusing on the main lesson, students may find it difficult to retain the lesson in their mind.

Furthermore, information overload impairs deep processing, wherein learners absorb information beyond structural (physical features) and phonemic (sound) processing. Structural processing is when learners learn the appearance of a new word. For example, Helen learns how A looks like—this is structural processing. But, when Helen learns how A sounds like, this becomes phonemic processing. Eventually, when Helen learns to associate A with a picture in her mind and with other letters, this stage becomes semantic processing. Semantic processing is difficult to achieve when there is information overload.

Another teaching practice is some teachers try hard to finish one whole book without ensuring student mastery of content. What’s wrong with it? There is no assurance of learning in this education practice because deep processing happens when the learner achieves semantic processing wherein: a.) he associates words or lessons to previous and similar knowledge; b.) he creates images on his mind in relation to the lesson or to words; c.) he is able to think critically and asks questions about the words or lessons. Instead, finishing without mastery is more of memorization only.

A class that takes forty minutes without a mid-session break is another education practice and instructional design that students encounter. What’s wrong with it? Based on Primacy-Recency Effect, segmenting sessions into twenty minutes is better to help students absorb new information, focus their attention, and enhance their memory. One way to practice this theory inside the classroom is to add activities after a 20-minute lecture. The reason behind this is that our brain remembers the first (primacy effect) and the last (recency effect) information we receive (Morrison, 2015).  

Finally, more textbooks-less visuals-less auditory materials-and, less word associations—is also an education practice and instructional design that students encounter. What’s wrong with it? Our brain goes through a process of encoding new information through the Multi Store Model Memory. In Multi Store Model Memory, our brain encodes through visual (pictures), acoustic (sound), and semantic (meaning). Hence, aside from textbooks, providing visuals such as PowerPoint presentations, graphics, charts, short videos, and the like will improve student learning. Sound is also an important matter. Hence, songs, music, and creative acoustic to promote learning is encouraged during a learning process.

Which of these education practices and instructional designs are you currently experiencing? Are you the learner or the teacher? Either way, will you consider something new in your own class by following some suggestions I have given in this blog entry? Personally, I will apply these new practices in our classroom because these practices will help my students become better learners. When they become better learners, then I can say that I have become a better teacher.

References:

Cognitive load theory: definition, types, and applications for learning. (2019). https://cognitiontoday.com/2019/02/cognitive-load-theory-definition-types-and-applications-forlearning-guest-post/

Huitt, W. (2003). The information processing approach to cognition. Educational Psychology Interactive. Valdosta, GA: Valdosta State University. Retrieved [date] from, http://www.edpsycinteractive.org/topics/cognition/infoproc.html

Morrison, M. (2015 March 17). Primacy and Recency Effects in Learning. Retrieved 15 march 2020 from: https://rapidbi.com/primacy-and-recency-effects-in-learning/