Educational Psychology / Unit 10 EDP 0916 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Matching Method to Objective
The idea
Three delivery methods match three kinds of objective. Direct instruction suits facts, rules and action sequences, where students must acquire a clear body of content. Indirect, or inquiry, instruction suits concepts, patterns and abstractions, which students grasp by working with examples. Self-directed instruction suits learning strategies, building metacognition. Research on lecture sharpens the match: lecture is as effective as other methods for acquiring information, but less effective for promoting thought, changing attitudes or teaching behavioral skills.
In practice
Worked example: memorizing the steps of a lab safety procedure calls for direct instruction. Grasping what makes a food web stable calls for inquiry with many examples. Learning to plan one's own study for an exam calls for self-directed instruction. Changing attitudes toward recycling calls for discussion or role-play rather than a lecture.
Where people slip
Choose the method from the objective, not from habit. Thought is better served by discussion, attitudes by discussion toward consensus, simulations or role-play, and behavioral skills by practice.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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