Instruction

This is Unit Ten, part two, on instruction: modeling, coaching and fading, lecture and active learning, learning by experience, and learning online. Part one closed on matching the method to the objective. Part two follows delivery from demonstration to independence and weighs the evidence on how students learn best. Carry one idea through this part: use each method for what the evidence says it does well, and state the limits of that evidence honestly. At the final entry, the part weighs lecture against active learning. By the end you will be able to plan coached practice at the right success rate. To state what research shows about homework. To describe active learning and its evidence. To put Kolb's experiential cycle in order. And to weigh lecture against active learning, with the limits of the evidence.

Five entries on modeling, coaching and fading, from demonstration to independent practice, with a contested note on homework.

Two meanings of modeling.

EDP 0920 Modeling

Modeling means either a demonstration that students learn from by observation, or a simplified representation such as a scale model or analogy, like gas molecules as bouncing balls in a box; demonstrations work best when the model is important, similar or warmly related. One sense shows how to act; the other, how something works.

Coaching.

EDP 0921 Coaching

Coaching combines accountability, through communication, monitoring and feedback, with practice that is purposeful, brief and supportive, designed for high success, about eighty to ninety percent correct, moving from guided practice in the zone of proximal development to independent practice, as a teacher circulates, checks work and gives quick feedback.

What research says about homework.

EDP 0922 Homework, Contested

Research on homework is contested: every study has design flaws, yet the evidence points consistently to a positive effect on achievement, stronger in grades seven to twelve. The ten-minutes-per-grade guideline gives a fourth grader forty minutes. Some critics claim no consistent benefit; the fuller evidence is more positive, though weaker for young children.

Fading prompts.

EDP 0923 Prompt Fading

Fading gradually withdraws support; prompt fading reduces verbal, gestural or physical prompts as the student gains control of a skill, as a teacher who guided a child's hand in writing an A, then pointed, then only said remember the crossbar, has faded prompts. Too slow breeds dependency; too fast brings frustration.

Fading rewards, and practicing for transfer.

EDP 0924 Reinforcer Fading and Transfer

Reinforcer fading shifts students from extrinsic toward intrinsic rewards, as stickers for each book give way to praise, then to the pleasure of the story itself, and independent practice for transfer, after mastery, uses real-world conditions, variety and self-direction. Transfer is the goal of fading: using the skill where no teacher is present.

Seven entries on lecture and active learning: strengths, evidence, techniques, and structured designs from flipped classes to teams.

The lecture.

EDP 0925 Lecture

Lecture is efficient, models enthusiasm and is low-risk for students; it is as effective as other methods for acquiring information, though not more effective, and listeners are active constructors, not empty vessels. A well-organized twenty-minute lecture introduces a unit's key ideas efficiently, but lecture is less effective for promoting thought.

Active learning.

EDP 0926 Active Learning

Active learning means students doing things and thinking about what they are doing, often in groups and aimed at higher-order thinking, as students predict what a pendulum will do, test it and explain the gap. It rests on constructivism and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. Activity alone is not active learning; the thinking is.

The evidence for active learning.

EDP 0927 The Evidence for Active Learning

Freeman and colleagues' meta-analysis of two hundred twenty-five STEM studies found exam scores about half a standard deviation higher with active learning, and lecture students about one and a half times more likely to fail; publication bias did not explain the findings. Another review found a smaller effect in randomized studies, so the size depends on design.

Active-learning techniques.

EDP 0928 Active-Learning Techniques

Active-learning techniques include the pause procedure, retrieval practice, predict-observe-explain demonstrations, think-pair-share, peer instruction, minute papers, concept maps and case-based learning, like a minute paper asking what was the most confusing point today. Retrieval practice pays off later: on delayed tests, prior testing produced substantially greater retention than restudying.

The flipped classroom.

EDP 0929 The Flipped Classroom

A flipped classroom moves first exposure before class and higher-level work into class, where support is available, with an incentive to prepare and a check on understanding, as students watch a short video on photosynthesis at home, then design an experiment in class. One flipped week showed a large effect, but retention was not tested.

Warm-ups and peer instruction.

EDP 0930 JiTT and Peer Instruction

In Novak's warm-up method, known as JiTT, students answer online questions before class and the teacher adjusts the lesson, as warm-ups revealing that half the class confuses mass and weight set where the lesson starts. In peer instruction, when about thirty to sixty-five percent answer a concept question wrongly, students discuss and revote.

Team-based learning.

EDP 0931 Team-Based Learning

Team-based learning uses permanent teams of five to seven, individual then team readiness tests with immediate feedback, and application activities following the four S rule: significant problem, same problem, specific choice, simultaneous report. It is at least as effective as other methods, though some top performers dislike it.

Four entries on learning by experience: Kolb's cycle, service learning, problem-based learning, and cognitive apprenticeship.

Kolb's experiential cycle.

EDP 0932 Kolb's Experiential Cycle

Experiential learning is learning by doing and reflecting, and Kolb's cycle describes it in four stages, in this order. Concrete experience: the learner has an experience. Reflective observation: the learner reviews and reflects on it. Abstract conceptualization: the learner forms a general principle. Active experimentation: the learner tests it in a new situation, producing a new experience. A student teacher's discussion stalls; that evening she notices her questions all had one right answer; she concludes that open questions invite more talk; the next day she tries them. The cycle begins with concrete experience, not with active experimentation.

Service learning.

EDP 0933 Service Learning

Service learning integrates community service with instruction and reflection, as a statistics class analyzes a food bank's data at the food bank's own request; it builds motivation and transfer, but it must fit the subject, may meet resistance, and fails when designed without community input, risking treating people as charity cases.

Problem-based learning.

EDP 0934 Problem-Based Learning

Problem-based learning, begun at McMaster's medical school in nineteen sixty-nine, has small groups solve a real problem through a systematic sequence, with a tutor facilitating, as groups diagnose a patient case before any lecture; evidence shows better long-term retention and skill. Early on it risks cognitive overload, and it differs from project-based learning.

Cognitive apprenticeship.

EDP 0935 Cognitive Apprenticeship

Apprenticeship combines modeling, coached practice and feedback; cognitive apprenticeship adds making expert thinking visible, as the expert thinks aloud, so learners see the tacit knowledge behind skilled performance, like a teacher saying first I ask what the question wants. The steps move from modeling through scaffolded approximation to self-directed performance.

Four entries on online and blended learning and the digital divide, ending with the payoff: lecture or active learning?

Online and blended learning.

EDP 0936 Online and Blended Learning

Online courses deliver at least eighty percent of content online; blended, or hybrid, courses deliver thirty to eighty percent, like weekly videos paired with in-person labs. A major meta-analysis found online learning modestly better on average and blended better still, but the authors credited added time, materials and collaboration, not the medium.

Designing online learning.

EDP 0937 Designing Online Learning

Good online design uses clear goals, modular organization, chunked content, short videos, retrieval questions, immediate feedback and instructor presence, as a module breaks a lecture into four five-minute videos, each followed by a quiz question; working memory holds about four chunks, not the older seven. Multimedia principles are not learning styles.

The digital divide.

EDP 0938 The Digital Divide

Internet learning brings information overload, so students need skill at searching and evaluating sources, and it depends on access, which is unequal by income and location: the digital divide. A rural student without home broadband cannot watch the flipped lesson's video at home, so online designs assume access some students lack.

The payoff: lecture or active learning?

EDP 0939 Lecture or Active Learning?

Here the part's idea is decided. Lecture is efficient and as effective as other methods for acquiring information, but less effective for promoting thought, changing attitudes or teaching behavioral skills. Active learning has strong support: Freeman and colleagues' meta-analysis of two hundred twenty-five STEM studies found exam scores about half a standard deviation higher and lecture students about one and a half times more likely to fail, and publication bias did not explain the result. The limits matter as much as the headline: the studies are in science, engineering and mathematics; another review found a smaller effect in randomized studies; one flipped week showed a large effect without testing retention; and blended learning's advantage was credited to added time and collaboration, not the medium. A biology instructor teaching two hundred students gives a fifteen-minute organized lecture, then a concept question with discussion and a revote, then a minute paper. The evidence does not say lecture is useless: match the method to the objective.

Look at what you can now do. You can plan coached practice for high success, about eighty to ninety percent correct, moving from guided to independent work. You can state what research shows about homework: a positive effect, stronger in grades seven to twelve, with the evidence still contested. You can describe active learning, doing and thinking about the doing, and its evidence in STEM courses. You can put Kolb's cycle in order: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, active experimentation. And you can weigh lecture against active learning with the evidence's limits in view. Unit Eleven turns to classroom management.