Introduction

During my last 15 years as an education professor at Arizona State University, I developed a book and procedures entitled Cognition and Effective Instruction. The book is based on a paradigm for aligning instructional practice with cognitive psychology. I found in my education classes that the empirically-based instructional strategies in the paradigm were quite learnable and doable by student teachers. The strategies were also used in training insurance claims adjustors. Upon retiring I put the book on a shelf and engaged eagerly in retirement activities. I wondered when someone would come up with a similar way of viewing instructional practice in terms of cognitive psychology. No one has.

So here I am presenting the still apparently unique set of instructional ideas in a blog. I am convinced that the paradigm provides a powerful empirically-based instructional tool for improving the effectiveness of education and training, and will dramatically increase what all kinds of people in many kinds of courses and programs are quite capable of learning in all kinds of teacher-directed instructional settings, and even in computer-assisted instruction. The strategies in the paradigm are also very helpful in self-directed learning, such as when one is trying to remember new terminology in science or management, remembering what a college professor or business trainer said in a lecture, helping oneself apply already acquired knowledge to new, novel situations, and teaching oneself to carry out new skills, ranging from initial, conscious, step-by-step enactment to subsequent, unconscious, automatic enactment.

As I write this blog, I am guided by Machiavelli [1], when he wrote in 1532 in the book The Prince:

"It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. ….(particularly with people) who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had an actual experience of it."

I must confess, if I did not think this empirically-based instructional paradigm was a new idea well worth the trouble, I would put it back on the shelf and return to retirement. All I ask is that if the ideas initially interest you, please stay with the blog long enough to really understand them, and perhaps even try out some of the strategies with students or yourself so as to “actually experience” them. Occam’s razor will be my personal editorial guide, the principle of parsimony, of succinctness.


[1] Mahciavelli, N.M. (2004). The Prince. London. Penguin.