New Paradigm of Instructional Practice

A paradigm is a basic way of viewing a phenomenon, and a paradigm shift is a change in that view. Copernicus in 1543 published the heliocentric theory of the universe that identified the sun as the center, with the Earth moving around it. It eventually replaced the geocentric view that the Earth was at the center, which had been proposed by Ptolemy about 150 A.D. The two paradigms accounted for the same components, the Earth, sun and planets, but viewed their relationship differently. The instructional paradigm proposed here has the same components as a traditional instructional paradigm—subject matter content, objectives, assessment and instructional strategies. But it views those components from the perspective of theory and research in cognitive psychology rather than from the traditional perspective of the methods and processes of the discipline being studied. Designs of the components of instruction are guided by a research-based cognitive theory of how productive instructional strategies work [1].

Cognitive psychology is concerned with the manner in which our cognitive structures are organized and operate [2]. Sensory input information is received and held for fractions of a second in working memory, and then elements of that inputted information are related to other information and encoded into long-term memory. Later that information is retrieved and utilized in some way. If none of the information is encoded in long-term memory, no learning has occurred [3]. A student might listen to an hour of entertaining explanation about some topic, but if he or she has not encoded the information being presented in long-term memory then no learning has occurred. Learning is capturing and cataloguing information not previously encoded in a way that it can be retrieved later. It is retrieved as declarative knowledge or procedural knowledge.

The proposed paradigm aligns the components of instructional practice--subject matter, objectives, assessment and instruction--with cognitive psychology by identifying three cognitive categories, two kinds for declarative knowledge and one for procedural knowledge. The three cognitive categories are Recall Knowledge and Application Knowledge--for declarative knowledge--and Procedural Knowledge. The subject matter to be taught, the objective for that subject matter, and the appropriate assessment for that objective are categorized in terms of the empirically-based instructional strategies teachers will use in helping students acquire the knowledge identified in the subject matter and objective. For example, here are sample objectives: Recall Knowledge of the three parts of leaves; Application Knowledge of electromagnetic induction; and, Procedural Knowledge of solving problems involving simple electric circuits wired in parallel. The assessment task for the application knowledge objective would be appropriate for both the content to be learned and application knowledge assessment tasks. Instruction would be appropriate for the subject matter, the assessment task, and empirically-based instructional strategies for application knowledge.

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1 Clark, R.E., and Mayer, R.E. (2008). E-learning and the science of instruction. San Francisco: Pfeiffer.

2 Anderson, J.R. (1983). The architecture of cognition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

3 Kirschner, P.A., Sweller, J. and Clark, R.E.(2006). Why minimal guidance during instruction does not work: An analysis of the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experimental, and inquiry-based teaching. Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 75-86.