Self-Instruction and Learning


As we have emphasized throughout this book, the instructional events designed to be carried out during an act of learning (several of which may occur during a single lesson) have the purpose of stimulating, activating, supporting, and facilitating the internal processes of learning. Any of these events may be useful in achieving these purposes for any specific lesson or lesson component, or all of them may be. However, it should be clear that the particular events which need to be planned for any given learner, or for any group of learners, cannot be predicted with precision. Individual differences among students are large, at all ages, and must be taken fully into account in the planning of instruction.

 

Differences in Self-Instruction

The student differences of particular relevance to the planning of instruction are those pertaining to the amount of self-instruction the students are able to undertake. Obviously, a skilled adult, such as a college senior or university graduate student, arranges virtually all the events of instruction for himself. For him, learning is typically a matter of reading a book or several books. If he is a truly sophisticated learner, he is already motivated. He sets his own objectives, adopts an attentional set, uses an efficient coding system, devises novel ways of applying what he has learned, demonstrates to himself the performance of which he is capable, and verifies the product so as to provide feedback. In other words, he brings to bear on his own learning a whole set of procedural rules and cognitive strategies that eliminate the necessity for most kinds of "external" instruction.

 

Differences in Self-Instruction

The student differences of particular relevance to the planning of instruction are those pertaining to the amount of self-instruction the students are able to undertake. Obviously, a skilled adult, such as a college senior or university graduate student, arranges virtually all the events of instruction for himself. For him, learning is typically a matter of reading a book or several books. If he is a truly sophisticated learner, he is already motivated. He sets his own objectives, adopts an attentional set, uses an efficient coding system, devises novel ways of applying what he has learned, demonstrates to himself the performance of which he is capable, and verifies the product so as to provide feedback. In other words, he brings to bear on his own learning a whole set of procedural rules and cognitive strategies that eliminate the necessity for most kinds of "external" instruction.
Most learners, however, are not as skilled as the true "self-learner." Instead, they are still acquiring the procedures of learning (sometimes called "study habits") and the cognitive strategies which activate and guide their own learning processes. The external events of instruction are designed: (1) to provide the support needed in activating learning processes, and (2) to encourage the development of the cognitive strategies which will make such external support unnecessary. As an ultimate goal, it may be said that instruction should be designed to "put itself out of business." But that is not an easy goal to attain, and it surely cannot be done over short periods of time. According to experience as currently appraised, developing a student into a truly independent learner takes years. This is the basic reason why organized programs of instruction exist to fill these years with learning.


Choosing Instructional Events

The instructional events the teacher chooses to omit from the total set listed in Figure 5.8 should be those which, as an estimate, are not required because the students can supply them themselves. First-graders, in general, would not be expected to be capable of managing their own learning processes. Sixth-graders may be able to assume sets to direct attention and to use moderately effective strategies of coding and retrieval. High school students should be able to instruct themselves in many of the capabilities they are expected to learn. But these are generalities only. The teacher must decide, for each specific learning act, which instructional events might be omitted and which need to be emphasized.
The following list is intended as a guide for estimates of the potentiality for self-instruction and, therefore, for the planning of instructional events:
  • Activating motivation can be omitted as an event when the motivation of learners is obviously high or when the lesson ties in with known student motivations. For much of instruction, though, it is an event of high importance.
  • Informing the learner of the objective of a lesson is almost always a good idea, except when the objective is already apparent.
  • Directing attention can often be done very simply. Sometimes, special pains must be taken to emphasize features for selective perception.
  • Stimulating recall may not be necessary for skillful self-learners; for others, however, it may be a critical event.
  • Providing learning guidance. This event may also be omitted when skill in self-instruction can be relied on.
  • Enhancing retention. Provisions for this event need not be made for highly skillful learners. Others, not so skillful, may need to be reminded to practice retrieval.
  • Promoting transfer is almost always a useful event, since it confronts the learner with novel situations that he may be unable to devise by himself.
  • Eliciting performance, coupled with feedback can be omitted for only the most skillful self-learners. It is this event which completes the learning, and to omit it would be a serious mistake.

Obviously, including more instruction than is necessary is likely to lead to boredom on the part of students. Providing less than is needed, however, has the serious consequences of inadequate learning, misdirected learning, or no learning at all. Making good estimates of student self-instructional capabilities is an essential part of the planning of instruction.


General References

Men-ill, M. D. Instructional design: Readings. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1971.
Briggs, L. J. Handbook of procedures for the design of instruction. Pittsburgh: American Institutes for Research, 1970.
Gagne, R. M., & Briggs, L. J. Principles of instructional design. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1974.
Popham, W. J. & Baker, E. L. Planning an instructional sequence. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970.
Tyier, R. W. Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1949.

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