Papers by Charles Reigeluth
Instructional Theories in Action, 2018
Instructional Theories in Action, 2018
Journal of Instructional Development, 1982
... different levels of elaboration. Using the kinds conceptual structure shown in Figure I as th... more ... different levels of elaboration. Using the kinds conceptual structure shown in Figure I as the organizing structure, the epitome would include the concepts of animal, cold-blooded animal, and warm-blooded animal. The first level of ...
Journal of Instructional Development, 1979
The elaboration theory of instruction is an alternative to the standard way of organizing instruc... more The elaboration theory of instruction is an alternative to the standard way of organizing instruction based on a hierarchical task analysis. The hierarchical organization results in an instructional sequence that begins with highly fragmented, small pieces of the subjectmatter content. Many educators have found its fragmentation to be demotin.ting. Many educational psychologists have found its parts-to-whole sequence to be inconsistent with much knowledge about how learning occurs most effectively-namely schema theory and its predecessor, subsumption theory. And many im,tructional designers have fvund that "leaning hierarchies" represent a very incomplete basis upon which to make decisions about sequencing the instruction, primarily because learning hierarchies are only one aspect of the st:ucture of subject-matter content. All this is not to deny that learning prerequisites exist nor to say that they are not important-they do exist and they AuthorNotS everal people helped the author in the development of the elaboration model: M.
Comprehensive Systems Design: A New Educational Technology, 1993
In November 1989, there was a meeting of people who had been involved in helping to bring about f... more In November 1989, there was a meeting of people who had been involved in helping to bring about fundamental restructuring in public schools. This chapter reports on one person's view of the results of that "Asilomar Conference." It describes 15 acti\.ities that appear to enhance the success of systemic restructuring, but more importantly it describes principles or guidelines that appear to enhance the success of each activity. Hopefully. this tentative process model will contribute to building a knowledge base that u.ill help practitioners and other stakeholders to attain a quantum improvement in the quality of their educational systems.
Performance & Instruction, 1981
The purpose of this commentary is not so much to critique the studiesin this special issue as to ... more The purpose of this commentary is not so much to critique the studiesin this special issue as to stimulate deeper thinking and dialogueabout the issues raised by these studies, in the hope of improvingthe usefulness of research in this important area. The key issuesare represented by the following three questions: 1) What kind ofknowledge is needed for how to use the Internet most effectivelyfor educational purposes? 2) What kind of research is needed togenerate that knowledge? 3) What role should technology play inthe nature of that knowledge? In addressing these questions, thisarticle explores the value of design theory relative to descriptivetheory. It explores the value of design-based research relative todescriptive and comparative studies. And it explores the value ofintegrating technology into the methods we have traditionally usedin education relative to harnessing technology to transform thosemethods into ones more focused on learners' needs.
Journal of Instructional Development, 1986
This paper describes tutoring models and compares and contrasts the instructional strategies in t... more This paper describes tutoring models and compares and contrasts the instructional strategies in those models that have been found effective by practitioners or researchers. The models reviewed include those of Literacy Volunteers, Laubach Literacy, Structured Tutoring, Programmed Tutoring, Peer-Mediated Instruction, and the Audio-Tutorial System. The review of these tutoring models reveals that there are different types of tutoring. Remedial versus
Instructional design theories and models: A new …, 1999
... Clearly, the dif-ferences made by scope will vary from one student to another and from one&qu... more ... Clearly, the dif-ferences made by scope will vary from one student to another and from one" stake-holder" to another in the educational system.(Stakeholders are all those who have a stake in the particular educational system, such as parents, employers, taxpayers, students ...
Teaching Education, 1994
Page 1. TEACHING EDUCATION VOLUME 6, NUMBER 1 The Case for Systemic Restruc-turing as a Key to In... more Page 1. TEACHING EDUCATION VOLUME 6, NUMBER 1 The Case for Systemic Restruc-turing as a Key to Information Technology Integration in Education: A Response to van den Akker and Plomp Alison A. Can, Western ...
Systems Practice, 1995
held its sixth annual conversation at Asilomar on November 14-19, 1993. At that meeting, seven pa... more held its sixth annual conversation at Asilomar on November 14-19, 1993. At that meeting, seven participants self-selected themselves into a conversation group that met intensively over 4 days to develop some guidelines or principles for the process of facilitating systemic change in education. This is a report on how that group functioned and what it produced. The trigger questions addressed included: What are the major stages in the systemic change process? Can you do systems design with only a part of the "system"? How important is scale (e.g., number of people, schools)? What is an educational system? Can you use the same design process in any culture? How can one best create the idealized design? What are the major goals, obstacles., guidelines? Can we design the process without knowing the product? and Are there big differences between working within the system and outside the system? A large portion of the effort focused on guidelines for facilitating the first two phases of the systemic change process: preparing for design and designing the new system.
Review of Educational Research, 1986
This paper reviews instructional theory and research relating to three design criteria: (a) the o... more This paper reviews instructional theory and research relating to three design criteria: (a) the order of presentation of instruction (sequencing), (b) the kinds of content relationships that should be taught, and (c) the way content relationships should be taught (synthesis). With respect to sequencing, theory and research on the following are reviewed: scrambled versus logical sequences; micro level sequences such as rule-example versus example-rule and the order of instances in the form of examples or practice; and macro level sequences such as Bruner’s spiral approach, Ausubel’s general-to-detailed sequence based on “progressive differentiation,” Gagne’s hierarchical sequence for intellectual skills, the “shortest path” sequence for teaching complex procedures advocated by P. Merrill, Scandura, and others, and the Elaboration Theory’s three simple-to-complex sequences proposed by Reigeluth. With respect to synthesis, theory and research are reviewed on Ausubel’s advance organizer...
Educational Technology Research and Development, 1989
Educational Technology Research and Development, 2003
Corporate and educational settings increasingly require decision making, problem solving and othe... more Corporate and educational settings increasingly require decision making, problem solving and other complex cognitive skills to 'handle ill-structured, or heuristic, tasks, but the growing need for heuristic task expertise has outpaced the refinement of task analysis methods for heuristic expertise. The Heuristic Task Analysis (HTA) Method was applied to three settings to generate improvements and more detailed guidance, and to identify variations in the method for different situations. The three settings were group counseling, tutoring on writing skills, and selecting artwork for a product line. The formative research methodology was used to test the method and generate improvements. The three studies produced some common and some unique findings and recommendations. A tentative revision to the HTA method is proposed. Includes seven tables. Interview questions and the HTA Method interview sheet are appended. (Contains 41 references.) (Author) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. Heuristic Task Analysis
Journal of computer-based instruction, 1989
... The design of computer-based simulations is presented in the form of a general model that off... more ... The design of computer-based simulations is presented in the form of a general model that offers prescriptions for the design of the introduction, acquisition, application, and assessment stages of simulations and for dealing ... (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights ...
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Papers by Charles Reigeluth
Volume IV provides a research-based description of the current state of instructional theory for the learner-centered paradigm of education, as well as a clear indication of ways that different theories and models interrelate. Significant changes have occurred in learning and instructional theory since the publication of Volume III, including advances in brain-based learning, learning sciences, information technologies, internet-based communication, a concern for customizing the student experience to maximize effectiveness, and scaling instructional environments to maximize efficiency.
In order to complement the themes of Volume I (commonality and complementarity among theories of instruction), Volume II (diversity of theories), and Volume III (building a common knowledge base), the theme of Volume IV is shifting the paradigm of instruction from teacher-centered to learner-centered and integrating design theories of instruction, assessment, and curriculum. Chapters in Volume IV are collected into three primary sections: a comprehensive view of the learner-centered paradigm of education and training, elaborations on parts of that view for a variety of K-12 and higher education settings, and theories that address ways to move toward the learner-centered paradigm within the teacher-centered paradigm.
This volume is an essential book for anyone interested in exploring more powerful ways of fostering human learning and development and thinking creatively about ways to best meet the needs of learners in all kinds of learning contexts.
Content
• All kinds of content.
Learners
• All kinds of learners.
Learning environments
• Learner-centered rather than teacher-centered.
• Attainment-based learner progress rather than time-based progress.
• Customized rather than standardized instruction and assessment.
Instructional development constraints
• Requires well-designed resources in the form of tasks and instructional support.
Values (opinions about what is important)
About ends (learning goals)
• Development of intrinsic motivation and love of learning are highly valued.
• Development of learner self-regulation skills (how to learn) is highly valued.
• Mastery of knowledge and skills is highly valued, including transfer to varied and real-world contexts.
• Development of collaboration skills is highly valued.
• Emotional, social, and character development are highly valued, including empathy and desire to contribute to one’s community.
About priorities (criteria for successful instruction)
• Effectiveness and intrinsic motivation of the instruction are more important than efficiency.
About means (instructional methods)
• The instruction should be customized regarding pace, content, methods, and assessment.
• Intrinsically motivated learning and love of learning are highly valued.
• Learning by doing (active learning) is highly valued.
• Just-in-time instructional support while learning by doing is highly valued.
• Learning from peers through collaboration is highly valued.
• Self-regulated learning is highly valued.
• Self-reflection and self-evaluation are highly valued.
• Both formative and summative assessment should occur throughout instruction.
About power (to make decisions about the previous three)
• Empowering learners to make decisions about ends, priorities and means is highly valued.
Universal Principles
1. Attainment-based instruction
• Attainment-based learner progress: Each learner’s progress should be based on reaching the learning goals, rather than based on time.
• Attainment-based learner assessment: Each learner should be assessed through comparison with the criteria for mastery (criterion-referenced assessment) rather than through comparison with other learners (norm-referenced assessment).
• Attainment-based learner records: Each learner’s records should be a list or map of individual attainments, rather than a traditional report card with names of courses and letter or number grades.
2. Task-centered instruction
• Task environment: Most instruction should be organized around the performance of a task that is of great interest to the learner, aligned with the learner’s goals, of significant duration, within an immersive environment, and authentic or realistic.
• Scaffolding: Three types of scaffolding should be used whenever the task is too difficult for the learner: adjusting, coaching, and instructing.
3. Personalized instruction
• Personalized goals: Long-term life goals and short-term learning goals should be personalized.
• Personalized task environment: The task selection should be personalized. Decisions about collaboration (teammates) should be personalized. And the nature and amount of self-regulation should be personalized.
• Personalized scaffolding: The nature and amount of coaching and instructing should be personalized.
• Personalized assessment: The choice of assessor and format for the assessment should be personalized.
• Personalized reflection: The way the learner reflects on the process and product (or performance) of the task should be personalized.
4. Changed roles
• The teacher’s roles should be: a) to assist learners in setting goals, b) to assist learners in designing or selecting tasks, c) to facilitate task performance, d) to facilitate learning, e) to help evaluate performance and learning, and f) to mentor the learner.
• The learner’s roles should be: a) to be an active learner, b) to be a self-regulated learner, and c) to be a teacher of one’s peers.
• Technology’s roles should be: a) to support recordkeeping for learning, b) to assist planning for learning, c) to provide or support instruction for learning (both the interactive task environment and the just-in-time scaffolding), and d) to provide or support assessment for and of learning fully integrated with the instruction.
5. Changed curriculum
• Expanded curriculum: Many important kinds of learning that are currently absent from the curriculum should be added (and some removed).
• Fundamentally restructured curriculum: The curriculum should be organized around the four pillars of effective thinking, acting, relationships, and accomplishment rather than math, science, literacy, and social studies.
Situational Principles
2.1 Task environment
• An inauthentic task environment might be preferable: a) when it is more motivational for the learner than an authentic environment, b) when it can prevent cognitive overload associated with an authentic environment, or c) when it can be sufficiently safer or less expensive than an authentic environment.
• A learner-designed task might be preferable: a) when the available tasks from which to choose are inadequate given the learner’s learning needs and interests, b) when there is sufficient time for the learner and teacher to design it, and/or c) designing a task is itself an important learning goal.
• The task may be project-based, problem-based, inquiry-based, or maker-based, depending mostly on the nature of what is to be learned.
2.2 Scaffolding
• Scaffolding can be universal (initiated at a predetermined point in the performance of a task), or triggered (when a certain learner action indicates it is needed), or requested (when the learner asks for help).
• Scaffolding can be offered by the teacher, another learner, an expert in the task, or technology.
• Scaffolding can be in the form of a leading question, or information, or a hint, or an explanation (developing an understanding).
4.2 Learner roles
• The kinds and amounts of self-direction given to the learner should vary with the kinds and levels of self-regulated learning skills the learner has developed.
– C.M.R., B.J.B & R.D.M.
In the United States, elementary and secondary students do not measure up well when standing toe to toe with their international peers. But this isn’t breaking news. For decades, national oversight groups and independent ex-perts have been issuing data and reports like Nation at Risk (published in 1983 by the National Commission on Excellence in Education) and the U.S. Education Reform and National Security report (published by the Council on Foreign Rela-tions in 2012) that strongly decry the performance of U.S. schools.
The U.S. Department of Education (along with all 50 of the U.S. state de-partments of education and many private foundations) have poured billions of dollars into elementary and secondary educational reforms since the Russians launched Sputnik in the 1960s, yet U.S. public schools are still not meeting the educational needs of many of their students. Clearly, the current approaches to educational reform are failing.
This book explores why the current approaches are failing and what kind of approach is needed. Specifically, we look at the existing education structure in the U.S. and how it needs to change to meet the current and near-future learning needs of students. We describe two aspects of education reform: what education systems should be like from preschool through high school, and how to help current systems transform themselves accordingly.
Chapter 1 explores the fundamental changes in society as the Industrial Age evolved to the Information Age and describes how the educational needs of students and communities have changed to accommodate this shift. This chapter points out that what is taught (the content) and how it is taught (the instructional methods) need to change. Yet perhaps more importantly, we pro-vide evidence that the fundamental structure of the U.S. education system has become obsolete — if not actually counterproductive to meeting the new edu-cational needs.
This chapter provides evidence that the current education system is structured to leave children behind and describes an alternative structure — that maximizes learning while lowering educational costs — to meet the new education needs of the Information Age.
Chapter 2 uses an analysis of key differences in society between the In-dustrial Age and the Information Age to present a vision of an educational sys-tem that can meet the educational and developmental needs of students and their communities in today’s world — in a way that’s more cost-effective than the current system. This chapter describes six core ideas to stimulate thinking about what is possible for education.
1. An attainment-based system
2. Learner-centered instruction:
3. Expanded curriculum:
4. Roles for students, teachers, and technology that support self-directed learning
5. A nurturing school culture
6. Decentralized organizational structures.
Furthermore, features of current education systems that are counterproduc-tive to student learning are identified. Finally, this chapter addresses the cost-effectiveness of the new system.
Chapter 3 highlights three examples out of hundreds of school systems that have already adopted the new kind of system that we envision in Chapter 2. These examples represent change at various levels of education — a single school, a school district, and an international school model — and describe how the three organizations use the six core ideas that are introduced in Chap-ter 2 along with evidence of each organization’s effectiveness. An appendix lists many similar school systems.
Chapter 4 outlines how to transform existing schools and design new schools to achieve the Information-Age education system on a small scale (in-dividual schools), medium scale (school districts), and large scale (state sys-tems). The chapter identifies principles of change that can help guide any transformation process, and it explores “open questions” that can influence the success of a transformation effort.
Chapter 5 proposes initiatives that the federal government can under-take to accelerate the transformation of school systems: supporting the devel-opment of a new kind of technological tool, piloting best practices, building states’ capacity to facilitate change, and advancing knowledge about the para-digm change process. A phased approach is recommended for each of these four initiatives.
There is a fairly detailed summary of key ideas at the end of each chapter.
More information is available at www.reinventingschools.com, and we welcome your input on our blog or Facebook page through that website.
Chapter 1. The Case for a Fundamental Change 1
Meeting the Needs of Only a Few 1
Meeting the Needs of All 5
Preparing Students for Outdated Business Needs 7
Exploring the Essence of the Information Age 10
Changing Educational Needs of Students 20
Understanding the S-Curve and Paradigm Change 23
Summary of Key Ideas in this Chapter 27
Related Readings 29
Related Websites 31
Chapter 2. A Vision of Information-Age Education 33
Core Idea 1: Attainment-Based System 35
Core Idea 2: Learner-Centered Instruction 37
Core Idea 3: Expanded Curriculum 43
Core Idea 4: New Roles 47
Core Idea 5: A Nurturing School Culture 57
Core Idea 6: Organizational Structure and Incentives 63
Structural Changes 74
Cost-Effectiveness 76
Related Readings 83
Related Websites 86
Chapter 3. Examples of the New Paradigm 87
Minnesota New Country School (EdVisions) 87
Related Readings 97
The Chugach School District 98
Related Readings 105
Related Websites 106
The Montessori System 107
Related Readings 114
Other Information-Age School Systems 115
Summary of Key Ideas in this Chapter 115
Chapter 4. How To Get There from Here 117
Strategies for the Paradigm Change Process 118
Principles for the Paradigm Change Process 122
Open Questions 132
Summary of Key Ideas in this Chapter 141
Related Readings 144
Related Websites 146
Chapter 5. What Governments Can Do 147
1. Support Development of Technological Tools 148
2. Support Piloting of Best Practices 151
3. Help States Build Capacity to Facilitate Paradigm Change 153
4. Developing Knowledge on the Paradigm Change Process 154
A Federal Strategy 155
A Final Word 159
Summary of Key Ideas in this Chapter 159
Related Readings 161
Appendix A. Schools Evolving into the New Paradigm 163
Appendix B. So What if Paradigm Change Takes a Long Time? 171
Appendix C. Tools for Paradigm Change 173
Senge’s Iceberg 173
Senge’s Ladder of Inference 174
Senge’s 11 Laws of Systems 177
Banathy’s Three Views of Systems 178
Ackoff’s Four Orientations to Change 179
Reigeluth’s Fractals from Chaos Theory 181
Duffy’s Three Paths for Paradigm Change 185
Related Readings 186
How to help people learn better. That is what instructional theory is all about. It describes a variety of methods of instruction (different ways of facilitating human learning and development) and when to use- and not use-each of
those methods.
Volume I of Instructional-Design Theories and Models (1983) provides a "snapshot in time" of the status of instructional theory in the early 1980s. Its
main purpose was to raise awareness of instructional theories. Volume II (1999) provides a concise summary of a broad sampling of work in the late 1990s on a new paradigm of instructional theories for the Information Age. Its main purpose was to raise awareness of the diversity of theories that provide a customized or learner-centered learning experience in all different domains of human learning
and development. It also raised awareness of the importance of values in instructional theory.
However, after the appearance of Volume II, we became increasingly concerned about the extent to which instructional theorists seemed to be working in relative isolation from each other, building their own view of instruction with little regard to building on what knowledge already exists and what terminology has already been used for constructs they also describe. We recognized that every
area of knowledge goes through an initial developmental phase in which these differences predominate. We also saw that, as an area of knowledge matures, it enters a second phase of development in which work focuses more on contributing to a common knowledge base with a consistent terminology. While it would be a mistake to push an area of knowledge into phase 2 too soon, we believe that
instructional theory is now ready to begin such a transition.
Therefore, the purpose of this Volume III is to take some early steps in building a common knowledge base about instruction with a common u.se of terms. The primary audience for this volume, like that of the previous two volumes, is instructional theorists, researchers, and graduate students. An additional audience is instructional designers, teachers, and trainers who are interested in guidance about how to design instruction of high quality.
Unit 1 offers some organizational schemes for understanding and developing a common knowledge base about instruction. We strongly urge you to read the four chapters in this unit before reading any of the theories that follow. Unit 2 offers a chapter on each of five major approaches to instruction: the directinstruction,
discussion, experiential, problem-based, and simulation approaches. Each of these chapters synthesizes the current knowledge about that approach as a step toward building a common knowledge base. Unit 3 offers a chapter on instruction for each of four major outcomes of instruction: skill development, understanding, affective development, and integrated learning outcomes. Each of these chapters also synthesizes the current knowledge about that kind of instruction. Finally, Unit 4 offers ideas that may prove useful for building a common knowledge base about instruction.
Because this volume contains many ideas that may be difficult for aU but the most experienced to digest, we have tried to make it easier for the reader by preparing the same kind of unconventional foreword for each chapter as was done for Volume II. Each chapter foreword outlines the major ideas presented in the chapter. This offers something akin to a hypertext capability for you to get a quick overview of a chapter and then flip to parts of it that particularly interest you. It can also serve preview and review functions and make it easier to compare different theories. Furthermore, we have inserted editors' notes in most chapters to help you relate elements in a chapter to fundamental ideas presented in other chapters. Finally, each unit has a foreword that introduces the chapters in that unit.
It is our sincere hope that this book wilJ help to move instructional theory to the next stage of development- creating a truly common knowledge base with a consistent terminology. We hope it will help instructional theorists and researchers to contribute to the growing knowledge base about instruction in a way that acknowledges and builds on prior work, and that it will help instructional designers and graduate students to understand and utilize the full range of accumulated knowledge about how to help people learn.
- CMR&ACC
Goals and preconditions. The primary goal of this theory is to help select and sequence content in a way that will optimize attainment of learning goals. It is intended for medium to complex kinds of cognitive and psychomotor learning, but does not currently deal with content that is primarily in the affective domain.
Values. Some of the values upon which this theory is based include:
• a sequence that is as holistic as possible, to foster meaning-making and motivation,
• allowing learners to make many scope and sequence decisions on their own, during the learning process,
• an approach that facilitates rapid prototyping in the instructional development process,
• the integration of viable approaches to scope and sequence into a coherent design theory.
Methods. Here are the major methods this theory offers:
1. Conceptual elaboration sequence
Use this approach when the goals call for learning many related concepts.
Teach broader, more inclusive concepts before the narrower, more detailed concepts that elaborate upon them.
Use either a topical or a spiral approach to this conceptual elaboration.
Teach “supporting” content (principles, procedures, information, higher-order thinking skills, attitudes, etc.) together with the concepts to which they are most closely related.
Group concepts and their supporting content into “learning episodes” that aren’t so large as to make review and synthesis difficult but aren’t so small as to break up the flow of the learning process.
Give students some choice as to which concepts to elaborate upon first/next.
2. Theoretical elaboration sequence
Use this approach when the goals call for learning many related principles.
Teach broader, more inclusive principles before the narrower, more detailed ones that elaborate upon them.
Use either a topical or a spiral approach to this theoretical elaboration.
Teach “supporting” content (concepts, procedures, information, higher-order thinking skills, attitudes, etc.) together with the principles to which they are most closely related.
Group principles and their supporting content into “learning episodes.”
Give students some choice as to which principles to elaborate upon first/next.
3. Simplifying conditions sequence
Use this approach when the goals call for learning a task of at least moderate complexity.
Teach a simpler version of a task (that is still fairly representative of all versions) before teaching progressively more complex versions.
Use either a topical or a spiral approach to this simplifying conditions sequence.
For procedural tasks focus on teaching steps; for heuristic tasks focus on teaching principles; and for combination tasks teach both steps and principles—in accordance with the way experts think about the task.
Teach “supporting” content together with the steps and/or principles to which they are most closely related.
Group steps/principles and their supporting content into “learning episodes.”
Give students some choice as to which versions of the task to learn next.
Major contributions. Detailed guidance for designing holistic sequences for several kinds of course content. Guidance for scope and sequence decisions for heuristic tasks, including heuristic task analysis methods.
C.M.R.