What is Engaging Instruction?

I have worked at a local pet store since I was a junior in high school. During these years I’ve worked with many people and many, many kinds of animals. The one thing that always perplexed me the most was just how much there is to know about fish, and even more troubling than that, was just how little customers knew about fish. To many, a fish is a fish—they need water and fed occasionally, and you’ve pretty much got it. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. Not even close. In addition to understanding universal fish tank concepts (such as nitrogen cycling, water changes etc.) you need to know about the fish you plan to keep. For example, do you know that African cichlids need very high pH, while dwarf cichlids prefer very low water pH? Do you know that goldfish need cold water temperatures, and should never be housed with any tropical fish? What about the fact that African clawed frogs need extremely hard water to keep their water parameters in check and prevent chytrid fungi, while angelfish will die in water that hard.

 

How Does the uniqueness of our Learners Impact Lesson Planning?

To the causal observer, these appear to be trivial differences, when in actuality, they play a huge role in each organism’s survival and well-being. Not understanding that each fish is different and requires unique growing conditions is the root of many customers’ fish tank failures. The same is true for the teacher and their learners. Teachers, like the aquarist, need to provide each student with the optimal conditions for prosperity and success and what works well for one student, may be the exact opposite of helpful to another. To treat each one the same as another is impractical, and only results in diminished performance as a whole.

            Teachers need to prepare lessons that deliver content in various modalities and asses understanding in various domains (think cognitive vs. psychomotor.) I came to understand this much more deeply last Friday with our class Kahoot game. I realized how the activity provided a positive reward to those students who naturally desire to compete. For others, including myself, it felt off-putting, and appeared to reinforce being first over understanding the material. Some students thrive and do well, while others might feel frustrated. The opposite can be true when students who are motivated by competition are not given the chance to do so.It’s important to understand that each individual student reacts differently—some positive, some negative, and some indifferently—depending on how they are motivated by the instruction. As a result, lessons must be presented (either individually or collectively throughout the course) in a "catch all" manner. One that challenges students to explore new techniques, while allowing them to show what they know in a manner consistent with their learning style.

Goal Orientation Theory- Students are motivated based on their goals for achievement

 

How do E-Moments, multiple intelligences, domains and modalities impact instructional design?

Intelligence is not a one-dimensional concept. Each person understands a variety of topics and content at a unique level based on their individual experiences and base skill. Some students may have better psychomotor skills, while others have better cognitive ability. Instructional design must appeal to this range of differences and give each student the opportunity to present what they know. Understanding how a welder works, and working a welder are two different concepts that are both needed in order to produce a weld. Effective instructional design brings students who understand one or the other to a common ground where they can both meet the shared goal of producing a weld—regardless of their ability prior to the instruction.

Not only are students more intelligent in some ways than others, but the way they best receive instruction needs to be considered as well. Instructional design must consider presenting information in a multitude of ways that simultaneously satisfy the learning styles of visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners. Presenting directions visually on the board, saying them aloud and allowing students time to complete the task by hand is an example of intentional instructional design that meets the needs of individual student learning modalities. Engaging moments, known simply as "e-moments" are a set of instructional strategies that connect what needs to be taught with the way students learn. They are intended to purposefully appeal to specific learning modalities and capitalize on a variety of intelligences. They are not content, but rather are methods by which a teacher can connect students with the content in order to meet the objectives.

 

Some final thoughts...

To illustrate the tragic loss of life caused by the Holocaust, my history professor would often say that “the death of a single person is the loss of an entire species.” How real it all became to us when considered from that perspective. The passion, love, creativity and unique human experience that died with each victim. Understanding what each person brought to the world, and what departed with their demise as a result really paints a vivid, and tragic picture of how much was truly lost  as a result of the Holocaust.

With this, always strive to look at each individual as an irreplaceable relic of creativity and unique experiences. Teachers must look at each student, not just as an attendance statistic, or a grade, but rather as an individual classroom all their own. It is a matter of primary concern for teachers to employ those techniques that cultivate the desire to learn in each individual student. The behavior of variability is essential when it is considered, not just as a means to keep students entertained with the material, but as a critical process by which we give each student the tools and conditions needed to succeed.