Page 153 - Making Instruction Work

chap 13 3/11/97 5:06 PM Page 139

13

Content Derivation

Situation: You have derived objectives and know what
it will take to provide relevant practice in those objec-
tives. Now you want to derive the content that will
bridge the gap between what students can already do
and what they will need to know or do before being
ready to practice the objective.

Content derivation is about closing gaps; it’s about closing
gaps between what people can already do and need to be able
to do. Obviously (I hope), if there is no gap—no difference—
between what they can do and need to be able to do, then
there’s no need for instruction. There’s no need to impose on
their, or your, valuable time to “teach” them what they already
know.
That’s a pretty powerful idea, because if it were actually put
into practice, the amount of instruction in the world could be
reduced at least by half. (Remember all that time you spent in
classrooms expected to “learn” what you already knew?) So
why don’t we put it into practice? Two main reasons.