Page 156 - Making Instruction Work

chap 13 3/11/97 5:06 PM Page 142

142 making instruction work

choices will have to be made. How shall these choices be made?
Actually, it’s relatively easy.
You know what the important outcomes of the instruction
should be, and you know more or less what your students will
be able to do when they arrive. You know what “stuff” is avail-
able to you in the place where learning will occur, and the
restrictions under which you will have to work. And you know
what you will need to do to make relevant practice possible.
Deriving content for your instruction, therefore, amounts
to reviewing the requirements for relevant practice, your tar-
get population description, and your hierarchy, and answering
the question:

“Why aren’t they ready to practice this objective NOW?”

What prevents them from being ready to practice as soon as
they “enter” the module? The answer to that question will tell
you what needs to be done to fill the gap between what stu-
dents can now do and what they need to be able to do before
being ready to practice the entire objective of the module.
The secret to deciding what to put in and leave out is to
think about module content as the difference between what is
already known and what needs to be known.

What needs to be known
– What is already known
= What needs to be taught

Why Aren’t They Ready to Practice Now?

Usually, when students aren’t prepared to practice as soon as
they enter a module, it is because there is something they don’t
know, such as how to do what they’re expected to do, or