Page 283 - Making Instruction Work
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chap 21 3/11/97 5:18 PM Page 269
course improvement 269
• Make your feedback comments task-diagnostic, and
gently correct your students when they make self-
diagnostic comments.
5. Adopt more streamlined procedures. Go back to your
course procedures and see where you can modify them
to more closely approximate the ideal instructional char-
acteristics found in Chapter 18.
6. Improve the instruction itself. Polish the presentations,
hone the examples, and clarify the demonstrations. It
may come as a surprise that this item is on the bottom of
the priority list. But think about it a moment.What good
is it to improve the elegance of the instruction itself if
that instruction serves no useful purpose, or if everyone
is convinced that it is of little or no value to them, or if
students can already perform as desired? How much will
it add to the effectiveness or efficiency of a racing car to
paint it when the tires are flat and the engine is dead?
Sure, it’s important to improve the elegance of the
instruction itself; smooth instruction helps motivation
as well as ease of learning. But until the above items are
attended to, improved elegance isn’t likely to net you
much gain in instructional success.
So work to make the course responsive to a real need before
working to improve the elegance of the course materials. Work
to provide students with a real reason to learn before working
to improve the quality of your slides. Remember the Wacky
Watchmaker who worked hard to reduce the number of parts
needed for a wristwatch. When asked whether it worked, he
replied, “Certainly not. But it doesn’t work—efficiently.”
And keep in mind that Rome wasn’t burned in a day. Make
your changes one at a time. And then reward yourself each
time you do so.