Using Instructional design to improve learning environments is a concept slowly becoming a requirement in education and industry. Although instructional design only recently becoming a phrase more widely used it has been a subject of discussion and study for many years.
Visionaries?
In 1964, Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek based on a society that had forgone currency and was based on a society that lived to better themselves and the world around them.
Then, in 2008, Peter Joseph created and released the film Zeitgeist: Addendum. Towards the end of this documentary, they discuss the need to move from a monetary-based society to a technological-based society.
So, not only were Gene Roddenberry and Peter Joseph visionaries, but I would also describe them as designers. They seem to have been able to see how society was evolving and gave us a hint of what was to come. Now, in the 2020’s, we could determine that we are in transition from a monetary-based society to a technological one. Look at any pram in the modern world and you will probably see a baby or toddler with a SMART phone in its hand. People in modern society are now in a position where normal life cannot occur without technology.
Classrooms
The origins of the classroom design model (Bates A.W. 2019) are now over 150 years old, and society’s approach to pedagogy was to educate the masses in preparation for work in the industrial centres, government, and education.
Classrooms would be set out in rows with the teacher at the front. Although inflexible, this is still the design model in use today. This objectivist method of education, however traditional, is the teacher-centred approach. This is where the teacher is seen as the authority and the source of truth. Learning is seen as learning predetermined facts and skill sets. Objectivists envision learning as receiving and memorising the given information.
Constructivism, however, in education promotes a student-centred approach. Where the learners engage with the material, collaborate with peers and discover their own path to learning. Constructivists are more experiential learners and are very much hands-on.
Charalambos Vrasidas describes in detail the continued debate between the two camps of constructionism and objectivism. It is interesting to see that in the first world the constructionist model seems to have prevailed but in the third world objectivism is widely practised.
Third Area
Instructional Designers are wholly focused on the problem. So, it stands to reason that designers will understand problem-solving but generally will not be able to articulate this process (N Cross,1982). This is where we run into problems with the “third area” (Archer, 1979)
Education establishments have generally sported two areas of education. The sciences and humanities. But there has been a long discussion about a third area, “Design” (Archer et al. 1979). Science and humanities are well-defined and have been nicely modelled for educational establishments. Processes and procedures are well-defined and modelled.
When we come to look at design in education, although scholars and instructional design practitioners have tried to use models to define the design process, they have largely failed. Several models have been developed and discussed in depth (Seel, N 2017). But these, it seems, are only useful as a framework for new designers coming into the industry to use until they are able to formulate their own. This would be required as a new designer entering the educational industry. Due to not having the experience to be able to pull a model together without the help of the ones currently in use.
Know your audience
Currently, in 2024, we have around five generations in the workforce. At a modern school, teachers are expected to design the lessons and learning environment for the year/age group they are responsible for. Thus, it stands to reason one classroom layout would suit the entire class. The teacher has to design the lesson plans, the environment and the delivery. With no plan ever surviving first contact, a teacher also has to be able to adapt the plan at any given moment.
Within the adult and further education arena, there could be all five generations in one classroom. So, the older generation would like the objectivist method of instruction as this is what they know and can remember, while the younger members want the collaborative constructionist methods of instruction. As an instructor needing to design an educational environment that would satisfy all groups, I feel this is an almost impossible task.
Compromise
Compromise is the name of the game here. Using not only blended environments to ensure that there is a mix of teacher-led training followed by self-paced learning. But within an environment that encourages collaboration, and also independent study would potentially work. Within the training centre, I run, we have seated classrooms for training such as software. For discussion-led training, we use large rooms where the tables are set in a circle so all the students can see each other and talk, but there is no specific head of the table. For the practical and technical training, we have open workshops enabling several lessons to be worked on concurrently as a self-paced exercise.
Design can not be completely moulded into a solid model or process and must be fluid to enable the designer’s freedom. It can also be seen that design is easier when you are at the coal face, so to speak, rather than trying to design an environment remotely.
References
Archer B, 1979 “Design as a Discipline”
Bates A.W. 2019 “Teaching in a Digital Age”
Cross N “Designerly ways of knowing”, DESIGN STUDIES vol 3 no 4 October 1982 pp. 221-227
Star Trek: The Original Series (1966). Available online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series (Accessed: 16 January 2024).
Vrasidas C 2000 “CONSTRUCTIVISM VERSUS OBJECTIVISM: IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERACTION, COURSE DESIGN, AND EVALUATION IN DISTANCE EDUCATION”
Seel Norbert M. 2017 “Instructional Design for Learning:theoretical functions
Zeitgeist (Film series). Available online: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeitgeist_(film_series) (Accessed:16 January 2024).
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