Alternate Teaching Models for Non-Classroom-Based Instruction
Trey Martindale, Ed.D
Introduction
As the United States moves from an economy based on manufacturing to one based on information, the need for information-literate employees is rapidly growing. Public education is currently under scrutiny from business and industry, and is being criticized for being slow-moving and overly conservative, particularly in terms of implementing computer technology. Commercial institutions expect the same productivity gains in education that have occurred in business. Computer instruction and the Internet in particular has been widely promoted as the ultimate instructional tool to replace schools and teachers (Perelman, 1994). Some promoters of computers and networks in education believe that traditional classroom-based instruction will become unnecessary as computers become less expensive and more ubiquitous. More research on non-traditional educational methods is certainly in order in response to cries for educational reform.
Non-classroom-based instruction (NCBI) can be defined as any planned learning environment that is not designed to occur in the traditional classroom. NCBI includes all forms of distance education, as well as campus-based self-paced courses and other self-paced learning environments. This type of instruction is becoming much more common, particularly due to the growth of computer networks (Harasim, 1995). With the rapid expansion of NCBI there is a need to examine its effectiveness in terms of instructional design. A primary method of evaluating various forms of NCBI lies in the examination of the teaching model employed in the instructional design.
Teaching models are approaches to teaching with underlying theoretical support that are designed to bring about a particular type of learning (Joyce, 1992). Joyce groups the various teaching models into "families" based on the learning theories from which the models have been derived. A learning theory can be defined as a set of principles and observations derived from research that support a hypothesis of how learning takes place (Ormrod, 1995). Models for delivery have been constructed around the tenets of certain learning theories. According to Joyce (1992), teaching models can be grouped into four "families". These families include behavioral models, social models, information-processing models, and personal models. Following is a brief summary of three of these families of teaching models. Personal models will not be discussed as they are beyond the scope of this paper.
Behavioral Teaching Models
On the foundation of the work of Skinner, a large number of approaches to learning have been developed, each taking advantage of the human being’s ability to modify behavior in response to tasks and feedback. These models are used in a wide variety of applications, from teaching information to changing habits, decreasing phobias, and learning to control one’s own behavior.
One of the important applications of behavioral systems theory is in the development of systems that enable learning tasks to be regulated according to the progress of the learners and which teach students to pace themselves for optimal performance. Often these systems organize material to be learned in small sequenced instructional modules that are presented to the students with assessments of learning embedded in them (Joyce, 1992). Some of these behaviorally-based teaching models include mastery learning, direct instruction, contingency management, and self-training through simulation.
Social Teaching Models
These teaching models capitalize on our nature as social creatures to further learning and to expand our ability to relate productively to one another. The models range from the simple processes or organizing students to work together to elaborate models that teach democratic social organization and the analysis of major social problems and critical social values and issues. The social models of teaching are constructed to take advantage of the "synergy" phenomenon -- the collective energy generated by group work. The simplest forms of cooperative learning organize students to help one another respond to the cognitive and social tasks presented to them. More advanced models prepare students for life in a democratic society -- an idea developed by John Dewey (1916).
Many developers of the social models believe not only that they have developed important additions to the storehouse of models but also that the current state of affairs -- teacher-dominated recitation -- is actually counter-productive for individuals and society by depressing learning rates, creating an unnatural and even antisocial climate, and failing to provide opportunities for young people to maximize their potential through cooperation. Current social teaching models to be considered include partners in learning (dyads), cooperative learning, role playing, and jurisprudential inquiry (Joyce, 1992).
Information Processing Teaching Models
Information processing theory is concerned with how humans acquire, process, and remember information. This is contrasted with behaviorism’s concern with measurable behavior change and lack of concern over mental events or cognition. A number of teaching models seek to discover these mental events and create effective environments for processing information (Pressley, 1995).
These models are designed to increase students’ ability to seek and master information, organize it, build and test hypotheses, and apply what they are learning in their independent reading and writing and their exploration of themselves and the world about them. Some of these models induce the students to collect information and build concepts. Others teach them to profit from direct instruction through readings, lectures, and instructional systems. Some of the information processing models include thinking inductively, concept attainment, memorization, advance organizers, and inquiry training (Joyce, 1992).
Teaching Models for NCBI
The preceding teaching models have been widely used in traditional classroom-based educational environments. However, many instructional situations and opportunities exist outside the school classroom. These instructional situations, identified as non-classroom-based instruction (NCBI) operate outside of traditional face-to-face interaction with an instructor, so alternative delivery methods must be considered. NCBI has been and is currently being delivered via print, radio, television, and computer network. Following is a discussion of the teaching models employed within these delivery methods.
NCBI Delivered via Print
NCBI consists of distance education courses as well as school or campus-based self-paced courses. Distance education, traditionally defined, is an environment in which instructor and audience are separated by time or distance or both. While NCBI may seem to be a recent phenomenon, print-based correspondence courses have been in existence for over 150 years (Holmberg, 1996). These early examples of NCBI consisted of courses offered through newspapers and through printed mailings using the postal service. Print-based correspondence courses are still used today although they are now commonly combined with electronically-delivered material (Moore, 1995).
Print-delivered NCBI has traditionally relied upon behaviorally-based teaching models, particularly direct instruction and mastery learning (see Price, 1996). The common design uses short modules of instructional content followed by a self-test and then a formal assessment, most often using techniques that require low-level processing, such as multiple choice tests, matching, and filling in blanks. Course objectives are stated in behavioral terms. The student may conduct an internal dialogue with the material, but has little to no interaction with a live instructor or with other students. Collaborative learning is discouraged in these instructional situations.
The most common model for print course development is the author-editor model. Authors (often professors) are contracted to write a course, which is then edited by specialists within the correspondence school or independent studies department . In most cases the correspondence material consists of unites that include a statement of lesson objectives, are reading assignment, a commentary and a study guide, and a written assignment to be completed (Moore, 1993).
NCBI Delivered via Electronic Communications
Electronic communications for education also began in the 1920s with radio programs. These programs most often focused on fundamental instruction, usually in language and mathematics (Cuban, 1986). In the 1930s experimental television programs were being produced at a few pioneering universities, and programming expanded in the next few decades. These radio and television programs were not interactive, with no student feedback or discussion with the instructor. Content was commonly delivered by a "talking head" -- meaning an instructor faced the camera or microphone and delivered a prepared lecture (Cuban, 1986). This delivery method operates within artificial constraints that are not set in place by the television medium.
Satellite technology, developed in the 1960s and made cost effective in the 1980s, enabled the rapid spread of instructional television. Televised courses have now become more interactive with the deployment of distance education equipment including cameras and microphones for the students at remote and local sites as well as for the instructors. Still the teaching model most commonly used is direct instruction, with the instructor lecturing to a group of students whether in person or at a remote site (Gilbert, Temple, & Underwood, 1991).
The last ten years have seen an exponential growth of microcomputers in homes and schools in the United States (Williams, 1996). As microcomputer access has grown, so has computer-based instruction (CBI). CBI began as an outgrowth of Skinner’s programmed instruction. Because of this, much of CBI has followed the drill-and-practice behavioral model (Price, 1991). The development of the CD-ROM greatly increased the storage capacity for commercial and educational software, and this increased storage has led to the creation of multimedia titles that are rich in sound, video, and animation. While these attributes in themselves do not lead to alternative teaching models, multimedia titles tend to be more learner-centered in terms of user control and non-linear progression through the material.
The distribution of Apple Computer’s HyperCard authoring environment contributed to the development of hypertext and hypermedia programs in CBI. Proponents of these programs claim that they model human associative memory and thus can serve as powerful cognitive amplifiers (Conklin, 1987). Hypertext CBI is related more to information processing than behavioral models, and these types of applications have become much more prevalent with the growth of the World Wide Web.
NCBI Delivered via Computer Networks
With the widespread proliferation of personal computers and the growth of the Internet, online distance education is a rapidly growing segment of NCBI that serves as an educational alternative to traditional face-to-face instruction. The ubiquity and ease of use of the World Wide Web has led to a large expansion of online courses in higher education. In the United States, the American Open University, Nova University, and the University of Phoenix have been traditional leaders in providing distance education. These and many other universities are now offering hundreds of courses online (Lintz & Tognotti, 1996).
Computer networks offer new opportunities for collaboration in NCBI. Protocols and software tools such as LISTSERV’s, Internet Relay Chat, e-mail, Usenet newsgroups, and bulletin boards allow various modes of interaction. Interaction modes can be classified as one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many (Harasim, 1990). The Internet is a medium that does not present many of the constraints of print, radio, or television delivery mediums. Computer networks can operate in real time or asynchronously, allowing interaction with both instructor and fellow students. Distributing material over networks is much less expensive than television production and much more rapid than print correspondence. It would seem to be an ideal medium for all types of instruction.
But as in print and other electronic delivery methods did in their early years of use, network-delivered NCBI has relied primarily on behavioral teaching models, most often direct instruction and mastery learning. This is evidenced by current http-based online course offerings (see WebLearning, 1998; Real Education, 1998).
Current Practice
Many educational institutions as well as businesses and other organizations are providing http protocol-based courses for training students and employees. However a large segment of this non-classroom-based online coursework remains exclusively in the domain of the behavioral family of teaching models, despite evidence of the effectiveness of alternate teaching models.
The effectiveness of the current state of NCBI is under scrutiny, particularly as institutions prepare to embark upon major distance education initiatives. Drop-out rates for correspondence courses are disproportionately high (Kember, 1989). Similarly, in a pilot study the researcher found that students in a campus-based self-paced course demonstrated unusually high failure rates. The nature of NCBI places responsibility for learning upon students who may have never faced such requirements.
For behavioral teaching models there are other concerns beyond high failure and drop-out rates. In the context of an online course these model does not take advantage of the available attributes of the http protocol. These attributes include such the availability of asynchronous interaction and discussion with the instructor or classmates, and hypertext associational linking between related topics, mirroring information processing ideas about human cognition. Behavioral models, therefore, work within artificial constraints not imposed by the http protocol.
The dominance of behavioral models in NCBI can be explained in terms of misperception and convenience. Behavioral teaching models are perceived to present low instructor demands in terms of time and design expertise. Behavioral models such as direct instruction and mastery learning seem to be simply and conveniently translated into printed or online "study guides" which lead the learner step-by-step through the particular instructional content. Often these materials are organized into instructional "modules" which can be easily assessed for effectiveness (see Price, 1996).
In order to achieve the interaction required by social and information processing teaching models, NCBI (whether print-based or Internet-based) is perceived to require greater instructor time and resources, as well as more advanced design and programming techniques. The decision to use behavioral teaching models in NCBI may therefore be based on perceived convenience rather than effectiveness and appropriateness toward reaching the instructional goal state.
Teaching models from the information processing and social interaction families do not necessarily require greater instructor time or resources to implement. Alternative online course design and specialized software present an opportunity to use these models efficiently. These alternative designs need to be compared and contrasted with designs from behavioral teaching models such as direct instruction and mastery learning which currently dominate NCBI environments.
Alternative Teaching Models for NCBI
The following two teaching models are proposed as alternative to the behavioral models widely used in NCBI. Small group discussion is from the social interaction family of models and concept attainment is from the information processing family of models.
Small Group Discussion
The challenge of the current state of affairs is to design effective NCBI using teaching models beyond simple direct instruction or mastery learning. The evidence is largely affirmative that cooperative groups do result in improved learning. Classrooms organized so that students work in pairs and larger groups, tutor each other, and share rewards are characterized by greater mastery of material than the common individual-study and recitation pattern. Also, the shared responsibility and interaction produce more positive feelings toward tasks and others, generate better intergroup relations, and result in better self-images for students with histories of poor achievement. The results generally affirm the assumptions that underlie the use of cooperative learning methods (Sharan, 1990).
Beyond traditional face-to-face instructional situations, the effectiveness of group discussion and collaboration has also been shown effective in distance education. With Internet delivery there are many cooperative learner approaches for effective instructional environments. These include online mentorships, tutor support, informal peer interaction, and expert forums. Online group learning structures include online seminars, small group discussions, learning partnerships and dyads, learning circles, and teaching and presentations by the learners. Role playing simulations, online debates, and informal chat areas are also viable instructional environments (Harasim, 1995).
Many of these learner approaches can be classified as online asynchronous group instruction. Specialized network software such as the IdeaWeb (Ahern, 1992) can be used for small group discussion and collaboration in online environments as a type of computer-mediated communication (CMC). The IdeaWeb represents an opportunity to utilize the advantages of the http protocol in creating a collaborative learning environment within NCBI.
Concept Attainment
Among the information-processing models found within traditional education, the concept attainment model is a viable choice for instructional use in NCBI. The concept attainment model of instruction can be defined as the search for and listing of attributes that can be used to distinguish exemplars from non exemplars of various categories. The model requires students to compare and contrast exemplars that contain characteristics (called "attributes") of the concept with exemplars that do not contain those attributes. Exemplars are a subset of data from a data set. Positive exemplars are the subset examples that share one or more defining characteristics that are missing in the other examples. It is by comparing the positive exemplars and contrasting them with the negative ones that the concept is learned.
Learning by concept attainment involves two phases. First, the concept name is presented along with labeled examples of positive and negative exemplars. The learner integrates these exemplars and generates a hypothesis about the concept definition. The student then states a possible definition in terms of essential attributes.
Secondly, the student identifies additional unlabeled examples as positive or negative exemplars of the concept. The student hypothesis and definition is either confirmed or corrected, and a correct definition of the concept is given. The student then generates more concept examples. By following this model the student learns the concepts related to the instructional content (Joyce, 1992). Using HTML, the author has previously developed concept attainment lessons for use in an NCBI environment.
Conclusion
This paper attempts to justify the need for the use of alternative teaching models in non-classroom-based instruction (NCBI). The author contends that behavioral teaching models are dominant in NCBI and that high failure and drop-out rates, along with unnecessary constraints from the behavioral models, necessitate the examination of alternative models of teaching. This paper examines two alternate teaching models: small group discussion from the social models classification, and concept attainment from the information-processing models classification. Instructional systems using these models can be asynchronous and do not necessarily require additional instructor time or resources in terms of class management. Instructional effectiveness can potentially be increased without significantly increased instructor resources. Empirical research on teaching models should be conducted to examine the level of effectiveness of these particular teaching models for NCBI. This type of research will aid course designers in selecting the most appropriate instructional model for a particular audience and instructional problem.
References
Ahern, T. C. (1994). The effect of interface on the structure of interaction in computer-mediated small-group discussion. Journal of educational computing research, 11(3), 235-250.
Conklin, J. (1987). Hypertext: An introduction and survey. Computer, 20(9), 17-41.
Cuban, L. S. (1986). Teachers and machines: the classroom use of technology since 1920. New York: Teacher's College Press.
Gilbert, J. K., Temple, A., & Underwood, C. (1991). Satellite television in education. New York: Routledge.
Harasim, L. (1990). Online education: An environment for collaboration and intellectual amplification. In L. Harasim (Ed.), Online education: perspectives on a new environment. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Harasim, L., Hiltz, S. R., Teles, L., & Turoff, M. (1995). Learning networks: a field guide to teaching and learning online. Boston: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Holmberg, B. (1986). Growth and structure of distance education. London: Croom Helm.
Joyce, B., Weil, M., & Showers, B. (1992). Models of Teaching. (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Lintz, M., & Tognotti, S. (1996). Distance education on the WWW. [World Wide Web], Available: http://tecfa.unige.ch/edu-ws94/contrib/peraya.fm.html.
Moore, M. G., & Kearsley, G. (1996). Distance education: a systems view. Boston: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Ormrod, J. E. (1995). Human Learning. (2nd ed.). Columbus, Ohio: Merrill.
Pressley, M. (1995). Advanced educational psychology for educators, researchers, and policymakers. New York: HarperCollins College Publishers.
Price, R. V. (1991). Computer assisted instruction: A guide for authors. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Price, R. V. (1996). Introduction to computing and technology. (3rd ed.). Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press.
Skinner, B. F. (1938). The behavior of organisms: An experimental analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Skinner, B. F. (1958). Teaching machines. Science, 128, 137-58.
Williams, E. (1996). World wide web for teachers. Southlake, TX: IDG Books Worldwide.
