Learning Theory and Instructional Design

In an effort to maintain transparency, I have not necessarily ever formally declared my own personal theory of learning. If I had to put it into words, in the early days of my career as an educator and as a graduate student, I would discuss the different learning styles: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. I had not given much thought to terms like empirical or rational. During my time in the doctoral program I have learned more about empirical learners and rational learners. My previous personal learning theory included learning styles and a belief that each person is different. That belief stands, but now I have new terms related to learning theory to consider: empirical and rational. No matter the type of learner or preferred learning style, subject matter will dictate the necessary supports provided in the learning experience. According to Spector (2001), “Different kinds of things require different kinds of learning support,” (p.390-391). This supports the premise that there is no “one size fits all” learning experience. Every learner is unique in how they take in information, process it, and demonstrate comprehension of subject matter. The subject matter itself will also impact the delivery method and chosen medium for the learning experience. Not everything can be simply read about, some learning experiences necessitate real-world application.

The assessments provided in chapter 2 of the textbook, Rapid Instructional Design, prove to be an excellent framework to incorporate and adapt for Project A. The questions in the assessments were, in general, geared more towards a business world. While I am in education and will be working within a classroom environment, these questions still have application to my project. For example, one question from the Performance Assessment Questions is “What should the employees be doing now that they are not doing?” (Piskurich, 2015, p.32). This question could be reworded for a classroom: “What skill should the students be demonstrating that they are not currently demonstrating?” This would be a great starting question when I meet with our campus instructional coach.

Utilizing my ideas and perceptions of learning theory, and the information provided from the Performance Assessment Questions, I look forward to the challenge of developing an instructional design package to meet the needs on my campus. Knowing what the needs are and then observing students to see how they learn and interact, will be very informative. I can adapt the lessons based on content and preferred learning style. I will be able to develop an answer to the question, “How do we know that they learned?”

Piskurich, G. M. (2015). What is This Instructional Design Stuff Anyway? In Rapid instructional design: Learning ID fast and right. essay, John Wiley & Sons.

Spector, J. M. (2001). Philosophical Implications for the Design of Instruction. Instructional Science, 29, 381-402. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1011999926635