The dominant educational paradigm in the 20th century was based on easily recognizable ideas about how the human brain works and how to design classrooms to help human brains learn. R. Keith Sawyer (2006), a scholar from the University of Washington, articulated five assumptions in which curriculum and instruction has been grounded:
- curriculum comprises well-defined information and skills that represent necessary human knowledge
- the purpose of schools is to ensure students get the information and skills into their brains, thus become educated
- educators know how to deliver instruction so the curriculum is transferred into students’ brains
- the most efficient instruction occurs from simple to complex
- the success of instruction can be measured with a test
Those assumptions appear to have been consistent with contemporary knowledge and experience: Literacy and numeracy in print-dominated societies were relatively slow to change and electronic media were largely the domain of popular culture, and most individuals consumed much more information than they created. Psychologists perceived the mind to be a container, and knowledge to be a cognitive phenomenon arising within an individual’s brain. Measuring intelligence through tests had been underway since the early decades of the century.
These ideas were informed by behaviorist psychology that can be summarized by the adage “if one acts as if he or she knows ‘something’ than he or she knows it.” These assumptions gave rise to the pedagogy known as direct instruction. Information is presented (commonly in a fast-paced manner) and students are expected to respond to questions in a manner consistent with the teacher’s presentation; errors in students’ response are corrected immediately (Burton, Moore, and Magliarno 2004).
Sawyer pointed out, however, that none of the assumptions about teaching and learning that underlie instructionism are supported by scientific evidence. Indeed, the discoveries of cognitive science and learning science contradict those assumptions. After challenging the assumptions of instructionism, Sawyer proposes deep learning (National Research Council 2000) as an alternative to the version of curriculum that supports instructionism. Among the assumptions in which deep learning are grounded are:
- appropriate curriculum depends on individual’s existing knowledge as well as social context
- schools give students experiences within which they develop and refine skills for on-going learning
- through reflection, learners understand themselves as learners
- contextually complex problems of increasing relevance to students are the appropriate foci of curriculum
- learning is demonstrated through increased fluidity and flexibility as learners apply their expertise with greater ease and in more situations
Deeper learning posits a more active role for the learner in his or her learning. What the learner knows is the basis for future learning and learners summarize understandings through metaphors and other generalizations. The context in which learning occurs is also recognized as an essential aspect of deeper learning. Context includes both the social environment and the metacognitive focus.
From the perspective of the second decade of the 21st century, instructionism appears to be obsolete. It is based on inaccurate psychology and it does not provide necessary experiences. The basic tenants of instructionism are contradicted by cognitive science and alternatives are supported; we can better explain and predict what we observe using cultural-historical psychology rather than behaviorist psychology. Instructionism no longer produces the skill and knowledge necessary for the information and communication realities of society. In this book, instructionism is understood to be a marginalized pedagogy. There are some limited situations in which instructionism, including technology-mediated instructionism, is appropriate; but most of a 21st century student’s experience in school should be designed to accomplish more sophisticated educational goals than can be accomplished through instruction.
References
Burton, John, David Moore, and Susan Magliaro. 2004. “Behaviorism and Instructional Technology.” In Handbook of Research on Educational Communications and Technology 2nd ed., edited by David Jonassen, 3-36. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Sawyer, R. Keith. 2006. “Introduction: The New Science of Learning.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Learning Science, edited by R. Keith Sawyer, 1-16. Cambridge University Press.