Course Session
Key Information
The course session will involve students appreciating the concept of interdisciplinary approaches to education and learning. Interdisciplinary learning requires students to demonstrate the integration of knowledge and thinking from more than one discipline or fields of study. Through this, the learners can solve problems, raise questions, offer explanations, and create products in ways that would not have been feasible via a single disciplinary approach. According to Hardré et al . (2013), the three most important tenets of interdisciplinary learning and understanding include integration, application of different disciplines, and defining the intended purpose. There are four essential dimensions in disciplinary understanding including knowledge, methods, purpose, and forms. Knowledge involves the application of concepts, elements, relationships, school of thoughts, and theories in a discipline. Secondly, the method is the ability to utilize various modes of inquiry that make up the discipline. Purpose includes the understanding of goals and ways through which the knowledge can be utilized. Finally, disciplinary understanding requires the use of forms which represent the different languages of communication typical to the discipline in questions such as artwork, essays, and scientific reports.
The Audience, Learning Opportunities, and Environment
The audience for this learning session is the college students taking education in their sophomore years. Their relevance in this program is driven by the fact that they ought to understand and different approaches to learning as future teachers and educationists. Some of the important learning opportunities available for the students in the span of one hour are to discuss the suitability of interdisciplinary learning and highlight its advantages and disadvantages. All these will be done in groups of five, with each group finding its area of discussion in the classroom.
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Terminal Performance Objectives
At the end of the discussion, the student, using various scholarly materials, information acquired through discussion, and the various course materials provided in class, must be able to describe the suitability of interdisciplinary learning in a competency-based learning perspective explicitly.
After the learning session, the student, after intense exposure to various materials on interdisciplinary learning and their self-experience, should be able to categorically appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of the interdisciplinary method of learning with minimal errors.
Advantages and Difficulties in Using Terminal Performance Objectives
A terminal learning objective outlines the expectations of an instructor with regards to the student performance at the end of a particular learning unit. Terminal learning objectives that address the affective domain focus not only on the intellectual or mental function as seen in the cognitive domain. It emphasizes on the incorporation of behaviors, attitudes, and physical skills. Therefore, the affective domain involves the learner's emotions, attitudes, and motivations. When a terminal learning objective focuses on affective domain as opposed to cognitive domain, several advantages could be achieved. First, it takes into account of both simpler and complex feeling in a hierarchy hence making learning an involving process that focuses on an internal motivation. It also promotes the art of receiving knowledge through enhancing awareness of emotions and feelings. After receiving the information, the student can integrate their stimuli and find the most appropriate way of responding.
As opposed to the cognitive domain that only focuses on the mental knowledge, configuring terminal learning objectives to conform to the affective domain enhances valuing of information. In this case, valuing information involves attaching a certain degree of worth to a behavior, phenomenon, or object ( Reigeluth, 2013). Other than promoting the value of information, it focuses on the organization of information and ideas in tandem with the students' held values leading to an internally consistent philosophy. Therefore, it could be right to assert that terminal learning objective that focuses on affective domain holistically promote internalization of knowledge and ideas in an individual.
However, focusing the learning objectives on the affective domain at the expense of cognitive domain might come with a number of challenges. It is imperative to note that the cognitive domain focuses mainly on the knowledge and the nurturing of intellectual skills. When objectives are shaped to configure with the affective domain, the students might show weakness in depicting certain critical skills such as synthesis, evaluation, application, synthesis, and comprehension which are not emphasized ( Reigeluth, 2013). Secondly, this form of objectives might be difficult to achieve because narrowing down to individual student attitudes and behavior could be hard. Every student shows unique behavioral characteristics and hence focusing on achieving affective education might not lead to an overall or holistic success.
Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction
The Gagne’s 9 events of instruction focus on the behaviorist learning approach with much emphasis on outcomes of an instruction or training process. Miner et al. (2015) illustrated that one of their critical uses is to create a framework with which learning objectives and course goals could be used in implementing instructional content. The instructions could be used in different audiences including the adults, face-to-face setting, and online students. In applying the 9 events of instruction to a specific audience, it is critical to appreciate some of the key considerations including knowledge absorption, retention, internal and external cognitive factors that enhance learning, and the form of instruction. An adult audience is different from that which is composed by children, and as such, certain considerations will have to be made including the experience of the learners, their motivation, learning styles suitable for the adults, and the role of the facilitator.
Just like any other group of learners, teaching an adult audience would require gaining their attention by using a challenge, a story, or a joke. Giving the students objectives is also important in helping them understand what they are supposed to learn. However, keen emphasis must be put on stimulating their prior knowledge because the adults might find it difficult in connecting their prior information in relation to a relatively younger audience. What follows is the presentation of knowledge while focusing on giving appropriate guidance. The facilitator must ensure that the adult learners are emotionally charged throughout the session. In ensuring that they remain active, the learners must practice and provide feedback to the teacher. In finding out the level of knowledge acquired, the instructor must assess their performance effectively.
A face-to-face setting is where the learners are physically present in the classroom environment. It is critical to note that the success of this teaching method depends on how the instructor connects with the learners through the presentation style and active learning. However, it is vital to appreciate some of the difficulties the learners can experience in this environment including difficulty in getting guidance, organizational problems, lack of flexibility on the instructor, and technical problems such as the lack of a proper public address system. Therefore with regards to the 9 events of instructions, some of the most important tenets to take a keen consideration include gaining the attention of the learners, through appropriate means, making the objectives clear, and stimulating recall before learning proceeds. One area that could be challenging but very critical is on providing learning guidance especially with the huge audience that could be present. However, the instructor must ensure that the learner's practice, provide feedback, and offer an assessment to gauge the outcome of the learning process.
With regards to an online high school class, certain differences could be experienced in the learning process. Some of the unique considerations that could be made include informing the learners on the objectives of the eLearning model and creating goals which center on eLearning content. Another important thing that must be put into consideration is the provision of online guidance where the students will appreciate new ways and skills of absorbing knowledge. Online learning is different from a face-to-face perspective because there is no physical interaction between the facilitator and the learner. As such, certain aspects such as attention-grabbing, stimulating prior knowledge, and guidance could be difficult to make. Other factors such as assessment and offering feedback by the learner could, however, be markedly improved.
Effectiveness Of An 8 th Grade Class
Studying the effectiveness of an eighth-grade class could be a tricky assignment. It requires the assessor not only to focus on one facet of evaluation, say, examination outcomes but to take a holistic approach. Some of the essential things to consider include focusing on the student's intellectual development and academic skills. In doing so, the teacher can check if the learners have sufficient background knowledge required to move to the next step. It is imperative to also investigate the students' own learning skills such as if the students are ready and enthusiastic about learning new things. Thirdly, it would be vital to analyze the eighth-graders’ reaction towards different teaching methods, assignments, and materials and their attitudes towards various classroom activities.
Determining the effectiveness of a training program is also a key aspect of assessing the success of a learning program. Some important data that could be analyzed in finding out the suitability of a training program include appraisal reports, examination results, and the satisfaction levels. Other important data that could prove vital in determining the importance of a training program include the confidence levels, attitudes, and amount of skills shown.
References
Hardré, P. L., Ling, C., Shehab, R. L., Nanny, M. A., Nollert, M. U., Refai, H. ... & Wollega, E. D. (2013). Teachers in an interdisciplinary learning community: Engaging, integrating, and strengthening K-12 education. Journal of Teacher Education , 64 (5), 409-425.
Miner, M. A., Mallow, J., Theeke, L., & Barnes, E. (2015). Using Gagne's 9 Events of Instruction to Enhance Student Performance and Course Evaluations in Undergraduate Nursing Course. Nurse Educator , 40 (3), 152.
Reigeluth, C. M. (Ed.). (2013). Instructional-design theories and models: A new paradigm of instructional theory (Vol. 2). Routledge.
