Instructional Design Week Two
Educational Philosophies and Learning Theories

This Week September 8, 2014

This week, we'll:

• Explore theories of learning, including behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and flow theory

This week we will examine the philosophical perspectives of constructivism, empiricism, and pragmatism, as well as learning theories. We could spend a whole semester on these topics. However, our goal this week l is to become conversant with these philosophical foundations and learning theories so that we can understand how they have impacted the field of instructional design and will impact the instruction you will design. Understanding these theories and philosophies are crucial to designing and developing instruction with integrity.

Learning Objectives

• Describe the major assumptions of empiricism and rationalism
• Describe the major assumptions of behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism, and flow theory
• Generate a statement that expresses your educational philosopy and what you can do as an instructor to facilitate learning

Required Reading -- for Assignment One and Class Sept 8

1. Chapter 1 of your Dick, Carey, and Carey text

2. Ertmer, P.A., and Newby, T.J. 1993. Behaviorism, Cognitivism, Constructivism: Comparing Critical Features from an Instructional Design Perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly 6(4): 50-72 - complete version.

   Additional Reading: See Assignment 1 for other articles; see also the resources section of this site.

   Assignment:

   1. Review Assignment 1 for details.
   2. Write your educational philosophy statement.
   3. Place your philosphy in your shared Google Drive folder by September 22, 2014 (or earlier).
   4. Prepare to present a 2-5 slide presentation/summary of your philosophy in class on September 22.

Note: We will not conduct a peer review of your educational philosophies because these are personal philosophical statements. You are certainly free to trade papers with a class colleague for proof-reading and suggestions, but this is not required for this assignment.

Assignments for September 8

1. Read Chapter 2 of the Dick and Carey text.
2. For class Monday Sept 8, I'd like for you to teach the class about the theories below as assigned. You may use PPT, Google presentations, or any application that allows you to convey content.
   • Michelle and Drew: Behaviorism.
   • Christian and Billie: Costructivism.
   • Varad and Laura: Cognitivism.
   • Ken: Flow theory by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. (see assignment1 for readings, and you can certainly read the Wikipedia articles about Csikszentmihalyi)
3. Begin writing Assignment 1 -- due September 22

Note --if you don't know your partner's email address, try http://www.mercer.edu/directory or email me.

Online Class Discussion

Monday, September 8, 8-9:30 p.m., Eastern time via Webex.

Agenda:

8:00-8:15 Review of Week 1, preview of learning theories as foundational to instructional design -- Dr. Codone
8:20-:920 Theory discussions -- each of you as listed above, in that order
9:20-9:30 Preview of next week

Please email me with any questions.